HI everyone!
Somedays ago I was “trying” to read a very nice copy of Aristotle’s Physics,
and I found that every sigma on the book (both final and medial) was written as a latin “c”. I’ve never seen that before and I found in the unicode that
the name for that letter is “lunate sigma”
I know I can seem ignorant 
but I would like you guys to help me find more about the origin and use of this “lunate sigma” and when and why it was (and can be) used.
thanx very much in advance:D:D 
The lunate sigma was the standard form of the sigma in old uncial styles of writing, and in early Byzantine hands. By the time the lower case letters reached the form we still use today the medial/final distinction was basically in place. Some editors (and at least one Textkit regular) seem to feel that the sigma, out of all the letters of the Greek alphabet, needs to be reformed.
You’ll only see it in older manuscripts and in some texts printed in the last 40 years or so. We have debated the subject on Textkit several times before, 5009, 3573.
It’s my understanding that lunate sigmas are used to keep printing costs down as well.
Who in the world told you that? In editing the texts for Aoidoi, orthography is the very least of my worries and where I spend the least time. Why would this be different for printers?
Puzzledly yours,
Thanx very much for your help guys!
I’ve read the article, now everything is clear to me 
My Greek professor told me. She told me that it was cheaper for publishers to use the one character instead of two.
That doesn’t bode well for scholarly works. If the cost of using medial and final sigmas is prohibitive then how can any serious publisher hope to attract the attentions of serious authors? The Oxford and Cambridge University Presses both use the two sigmas; my Loebs near to hand have them; in fact, most texts that I work with have them; the professors at university, without exception, all write with both sigmas on the blackboard/notes etc.
Which publishing houses regularly prefer the lunate sigma?
P
See OCT Sophocles.
Cordially,
Paul
In an era of computer typesetting, that idea just boggles the mind.
Heyyyyy, are you pulling my leg?
This OCT Aeschylus also uses lunate sigmas, and iota adscripts.
No, I’m not pulling your leg. She says that it is expensive to typeset Greek, in spite of modern technology Also, if you look in the submission guidelines for TAPA (I think; it might be a different journal), they insist that contributors transliterate their Greek because of the expense involved in printing Greek.
It seems pretty weird to me, too, but that’s what I’ve been told.
It’s just… I don’t know. Now I think these publishing houses must have basements full of old men casting movable type all day, slowly being poisoned by the fumes of lead and the bile of hidebound editors.
All I can say is that I find the expense factor quite mind boggling. I mean the Greek state is notorious for spending scarcely enough money for education, the Greek publishing houses moan all them time about people not buying serious books and so on and so forth.
However, printing with all the "S"s (that’s a sibilant ‘word’ and no mistake) plus all the little accents (which are obsolete in modern Greek) has never been discussed as a factor. Maybe we should give them a hint or two on economic matters? 
(and if they find it expensive printing the final s, how do they cope with the english “s” then? not to mention that I could sort of understand the accents being an issue -not really, but you know what I mean- but the Greek alphabet has less characters than the Latin one, so just one more shouldn’t be a problem. 24 ok but 25 “oh my, it is too expensive”??)
hahahah that’s a hilarious image.
I’ll ask again. Maybe she can explain in more detail (she has published two books and a handful of articles).
I use lunate sigmas merely because it’s easier to write. However, in cursive, I still distinguish them. I write out my iotas and use the W-looking omegas as well.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with either, and to try and make a claim that one is more “scholarly” is outright ludicrous.
On a related note, I think we should go back to thorn, eth, wynn, and yogh, though you can keep the a-e and o-e ligatures. Bleh.
Chris,
Unless I’ve missed a point nobody is suggesting either type of ‘s’ is more scholarly than the other. I was pointing out that if the economics of employing one extra character were prohibitive then that would not augur well for scholarship.
Regarding OCTs: I’m home for a while and have all my texts at college. How annoying of Oxford to prove me wrong! I did read a ‘Medea’ last term with lunates and adscripts, but that was only one example.
My two biggest Greek projects recently have been concerned with Aristophanes and Greek lyric poetry - everything I looked at had the two 's’s. The early commentaries and references I consulted often had alternative forms of delta (best described as a little triangle with a quiff) and beta (the so-called curly beta); nothing that didn’t take a few seconds to become accustomed to.
I looked through all my OCTs (I happened to find several for $1 each…bwahhahaha!) and realised something. Lunate sigmas were used in Menander, Euripides, Aeschylus, and, as “oux emoige” man pointed out, Sophocles. But Lunates are not used in either volume of Aristotle or Demosthenes or Herodotus.
So on this evidence, lunates are used in poetry, and they are not used in prose, for OCTs. Does anyone have a counterexample to this? A prose OCT with lunates?
Wow. And here I was feeling all smug and satisfind about a few good finds yesterday.
So on this evidence, lunates are used in poetry, and they are not used in prose, for OCTs. Does anyone have a counterexample to this? A prose OCT with lunates?
That seems very unlikely. I’d compare publication dates instead.
On the contrary, my 1945 OCT of Aristophanes does not use the lunate sigma.
I have a copy of Betts & Henry “Teach yourself Ancient Greek” out from the library and it uses the “c” for sigma. But, in the archaeology magazine I get there was a picture of some old Greek inscriptions from about 100 CE (from somewhere in the Lebanon/Israel area) which also used the “c” for sigma. So are we all sure it is a cost factor and not an attempt to use a “traditional” sigma? After all, I don’t think the ancient Greeks used lower case letters anyhow, and they certainly didn’t have our “standard” type faces.