Greek Foot (Olympic) (pous)

Ancient GreekHistorical unit (no longer in standard use)Approximate value

One 600th of the Olympic stadion, about 32.0 cm. Greek feet differed by city; the Attic foot was nearer 29.6 cm and the Aeginetan about 33.3 cm.

1 Greek foot (Olympic) = 0.32 meters (approximately).

Approximate value. Standards for the Greek foot (Olympic) varied by place and period, so this converter uses the most commonly cited value. Treat results as estimates, not exact figures.

About the Greek foot (Olympic)

Greek pous simply means foot, and the plural is podes. Every city-state kept its own foot, so the word never named a single length. Aegina used a foot of about 333 mm, Athens one of about 296 mm, and a general-purpose table gives 308.2 mm. The value used here, roughly 32.0 cm, is the Olympic foot, which is derived by dividing a stadion of about 192 m by 600.

That makes the Olympic foot a reconstruction and not a measured object, and it moves with the stadion figure chosen. Scholars have also proposed stadia near 157 m, 185 m, 196 m and 209 m, implying feet from about 26 to 35 cm. Within a Greek system the foot divided into 16 daktyloi, or fingers, and 100 feet made a plethron, a little over 30 m in the standard table. A foot of about 32 cm is close to the modern English foot of 30.48 cm, only a little longer.

Sources: Wikipedia: Ancient Greek units of measurement; Wikipedia: Stadion (unit)

Greek Foot (Olympic) conversion chart

1 Greek foot (Olympic) expressed in every other length unit:

More Ancient Greek units

• stadion (length)
• Attic talent (weight & mass)
• Attic mina (weight & mass)
• Attic drachma (weight & mass)
• obol (weight & mass)
• olympiad (time)
• myriad (counting & quantity)

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