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METRE´TES (μετρητής), or AMPHORA METRETES (ἀφμορευς μετρητής, the standard amphora; it appears also as ἀμφορεύς, the shorter form of the old Homeric ἀμφιφορεύς, and as κάδος [Hdt. 1.51, 3.20]), was the principal Greek liquid measure. It contained 12 choes, 72 xestae (sextarii), 144 cotylae, 576 ὀξύβαφα, and 864 cyathi. It was 3-4ths of the medimnus, the chief dry measure. The Attic metretes was half as large again as the Roman amphora quadrantal, and contained 39.39 litres=69.33 pints, or slightly over 8 1/2 gallons=a water-weight of 1 1/2 talents. (See Tables.) The Aeginetan metretes contained 54.56 lit. or a little over 12 gallons, about the same content as the Persian artabe (Hdt. 1.192).
The Macedonian metretes is estimated by Hultsch (p. 563) as equal to the Attic. (Hultsch, Metrologie; MENSURA; PONDERA.）
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities
| Ancient Greece
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