Pous

The pous (plural: podes) was a unit of length used through much of the Iron Age in Europe and the Ancient Near East.
A pous is a Greek foot. One stadion is always 600 podes,
though the length of the pous varies like the Mesopotamian units, where the cubit or ku was divided into four different digits, 
a thumb, palms, and various hands, fists, spans and quarters. The Greek pous also has long, median and short forms.
==Comparative analysis==
A pous is divided into digits (daktylos or finger) which are multiplied as shown. Generally the sexagesimal or decimal multiples have Mesopotamian origins while the septenary multiples have Egyptian origins.
Greek measures of short median and long podes can be thought of as based on body measures. Stecchini and others propose the Greek podes are different sizes because they are divided into different numbers of different sized daktylos to facilitate different calculations. The most obvious place to observe the relative difference is in the Greek orders of architecture whose canon of proportions is based on column diameters.
Unit 	no. of daktylos	each daktylo (mm)	total (mm)
1 Doric order pous (foot) 	18 	18 	324 mm
1 Luwian pous (foot) 	17 	19 	323 mm
1 Attic pous (foot) 	16 	19.275 	308.4 mm
1 Minoan pous (foot) 	16 	19 	304 mm
1 Egyptian bd (foot) 	16 	18.75 	300 mm
1 Ionian Order pous (foot) 	16 	18.5 	296 mm
1 Roman pes (foot) 	16 	18.5 	296 mm
1 Athenian pous (foot) 	15 	21 	315 mm
1 Phoenician (Pele) pous (foot)	15 	20 	300 mm
==References==
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Category:Terminology
Category:Ancient Near East
Category:Ancient Egypt
Category:Ancient Greece