ὀβολός — a obolus · Greek word G8438

A obol, used both as a weight and coin, at Athens, = 1 / 6 of a δραχμή, rather more than three halfpence, IG 12.140.5, al., freq. in Ar., Nu. 118, al.; πολὺ or μικρὸν τοῦ ὀ. a thing of which you get much or little for an obol, i. e. worthless or valuable, Antiph. 135, Eup. 185, cf. Ar. Eq. 945; ἐν τοῖν δυοῖν ὀβολοῖν θεωρεῖν ‘to sit in the cheap seats’, D. 18.28.

II as a weight, Gal. 13.295, etc. (ὀβολός, ὀβελός, ὀβελλός, ὀδελός are different dialect forms of a word for ‘spit’ or ‘nail’, nails being used in early times as money, six of them making a handful (δραχμή), cf. Plu. Lys. 17.)