TALENT (Gr. talanton, from a root to balance or weigh), a word used by Homer to signify indifferently a balance, and a definite weight of some monetary currency. But the weight of money to which Homer applies the term talent was very different from that to which it was applied in later times. Tradition assigns to Plicidon, king of Argos, isle introduction of the talent as a standard of money and weight. The exact identity of the 2Eginetan talent with that known as the Babylonian, and generally employed in the east, pOints to its true origin. It was iu all probability intoduced into Greece by the Phenicians, who also introduced a smaller monetary measure and weight, which was by the Greeks known as the Euboic talent. The names .,Eginetan and Euboic indicate that the talents to which these epithets apply were first used in ..Egina and Eubma; and though, in the east, the larger talent was used for silver, and the smaller for gold, after their introduction into Greece all such distinctive application was soon done away with.
The use of the Euboic talent was mostly confined to Athens, Chalcis, and the Chalcidian colonies; while the 2Eginetan prevailed over the rest of the Greek world. In the 6th c. n. c., Solon introduced at Athens a new talent, which, as the Attic talent, succeeded, partly through its superior purity, and partly on account of the greater commercial activity of Athens, in supplanting the other two standards. These several talents were similarly subdivided into 60 ininm, the mina iuto 100 drachma;, and the drachma into 6 oboli ; and their relative proportionsare /Eginetan talent: Euboic talent: Attic talent:: 30: 25: 18, both with respect to as weights, and as measures of monetary amount. The following are the values as compared with English standards: