chous

[Greek, χοϋς ]

(Plural, choes χόες ). In ancient Greece, a unit of liquid capacity, = 12 kotylai, about 2.8 to 3.2 liters.

The chous was also used in Egypt, 3^rd century bce – 3^rd century ce. Records of it have survived in papyri bearing contracts with potters for the manufacture of jars of specified sizes.

sources

In Archiv f. Papyrusforschung 45.1 (1999), 96-127, we attempt to demonstrate that from the 4th century A.D. onwards in Egypt the chous, standing as a metrological unit in between the kotyle and the metretes (144 kotylai = 12 choes = 1 metretes), disappears completely from the Greek documents from Egypt (likewise, the kotyle and the metretes also disappear).

N. Kruit and K. A. Worp.
ΔIXONION = 'TWO-CHOUS JAR'?
Mnemosyne, vol 53, fasc. 3 (2000).
The authors question the translation quoted in their title, of a potter's contract in P. Oxy. LVIII 3942.