摘要：What do secret societies, infectious diseases, and male dominance hierarchies have in common? They all make use of a symbol system

The Strange Second Life of the Greek Alphabet

希腊字母的奇异第二生命

The Greek letter system has migrated from typology to pseudo-psychology.

希腊字母系统已经从类型学转向伪心理学。

Posted October 28, 2025 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

发布于2025 年 10 月 28 日 | 由阿比盖尔·费根审阅

What do secret societies, infectious diseases, and male dominance hierarchies have in common? They all make use of a symbol system that was first developed over 2,500 years ago. Since that time, it has been continually repurposed in all sorts of surprising ways. There may be no set of characters as widely deployed—or as adaptable—as the letters of the Greek alphabet.

秘密社团、传染病和男性主导的等级制度有什么共同之处？它们都使用了一种早在2500多年前就已出现的符号系统。自那时起，它就以各种令人意想不到的方式被不断地重新利用。或许没有哪一套字符集能像希腊字母那样被广泛使用，或者说，像它那样具有如此强大的适应性。

This symbol system was standardized as a set of 24 letters—from alpha to omega—during the 4th century BC. Because a knowledge of ancient Greek was widely shared by members of Europe’s educated class, Greek letters were readily pressed into service for other purposes. Over time, they found employment as mathematical constants—such as pi (π)—and as variables in fields like engineering and physics.

这套符号系统在公元前4世纪被标准化为一套包含24个字母的符号系统——从阿尔法到欧米伽。由于欧洲受过教育的阶层普遍掌握古希腊语，希腊字母很快就被用于其他用途。随着时间的推移，它们被用作数学常数——例如圆周率π——以及工程和物理等领域的变量。

Greek Letters for Greek Life

希腊字母与希腊生活

A very different application for Greek letters arose in early America. In December of 1776, a secret literary and philosophical society was established at Virginia’s College of William and Mary. Its organizers named it using the Greek-letter initialism of ΦΒΚ—Phi Beta Kappa—from the first letters of Philosophia Biou Kybernētēs, or “philosophy [is the] guide of life.”

希腊字母在美国早期出现了一种截然不同的应用。1776 年 12 月，弗吉尼亚州威廉与玛丽学院成立了一个秘密的文学和哲学社团。其组织者用希腊字母 ΦΒΚ（Phi Beta Kappa）的首字母缩写来命名该社团，ΦΒΚ 取自Philosophia Biou Kybernētēs的首字母，意为“哲学是人生的指南”。

Today, about 1,500 Greek letter fraternities and sororities can be found on hundreds of campuses across North America. The number of college students involved in panhellenic activities is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands.

如今，北美数百所大学校园里大约有1500个希腊字母兄弟会和姐妹会。参与泛希腊活动的大学生人数估计达数十万。

Going Greek to Track a Virus

用希腊语追踪病毒

During the Covid pandemic, researchers used Greek letters to identify new variants of the evolving virus. Scientists initially used lineage names to track these variants, but such designations quickly became cumbersome. In 2021, the World Health Organization began assigning Greek letters to “variants of interest” and “variants of concern.”

在新冠疫情期间，研究人员使用希腊字母来识别不断演变的病毒新变种。科学家最初使用谱系名称来追踪这些变种，但这种方法很快就变得繁琐。2021年，世界卫生组织开始使用希腊字母来命名“关注变种”和“需要重视的变种”。

Two of these variants—delta and omicron—went on to cause major Covid outbreaks in 2021 and 2022, respectively. But by the end of 2023, the WHO ran out of letters and had to switch back to lineage names.

其中两种变异株——δ变异株和ω变异株——分别在2021年和2022年引发了大规模的新冠疫情。但到了2023年底，世卫组织用完了字母命名，不得不重新启用谱系名称。

The Rise of the Alpha Myth

阿尔法神话的兴起

In 1947, the Swiss zoologist Rudolf Schenkel published a paper titled “Expression Studies on Wolves.” Based on an eight-year study of two captive wolf populations at the Basel Zoo, he concluded that each group had two dominant members—which he dubbed the “alpha male” and “alpha female”—to which other members of the pack were submissive.

1947 年，瑞士动物学家鲁道夫·申克尔发表了一篇题为《狼的表情研究》的论文。基于对巴塞尔动物园两个圈养狼群长达八年的研究，他得出结论：每个狼群都有两个占主导地位的成员——他称之为“阿尔法雄性”和“阿尔法雌性”——狼群中的其他成员都服从于它们。

This idea of a dominance hierarchy in wolves was popularized in a 1970 best-seller by American biologist David Mech. In The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species, he echoed and promoted Schenkel’s ideas about dominant alphas.

狼群中存在等级制度的观点是由美国生物学家大卫·梅奇在 1970 年出版的畅销书《狼：濒危物种的生态与行为》中推广开来的。在这本书中，他呼应并推广了申克尔关于狼群中存在优势首领的观点。

Mech later repudiated his view of a rigid dominance hierarchy in a paper published in 1999. He found that earlier claims about the behavior of captive wolves didn’t comport with his own multi-year study of these animals in the wild, where he observed breeding pairs and their offspring living amicably in family units.

梅奇后来在 1999 年发表的一篇论文中否定了他关于严格的等级制度的观点。他发现，之前关于圈养狼行为的说法与他自己多年来在野外对这些动物的研究不符，他在研究中观察到繁殖对及其后代在家庭单元中友好地生活在一起。

In 2022, Mech went so far as to ask his publisher to stop selling copies of The Wolf. But by then, ideas about dominance hierarchies had seeped into popular culture and were being applied to the behavior of other animals, such as dogs, and ultimately to human behavior.

2022年，梅奇甚至要求出版商停止销售《狼》这本书。但到那时，关于等级制度的观念已经渗透到流行文化中，并被应用于其他动物（如狗）的行为，最终也应用于人类行为。

Dominant Alphas, Submissive Betas?

强势的阿尔法男，顺从的贝塔男？

The idea of an “alpha male” in human relations was promoted in a number of books whose authors uncritically accepted and championed this idea. These include psychotherapist Robert Glover’s No More Mr. Nice Guy: A Proven Plan for Getting What You Want in Love, Sex and Life (2003) and investigative reporter Neil Strauss’s The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists (2005). Strauss’s book also fleshed out the idea of the submissive, passive “beta male” who tends to be unsuccessful in his attempts to attract female attention.

人际关系中“阿尔法男”的概念在一些书籍中被大力宣扬，这些书籍的作者不加批判地接受并推崇这一观点。其中包括心理治疗师罗伯特·格洛弗的《不再做好好先生：在爱情、性和生活中获得你想要的一切的有效计划》（2003）以及调查记者尼尔·施特劳斯的《游戏：揭秘搭讪艺术家的秘密社团》（2005）。施特劳斯的书还详细阐述了顺从、被动的“贝塔男”的概念，这种男性往往难以吸引女性的注意。

The notion of men being either dominant “alphas” or acquiescent “betas” has permeated the so-called manosphere and “red pill” cultures online. These labels have been employed by the anonymous blogger Roissy and also by far-right figures like Gavin McInnes—a founder of the Proud Boys—and social media personalities like Andrew Tate and Mike Cernovich.

男性要么是强势的“阿尔法男”，要么是顺从的“贝塔男”，这种观念已经渗透到所谓的“男性圈”和“红丸”文化中。匿名博主罗伊西（Roissy）以及像“骄傲男孩”创始人之一加文·麦金尼斯（Gavin McInnes）这样的极右翼人士，还有像安德鲁·泰特（Andrew Tate）和迈克·塞尔诺维奇（Mike Cernovich）这样的社交媒体名人，都使用了这些标签。

Alphas, Betas, Deltas, Gammas, Omegas, and Sigmas?

阿尔法、贝塔、德尔塔、伽玛、欧米伽和西格玛？

This “Greek alphabet” view of male dominance was greatly expanded through the musings of Theodore Beale, who is better known online as Vox Day.

这种“希腊字母”式的男性主导观点，在西奥多·比尔（Theodore Beale，网名 Vox Day）的思考下得到了极大的扩展。

In March of 2011, Beale published a blog post titled “The socio-sexual hierarchy.” In it, he proposed a masculine pecking order consisting of alphas (dominant and charismatic men) and betas (loyal friends of alphas), but also deltas (“normal guys” and “the great majority of men”), gammas (who are unattractive, introspective, and bitter), omegas (“social losers”), and sigmas (nonconforming outsiders).

2011 年 3 月，比尔发表了一篇题为“社会性等级制度”的博客文章。在文章中，他提出了一种男性等级制度，包括 alpha（支配性和魅力男性）和 beta（alpha 的忠诚朋友），以及 delta（“普通人”和“绝大多数男性”）、gamma（缺乏吸引力、内省且愤世嫉俗）、omega（“社交失败者”）和 sigma（不循规蹈矩的局外人）。

Beale’s classification scheme became a meme that entrenched itself in many areas of the online world, and his terminology has entered common parlance. However, it's important to note that these ideas are not grounded in mainstream psychological theory or empirical research on masculine psychology—they’re just the musings of an activist who Wikipedia refers to as “a far-right white supremacist, a misogynist, and part of the alt-right.”

比尔的分类体系在网络世界的许多领域扎根，成为一种迷因，他的术语也进入了常用语境。然而，值得注意的是，这些观点并非基于主流心理学理论或男性心理学的实证研究——它们仅仅是一位维基百科称之为“极右翼白人至上主义者、厌女者，以及另类右翼成员”的活动人士的臆想。

Today, it is possible to take any number of online “male hierarchy” tests to “Discover your type.” Articles are published that claim “Scientists say all men fit into six categories” or “Psychologists say there are six core personalities.” But none of these notions are grounded in scientific research. In this case, the Greek letters supply only a thin veneer of respectability to a dubious typology with no empirical basis.

如今，网上充斥着各种各样的“男性等级”测试，声称可以“发现你的类型”。一些文章宣称“科学家说所有男性都属于六种类型”或“心理学家说有六种核心人格”。但这些说法都缺乏科学研究的支持。在这种情况下，希腊字母只不过为这种毫无实证依据的可疑类型学披上了一层薄薄的“体面”外衣。

来源：左右图史