λίθος
Alt. λί^θος, ου,
I. "a stone", Hom., etc.: "a precious stone", Hdt.: "marble", id=Hdt.:—proverb., λίθον ἕψειν to boil "a stone", i. e. "to lose one's labour," Ar.;— of stupidity, λίθοι "blocks, stones", id=Ar.
2. "stone" as a substance, opp. to wood, flesh, etc, Il., etc.
II. also fem., Hom., Theocr.;—but the fem. was mostly used of "some special stone", as the "magnet", Eur., Plat.; of a "touchstone", Plat.; ἡ διαφανὴς λ. "a piece of crystal" used for a burning glass, Ar.
III. at Athens, λίθος (masc.) was a name for various "blocks of stone used for rostra or tribunes", as,
1. the Bema of the Pnyx, Ar.
2. another in the ἀγορά used by the κήρυκες, Plut.
3. an altar in the ἀγορά, Dem.
IV. "a piece on a draughtboard", Theocr.