Zeta -ζ- (Greek Letter)

Zeta (UK: /ˈziːtə/,[1] US: /ˈzeɪtə/; uppercase Ζ, lowercase ζ; Ancient Greek: ζῆτα, Demotic Greek: ζήτα, classical [d͡zɛ̌:ta] or [zdɛ̌:ta] zē̂ta; Modern Greek: [ˈzita] zíta) is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet. [1]

Traditional Connotation

The letter ζ represents the voiced alveolar fricative /z/ in Modern Greek.

The sound represented by zeta in Greek before 400 BCE is disputed.

Most handbooks agree on attributing to it the pronunciation /zd/ (like Mazda), but some scholars believe that it was an affricate /dz/ (like adze). The modern pronunciation was, in all likelihood, established in the Hellenistic age and may have already been a common practice in Classical Attic; for example, it could count as one or two consonants metrically in Attic drama. In the zoo community, it is pronounced like it is written zeta.

Origins Within The Community

At the beginning of the nineties, zoos were early adopters, created the first few zoo online forums/IRC´s. Among them were alt.bestiality (later alt.zoophilia), Sleepy´s Net with its "The forest" port, and Lintilla with its 5010 port. According to user 30-30 he proposed using the ζ and uploaded a picture of a paper he wrote it on via his local Internet Cafe as having a own server was quite unaffordable back then, and it got accepted by the original zetas. The zeta was meant originally as a secret means of identification for the most dedicated zoophiles.

A group of zoophiles had been working on a set of rules that were meant to give guidance and an ethical foundation the minority known as zoophiles. These rules eventually became the zeta rules. The lower Greek zeta primarily was introduced to identify those among the community who obeyed the zeta rules, the term "zeta zoo" was what the rule abiding zoophiles from those who deviated.

IRC´s had the possibility to "invite" certain individuals into private discussion rooms, you had to "knock" to enter and were only allowed in when someone already participating in the discussion personally invited you to join. The zeta was used as a symbol of a zoo obeying the zeta rules was kept a secret from the "normal" traffic in the main room where everyone arrived logging in for a long time. The symbol and the acronym (Zoos for Ethical Treatment of Animals) both were not "public domain" and never were meant to be. However, when it became more and more possible to upload and maintain a homepage of your own a group of zoophiles, Actaeon, Valadan, Hossie ("Mark Matthews"/George Willard) made their own homepages and used our symbols and wordings, breaking the zoophile original code of silence.

The zeta as a symbol became known, but many not knowing its connotations or connecting it to the zeta rules prohibiting selfishness, exploitation, and sexual excess. For a time being the members of this underground IRC socciety believed that zeta became hollow and vain as a general symbol for anybody feeling fit, whether his conduct was or not. Eventually, IRC´s became less popular and disappeared as the internet continued to evolve (around 1998/1999), there was no one left in the original group to protect the zeta and the zeta rules. Newer means of communication were established, the original Zeta Zoos disbanded.

The symbol was later proposed by Wolfheart on a zoo mailing list referencing back to the IRC chat channels. There was a contest on the ZETA-Verein forum for designing a symbol all Zoo's would recognize. The winner was a greek zeta in a yin-yang type design (though it is widely recognized throughout the community without the yin-yang style circle).

Since 2002 the zeta symbol has been used as an international symbol for the zoo community. The website fully that brought this symbol and attached its meaning was ZETA-Verein. The symbol doesn't only represent the zoo community it represents a commitment to the lifestyle. ZETA or Zoos for Ethical Treatment of Animals and the original Zeta Rules.

Searches for the ζ symbol spiked two years later in April of 2004 when the symbol was officially adopted by the zoo community.

Use of ζ Within the Modern Zoo Community

The symbol represents a sense of freedom amongst zoophiles and their way of life. It is primarily used as a way for one zoo to identify another. This can be found in usernames, art, and blog posts across the entire zoo community.

See Also

• ZETA Principles
• Zoophilia