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The config file for my compose key /usr/share/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose lists all the key sequences for composing Greek letters; all of them require the pressure of a special dead_greek key. This is not a physical key of course, so, how can I assign an arbitrary key sequence to my compose key which produces this virtual dead_greek?

Also, I'd be interested to know if you have found a comfortable keyboard configuration regarding the compose key in general, and Greek letters in particular.

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  • 1
    If your goal is to type polytonic greek, I think you're better off using ibus-m17n rather than the compose key.
    – chaskes
    Jun 15, 2016 at 0:12
  • <dead_greek> is actually present in the "French (Bepo, ergonomic, Dvorak way)" keyboard layout. But have you tried to use any of the Greek keyboard layouts?
    – Gunnar Hjalmarsson
    Jun 15, 2016 at 0:36
  • Note for others search for similar symbols, the Compose file can contain multiple definitions for a single character. For example, µ can be done with dead_greek, but it can also be done with compose key + u then /.
    – starbeamrainbowlabs
    Apr 20, 2018 at 21:24

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
39

To help anyone who stumbles here,

You need to configure ~/.XCompose (see full file below) and restart X session.

To type Greek letters on Latin keyboard:

  1. Hold compose key — usually it is right Alt (look for "Compose key location" in "Keyboard" sections in "System Settings"). <Multi_key> in the list below.
  2. Type g for small letters or G for CAPITAL letters. G stands for "Greek". Different capitalization for convenience
  3. Type the Latin alphabet equivalent.
  4. Release compose key.

You can see the list of compose sequences configured system-wide in file /usr/share/X11/locale/$LANG/Compose, where $LANG is environment variable for current locale (for US English, it is equal to en_US.UTF-8):

$ cd /usr/share/X11/locale/$LANG/
$ less Compose

To enable compose for Greek alphabet add to your ~/.XCompose file:

~/.XCompose
# GREEK CAPITAL LETTERS
<Multi_key> <G> <A> : "Α"    U0391    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA
<Multi_key> <G> <B> : "Β"    U0392    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER BETA
<Multi_key> <G> <G> : "Γ"    U0393    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER GAMMA
<Multi_key> <G> <D> : "Δ"    U0394    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER DELTA
<Multi_key> <G> <E> : "Ε"    U0395    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON
<Multi_key> <G> <Z> : "Ζ"    U0396    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ZETA
<Multi_key> <G> <H> : "Η"    U0397    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ETA
<Multi_key> <G> <I> : "Ι"    U0399    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER IOTA
<Multi_key> <G> <K> : "Κ"    U039A    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER KAPPA
<Multi_key> <G> <L> : "Λ"    U039B    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMDA
<Multi_key> <G> <M> : "Μ"    U039C    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER MU
<Multi_key> <G> <N> : "Ν"    U039D    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER NU
<Multi_key> <G> <P> : "Π"    U03A0    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PI
<Multi_key> <G> <R> : "Ρ"    U03A1    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER RHO
<Multi_key> <G> <S> : "Σ"    U03A3    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA
<Multi_key> <G> <T> : "Τ"    U03A4    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER TAU
<Multi_key> <G> <U> : "Υ"    U03A5    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER UPSILON
<Multi_key> <G> <F> : "Φ"    U03A6    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PHI
<Multi_key> <G> <X> : "Χ"    U03A7    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER CHI
<Multi_key> <G> <O> : "Ω"    U03A9    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMEGA

# DOUBLES (additional stroke <Q>)
<Multi_key> <G> <Q> <T> : "Θ"    U0398    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER THETA
<Multi_key> <G> <Q> <O> : "Ο"    U039F    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON
<Multi_key> <G> <Q> <X> : "Ξ"    U039E    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER XI
<Multi_key> <G> <Q> <P> : "Ψ"    U03A8    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PSI

# greek small letters
<Multi_key> <g> <a> : "α"    U03B1    # GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA
<Multi_key> <g> <b> : "β"    U03B2    # GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA
<Multi_key> <g> <g> : "γ"    U03B3    # GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA
<Multi_key> <g> <d> : "δ"    U03B4    # GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA
<Multi_key> <g> <e> : "ε"    U03B5    # GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON
<Multi_key> <g> <z> : "ζ"    U03B6    # GREEK SMALL LETTER ZETA
<Multi_key> <g> <h> : "η"    U03B7    # GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA
<Multi_key> <g> <i> : "ι"    U03B9    # GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA
<Multi_key> <g> <k> : "κ"    U03BA    # GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA
<Multi_key> <g> <l> : "λ"    U03BB    # GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA
<Multi_key> <g> <m> : "μ"    U03BC    # GREEK SMALL LETTER MU
<Multi_key> <g> <n> : "ν"    U03BD    # GREEK SMALL LETTER NU
<Multi_key> <g> <p> : "π"    U03C0    # GREEK SMALL LETTER PI
<Multi_key> <g> <r> : "ρ"    U03C1    # GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO
<Multi_key> <g> <s> : "σ"    U03C3    # GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA
<Multi_key> <g> <t> : "τ"    U03C4    # GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU
<Multi_key> <g> <u> : "υ"    U03C5    # GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON
<Multi_key> <g> <f> : "φ"    U03C6    # GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI
<Multi_key> <g> <x> : "χ"    U03C7    # GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI
<Multi_key> <g> <o> : "ω"    U03C9    # GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA

# doubles (additional stroke <q>)
<Multi_key> <g> <q> <t> : "θ"    U03B8    # GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA
<Multi_key> <g> <q> <o> : "ο"    U03BF    # GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON
<Multi_key> <g> <q> <p> : "ψ"    U03C8    # GREEK SMALL LETTER PSI
<Multi_key> <g> <q> <s> : "ς"    U03C2    # GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA
<Multi_key> <g> <q> <x> : "ξ"    U03BE    # GREEK SMALL LETTER XI

See also:

Most used letters can also be set up with separate compose key combinations. For example, π:

<Multi_key> <p> <i> : "π"    U03C0    # GREEK SMALL LETTER PI

You can also save this list in a file called GreekCompose and use include command in ~/.XCompose:

include "%L"
include "/path/to/GreekCompose"

The list above was created by manually adjusting output of small Python script: https://github.com/rybak/scripts/blob/master/extra/gen_x_compose.py

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    Strictly, this doesn't answer the question of how to implement a <dead_greek> key. The default /usr/share/X11/locale/$LANG/Compose already has the full Greek alphabet, indented to be accessed with a dead key. Why copy all that work?
    – Jollywatt
    May 27, 2020 at 23:01
  • 2
    This is a 100% reliable method, works, and that's why it has the upvotes. Thank you!
    – Benjamin R
    Jun 8, 2022 at 12:19
  • Why did you choose this mapping? It isn't the same as the Greek keyboard nor vims ctrl-k *<key> method.
    – 12431234123412341234123
    Apr 28 at 12:41
  • See this commit for adding all Greek characters as compose key + "g" + other key.
    – l0b0
    Oct 6 at 3:35
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Do xmodmap -pke | grep dead_greek

If there's no output, you don't have a key representing dead_greek.

You can assign one. For example, I just assigned the right Alt key to dead_greek:

xmodmap -e 'keycode 108 = dead_greek Meta_R Alt_R Meta_R'

and now I can type rAlt a rAlt b rAlt g and it comes out as αβγ.

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    I just tried that, works kinda cool. But if I keep AltGr pressed down, the keyboard generates a flood of µ. Also I lose the handy keystrokes for typing €, ĸilo, ¢ and the back-quote.
    – davide
    Sep 16, 2016 at 11:45
  • @davide then you should use xev to find another keycode that works best for you. I assigned it to my F1 key since I never use it anyway. For me that was keycode 67.
    – TomCho
    Apr 21, 2019 at 14:54
  • I chose AltGr+g as deadkey which is not used by us altgr-intl layout. This is the oneliner to set the deadkey and keep everything else like it is: xmodmap -e "$(xmodmap -pke | grep "keycode\s\+42" | sed -E 's/=((\s\S){4})\s\S+/=\1 dead_greek/')"
    – doak
    Nov 29, 2022 at 9:43
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Not a perfect solution, perhaps, but I used

xmodmap -e "keycode 191 = dead_greek dead_greek dead_greek dead_greek"

This mapped the F13 key on my keyboard to dead_greek (the four repeats are for different combinations of SHIFT and ALTGR with F13). The number 191 comes from looking at the output of xev | sed -ne '/^KeyPress/,/^$/p' when pressing F13 (it shows keycode 191).

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  • I would have liked to map dead_greek to the SUPER_R key on my Apple keyboard, but this seems harder to do because Ubuntu grabs SUPER_R for the Unity menu, and SUPER_R and SUPER_L seem to be merged somewhere. More work needed to figure it out.
    – jdpipe
    Mar 4, 2017 at 3:19
  • I like your clever method. Only thing is, I can't get my mapped dead_greek key to give me greek. my Compose file has dead_greek definitions, 'xmodmap -pke | grep dead_greek' gives me 'keycode 152 = dead_greek dead_greek dead_greek dead_greek' but when I tap the 152 key and then 'a,' I get 'a.' Can you point me in the right direction?
    – Geoffrey Wheeler
    Oct 31, 2017 at 9:22
  • 1
    Try playing around with other keys instead, to see if that's your problem?
    – jdpipe
    Nov 3, 2017 at 2:15
  • I tried [F9] and F[10] and they didn't work. I have to find a strategy to solve this problem. I tap the dead_greek key and then I tap 'a' That's how my Compose key works. Let me map dead_greek to that key and see what happens.
    – Geoffrey Wheeler
    Nov 3, 2017 at 10:05
  • 1
    OK, I've mapped to to my Pause/Break key; it works in LibreOffice and my web browser. I was testing it in the terminal and Notepadqq and it doesn't work in those two places. I think there is probably an encoding in Notepadqq that it will work with. Thanks for your encouragement.
    – Geoffrey Wheeler
    Nov 3, 2017 at 10:45
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@libervurto I basically love your thoughtful key bindings; theyʼre very intuitive.

However (thereʼs always a “however”), allow me to point out that even though “letters” in different alphabets like Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic may look the same, they may by no means be the same. Take «P». In Latin itʼs the glyph (graphic representation) that denotes an unvoiced bilabial plosive (namely, our western “P”); in Greek and Cyrillic, however it stands for the sound of Latin “R”. And this is only one example out of dozens and dozens. So, you canʼt simply discard the different shapes that just happen to look like a Latin letter. In other words, theyʼre anything but synonymous.

Thereʼs a distinction between “glyph” and “codepoint” in Unicode; “codepoint” being the meaning of a symbol, codified by a Unicode number, and “glyph” being its visual representation (the letter you see on the screen). In concrete terms:

  • «A» = Unicode $0041, as part of the extant Latin alphabet (in Unicode written as U+0041)
  • «Α» = Unicode $0391, as part of the (modern) Greek alphabet
  • «А» = Unicode $0410, as part of the Cyrillic alphabet (what we commonly and erroneously call Russian); and it gets even weirder:
  • «ꓮ» = Unicode $A4EE, as part of the little‐known Li‐Su abugida (syllabic alphabet), the script of a remote South‐Asian Sino‐Tibetan people

All four look exactly the same but represent different entities in terms of their respective languages. E·g·, “Greek A” is called “Alpha”, since it represents a different glyph than “Latin A” or “Cyrillic A”. (That's why they have different code points.) (Con artists exploit this coincidence to no end to create authentic‐looking phishing sites.)

Incidentally/accidentally, in this case they represent similar sounds, but, as demonstrated above, that is usually not the case. (Remember the Soviet Union? Their abbreviation looked like CCCP to Latin readers, but actually stood for SSSR [Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik]: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик [СССР].)

Things get (a lot) more complicated once we look at uppercase and lowercase letters and their correlations. Thus the best strategy is to keep everything in place, in conformance with the now widely implemented Unicode standard. (One day, maybe less than a year out, it will be the ONLY standard.)

Therefore, I took the liberty to modify your chart to be a little more inclusive. (I posted this not to correct you or call you out but to give concrete examples to people looking for exactly this kind of information.)

include "%L"

# Greek alphabet
#
# Greek key bindings use corresponding Latin characters as much as possible and plausible.
# Latin characters not present in Greek are used for Greek characters not present in Latin:
# "C" invokes Sigma Luna [U+03A2] (so far not assigned in Unicode)
# "H" invokes Eta; "J" invokes Khi (Chi)
# "Q" invokes Theta; "U" invokes Upsilon; "V" invokes Psi; "W" invokes Omega
#
# Greek Core Alphabet Uppercase
<Multi_key> <g> <A> :       "Α"    U0391    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA
<Multi_key> <g> <B> :       "Β"    U0392    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER BETA
<Multi_key> <g> <G> :       "Γ"    U0393    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER GAMMA
<Multi_key> <g> <D> :       "Δ"    U0394    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER DELTA
<Multi_key> <g> <E> :       "Ε"    U0395    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON
<Multi_key> <g> <Z> :       "Ζ"    U0396    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ZETA
<Multi_key> <g> <H> :       "Η"    U0397    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ETA
<Multi_key> <g> <Q> :       "Θ"    U0398    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER THETA
<Multi_key> <g> <I> :       "Ι"    U0399    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER IOTA
<Multi_key> <g> <K> :       "Κ"    U039A    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER KAPPA
<Multi_key> <g> <L> :       "Λ"    U039B    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMBDA
<Multi_key> <g> <M> :       "Μ"    U039C    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER MU
<Multi_key> <g> <N> :       "Ν"    U039D    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER NU
<Multi_key> <g> <X> :       "Ξ"    U039E    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER XI
<Multi_key> <g> <O> :       "Ο"    U039F    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMIKRON
<Multi_key> <g> <P> :       "Π"    U03A0    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PI
<Multi_key> <g> <R> :       "Ρ"    U03A1    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER RHO
<Multi_key> <g> <C> :       "΢"    U03A2    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA LUNA
<Multi_key> <g> <S> :       "Σ"    U03A3    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA
<Multi_key> <g> <T> :       "Τ"    U03A4    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER TAU
<Multi_key> <g> <U> :       "Υ"    U03A5    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER UPSILON
<Multi_key> <g> <F> :       "Φ"    U03A6    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PHI
<Multi_key> <g> <J> :       "Χ"    U03A7    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER KHI
<Multi_key> <g> <V> :       "Ψ"    U03A8    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PSI
<Multi_key> <g> <W> :       "Ω"    U03A9    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMEGA
#
# Greek Core Alphabet Lowercase
<Multi_key> <g> <a> :       "α"    U03B1    # GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA
<Multi_key> <g> <b> :       "β"    U03B2    # GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA
<Multi_key> <g> <g> :       "γ"    U03B3    # GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA
<Multi_key> <g> <d> :       "δ"    U03B4    # GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA
<Multi_key> <g> <e> :       "ε"    U03B5    # GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON
<Multi_key> <g> <z> :       "ζ"    U03B6    # GREEK SMALL LETTER ZETA
<Multi_key> <g> <h> :       "η"    U03B7    # GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA
<Multi_key> <g> <q> :       "θ"    U03B8    # GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA
<Multi_key> <g> <i> :       "ι"    U03B9    # GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA
<Multi_key> <g> <k> :       "κ"    U03BA    # GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA
<Multi_key> <g> <l> :       "λ"    U03BB    # GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA
<Multi_key> <g> <m> :       "μ"    U03BC    # GREEK SMALL LETTER MU
<Multi_key> <g> <n> :       "ν"    U03BD    # GREEK SMALL LETTER NU
<Multi_key> <g> <x> :       "ξ"    U03BE    # GREEK SMALL LETTER XI
<Multi_key> <g> <o> :       "ο"    U03BF    # GREEK SMALL LETTER OMIKRON
<Multi_key> <g> <r> :       "ρ"    U03C1    # GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO
<Multi_key> <g> <c> :       "ς"    U03C2    # GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA
<Multi_key> <g> <s> :       "σ"    U03C3    # GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA
<Multi_key> <g> <t> :       "τ"    U03C4    # GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU
<Multi_key> <g> <u> :       "υ"    U03C5    # GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON
<Multi_key> <g> <f> :       "φ"    U03C6    # GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI
<Multi_key> <g> <j> :       "χ"    U03C7    # GREEK SMALL LETTER KHI
<Multi_key> <g> <v> :       "ψ"    U03C8    # GREEK SMALL LETTER PSI
<Multi_key> <g> <w> :       "ω"    U03C9    # GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA
#
# Alternate Inputs
<Multi_key> <g> <T> <H> :   "Θ"    U0398    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER THETA (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <T> <h> :   "Θ"    U0398    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER THETA (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <t> <h> :   "θ"    U03B8    # GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <K> <S> :   "Ξ"    U039E    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER XI (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <K> <s> :   "Ξ"    U039E    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER XI (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <k> <s> :   "ξ"    U03BE    # GREEK SMALL LETTER XI (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <P> <I> :   "Π"    U03A0    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PI (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <P> <i> :   "Π"    U03A0    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PI (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <p> <i> :   "π"    U03C0    # GREEK SMALL LETTER PI (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <S> <C> :   "΢"    U03A2    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA LUNA (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <S> <c> :   "΢"    U03A2    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA LUNA (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <s> <f> :   "ς"    U03C2    # GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA FINAL (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <T> <A> :   "Τ"    U03A4    # GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <T> <a> :   "Τ"    U03A4    # GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <t> <a> :   "τ"    U03C4    # GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <Y> :       "Υ"    U03A5    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER UPSILON (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <y> :       "υ"    U03C5    # GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <P> <H> :   "Φ"    U03A6    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PHI (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <P> <h> :   "Φ"    U03A6    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PHI (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <p> <h> :   "φ"    U03C6    # GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <K> <H> :   "Χ"    U03A7    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER KHI (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <K> <h> :   "Χ"    U03A7    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER KHI (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <k> <h> :   "χ"    U03C7    # GREEK SMALL LETTER KHI (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <P> <S> :   "Ψ"    U03A8    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PSI (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <P> <s> :   "Ψ"    U03A8    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PSI (alternate)
<Multi_key> <g> <p> <s> :   "ψ"    U03C8    # GREEK SMALL LETTER PSI (alternate)
#
# Variants
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <H> :   "Ͱ"    U0370    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER HETA
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <h> :   "ͱ"    U0371    # GREEK SMALL LETTER HETA
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <b> :   "ϐ"    U03D0    # GREEK BETA SYMBOL
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <e> :   "ϵ"    U03F5    # GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <Q> :   "ϴ"    U03F4    # GREEK CAPITAL THETA SYMBOL
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <q> :   "ϑ"    U03D1    # GREEK THETA SYMBOL
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <k> :   "ϰ"    U03F0    # GREEK KAPPA SYMBOL
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <p> :   "ϖ"    U03D6    # GREEK PI SYMBOL
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <U> :   "ϒ"    U03D2    # GREEK UPSILON WITH HOOK SYMBOL
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <Y> :   "ϒ"    U03D2    # GREEK UPSILON WITH HOOK SYMBOL
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <v> :   "ϕ"    U03D5    # GREEK PHI SYMBOL
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <x> :   "☧"    U2627    # CHI RHO
<Multi_key> <g> <p> <s> :   "ψ"    U03C8    # GREEK SMALL LETTER PSI
# Odd freak:
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <p> <s> :   "ᴪ"    U1D2A    # GREEK LETTER SMALL CAPITAL PSI
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  • 3
    Reloading Xorg or WM is not necessary, it's read at the start of a client, i.e. a web browser or a console. Also don't forget to put include "%L" at start of the file. See: wiki.debian.org/XCompose
    – Janek_Kozicki
    Aug 13, 2020 at 20:41
  • What a thoughtful answer! This is my preferred solution
    – Edward
    Oct 20, 2022 at 14:50
1

I have experimented and come up with (IMHO) far more user-friendly bindings.

  • All Greek letters are prefixed with <g> whether capital or small.
  • After the prefix, start typing the name of the letter in English: e.g. 'chi' for 'χ'. (This will usually be a single character but sometimes two.)
    • There are two exceptions to this rule: eta 'η' is 'h', and omega 'ω' is 'w'. This is to avoid requiring three characters to be typed to distinguish between omega and omicron; in the case of eta it is clearly the ancestor of 'h' and besides, its starting 'e' would conflict with epsilon which is far more commonly used in mathematics and science.
  • Capital Greek letters are inserted as described above but typing in capitals or at least the first letter capitalized.
  • Some Greek letters have variants that can be accessed as described above but with the variant prefix <g> <v>, for example <g> <v> <e> produces an epsilon variant ϵ.
  • I have removed Greek capital letters that are synonymous to Latin capital letters as these seemed redundant. Are there any cases where they would be displayed differently?
# Greek alphabet
<Multi_key> <g> <a> :       "α"    U03B1    # GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA
<Multi_key> <g> <b> :       "β"    U03B2    # GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <b> :   "ϐ"    U03D0    # GREEK BETA SYMBOL
<Multi_key> <g> <G> :       "Γ"    U0393    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER GAMMA
<Multi_key> <g> <g> :       "γ"    U03B3    # GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA
<Multi_key> <g> <D> :       "Δ"    U0394    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER DELTA
<Multi_key> <g> <d> :       "δ"    U03B4    # GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA
<Multi_key> <g> <e> :       "ε"    U03B5    # GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <e> :   "ϵ"    U03F5    # GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL
<Multi_key> <g> <z> :       "ζ"    U03B6    # GREEK SMALL LETTER ZETA
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <H> :   "Ͱ"    U0370    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER HETA
<Multi_key> <g> <h> :       "η"    U03B7    # GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <h> :   "ͱ"    U0371    # GREEK SMALL LETTER HETA
<Multi_key> <g> <T> :       "Θ"    U0398    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER THETA
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <T> :   "ϴ"    U03F4    # GREEK CAPITAL THETA SYMBOL
<Multi_key> <g> <t> <h> :   "θ"    U03B8    # GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <t> <h> :   "ϑ"    U03D1    # GREEK THETA SYMBOL
<Multi_key> <g> <i> :       "ι"    U03B9    # GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA
<Multi_key> <g> <k> :       "κ"    U03BA    # GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <k> :   "ϰ"    U03F0    # GREEK KAPPA SYMBOL
<Multi_key> <g> <L> :       "Λ"    U039B    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMDA
<Multi_key> <g> <l> :       "λ"    U03BB    # GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <l> :   "ᴧ"    U1D27    # GREEK LETTER SMALL CAPITAL LAMDA
<Multi_key> <g> <m> :       "μ"    U03BC    # GREEK SMALL LETTER MU
<Multi_key> <g> <n> :       "ν"    U03BD    # GREEK SMALL LETTER NU
<Multi_key> <g> <X> :       "Ξ"    U039E    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER XI
<Multi_key> <g> <x> :       "ξ"    U03BE    # GREEK SMALL LETTER XI
<Multi_key> <g> <O> :       "Ο"    U039F    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON
<Multi_key> <g> <o> :       "ο"    U03BF    # GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON
<Multi_key> <g> <P> <I> :   "Π"    U03A0    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PI
<Multi_key> <g> <P> <i> :   "Π"    U03A0    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PI
<Multi_key> <g> <p> <i> :   "π"    U03C0    # GREEK SMALL LETTER PI
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <p> <i> :   "ϖ"    U03D6    # GREEK PI SYMBOL
<Multi_key> <g> <r> :       "ρ"    U03C1    # GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO
<Multi_key> <g> <S> :       "Σ"    U03A3    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA
<Multi_key> <g> <s> :       "σ"    U03C3    # GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <s> :   "ς"    U03C2    # GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA
<Multi_key> <g> <t> <a> :   "τ"    U03C4    # GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU
<Multi_key> <g> <U> :       "Υ"    U03A5    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER UPSILON
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <U> :   "ϒ"    U03D2    # GREEK UPSILON WITH HOOK SYMBOL 
<Multi_key> <g> <u> :       "υ"    U03C5    # GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON
<Multi_key> <g> <F> :       "Φ"    U03A6    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PHI
<Multi_key> <g> <P> <H> :   "Φ"    U03A6    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PHI
<Multi_key> <g> <P> <h> :   "Φ"    U03A6    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PHI
<Multi_key> <g> <f> :       "φ"    U03C6    # GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI
<Multi_key> <g> <p> <h> :   "φ"    U03C6    # GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <p> <h> :   "ϕ"    U03D5    # GREEK PHI SYMBOL
<Multi_key> <g> <c> :       "χ"    U03C7    # GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <c> :   "☧"    U2627    # CHI RHO
<Multi_key> <g> <P> <S> :   "Ψ"    U03A8    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PSI
<Multi_key> <g> <P> <s> :   "Ψ"    U03A8    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PSI
<Multi_key> <g> <p> <s> :   "ψ"    U03C8    # GREEK SMALL LETTER PSI
<Multi_key> <g> <v> <p> <s> :   "ᴪ"    U1D2A    # GREEK LETTER SMALL CAPITAL PSI
<Multi_key> <g> <W> :       "Ω"    U03A9    # GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMEGA
<Multi_key> <g> <w> :       "ω"    U03C9    # GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA
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Despite the numerous, brilliant and helpful answers here, I'm going to put my two cents in: the .XCompose file could be generated from a script and also given a longer prefix to avoid collisions (if anybody cared).

You should always put include "%L" at the top of your .XCompose file, but you can generate the body with this:

grep "^<dead_greek>" "/usr/share/X11/locale/$(
    grep -m1 "${LANG%.*}.UTF-8\$" /usr/share/X11/locale/locale.dir |
    cut -d/ -f1
)/Compose" |
grep -Ev "^<dead_greek>\s.*<dead_greek>" |      # filter out those that won't work
sed -Ee 's/^<dead_greek>\s+/<Multi_key> <d> <g> /g'

If you don't mind overwriting various compose sequences like Compose g t (for greater than), then just remove the <d> above and use <g> as your prefix.

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