The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 letter word ZETA
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
Z
E
T
A
More clues leading to the result ZETA
- Letter to the Corinthians from the east that Ezra covers
- Head of zoo worried about letter from abroad
- Greek character turning up in temperate zones
- Unknown insurgent worried Spartan character
- One Spartan character unknown by another
- Variable film supported by a character in Patras
- Character in bronze tabard
- Spooner’s conundrum; Greek’s 6th, or 7th after English final?
- Greek character showing much enthusiasm about tenor
- Sixth letter to Greeks, seventh to follow our last
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "One Spartan character" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case one spartan character = zeta.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does ZETA mean?
ZETA noun- The sixth letter of the modern Greek alphabet (Ζ, ζ) preceded by epsilon (Ε, ε) and followed by eta, (Η, η); or the seventh letter in the ancient Greek alphabet, in which it is preceded by digamma (Ϝ, ϝ)
- A mathematical function formally known as the Riemann zeta function.