σκυτάλη
σκυτάλη
σκῠτάλη (ᾰ), ἡ,
a staff, cudgel, club, Anth.
at Sparta, a staff or baton, used as a cypher for writing dispatches:—a strip of leather was rolled slantwise round it, on which the dispatches were written lengthwise, so that when unrolled they were unintelligible: commanders abroad had a staff of like thickness, round which they rolled these papers, and so were able to read the dispatches:—hence σκυτάλη came to mean a Spartan dispatch, Thuc., Xen.; and generally a message, Pind.
deriv. uncertain
Headword (normalized):
σκυτάλη
Headword (normalized/stripped):
σκυταλη
Intro Text:
σκυτάλη
σκῠτάλη (ᾰ), ἡ,
a staff, cudgel, club, Anth.
at Sparta, a staff or baton, used as a cypher for writing dispatches:—a strip of leather was rolled slantwise round it, on which the dispatches were written lengthwise, so that when unrolled they were unintelligible: commanders abroad had a staff of like thickness, round which they rolled these papers, and so were able to read the dispatches:—hence σκυτάλη came to mean a Spartan dispatch, Thuc., Xen.; and generally a message, Pind.
deriv. uncertain
URN:
urn:cite2:scaife-viewer:dictionary-entries.atlas_v1:middle-liddell.perseus-eng2-n29891
No citations.
{
"content": "σκυτάλη\n σκῠτάλη (ᾰ), ἡ,\n a staff, cudgel, club, Anth.\n at Sparta, a staff or baton, used as a cypher for writing dispatches:—a strip of leather was rolled slantwise round it, on which the dispatches were written lengthwise, so that when unrolled they were unintelligible: commanders abroad had a staff of like thickness, round which they rolled these papers, and so were able to read the dispatches:—hence σκυτάλη came to mean a Spartan dispatch, Thuc., Xen.; and generally a message, Pind.\n deriv. uncertain",
"key": "skuta/lh"
}