σκυτάλη

A. staff, cudgel, club, D.S. 3.8; ς. ἀγριέλαιος, of Heracles' club, AP 9.237 (Eryc.); cf. σκύταλον:—Special usages:

1. at Sparta, staff or baton, used as a cypher for writing dispatches, a strip of leather being 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 strips, and so were able to read the dispatches:—hence σκυτάλη came to mean a Spartan dispatch, Th. 1.131, X. HG 3.3.8, Ar. Lys. 991, Plu. Lys. 19, Gell. 17.9.15; and, generally, dispatch, message, as Pi. calls the bearer of his ode σκυτάλα Μοισᾶν O. 6.91, where the Sch. quotes ἀχνυμένη σκυτάλη (dub. sens.) from Archil. (Fr. 89.2); ἡ σκυτάλης περιτροπή, of labour in vain (cf. ὕπερος), Pl. Tht. 209d.

2. pole or staff, like those of a sedan-chair, LXX Ex. 30.4.

3. strickle for levelling grain piled up in a measure, ς. δικαία PTeb. 823.15, PAmh. 2.43.10 (both ii B.C.), cf. Poll. 4.170.

4. wooden tally or ticket on a money-bag, etc., Diosc.Hist. 4, D.S. 13.106.

5. strip or rod of metal or ivory, κασσιτέρου Inscr.Délos 442 B 170 (ii B.C.); ἐλέφαντος ibid.; cf. Hld. 9.15.

6. scourge whip, Moer.p.346P.

7. handle or lever in a machine, Orib. 49.3.3; handspike for turning a wheel, Ph. Bel. 68.6, 85.2, Hero Bel. 86.12 (pl.).

II. sucker from a stem, Gp. 9.11.4, al.

III. cylinder or roller wherewith weights are moved, Arist. Mech. 852a16, cf. CPHerm. 95.16 (iii A.D.).

IV. a serpent, of uniform roundness and thickness, Nic. Th. 384, Sor. ap. Philum. Ven. 27.3 (for Plu. Crass. 32 v. Σκύλλα).

2. a fish of like shape, Opp. H. 1.184.

V. finger-bone, phalanx, Paul.Aeg. 6.43, Tz. H. 9.126.