Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/956

 933 SCYROS. tion Scyros was conquered by Achilles (Iloin. II. i. 66S; Paus. i. 2'1. § 6); and this conquest was ciinnected in the Attic legends with tlie death of Theseus. After Theseus had been driven out of Athens he retired to Scyros, where he was tirst hospitably received by Lyconiedes, but was afier- w-ards treacherously hurled into the sea from one of the rocks in the island. It was to reveiiu'e his death that Teleus sent Achilles to conijuer the island. (Plut. Thes. 35; Paus. i. 22. § 6; Thilostr. Heroic. 19 ) Scyros Is said to have been orisxinally inhabiteil by Pelasgians, Carians, and Dolopians; and we know from Thucydides that the island was still inhabited by Dolopians, when it was conquered by Cinion after the Persian wars. (Nicolaus Damasc. ap. Stepli. B. s. v. Scymn. Ch. 580, seq. ; Thuc. i. 98 ; Diod. xi. 60.) In b. c. 476 an oracle had directed the Athenians to bring home the bones of Theseus; but it was not till b. c. 469 that the island was conquered, and the bones conveyed to Athens, where they were preserved in the Theseium. Cimon expelled the Dolopians from the island, and peopled it with Athenian settlers. (Thuc. Diod. II. cc. ; Plut. Thes. 36, Cim. 8; on the date of the conquest of Scyros, which Clinton erroneously places in b. c. 476, see Grote, History of Greece, vol. v. p. 409.) From this time Scyros was subject to Athens, and was regarded even at a later period, along with Lemnos and Imbros, as a possession to which the Athenians had special claims. Thus the peace of Antalcidas, which declared the independence of all the Grecian states, nevertheless allowed the Athenians to retain possession of Scyros, Lemnos, and Imbros (Xen. Hell. iv. 8. § 15, v.'l. § 31); and though the Macedonians subsequently obtained possession of these islands, the Romans compelled Philip, in the peace concluded in b. c. 196, to restore them to the Athenians. (Liv. sxxiii. 30.) The soil of Scyros was unproductive (Dem. c. Callip.j>. 1238; Eustath. ad Horn. II. ii. p. 782 ; Suidas,s. v. apxh 'S.Kvpia); but it was celebrated for its breed of goats, and for its quariies of variegated marble. (Strab. ix. p. 437; Athen. i. p. 28, xii. p. 540; Zenob. ii. 18; Phn. sxxvi. 16. s. 26.) Scyros is divided into two parts by a narrow isthmus, of which the southern half consists of- high rugged mountains. The northern half is not so mountainous. The modern town of St. George, on the eastern side of the island, stands upon the site of the ancient town. It covers the northern and western sides of a high rocky peak, which to the eastward falls steeply to the sea; and hence Homer correctly describes the ancient city as the lofty Scyros (^'S.KVpov alnelav, II. i. 664). The Hellenic walls are still traceable in many parts. The city was barely 2 miles in circumference. On the isthmus buuth of Scyros a deep bay still retains the name of Achilli {'Ax'i^Ki), which is doubtless the site of the Achilleion, or sanctuary of Achilles, mentioned by Eustathius (ad 11. ix. 662). Athena was the divinity chiefly worshipped at Scyros. Her temple stood upon the shore close to the town. (Stat. Achill. i. 285, ii. 21.) Tournefort says that he ^aw some remains of columns and cornices of white marble, close by a forsaken chapel, on the left hand going into the fort of St. George ; these are probably remains of the temple of Athena. (Tournefort, Voyage, vol. i. p. 334, trans.; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 106, seq.; Fiedler, Reise, vol. ii. p. 66; Ross, Wanderungtn in Grieckeidand, vol. ii. p. 32, seq.) SCYTHIA. SCYRUS (ZKvpos), a tributary of the Alpheius, in southern Arcadia. [Megalopolis, p. 309, b] SCY'THIA (v ^Kvdia, t) :^KvBiK-ir. Eth. '2,KMji, Scytha), the country of the Scythae, a vast area in the eastern half of Northern Europe, and in Western and Central Asia. Its limits varied with the differ- ences of date, place, and opportunities of information on the part of its geographers. Indeed, to a great extent, the history of Scythia is the history of a Name. — It is obvious that the term came from the Greeks to the Romans; in this resjiect unlike Sar- matia, Dacia, and others, which, in form at least, are Roman rather than Greek. But whence did the Greeks get it? for it is by no means either significant in their tongue, or a Greek word at all. They took it from one or more of the populations interjacent between themselves and the Scythae; these being Thracians, Sarmatians, and Getae. Probably all three used it; at any rate, it seems to have been used by the neighbours of the Greeks of Olbiopoiis, and by the Thracians on the frontiers of the Greeks of Macedonia, This is in favour of its having been a term common to all the forms of speech between Macedonia and the Borysthenes. Scyth-, then, is a Sarmatian, Thracian, arid Getic term in respect to its introduction into the Greek language. Was it so in its origin? The presumption as well as the eri- dence is in favour of its having been so. There is the express evidence of Herodotus (iv. 6) that the population which the Greeks called Scythae called themselves Scoloti. There is the fact that the Per- sian equivalent to Scythae was Sakae. Thirdly, there is the fact that in the most genuine-looking of the Scythic myths there is no such eponj-mus as Scytha or Scythes, which would scarcely have been the case had the name been native. Scyth-, then, was a word like German or A Uemand, as applied to the Deutsche, a word strange to the language of the population designated by it, but not strange to the language of the neighbouring countries. To whom was it applied ? To the tribes who called themselves Scoloti. What was the extent of the term ? Did it apply not only to the Scoloti, but to the whole of the class to which the Scoloti belonged ? It is safe to say that, at ^rst, at least, there were many congeners of the Scoloti whom no one called Scythae. The number, however, increased as the term became general. Did the name denote any populations of a ditferent family from the Scoloti? Rarely, at first; afterwards, frequently. If the populations designated by their neighbours as Scy- thae called themselves by some other name, what was that name? Scoloti applied only to a part of them. Had the word Scyth- a meaning in any language? if so, what was it, and in what tongues? Both these points will be noticed in the sequel, the questions in- volved in them being at present premature, though by no means unimportant. The knowledge of the Scythian family dates from the beginning of Greek literature. Sc'TiiL(V>'s OF Hesiod, ETC. — Populations belong- ing to the Scythian fiimily are noticed by Homer under the names of Abii, Glactophagi, and Hippemolgi, the habit of milking their mares being as definite a characteristic of a Scythian as anything in the way of manners and customs can be. Hesiod gives us Scythae under that name, noting them also as Hip- pemolgi. The Scythians of Homer and Hesiod are poetical rather than historical nations. They are associated with the Mysi of Bulgaria (not of Asia),