σκῠτάλη [ᾰ], ἡ,
staff, cudgel, club, [[ 1st c.BC: Diodorus Siculus Historicus 3.8 ] Refs 1st c.BC+]; σ. ἀγριέλαιος, of Heracles' club, [[ Anthologia Graeca 9.237 (1st c.BC: Erycius Epigrammaticus)] Refs 1st c.BC+]; compare 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, [[ 5th c.BC: Thucydides Historicus 1.131, 5th-6th c.BC: Xenophon Historicus “Historia Graeca (Hellenica)” 3.3.8, 5th-6th c.BC: Aristophanes Comicus “Lysistrata” 991, 1st-2nd c.AD: Plutarchus Biographus et Philosophus “Lysander” 19, 2nd c.AD: Gellius, Aulus Grammaticus Latinus 17.9.15] Refs 5th c.BC+]; and, generally, dispatch, message, as [[ 5th c.BC: Pindarus Lyricus ] Refs 5th c.BC+] calls the bearer of his ode σκυτάλα Μοισᾶν [[ “O.” 6.91, where the Scholia quotes ἀχνυμένη σκυτάλη (uncertain meaning) from 7th c.BC: Archilochus Lyricus (“fragment” 89.2)] Refs 7th c.BC+]; ἡ σκυτάλης περιτροπή, of labour in vain (compare ὕπερος), [[ 5th-6th c.BC: Plato Philosophus “Theaetetus” 209d. ] Refs 5th c.BC+]
__2 pole or staff, like those of a sedan-chair, [[ LXX.Exo.30.4. ] LXX]
__3 strickle for levelling grain piled up in a measure, σ. δικαία [[ “PTeb.” 823.15, “PAmh.” 2.43.10 (both 2nd c.BC),compare 2nd c.AD(?): Pollianus Epigrammaticus 4.170. ] Refs 2nd c.BC+]