Skēptouchos (Greek: σκηπτοῦχος), plural skēptouchoi (σκηπτοῦχοι) is a term known from ancient Greek sources, usually translated as the one bearing a staff, baton, or sceptre.
The term skeptouchos occurs in various contexts as early as the Homeric poetry where it is an epithet to a "king", basileus. In Homer's poems, a sceptre is also carried by priests and prophets, heralds, and judges. Its function was interpreted in early scholarship as a speaker's attribute during assemblies, but, according to Daniel Unruh, the sceptre apparently served as a physical symbol of authority which could be used to inflict a humiliating punishment. The term skeptouchos also appears in the 7th-century BC Semonides.
In his Cyropaedia and Anabasis, Xenophon in the 5th-century BC makes references to skeptouchoi as officials at the Persian court, commonly eunuchs. Xenophon mentions Artapates, a loyal chief of the skeptouchoi, who accompanied Cyrus the Younger in Asia Minor. Skeptouchoi were responsible for supplies, organizational matters and order at the Persian court. No equivalent term has been identified in Elamite, Old Persian, or Semitic, but the visual representation of skeptouchoi are preserved in the sculptures of Persepolis.
Skeptouchoi also appears as a Greek appellation of local princes of the Scythians, as referenced in a c. 200 BC inscription from Olbia, and in Colchis prior to Mithridates Eupator's conquest, as reported by Strabo. As David Braund suggests, the title was probably the consequence of Persian influence in Colchis. Still later, around AD 104, skeptouchoi refers to beadles at the temple of Artemis in the foundation inscription of Salutaris from Ephesus.
Notes
- ^ σκηπτοῦχος in Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Jones, Sir Henry Stuart, with the assistance of McKenzie, Roderick. Oxford: Clarendon Press. In the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University.
- Unruh 2011, pp. 279–280.
- Kõiv 2016, p. 20.
- Podrazik 2017, pp. 29–30.
- Podrazik 2017, pp. 22–24.
- Manning 2018, p. 11.
- Thonemann 2018, p. 85.
- ^ Braund 1994, p. 154.
- Tilborg 1996, p. 69.
References
- Braund, David (1994). Georgia in Antiquity: A History of Colchis and Transcaucasian Iberia, 550 BC–AD 562. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-814473-1.
- Kõiv, Mait (2016). "Basileus, tyrannos and polis. The Dynamics of Monarchy in Early Greece". Klio. 98 (1): 1–89. doi:10.1515/klio-2016-0001. S2CID 193036243.
- Manning, Sean (2018). "A Prosopography of the Followers of Cyrus the Younger" (PDF). Ancient History Bulletin. 32 (1–24).
- Mondi, Robert (1980). "ΣΚΗΠΤΟΥΧΟΙ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΣ: An Argument for Divine Kingship in Early Greece". Arethusa. 13 (2): 203–216. JSTOR 26308130.
- Podrazik, Michał (2017). "The skēptouchoi of Cyrus the Younger". Anabasis. Studia Classica et Orientalia. 8: 16–37.
- Thonemann, Peter (2018). The Hellenistic Age: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198746041.
- Tilborg, Sjef van (1996). Reading John in Ephesus. Brill. ISBN 9789004267299.
- Unruh, Daniel (2011). "A New Look at the Homeric Scepter". The Classical World. 104 (3): 279–294. JSTOR 41303431.