Skeptouchos

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.[1]

The term skeptouchos occurs in various contexts as early as the Homeric poetry where it is an epithet to a "king", basileus.[1] 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.[2] The term skeptouchos also appears in the 7th-century BC Semonides.[3]

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.[4] 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.[5][6]

Skeptouchoi also appears as a Greek appellation of local princes of the Scythians, as referenced in a c. 200 BC inscription from Olbia[7], and in Colchis prior to Mithridates Eupator's conquest, as reported by Strabo.[8] As David Braund suggests, the title was probably the consequence of Persian influence in Colchis.[8] Still later, around AD 104, skeptouchoi refers to beadles at the temple of Artemis in the foundation inscription of Salutaris from Ephesus.[9]

Notes
  1. 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.
  2. Unruh 2011, pp. 279-280.
  3. Kõiv 2016, p. 20.
  4. Podrazik 2017, pp. 29-30.
  5. Podrazik 2017, pp. 22-24.
  6. Manning 2018, p. 11.
  7. Thonemann 2018, p. 85.
  8. Braund 1994, p. 154.
  9. Tilborg 1996, p. 69.
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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.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • 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.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Manning, Sean (2018). "A Prosopography of the Followers of Cyrus the Younger" (PDF). Ancient History Bulletin. 32 (1–24).CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Mondi, Robert (1980). "ΣΚΗΠΤΟΥΧΟΙ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΣ: An Argument for Divine Kingship in Early Greece". Arethusa. 13 (2): 203–216. JSTOR 26308130.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Podrazik, Michał (2017). "The skēptouchoi of Cyrus the Younger". Anabasis. Studia Classica et Orientalia. 8: 16–37.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Thonemann, Peter (2018). The Hellenistic Age: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198746041.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Tilborg, Sjef van (1996). Reading John in Ephesus. Brill. ISBN 9789004267299.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Unruh, Daniel (2011). "A New Look at the Homeric Scepter". The Classical World. 104 (3): 279–294. JSTOR 41303431.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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