The scytala or scytale was one of the earliest instruments known, used for coding and decoding messages. It was used by the Ancient Spartans, and consisted of two rods with the same diameter. A strip of leather was wound round one of the rods and the message was then written on the leather. When it was unwound again it was just a meaningless jumble of letters. The messenger carried it as a belt, the side with the letters being worn inwards. The recipient, who had the other rod, then rewound the strip of leather to get the message.
This site (in French)
http://www.jura.ch/lcp/cours/dm/codage/transpo/scytale.html has a scytala simulation program.
If I don't tell you the diameter of my "rod", can you read this message?
T ts sr.ien ruat ehhieeSc s iyld tteils pysO het t khe sl oatcnman d wnerr utfraycesciitio ossh tltes osfotwdoditetaaa sbd f hiif.tr hn ltaeevirona eaue oehgedeceugmt
Bingley
No. I give up, Bingley. I tried plugging in every diameter 1-20, and none returned a readable message
Interesting idea - certainly not one I would have thought of.
If I don't tell you the diameter of my "rod"
Thank you, Bingley. That would indeed be TMI. OK, *somebody had to say it!!
Dear Bingley: I think your French site may have borrowed the picture of the scytala from an English site. Notice that the message on the wound rod reads "MEET ME"
Do you know, I hadn't noticed that. I wonder where they got it from? Possibly from this site on codes in general, which the French site links to:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/secret/secret.htmlBingley
My apologies, nancyk. I actually used size 9, but now I can't decode it either. However, the thread heading does decode using size 3.
Bingley
Dear Bingley: In searching for etymology of "scytala" I found a French site that gives as third definition "a serpent".Perhaps from some snake that wraps itself about brances in climbing trees, or a constrictor?
"scytala, ae (scytale, es), f. : - 1 - bâton, rouleau. - 2 - scytale (rouleau entouré d'une bande de parchemin sur laquelle les Macédoniens écrivaient) - 3 - scytale (un serpent). "
Anyone who knows a little French will find this a fun place to browse. I've got to go back to get URL:
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/prima.elementa/Dico-s02.htmlInteresting that it says it was used by Macedonians. They
might have gotten idea from Spartans, but it would no longer have been a secret.
I saw and handled one of these at the International Spy Museum in D.C. a couple of months ago! They're really cool. Thanks for the reminder!
the thread heading does decode using size 3. :
"scy tala, also spelt scytale".
The basic meaning was rod or staff. But even the Greeks used scytale to refer to a type of snake with a rod-like shape. See the LSJ entry:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?K2E742F15Bingley
Okay, as with the OED, I need an education in how to read this link. BUT--it seems to me that the word has 12 different def.'s; I guess these people went by context to determine which one was intended. Do we have a word with that many definitions?
One of them had a word I didn't know, so I checked Atomica:strick·le (strĭk'əl)
n.
An instrument used to level off grain or other material in a measure.
A foundry tool used to shape a mold in sand or loam.
A tool for sharpening scythes.
[Middle English strikelle, perhaps from Old English stricel, teat, strickle.]
I wish I knew what one looks like.
Just to take a fairly random example, my dictionary gives something like 22 meanings for "figure".
Bingley
Dear Bingley: it just occurred to me that the first use of the word "scytala" was something like "when the scytala came to Agesilaus..." But a scytala (a rod) did not come to him, just the strip of parchment with the letters on it . The scytala was already in his possession.
Is this a metaphor, the small part being given the name of the large part?
From the LSJ entry linked to above:
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 skutalê came to mean a Spartan dispatch, Th.1.131, X.HG3.3.8, Ar.Lys.991, Plu.Lys.19, Gell.17.9.15; and, generally, dispatch, message, as Pi. calls the bearer of his ode skutala Moisan O.6.91 , where the Sch. quotes achnumenê skutalê (dub. sens.) from Archil. (Fr.89.2); hê skutalês peritropê, of labour in vain (cf. huperos), Pl.Tht.209d.
Bingley