Liddell-Scott-Jones

σκυτάλη (skutalē) a stave ^G:N-F

σκυτάλη [ᾰ], ἡ,

staff, cudgel, club, [Refs 1st c.BC+]; σ. ἀγριέλαιος, of Heracles' club, [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, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; and, generally, dispatch, message, as [Refs 5th c.BC+] calls the bearer of his ode σκυτάλα Μοισᾶν [Refs 7th c.BC+]; ἡ σκυτάλης περιτροπή, of labour in vain (compare ὕπερος), [Refs 5th c.BC+]
__2 pole or staff, like those of a sedan-chair, [LXX]
__3 strickle for levelling grain piled up in a measure, σ. δικαία [Refs 2nd c.BC+]
__4 wooden tally or ticket on a money-bag, etc., [Refs 4th c.BC+]
__5 strip or rod of metal or ivory, κασσιτέρου [Refs 2nd c.BC+]
__6 scourge whip, [Refs]
__7 handle or lever in a machine, [Refs 4th c.AD+]; handspike for turning a wheel, [Refs 3rd c.BC+]
__II sucker from a stem, [Refs]
__III cylinder or roller wherewith weights are moved, [Refs 4th c.BC+]
__IV a serpent, of uniform roundness and thickness, [Refs 2nd c.BC+]
__IV.2 a fish of like shape, [Refs 2nd c.AD+]
__V finger-bone, phalanx, [Refs 7th c.AD+]

_{LSJ Scripture Refs: LXX.Exod.30.4}