Sietra.
Sisty, John, a minister of the Baptist denomination, was born near Newark, N. J., March 26, 1783, and be- came a member of the First Baptist Church in Phila- delphia, July 4, 1803. For some years he was engaged in a suc('essful business in Philadelphia, being a manu- facturer of pocket-books. His heart being set upon the preaching of the (Jospel, he was licensed by the (.'hurch in Mount Holly, N. ,J., whither he had removed, Aug. 13, 1814. For a time he preached without ordination. A congregation having been formed in Haddontield. he was ordained as its pastor iu August, 1819, aixl held that otficf! for nineteen years, not oidy without charge to the t'liurch, but proving his love for it by contrib- uting liberally to the erection of a house of worship for his people from his own funds. lie resigned Sept. .30, 183X, and removed to Philadelphia, where he died, Oct. 2, 18(i3. He was a member of the body which in 1814 organized the Baptist General Convention, and was the last of tin; tliirt v-three who were the constit-
SISYPHUS
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SITTING
uent members of that important society. See The Mis- sionary Jubilee, p. 118. (J. C S.)
Sisy'phus, in Grecian mythology, was a son of jEo- lus and Enarete, though authorities differ, who married Merope, the daughter of Atlas and a Pleiad, and became tlie father of Glaucus. He is said to have built the town of Ephyra, or Corinth. He was noted for crafti- ness, and numerous instances of this quality are pre- served respecting liim. Autolycus, the son of Mercury, the celebrated cattle-stealer of Parnassus, had robbed the herds of Sisyphus among others, and defaced the marks by which they might be distinguished ; but Sisy- phus was able to select his own from the herds on Par- nassus, because the initial of his name had been stamped under the hoof. In revenge, Sisyphus violated Anticlea, according to a later tradition, and thus became the real father of Ulysses. When Jupiter carried off ^Egina, the daughter of Asopus the river -god, Sisyphus informed the father who the ravisher was, and the king of gods punished him in Tartarus by compelling him to roll a stone up a hill, from which it incessantlj' rolls back as soon as it reaches the summit. Innumerable reasons are, however, given for the infliction of this punishment. See Vollraer, Worterh. d. Mythol. s. v. ; Anthon, Class. Diet. s. V. ; Smith, Diet, of Mythol. s. v.
Sita, in Hindu mythology, was an avatar of the goddess Lakshmi, in which she emerged from the blood exacted as a tribute from holy devotees who had noth- ing else, by the tyrant of Lanka. Sita was made the consort of Kama or Vishnu. According to others, she was the daughter of Janaka, a king of Mithihl. The word means literally " furrow," as she was not born in the usual sense of this word, but arose from a furrow when her father was ploughing the ground, whence she is also called Parthivl (from pr'thivi, " the earth").
Sitalcas, in Grecian mythology, was a surname of the Delphian Apollo.
Site of Churches. Bj' the Christian religion the •worship of God is not limited to place, and yet from a very early period a preference was manifested for cer- tain favorite situations. The primitive Christians se- lected the summit of some high hill or elevated ground, unless compelled, for the sake of concealment, to resort to some less conspicuous place. They also erected their churches over the tombs of martyrs and confessors. Not unfrequently they built subterranean churches and ora- tories; but this was always on account of some local and special reason. Such churches were called KpimTai, crypUe.
Si-Tenno, in Japanese mythology, is a name for the four superior deities of the thirty-tliird heaven of Shintuism.
Siteresia (Sirjjpfo-ia, tTrjaia), an annual allowance of corn granted (out of the yearly tribute of every city) to the clergy, virgins, and widows of the Church. This grant was ordered by Constantine, and continued to the time of Julian, who withdrew the whole allowance. Jo- vian restored it in some measure, granting a third of the former allowance, and promising the wliole as soon as the public storehouses were better replenished. See Bingham, Christian Antiq. bk. v, ch. iv, p. 7.
Sith, in Norse mythology, was one of the streams which flow down from the antlers of the stag ^Ejk- thyrner.
Sithnidds, in Grecian mythology, were nymphs who were highly venerated at Megara, insomuch that Theagenes surrounded tlieir fountain with a magnifi- cent enclosure of columns. One of them became, by Jupiter, the mother of Megarus, ancestral hero of the Mcgarians.
Sithon, in Grecian mythology, was represented as the son of Poseidon and Assa, or of Ares and Achiroe, and as married to the nymph Mendeis, by whom he had Pallene and Khoeteia. He was king of the Ha-
domantes in Macedonia, or of Thrace. Pallene, being sought by many suitors, was by Sithon promised to the aspirant who shoidd successfully wage a single combat with him, and eventually to either Dryas or Cleitus, as the duel might determine. By the connivance of Pal- lene, Dryas was overcome and killed ; but her trick having been discovered by Sithon, he built a pyre on which to burn her with the body of Dryas. Aphrodite, however, extinguished the alreadj' blazing pile, and so caused Sithon to change his mind and give Pallene to Cleitus. See Smith, Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Mythol. s. v.