Syagrius, St., a French prelate, was born at Autun about 520, of a Gallo-Koman family, and was raised to the episcopal see of Autun about 560, being ordained by Germain, bishop of Paris. His house was a kind of school, where many distinguished ecclesiastics were ed- ucated ; and he foinided likewise a hospital, and adorned the churches of the same city. He deeply sj^mpathized with the conquered Franks. He was active in the ec- clesiastical affairs of his time, and died Aug. 27, 600. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s. v.
Sybaris, in Greek mythology, was a monster who occupied a cave on Parnassus and devastated the land around. By the command of the oracle a youth was to be sacrificed to him, and the task fell by lot upon Alcy- oneus, son of Diomus, who, adorned with a garland, was brought to the cave ; but, charmed with the beauty and youth of the victim, Eurybatus took the garland, went into the cave, fought the monster, and hurled it down a precipice. — VoUmer, Wurterh. d. Mythol. s. v.
Sycamine {avKcifiivog ; Vulg. morus) is mention- ed once only in the Bible, viz. in Luke xvii, 6, " If ye had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye might say to this sycamine-tree, Be thou plucked up," etc. There is no reason to doubt that the avKafiivoi; is distinct from the crvKOfiujpaia of the same evangelist (xix, 4), al- though we learn from Dioscorides (i, 180) that this name was sometimes given to the avKojiupog. See
Black Mulberry-tree (Morus nignt).
Sycamore. The sycamine is the mulberrj'-tree (mo- rus), as is evident from Dioscorides, Theophrastus (H. P. i, 6, 1; 10, 10; 13, 4, etc.), and various other Greek writers (see Celsius, fJierob. i, 288). A form of the same word, (TVKanijvyn, is still one of the names for the mulberry - tree in Greece (see Heldreich, Nutz- pflanzen Griechenlands [Athens, 1862], p. 19: "Mo- rus alba L. and M. Nigra L., ?; Mopya, Movpyyd, and 'Movpya, also '^vKafirivyd; pelasg. niure''^}. In his learned essay on the T7'ees and Shrubs of the An- cients (1865), Dr. Daubeny adopts the distinction point- ed out by Bodoeus and confirmed bj' Fraas : the syca- morus of the Romans, the (Tt'/cd/Kopov or criiKa/xti'ot; {tv Aiyv7rT<{J) of Dioscorides, the avKafJivoi; AlyvTrria of Theophrastus, is the sycamore-fig, or Ficiis sycomorus of modern botanj% On the other hand, the avKctfiivog of the Greeks, used simply and without the qualifica- tion " Egyptian," the avKUj-np'tri of Dioscorides, is the morus of the Komans— our mulberry. Dr. Sibthorpe, who travelled as a botanist in Greece for the express purpose of identifying the plants known to the Greeks, says that in Greece the white mulberry-tree is called fiovpsa; the black mulberrs'- tree, ffii(co)l/fi'i«. Not only is it the species whose fruit is prized, but it may
•^rNvs
Black Mulberry Fruit, Leaf, and Blossom.
SYCAMORE
62
SYCHAR
be questioned whether the Moiiix tilbii hail found its way into those rei^ions before the introduction of the silk-worni liad made its favorite food au object of culti- valion. Believed to be a native of Persia, the mul- berry, commonly so called, Monif: ini/ra, is now spread over the milder regions of Kurope, and is continually mentioned by travellers in the Holy Land. As the mulberry-tree is common, as it is lofty and affords shade, it is well calculated for the illustration of the above passage of Luke. See Tristram, A'<//. Hist, of the Bible, p. 39G ; Thomson, Land and Book, ii, 296. See
Mri.lJKKKY.
Sycamore is the invariable rendering, in the A. V., of the Ileb. rr^p'r, shikmah' (which, however, occurs in the sing, only in the Talmud, Sliehiith, ix, 2; the Bi- ble employs indifferently the masc. plur, B^^p^iJ, iVrj^- mim, 1 Kings x, 27 ; 1 Chron. xx vii, 28 ; 2 Chron. i, 15 ; ix, 27 ; Isa. ix, 10 ; Amos vii, 14 ; and the fem. plur. P'TapTlJ, shikmoth (Psa. Ixxviii, 47), and of the Greek avKOfiiopaia (Luke xix, 4). The Sept. always translates the Ileb. word by avKa^tivog, sycamine, mcawmg doubt- less the Egyptian tree, the avKofiivoQ AiyvTrria of The- ophrastus, which is really the sycamore (Dioscorides, i, 180). See Gesenius, Thesaur. Ueh. p. 147G b; Rosen- miiller, Alterthumskiimh, iv, 281 sq. ;" Celsius, Ilierob. i, 310). The sycamore, or fy-nitdberry (from cvkov,Ji(/, and fiopov, mulberry), is in Egypt and Palestine a tree of great importance and very extensive use. It attains the size of a walnut-tree, has wide-spreading branches, and affords a delightful shade. On this account it is frequently planted by the waysides. Its leaves are heart-shaped, downy on the underside, and fragrant. The fruit grows directly from the trunk itself on little sprigs, and in clusters like the grape. To make it eat- able, each fruit, three or four days before gathering, must, it is said, be punctured with a sharp instrument or the tinger-nail (comp. Theophrastus, De Cans. Plant. i, 17, 9 ; Hist. PI. iv, 2, 1 ; Pliny, H. N. xiii, 7 ; For- skal, Descr. Plant, p. 182). This was the original em- ployment of the prophet Amos, as he says vii, 14 (" a gatherer," C?T3, Sept. kj/i'^wj', the exact term employ- ed bj- Theophrastus). Hasselquist(r)-at'. p. 2C0; Lond. 17()()) says, "The fruit of this tree tastes pretty well; when quite ripe it is soft, waters, somewhat sweet, with a very little portion of an aromatic taste." It appears, however, that a species of gall insect (Cynips sycomori) often spoils much of the fruit. '• The tree," Hasselquist adds, " is wounded or cut by the inhabitants at the time it buds, for without this precaution, as they say, it will not bear fruit" (p. 261). In form and smell and inward structure it resembles the fig, and hence its name. The tree is always verdant, and bears fruit several times in the year without being confined to fixed seasons, and is thus, as a permanent fuod-bearer, invaluable to the poor.