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SERIPHUS

Volume 17 · 86 words · 1797 Edition

(anc. geogr.), one of the Cyclades or islands in the Ægean sea, called Saxum Seriphium by Tacitus, as if all a rock; one of the usual places of banishment among the Romans. The people, Seriphii; who, together with the Siphni, joined Greece against Xerxes, were almost the only islanders who refused to give him earth and water in token of submission, (Herodotus). Seriphia Rana, a proverbial saying concerning a person who can neither sing nor say; frogs in this island being said to be dumb, (Pliny).