antiquity, a kind of punishment used by the Athenians. It was a collar made of wood; so called because it constrained the criminal who had this punishment inflicted on him to bow down his head.

Cyphonism, (Cyphoniomus,) from xuvvex, which has various significations; derived from xuvvex, crooked; a kind of torture or punishment in use among the ancients.

The learned are at a loss to determine what it was. Some will have it to be that mentioned by St Jerome in his Life of Paul the Hermit, chap. 2, which consisted in smearing the body over with honey, and thus exposing the person, with his hands tied, to the warm sun to invite the flies and other vermin to persecute him.