Scamon of Mytilene On Inventions and Discoveries in Greek

On Inventions and Discoveries, also known by the alternative title Extracts, is a paradoxographical work attributed to the Hellenistic author Scamon of Mytilene. The text, which is now lost, was a compilation of wondrous facts and traditions concerning the mythical or historical origins of various customs, technologies, and cultural practices. Its fragmentary nature means our knowledge of it derives entirely from quotations and references in later authors, most notably the geographer Strabo and the tenth-century Byzantine encyclopedia known as the Suda. The surviving fragments reveal a work typical of Hellenistic antiquarian scholarship, systematically collecting and organizing knowledge about the distant past. These excerpts cover a diverse range of topics, including the origins of specific cults such as that of the Cabiri on Lemnos, the discovery of technological innovations like purple dye, and the foundation stories for various local traditions. In one preserved fragment, Scamon discusses the invention of the dance called the sikinnis, crediting its first performance to a man named Thersippus. Another passage records competing etiological myths for the name "Phoenician letters," debating whether the alphabet was named for Phoenix, son of Agenor, or for Phoenix, daughter of Actaeon. The work also attributed the invention of the musical instrument called the sambyke to a figure named Sambyx, noting its first use by the Sibyl. As a source that linked local historiography with broader paradoxographical literature, Scamon's compilation served as a valuable resource for later historians and geographers seeking to explain the origins of the cultural and material world around them.