GYTHIUM, a t. in ancient :1eh;ea, on the Laconian gulf near the site of the modern port Marathonizi. Tt Ivy oppo4ite tho Island Chime; at thelobt of the fertile valley of the Gythius. On its coins the common types are Apollo and Ileracles, the founders' of the city. Heracles, the Pheuician god Melkart, points to an early connection with Tyre. The Phenicians maintained a great trade with the shores of the Laconian gulf, and Aphrodite Migonitis, the Phenician Astarte, had a temple at Migonium, the modern Marathonisi. Aphrodite and Asclepius also occur on its coins, and the latter had a temple in the city. A. great port in the period of Phenician intercourse, Gythium became a secondary town after the Dorian conquest, as is proved by the absence of early coins; and it is only after the decay of Sparta that it again becomes an important city. It was the ordinary station of the Spartan fleet, and was considered a port of Sparta, from which it was distant about 30 miles. In the wars against Athens it was therefore exposed to frequent attacks. Tohnidas, the Athenian commander, burned it 455 13.c. Later it was besieged unsuccessfully by Epaminondas. 370 n.c. It was strongly fortified by the tyrant Nabis; but lie was compelled by Flamininus to give up Gythium and other coast towns to the Adman league, 195 n.c. When, soon afterwards, the whole country became a Roman province, Gythium bad its own magistrates. Augus tus made it one of the twenty-four Eleuthero-Laconian towns. The existing ruins, called Paleopoli, are all of the Roman period. According to Strabo. it had an artificial harbor, of which no trace is now seen. In the town was a well sacred to Asclepius, and at three stades' distance was the stone Argos, where Orestes was relieved from his madness.
eighth letter in the English alphabet, belongs to the order of gutturals, and is a mere attenuation of the sound indicated by the Greek x and the Ger man (and Scotch) eh. The tendency of guttural sounds to become lighter and lighter, and at last disappear, is strikingly seen in tracing the history of the letter h.
The form of the character corresponds to the Pheniciau or Hebrew cheth and the Greek eta probably at one time pronounced heta) which denoted originally the syllable ehe. The Greeks dropped the guttural part of the sound. and took the character to mark the vowel e, while in the Latin alphabet it was taken to mark the (faint aspirated) guttural. That the sound of h in Latin must have been faint, is proved by time fact, that many words were written indifferently with or without an It; as honusfus or onustus; aheneus or aeneus. In the languages derived from the Latin, the force of it has almost disappeared. It is retained in French as a character, but is scarcely heard in pronun ciation. The Italian language.altogether ignores the character. In Spanish, it has taken the place iu many cases of the Latin f, as hijo = Lat. fiti-us, a son ; hurnoso =furnosus, smoky.
In the languages of the Gothic stock, h often represents the hard guttural sound of k or c. See letter C. This substitution, and the subsequent disappearing of h, especially before r and 1, have completely disguised the relationship of many words which are yet of the same root: e. g., Eng. Paw; Ang.-Sax. Amato; Lat. es-u-or, blood, cru-dus, bloody, raw.
The natural tendency in English, as in other tongues, is to attenuate the sound of and altogether eliminate it. This tendency is strongest among the illiterate, who are unrestrained by the presence of the written character; and accordingly " to drop one's h's' (e. g., ant for ham) is a sign of the want of education and of vulgarity. The per versity of putting It where it ought not to be (e. g., heggs for eggs), is not easily accounted for.
The Germans use the letter H, in their musical notation, for the same note which we eall B, while they call our B flat simply B; possibly from the flat seventh being more nearly related to C, as a fundamental note, than B natural the sharp seventh is, which they designate H. Thus,