σκῆπτρον :
staff of a wanderer or mendicant,
sceptre of kings, priests, heralds, judges. (See the
cut, No. 109, representing Agamemnon.) When a speaker arose to address
the assembly, a sceptre was put into his hands by a herald. Fig., as
symbol of royal power and dignity, Il.
2.46; see also Od. 2.37, Od. 11.91.