[Sinon], a wily Greek who beguiled the Trojans and persuaded them to admit the Wooden Horse into the city, to its ruin.
[Sinope] (8), a seaport of Turkey in Asia, situated on a narrow isthmus connecting with the mainland the rocky headland of Cape Sinope which projects into the Black Sea, 350 m. NE. of Constantinople; possesses two fine harbours, naval arsenal, Byzantine ruins, etc.; an ancient Greek town, the birthplace of Diogenes, and capital of Mithridates; it was captured by the Turks in 1461, who themselves in 1853 suffered a disastrous naval defeat in the Bay of Sinope at the hands of the Russians.
[Sion], capital of the Swiss canton of Valais, on the Rhine, 42 m. E. of Lausanne; is a mediæval town, with an old Gothic cathedral, and in the neighbourhood ruined castles.
[Siout] or Asioot (32), capital of Upper Egypt; commands a fine view near the Nile, 200 m. S. of Cairo; has a few imposing mosques and a government palace; is a caravan station, and noted for its red and black pottery; occupies the site of the ancient city of Lycopolis.
[Sioux] or Dakota Indians, a North American Indian tribe, once spread over the territory lying between Lake Winnipeg (N.) and the Arkansas River (S.), but now confined chiefly to South Dakota and Nebraska. Failure on the part of the United States Government to observe certain treaty conditions led to a great uprising of the Sioux in 1862, which was only put down at a great cost of blood and treasure; conflicts also took place in 1876 and 1890, the Indians finding in their chief, Sitting Bull, a determined and skilful leader.
[Sirdar], a name given to a native chief in India.
[Siren], an instrument for measuring the number of aërial vibrations per second, and thereby the pitch of a given note.
[Sirens], in the Greek mythology a class of nymphs who were fabled to lure the passing sailor to his ruin by the fascination of their music; Ulysses, when he passed the beach where they were sitting, had his ears stuffed with wax and himself lashed to the mast till he was at a safe distance from the influence of their charm. Orpheus, however, as he passed them in the Argonautic expedition so surpassed their music by his melodious notes, that in very shame they flung themselves into the sea and were changed into boulders.
[Sirius] or The Dog-Star, the brightest star in the heavens, one of the stars of the Southern constellation of Canis Major; is calculated to have a bulk three times that of the sun, and to give 70 times as much light. See [Dog-Days].
[Sirkar], a name used in India to designate the government.