SPORADES, the islands “scattered” (as the name, from σπείρειv , “to sow,” imports) about the Greek Archipelago, are distinguished on the one hand from the Cyclades, which are grouped around Delos, and on the other from the islands attached, as it were, to the mainland of Europe and Asia. The distinction is not in either case a very definite one, and hence both ancient and modern writers differ as to the list of the Sporades. Details of classification are given by Bursian (Griechenland, ii. 348 sqj). The Doric Sporades—Melus (Melos), Pholegandrus, Sicinus, Thera, Anaphe, Astypalaea, and Cos—were by some considered a southern cluster of the Cyclades. In modern times the name Sporades is more especially applied to two groups—the Northern Sporades’ which lie north-east of Negropont (Euboea), along with which they constitute a nomarchy of the kingdom of Greece; and the Southern Sporades, lying off the south-west of Asia Minor, and included in the Turkish vilayet of the “Islands of the White Sea.” The Northern, which have altogether an area of 180 square miles and a population of 13,394 (1879), comprise Skiatho, Khiliodromi or Ikos, Skopelo, Pelagonisi, Giura, Pipari, and Skiro (Scyros), with their adjacencies. The Southern are as follows:—Icaria, Patmos, Leros, Calymno, Astypalaea (Stampalia), Cos (Stanko), Nisyros, Tilos or Episcopi, Sime, Khalki, Rhodes, Crete, and a multitude of lesser isles.