Listed 31 sub titles with search on: Homeric world for destination: "SPARTI Ancient city LACONIA".
Sparta participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.581). Homer calls Sparta "wide" (Od. 11.460) and "land of fair women" (Od. 13.412).
Menelaus, son of Atreus and brother of Agamemnon (Il. 7.470, 2.408), was the son-in-law of Tyndareus by Helen, whose abduction by Paris, son of the king of Troy, Priam, was the cause of the Trojan War.
Helen was the daughter of Zeus by Leda, wife of Menelaus and mother of Hermione. After the end of the Trojan War, she returned back to Sparta with Menelaus (Il. 2.161, 3.91 & 121, Od. 4.184).
Menelaus, king of Lacedaemon, was the leader of the cities of Pharis, Sparta, Messe, Bryseiae, Augeiae, Amyclae, Helus, Laas and Oetylus with 60 ships against Troy (Il. 2.581).
(Menelaos and Meneleos). A son of Atreus, and younger brother of Agamemnon, with whom he was exiled by Thyestes, the murderer of Atreus, and fled to King Tyndareos, at Sparta, whose daughter Helen he married, and whose throne he inherited after the death of Helen's brothers, Castor and Polydeuces (Pollux). When Paris had robbed him of his wife and of great treasures, he went with Odysseus to Troy to demand restitution, and they were hospitably received there by Antenor. His just claims were refused, and his life was even put in danger. He and Agamemnon accordingly called on the Greek chieftains to join in an expedition against Troy, and himself furnished sixty ships. At Troy he distinguished himself in counsel and in action, and was specially protected by Athene and Here. In the single combat with Paris he was victorious, but his opponent was rescued and carried off by Aphrodite. On demanding that Helen and the treasures should be restored, he was wounded by an arrow shot by the Trojan Pandarus. He was also ready to fight Hector, and was only prevented by the entreaties of his friends. When Patroclus had fallen, he shielded the dead body, at first alone, and then with the aid of Aiax, and bore it from the field of battle with Meriones. He was also one of the heroes of the wooden horse. Having recovered Helen he hastened home, but on rounding the promontory of Malea was driven to Egypt with five ships, and wandered about for eight years among the peoples of the East, where he was kindly received everywhere, and received rich presents. He was finally detained at the isle of Pharos by contrary winds, and with the help of the marine goddess Eidothea artfully compelled her father Proteus to prophesy to him. He thus learned the reason for his being detained at the island, and was also told that, as husband of the daughter of Zeus, he would not die, but enter the Elysian plains alive. After appeasing the gods in Egypt with hecatombs, he returned prosperously to his home, where he arrived on the very day on which Orestes was burying Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra. He spent the rest of his life quietly with Helen, in Lacedaemon. Their only daughter Hermione was married to Neoptolemus, son of Achilles.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Helena, (Helen) The beautiful daughter of Zeus and Leda, the wife of Tyndareos
of Sparta. She was sister of the Dioscuri and of Clytaemnestra. The post-Homeric
story represented her as carried off, while still a maiden, by Theseus, to the
Attic fortress of Aphidnae, where she bore him a daughter, Iphigenia. She was
afterwards set free by her brothers, who took her back to Sparta. She was wooed
by a number of suitors, and at length gave her hand to Menelaus, by whom she became
the mother of one child, Hermione. In the absence of her husband she was seduced
and carried away to Troy by Paris, the son of Priam, taking with her great treasures.
This was the origin of the Trojan War. The Trojans, in spite of the calamity she
had brought upon them, loved her for her beauty, and refused to restore her to
her husband. She, however, lamented the folly of her youth, and yearned for her
home, her husband, and her daughter. After the death of Paris she was wedded to
Deiphobus, assisted the Greeks at the taking of Troy, and betrayed Deiphobus into
Menelaus's hands. With Menelaus she finally returned to Sparta after eight years'
wandering, and lived thenceforth with him in happiness and concord.
According to another story, mainly current after the time of
Stesichorus, Paris carried off to Troy not the real Helen, but a phantom of her
created by Here. The real Helen was wafted through the air by Hermes, and brought
to King Proteus in Egypt, whence, after the destruction of Troy, she was taken
home by Menelaus. After the death of Menelaus she was, according to one story,
driven from Sparta by her step-sons, and fled thereupon to Rhodes to her friend
Polyxo, who hanged her on a tree. Another tradition represented her as living
after death in wedlock with Achilles on the island of Lence. She was worshipped
as the goddess of beauty in a special sanctuary at Therapne in Laconia, where
a festival was held in her honour. She was also invoked, like her brothers the
Dioscuri, as a tutelary deity of sailors.
In the Iliad, Helen is apparently regarded as one who is not
responsible for the ruin that she works, two passages seeming to imply that she
was carried off by force (ii. 356 and 390). In the Odyssey she is also excused
by the fact that she sins because a god has so willed it. Mr. Gladstone in his
Homeric studies even regards her as not only a type of womanly loveliness, but
of almost Christian penitence as well! The story of Helen has received a splendid
setting in the genius of poets of every age. She is the most famous woman of all
antiquity. In Goethe's Faust she is allegorically introduced as typifying the
classical spirit of beauty. In English, see the Hellenics of Walter Savage Landor,
Tennyson's Dream of Fair Women, and Andrew Lang's poem Helen of Troy, with the
appended essay.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Podargus was the horse of Menelaus (Il. 23.295).
Menelaus & Helen: Various WebPages
Tyndareus was the son of Oebalus and Gorgophone, who was expelled by Lacedaemon by his step-brother Hippocoon (Paus. 3,1,4). Leda was the daughter of Thestius and wife of Tyndareus. She raised Helen and gave birth to Castor and Pollux by Zeus or, according to Homer, by Tyndareus (Od. 11.298 etc.). She was also the mother of Clytaemnestra by the latter.
Tyndareus, Tyndareos. The son of Perieres and Gorgophone, or, according to others, son of Oebalus, by the nymph Batia or by Gorgophone. Tyndareus and his brother Icarius were expelled by their step-brother Hippocoon and his sons; whereupon Tyndareus fled to Thestius in Aetolia, and assisted him in his wars against his neighbours. In Aetolia Tyndareus married Leda, the daughter of Thestius, and was afterwards restored to Sparta by Heracles. By Leda, Tyndareus became the father of Timandra, Clytaemnestra, and Philopoe. One night Leda was embraced both by Zeus and by Tyndareus, and the result was the birth of Pollux and Helena, the children of Zeus, and of Castor and Clytaemnestra, the children of Tyndareus. The patronymic Tyndaridae is frequently given to Castor and Pollux, and the female patronymic Tyndaris to Helen and Clytaemnestra. When Castor and Pollux had been received among the immortals, Tyndareus invited Menelaus to come to Sparta, and surrendered his kingdom to him.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Leda. A daughter of King Thestius and Eurythemis, who married Tyndareos, king of Sparta. According to the common account, she became, by Zeus (who assumed for that purpose the form of a swan), the mother of Pollux and Helen, and on the same night by her own husband, the parent of Castor and Clytaemnestra. Two eggs, it seems, were brought forth by her, from which respectively came the children just named, Pollux and Helen being in one, and Castor and Clytaemnestra in the other. Other versions, however, are given of the legend, for which consult Homer ( Od.xi. 298) and the articles Dioscuri and Helena. See also Calverley's Sons of Leda, from Theocritus. The story of Leda and the swan has formed the subject of many beautiful works of art in both ancient and modern times.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Leda, a daughter of Thestius, whence she is called Thestias (Apollod. iii. 10.5; Paus. iii. 13.8; Eurip. Iph. Aul. 49); but others call her a daughter of Thespius, Thyestes, or Glaucus, by Laophonte, Deidamia, Leucippe, Eurythemis, or Paneidyia (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 146, 201; Serv. ad Aen. viii. 130; Hygin, Fab. 14; Apollod. i. 7.10). She was the wife of Tyndareus, by whom she became the mother of Timandra, Clytaemnestra, and Philonoe. (Apollod. iii. 10.6; Hom. Od. xxiv. 199). One night she was embraced both by her husband and by Zeus, and by the former she became the mother of Castor and Clytaemnestra, and by the latter of Polydeuces and Helena (Hygin. Fab. 77). According to Homer (Od. xi. 298, &c.) both Castor and Polydeuces were sons of Tyndareus and Leda, while Helena is described as a daughter of Zeus (Il. iii. 426; comp. Ov. Fast. i. 706; Horat. Carm. i. 12, 25; Martial, i. 37). Other traditions reverse the story, making Castor and Polydeuces the sons of Zeus, and Helena the daughter of Tyndareus (Eurip. Helen. 254, 1497, 1680; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. ii. 808 ; Herod. ii. 112). According to the common legend Zeus visited Leda in the disguise of a swan, and she produced two eggs, from the one of which issued Helena, and from the other Castor and Polydeuces (Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 453; Ov. Her. xvii. 55; Paus. iii. 16.1; Horat. Ars Poet. 147; Athen. ii., ix.; Lucian, Dial. Deor. ii. 2, xxiv. 2, xxvi.; comp. Virgil, Cir. 489; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 88). The visit of Zeus to Leda in the form of a swan was frequently represented by ancient artists. It should be observed that Phoebe is also mentioned as a daughter of Tyndareus and Leda (Eurip. Iph. Aul. 50), and that, according to Lactantius (i. 21), Leda was after her death raised to the rank of a divinity, under the name of Nemesis.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Icarius was the brother of Tyndareus and father of Penelope (Od. 1.329, 2.53 etc.). He was married to the nymph Periboea. When Odysseus returned back to Ithaca, he sent away Penelope because she had entertained the suitors and she went to live at her parents' house. Icarius was forced to abandon his homeland and left to Acarnania, where he died, while Penelope went to Mantinea.
Icarius (Ikarios). A son of Oebalus of Lacedaemon. He gave his daughter Penelope in marriage to Odysseus, king of Ithaca, but he was so tenderly attached to her that he wished her husband to settle at Lacedaemon. Odysseus refused; and when he saw the earnest petitions of Icarius, he told Penelope, as they were going to embark, that she might choose freely either to follow him to Ithaca or to remain with her father. Penelope blushed in silence, and covered her head with her veil. Icarius, upon this, permitted his daughter to go to Ithaca, and immediately erected a temple to the goddess of modesty, on the spot where Penelope had covered her blushes with her veil.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Icarius, a Lacedaemonian, a son of Perieres and Gorgophone, a grandson of Aeolus or Cynortas, and a brother of Aphareus, Leucippus, and Tyndareus (Apollod. i. 9.5, iii. 10.3; Tzetz ad Lycoph. 511). Others called him a grandson of Perieres, and a son of Oebalus by Bateia (Apollod. iii. 10.4; Eustath. ad Hom.), or a son of Oebalus and Gorgophone, and a grandson of Cynortas (Paus. iii. 1.4). Hippocoon, a natural son of Oebalus, expelled his two brothers, Tyndareus and Icarius, from Lacedaemon: they fled to Thestius at Pleuron, and dwelt beyond the river Achelous. Subsequently, when Heracles had slain Hippocoon and his sons, Tyndareus returned to Sparta, while Icarius remained in Acarnania. According to Apollodorus (iii. 10.5), however, Icarius also returned. Another tradition relates that Icarius, who sided with Hippocoon, assisted him ia expelling Tyndareus from Sparta (Paus. iii. 1.4; Eustath. l. c.; Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 447). While in Acarnania, Icarius became the father of Penelope, Alyzeus, and Leucadius, by Polycaste, the daughter of Lygaeus: according to others he was married to Dorodoche, or Asterodeia (Strab. x.; Eustath. ad Hom.; Schol. ad Hom. Od. xv. 16). Others again relate that by the Naiad Periboea he became the father of Thoas, Damasippus, Imeusimus, Aletes (or Semus and Auletes), Perileus, and Penelope (Apollod. iii. 10.6; Paus. viii. 31.2; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 511; Schol. ad Hom. Od. xv. 16; Eustath. ad Hom.). In the Odyssey (iv. 797, i. 329) Iphthime also is mentioned as one of his daughters. When his daughter Penelope had grown up, he promised her hand to the victor in a foot-race, in which he desired the suitors to contend, and Odysseus won the prize (Paus. iii. 12.2); but according to others, Tyndareus sued for the hand of Penelope for Odysseus, from gratitude for a piece of advice which Odysseus had given him. (Apollod. iii. 10.9). When Penelope was betrothed to Odysseus, Icarius tried to persuade the latter to remain at Sparta, but Odysseus declined doing this, and departed with Penelope. Icarius followed his daughter, entreating her to remain ; and as Odysseus demanded of her to give a decided answer as to what she meant to do, she was silent, but at length she modestly covered her face, and declared that she would follow her husband. Icarius then desisted from further entreaties, and erected a statue of Modesty on the spot (Paus. iii. 20.10).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Icarius and Periboea, a Naiad nymph, had five sons, Thoas, Damasippus, Imeusimus, Aletes, Perileos, and a daughter Penelope, whom Ulysses married (Apoll. 3.10.6)
Commentary: According to the Scholiast on Hom. Od. xv.16, the wife of Icarius was Dorodoche, daughter of Ortilochus; but he adds that according to Pherecydes she was Asterodia, daughter of Eurypylus.
A herald of Agamemnon in Troy (Il. 1.320 etc.), who is also mentioned by Pausanias (Paus. 7,24,1).
Talthybius (Talthubios). The herald of Agamemnon at Troy. He was worshipped as a hero at Sparta and Argos, where sacrifices also were offered to him.
He was the son of Onetor, helmsman of Menelaus and died at Sunium (Od. 3.279).
Perseus Project
She was the daughter of Menelaus by Helen and got married to Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, to whom Menelaus had promised to give her as wife in Troy (Od. 4.14).
Hermione, the only daughter of Menelaus and Helena, and beautiful, like the golden Aphrodite. (Hom. Od. iv. 14, Il. iii. 175). As she was a grand-daughter of Leda, the mother of Helena, Virgil (Aen. iii. 328) calls her Ledaea. During the war against Troy, Menelaus promised her in marriage to Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus); and after his return he fulfilled his promise. (Od. iv. 4, &c.) This Homeric tradition differs from those of later writers. According to Euripides (Androm. 891, &c.; comp. Pind. Nem. vii. 43; Hygin. Fab. 123), Menelaus, previous to his expedition against Troy, had promised Hermione to Orestes. After the return of Neoptolemus, Orestes informed him of this, and claimed Hermione for himself; but Neoptolemus haughtily refused to give her up. Orestes, in revenge, incited the Delphians against him, and Neoptolemus was slain. In the meantime Orestes carried off IIermione from the house of Peleus, and she, in remembrance of her former love for Orestes, followed him. She had also reason to fear the revenge of Neoptolemus, for she had made an attempt to murder Andromache, whom Neoptolemus seemed to love more than her, but had been prevented from committing the crime. According to others, Menelaus betrothed her at Troy to Neoptolemus; but in the meantime her grandfather, Tyndareus, promised her to Orestes, and actually gave her in marriage to him. Neoptolemus, on his return, took possession of her by force, but was slain soon after either at Delphi or in his own home at Phthia. (Virg. Aen. iii. 327, xi. 264; Sophocl. ap. Eustath. ad Hom.) Hermione had no children by Neoptolemus (Eurip. Androm. 33; Paus. i. 11.1; Schol. ad Pind. Nem. vii. 58), but by Orestes, whose wife she ultimately became, she was the mother of Tisamenus. (Paus. i. 33.7, ii. 18.5.) The Lacedaemonians dedicated a statue of her, the work of Calamis, at Delphi. (Paus. x. 16.2.) A scholiast on Pindar (Nem. x. 12) calls her the wife of Diomedes, and Hesychius (s. v.) states that Hermione was a surname of Persephone at Syracuse.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
He was the son of Boethous and a servant of Menelaus (Od. 4.25, 15.95).
She was one of the maids of Helen (Od. 4.123).
A handmaid of Helen (Od. 4.124).
A servant of Menelaus (Od. 4.216).
Clymene, A relative of Menelaus and a companion of Helena, together with whom she was carried off by Paris (Hom. Il. iii. 144; Dictys Cret. i. 3, v. 13). After the taking of Troy, when the booty was distributed, Clymene was given to Acamas. She was represented as a captive by Polygnotus in the Lesche of Delphi (Paus. x. 26.1; comp. Ov. Her. xvii. 267). There are several other mythical personages of this name (Hom. Il. xviii. 47; Hygin. Fab. 71; Apollod. iii. 2.1, &c.; Paus. x. 24.3).
Enyalius, (Enualios), the warlike, frequently occurs in the Iliad (never in the Odyssey) either as an epithet of Ares, or as a proper name instead of Ares. (xvii. 211, ii. 651, vii. 166, viii. 264, xiii. 519, xvii. 259, xviii. 309, xx. 69; comp. Pind. Ol. xiii. 102, Nem. ix. 37.) At a later time, however, Enyalius and Ares were distinguished as two different gods of war, and Enyalius was looked upon as a son of Ares and Enyo, or of Cronos and Rhea. (Aristoph. Pax, 457; Dionys. A. R. iii. 48; Eustath. ad Hom.) The name is evidently derived from Enyo, though one tradition derived it from a Thracian Enyalius, who received into his house those only who conquered him in single combat, and for the same reason refused to receive Ares, but the latter slew him. (Eustath. ad Hom.) The youths of Sparta sacrificed young dogs to Ares under the name of Enyalius (Paus. iii. 14.9), and near the temple of Hipposthenes, at Sparta, there stood the ancient fettered statue of Enyalius. (Paus. iii. 15.5.) Dionysus, too, is said to have been surnamed Enyalius. (Macrob. Sat. i. 19.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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