A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

LYCORTAS;. tYCURGUS. 849
friend' of Philopoemen, to whose policy, prudent at tas for general, against Antiochus Epiplanes'; but
once and patriotic, we find him adhering through- his motion was unsuccessful. From this period we
out. In B. c. 189, he was sent as ambassador to hear no mnore of him. Had' he been alive in a. c.
Rome, with his rival Diophanes, to receive the 167, he would doubtless have been among the
senate's decision on the question of the war which 1000 Achaeans who were apprehended and sent to
the Achaean League had declared against Lacedae- Rome after the conquest of Macedonia: but his
mon; and, while Diophanes expressed his willing- son Polybius makes no mention of him, nor even
ness to leave every thing to the stnate, Lycortas alludes to him, as one of the prisoners in question.
urged the right of the league to free and indepen- We may, therefore, perhaps infer that he was by
dent action. (Liv. xxxviii. 30-34.) In B. C. 186, that time dead. (Pol. xxix. 8-10; see above, vol.
he was one of the three ambassadors sent to i. p. 569, b; Clint. F. H. vol. iii. pp. 318,
Ptolemy V. (Epiphanes), to effect a new alliance 386.) [E. E.]
between Egypt and the Achaeans; but, at an as- -LYCTUS (A'KIcos), a son of Lycaon, and the
sembly held at Megalopolis in the next year, when mythical founder of the ancient town of Lyctos in
Aristaenus was strategus, neither Lycortas and his Crete. (Hom. II. ii. 647; Eustath. ad Hom. p.
colleagues nor the Egyptian envoys, who had ac- 313; Steph. Byz. s. v.) [L. S.]
companied them from Ptolemy's- court, could spe- LYCURGUS (AvKoip'os). 1. A son of Dryas,
cify. which of the several treaties made in former' and king of the Edones in Thrace. He is famous
times with Egypt had now been renewed; and for his persecution of Dionysus and his worship on
Lycortas accordingly incurred much blame and the sacred mountain of Nyseion in Thrace. The
furnished'a triumph to the party of Aristaenus. god'himself leaped into the sea, where he was
(Pol. xxiii. 1, 7, 9.) In the same -year (185), kindly received by Thetis. Zeus thereupon blinded
Philopoemen' and Lycortas' defended successfully, the impious king, who died soon after, for he was
at Argos, the treatment of the Lacedaemonians by hated by the immortal gods. (Hom. II. vi. 130,
the Achaeans, which had been censured by Caeci- &c.) The punishment of Lycurgus was represented
Iius Metellus; and, when Appius Claudius was in a painting in a temple at Athenis. (Paus. i.
sent from Rome, in B. C. 184, to settle the ques- 20. ~ 20.) The above Homeric story about Lytion, Lycortas, now general of the league, again curgus has been much varied by later poets and
contended that the Achaeans were justified in the mythographers. Some say that Lycurgus expelled
mode in which they had dealt with Lacedaemon: Dionysus from his kingdom, and denied his divine
but he' did not carry his point with Appius. (Pol. power; but being intoxicated with wine, he first
xxii. 23, xxiii. 1, 7, 10, 11, 12, xxiv. 4; Liv. attempted to do violence to his own mother, and to
xxxix. 33, 35-37, 48; Plut.:Philop. 16, 17; destroy all the vines of his country. Dionysus
Paus. vii. 9.) In B.C. 183, when Deinocrates and then visited him with madness, in which he killed
his party had withdrawn Messenia from the league, his wife and son, and cut off one (some say both)
Lycortas was sent against them by the aged Phi- of his legs; or, according to others, made away
lopoemen, but was unable to force his way through with himself. (Hygin. Fab. 132,. 242; Serv. ad
the passes into Messenia. Being, however, made Aen. iii. 14.) According to Apollodorus (iii. 5.
general of the league, on the death of Philopoemen, ~ 1), Dionysus, on his expeditions, came to the
at the end of the same year or the beginning of kingdom of Lycurgus, but was expelled; where182, he invaded Messenia and took full vengeance upon he punished the king with madness, so that
on the chief authors of Philopoemen's murder. he killed his son Dryas, in the belief that he was
[DEINOCRATES; PHILOPOEMEN.] Soon after cutting down a vine. When this was done, LyMessenia was re-admitted into the league, and curgus recovered his mind; but his country proLycortas, at the same time, urged successfully duced no fruit, and the oracle declared that fertility
against Diophanes the re-admission of Lacedaemon should not be restored unless Lycurgus were killed.
also. (Pol. xxiv. 12, xxv. 1, 2, Spic. Rel. xxiv. 2, The Edonians therefore tied him, and led him to
3; Plut. Philop. 18-21; Pans. iv. 29; Liv. mount Pangaeum, where he was torn to pieces by
xxxix. 48-50; Just. xxxii. 1.) In B.C. 180,. horses. Diodorus (i. 20, iii. 65) gives a sort of
Lycortas, together with his son Polybius, and rationalistic account of the whole transaction. AcAratus (son of the famous general of the same cording to Sophocles (.49atig. 955, &c.), Lycurgus
name), was again appointed ambassador to Ptolemy was entombed in a rock. (Comp. Ov. Trist. v. 3,
Epiphanes, who had made the most friendly ad- 39.)
vances to the Achaeans; but the intelligence of 2. A son of Aleus and Neaera, and a brother of
the king's death prevented the embassy from being Cepheus and Auge, was king in Arcadia, and
sent. (Pol. xxv. 7.) In B. C. 179, when Hyper- married to Cleophile, Eurynome, or Antinoe, by
batiis'was general of the league, Lycortas spoke whom he became the father of Ancaeus, Epochus,
strongly against compliance with the requisition of Amphidamas, and Jasus. (Apollod. iii. 9.. 1,
the Romans for the recal of all the Lacedaemonian &c.; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 164.) Some also
exileswithout exception. On this occasion he was op- call Cepheus his son, and add another of the name
posed to Callicrates and Hyperbatus; and, of course, of Jocrites. (Apollod. i. 8. ~ 2; Steph. Byz. s. v.
he became more and more an bbject of dislike and BwTaXisa1.) Lycurgus killed AreYthous with his
suspicion to the Romans. He adhered, however, lance, meeting him in a narrow valley. He took
firmly to the moderate policy which he had adopted the club with which his enemy had been armed,
from the first; and, when the war between Rone and and used it himself; and on his death he bePerseus broke out, he recommended the Achaeans queathed it to his slave Ereuthalion, his sons
to preserve a strict neutrality. (Pol. xxvi. 1, &c., having died before him. (Hom. 11. vii. 142, &c.;
xxviii. 3, 6.) In B. C. 168, we find him proposing, Panus. viii. 4. ~ 7.) His'tonb was afterwards
in opposition again to Callicrates and Hyperbatus, shown at Lepreos. (Paus. v. 5. ~ 4.)
to send aid to the two Ptolemies (Philometor and 3. A son of Pronax and brother of Amphithea,
Physcon), who had asked for a force, with Lycor- the wife of Adiastus. He took part in the war of
VOL. II.'' I