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

8 0 ~LYCCURGUS.
the Seven against Thebes, and engaged in a con- the time of the'Heracleids. (Xen. Rep. Lac. x. 8.)
test with Amphiaraus, which was represented on Timaeus, perhaps in order to remove the difficulty,
the throne of Apollo at Amyclae (Paus. iii. 18. ~ assumed that there were two Lycurgi. (Plut.
7; Apollod. i. 9. ~ 3). He is also mentioned Lyc. 1.) It appears from these discrepancies that
among those whom Asclepius called to life again the name of Lycurgus did not occur in the list of
after their death. (Apollod. iii. 10. ~ 3;. Schol. Spartan kings, which belongs to the oldest docuad Pind. Pyth. iii. 96, ad Eurip. Alcest. 1.) ments of Greek history (Muller, Dor. i. 7. ~ 3.)
4. A son of Pheres and Periclymene, a:brother Therefore it is. intelligible how Herodotus could
of Admetus, was king of the country about Nemea, (i. 65) call Lycurgus the guardian of his nephew,
and married to Eurydice or Amphithea, by whom Labotas, the Eurysthenid; whilst Simonides
he became the father of Opheltes (Apollod. i. 9. ~ (Aelian, V. H. ix. 41) calls him the son of Pry14, iii. 6. ~ 4). His tomb was believed to exist. tanis, brother of Eunomus, the Proclid, Dionyin the grove of the Nemean: Zeus. (Paus. ii. 15. sius (ii. 49) makes him to be uncle to Eunomus;
~ 3.) and the common account (Plut. Lye. 2; Arist. Pol.
5. One of the suitors of Hippodameia, was killed ii. 7. 1; Ephor. ap. Strab. x. p. 482) the son of
by Oenomaus. (Paus. vi. 21. ~ 7.)' Eunomus, and guardian of his nephew Charilaus.*
6. A son of' Eunomus, a mythical legislator of Sparta was in a state of anarchy and licentiousness,
the Lacedaemonians. His son is called Eucosmus perhaps in consequence of the conquest of Laconia,
(Plut. Lyc. 1), and he is said to have lived at a time when the victorious Dorians, finding
shortly after the Trojan times. But his whole themselves in a new position, in the midst of a conexistence is a mere invention to account for the quered and subject population, and in a comparachronological inconsistencies in the life of the tively rich land, had not yet been able to accomfamous, legislator Lycurgus, who himself scarcely modate their old forms of government to their new
belongs to history. [See below.] [L. S.] situation. There were conflicts between the kings,
LYCURGUS (AvKoipTo s), the Spartan legis- who aspired to tyranny, and the people, anxious
lator. We cannot more appropriately begin the for democratic reforms. (Arist. Pol. v. 8. ~ 4;
life of Lycurgus. than by repeating the introduc- Heracl. Pont. c. 2; Plut. Lye. 2.) At this junctory remark of Plutarch, that concerning Lycurgus ture the king, Polydectes, the brother of Lycurgus,
nothing can be said for certain, since his genealogy, died, leaving his queen with child. The ambitious
his travels, his death, and likewise his laws and woman proposed to Lycurgus to destroy her yet
political arrangements, are differently told by dif- unborn offspring if he would share the throne with
ferent writers. Modern criticism has not been her. He seemingly consented; but when she
satisfied with such a simple statement of inextri- had given birth to a son, he openly proclaimed
cable difficulties, but has removed them all at once, him. king; and as next of kin, acted as his
by denying the real existence of Lycurgus alto- guardian. But to avoid all suspicion of ambitious
gether. However, such hasty scepticism is war- designs, with which the opposite party charged
ranted neither by conflicting and vague statements, him, and which might seem to be confirmed by the
which, in the case of a semi-historical personage, untimely death of the young king, Lycurgus left
cannot well be otherwise; nor even by the fact, Sparta, and set out on his celebrated journey, which,
that Lycurgus had a temple in Sparta, and was almost like the wanderings of Heracles, has been
there worshipped as a hero. But although we do magnified to a fabulous extent. He is said to
not deny the existence of Lycurgus, we cannot pre- have visited Crete, and there to have studied the
tend to know any thing for certain, beyond his wise laws of Minos,. and of his Dorian kinsmen.
bare existence. Hardly a single action, or a single Thence he repaired to Asia Minor, where he deinstitution, commonly attributed to Lycurgus, can rived not less instruction from comparing the dissohe historically proved to belong to him. Of the:lute manners of the lonians with the simple and
real Lycurgus we know almost nothing; and the honest hardihood of the Dorian race. Here he is
one with whom we are acquainted is the Ly-'said to have met either with Homer himself, or at
curgus of half historical fiction. Yet to his name least with the Homeric poems, which he introduced
are attached questions of the highest importance. To into the mother country. But not content with the
him is' attributed the framing of the most peculiar, Grecian world, he is further said to have penetrated
as well as the most highly and universally extolled into Egypt, the land of mystery from the days of
(Plut. Lyc. 35) of the constitutions, which ancient Herodotus to our own, and therefore duly entitled
Greece, like a fertile soil, brought, forth with won- to claim the authorship of everything the origin of
derful exuberance and unparalleled variety. We which was or seemed obscure; and he is even reshall try therefore in the following article, 1. to give ported to have been carried by his curiosity into
an outline of what passes for the life of Lycurgus; Libya, Iberia, and India, and to have brought back
2.. to point out the generalfeatures and the character to rugged Lacedaemon and his Spartan warriors
of the Spartan constitution, while for the details the philosophy of the gymnosophists. It is usewe refer once for all to the respective articles in less for criticism to try to invalidate these accounts.
the Dictionary of Antiquities; and 3. to trace the Their very extravagance sufficiently proves their
origin of the Spartan. constitution. falsehood. The return of Lycurgus to Sparta was
Aristotle makes Lycurgus to be a contemporary hailed by all parties, since he was considered as.the
of Iphitus, who lived B. C. 884. In conjunction man who alone could cure the growing diseases of
with Iphitus, Lycurgus is said to have established the state. He undertook the task: yet before he
the sacred armistice of Olympia, which prohibited
all wars during the Olympic festivals, and protected * On the chronology of Lycurgus, which is inthe territory of the Eleians for ever against all hos- volved in almost inextricable confusion, see Hertile attacks. (Miiller, Dor. i. 7. ~ 7.) Xeno- mann, Pol. Ant. ~ 23, 10; Miiller, Dor. i. ch. 7,
phon differs widely from Aristotle in placing ~ 3; Clinton,Fast. Hell. vol. i. pp. 140-144; and
Lycurgus more than 200 years earlier, that is, at Grote's History of' Greece, vol. ii. p. 452, &c.