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History Of Sparta
The history of Sparta describes the history of the ancient Doric Greek city-state known as Sparta from its beginning in the legendary period to its incorporation into the Achaean League under the late Roman Republic, as Allied State, in 146 BC, a period of roughly 1000 years. Since the Dorians were not the first to settle the valley of the Eurotas River in the Peloponnesus of Greece, the preceding Mycenaean and Stone Age periods are described as well. Sparta went on to become a district of modern Greece. Brief mention is made of events in the post-classical periods. Dorian Sparta rose to dominance in the 6th century BC. At the time of the Persian Wars, it was the recognized leader by assent of the Greek city-states. It subsequently lost that assent through suspicion that the Athenians were plotting to break up the Spartan state after an earthquake destroyed Sparta in 464 BC. When Sparta defeated Athens in the Peloponnesian War, it secured an unrivaled hegemony over souther ...
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Ancient Peloponnese
The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridge which separates the Gulf of Corinth from the Saronic Gulf. From the late Middle Ages until the 19th century, the peninsula was known as the Morea, a name still in colloquial use in its demotic form. The peninsula is divided among three administrative regions: most belongs to the Peloponnese region, with smaller parts belonging to the West Greece and Attica regions. Geography The Peloponnese is a peninsula located at the southern tip of the mainland, in area, and constitutes the southernmost part of mainland Greece. It is connected to the mainland by the Isthmus of Corinth, where the Corinth Canal was constructed in 1893. However, it is also connected to the mainland by several bridges across the canal, including two submers ...
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Laconia
Laconia or Lakonia (, , ) is a historical and Administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece located on the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. Its administrative capital is Sparti (municipality), Sparta. The word ''Laconic phrase, laconic''—to speak in a blunt, concise way—is derived from the name of this region, a reference to the ancient Spartans who were renowned for their verbal austerity and blunt, often pithy remarks. Geography Laconia is bordered by Messenia to the west and Arcadia (regional unit), Arcadia to the north and is surrounded by the Myrtoan Sea to the east and by the Laconian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. It encompasses Cape Malea and Cape Tainaron and a large part of the Mani Peninsula. The Mani Peninsula is in the west region of Laconia. The islands of Kythira and Antikythera lie to the south, but they administratively belong to the Attica (region), Attica regional unit of Islands (regional unit), islands. ...
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Sparta (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Sparta (; ) was the ancient Queen of Sparta, which was named in her honour. Family Sparta was the daughter of King Eurotas of Laconia and Cleta. Pausanias (geographer), Pausanias also describes Tiasa as being Eurotas's daughter. By her husband, Lacedaemon (mythology), Lacedaemon, Sparta became the mother of Amyclas of Sparta, Amyclas and Eurydice of Argos, Eurydice, wife of King Acrisius of Ancient Argos, Argos, and the grandmother of Hyacinth (mythology), Hyacinthus, who was loved by Apollo and Anemoi, Zephyrus. She was also an ancestor of Tyndareus, King Tyndareus of Sparta and his brother Icarius of Sparta, Icarius and their children Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux, Castor and Penelope. Mythology According to traditions recorded by Pausanias (geographer), Pausanias, Sparta's father having no male heirs bequeathed his kingdom to Lacedaemon. When he became king, he changed the name of the land and the inhabitants to Lacedaemon and Lacedaemonians, respect ...
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Taygete
In Classical Greek mythology, Taygete , , ) was a nymph, one of the Pleiades according to the '' Bibliotheca'' (3.10.1) and a companion of Artemis, in her archaic role as '' potnia theron'', "Mistress of the animals", with its likely roots in prehistory. Mount Taygetos in Laconia, dedicated to the goddess, was her haunt. The Taygetus mountain on the Peloponnese was named after her. Mythology As he mastered each of the local nymphs one by one, Olympic Zeus pursued Taygete, who invoked her protectress Artemis. The goddess turned Taygete into a doe with golden horns, any distinction between the Titaness in her human form and in her doe form is blurred: the nymph who hunted the doe in the company of Artemis ''is'' the doe herself. As Pindar conceived the myth-element in his third Olympian Ode, "the doe with the golden horns, which once Taygete had inscribed as a sacred dedication to Artemis Orthosia", ("right-minded" Artemis) was the very Ceryneian Hind that Heracles later pu ...
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Helen Of Troy
Helen (), also known as Helen of Troy, or Helen of Sparta, and in Latin as Helena, was a figure in Greek mythology said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She was believed to have been the daughter of Zeus and Leda (mythology), Leda or Nemesis, and the sister of Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux, Castor, Pollux, Philonoe, Phoebe (mythology), Phoebe and Timandra (mythology), Timandra. She was married first to King Menelaus of Sparta "who became by her the father of Hermione (mythology), Hermione, and, according to others, of Nicostratus (mythology), Nicostratus also." Her subsequent marriage to Paris (mythology), Paris of Troy was the most immediate cause of the Trojan War. Elements of her putative biography come from classical authors such as Aristophanes, Cicero, Euripides, and Homer (in both the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey''). Her story reappears in Book II of Virgil's ''Aeneid''. In her youth, she was abducted by Theseus. A competition between her suitors ...
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Pollux (mythology)
Castor and Pollux (or Polydeuces) are twin half-brothers in Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, known together as the Dioscuri or Dioskouroi. Their mother was Leda (mythology), Leda, but they had different fathers; Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, while Pollux was the divine son of Zeus, who seduced Leda in the guise of a swan. The pair are thus an example of heteropaternal superfecundation. Though accounts of their birth are varied, they are sometimes said to have been born from an egg, along with their twin sisters Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. In Latin, the twins are also known as the Gemini ("twins") or Castores, as well as the Tyndaridae or Tyndarids. Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his own immortality with his twin to keep them together, and they were transformed into the constellation Gemini (constellation), Gemini. The pair were regarded as the patrons of sailors, to whom they appeared as St. Elmo's fire. They were also associated ...
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Clytemnestra
Clytemnestra (, ; , ), in Greek mythology, was the wife of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and the half-sister of Helen of Sparta. In Aeschylus' ''Oresteia'', she murders Agamemnon – said by Euripides to be her second husband – and the Trojan princess Cassandra, whom Agamemnon had taken as a war prize following the sack of Troy; however, in Homer's ''Odyssey'', her role in Agamemnon's death is unclear and her character is significantly more subdued. Name Her Greek name ''Klytaimnḗstra'' is also sometimes Latinized as Clytaemnestra. It is commonly glossed as "famed for her suitors". However, this form is a later misreading motivated by an erroneous etymological connection to the verb ''mnáomai'' (, "woo, court"). The original name form is believed to have been ''Klytaimḗstra'' () without the ''-n-''. The present form of the name does not appear before the middle Byzantine period. Homeric poetry shows an awareness of both etymologies. Aeschylus, in certain wordplays on he ...
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Castor (mythology)
Castor and Pollux (or Polydeuces) are twin half-brothers in Greek and Roman mythology, known together as the Dioscuri or Dioskouroi. Their mother was Leda, but they had different fathers; Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, while Pollux was the divine son of Zeus, who seduced Leda in the guise of a swan. The pair are thus an example of heteropaternal superfecundation. Though accounts of their birth are varied, they are sometimes said to have been born from an egg, along with their twin sisters Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. In Latin, the twins are also known as the Gemini ("twins") or Castores, as well as the Tyndaridae or Tyndarids. Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his own immortality with his twin to keep them together, and they were transformed into the constellation Gemini. The pair were regarded as the patrons of sailors, to whom they appeared as St. Elmo's fire. They were also associated with horsemanship, in keeping with their origin as ...
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Tyndareus
In Greek mythology, Tyndareus (; Ancient Greek: Τυνδάρεος, ''Tundáreos''; Attic Greek, Attic: Τυνδάρεως, ''Tundáreōs''; ) was a Spartan king. Family Tyndareus was the son of Oebalus (or Perieres (king of Messenia), Perieres) and Gorgophone (or Batea (mythology), Bateia). He married the Aetolian princess, Leda (mythology), Leda, by whom he became the father of Castor (mythology), Castor, Clytemnestra, Timandra (mythology), Timandra, Phoebe (mythological characters), Phoebe and Philonoe, and the stepfather of Helen of Troy and Pollux (mythology), Pollux. Mythology Early years Tyndareus had a brother named Hippocoon, who seized power and exiled Tyndareus. He was reinstated by Heracles, who killed Hippocoon and his sons. Tyndareus’ other brother was Icarius of Sparta, Icarius, the father of Penelope. Tyndareus’ wife Leda (mythology), Leda was seduced by Zeus, who disguised himself as a swan. She laid two eggs, each producing two children; Castor and Poll ...
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Amyclas Of Sparta
In Greek mythology, Amyclas () or Amyclus was a king of Sparta and the founder of Amyclae in central Laconia. Mythology Amyclas was the son of King Lacedemon and Queen Sparta, and brother of Queen Eurydice of Argos. He was the father of Argalus, Cynortas, Hyacinth, Laodamia (or Leaneira), Harpalus, Hegesandre and possibly of Polyboea. In other versions of the myth, Amyclas was also called the father of Daphne. Parthenius15from the elegiac poems of Diodorus of Elaea and the 25th book of Phylarchus Notes References * Apollodorus Apollodorus ( Greek: Ἀπολλόδωρος ''Apollodoros'') was a popular name in ancient Greece. It is the masculine gender of a noun compounded from Apollo, the deity, and doron, "gift"; that is, "Gift of Apollo." It may refer to: :''Note: A ..., ''The Library'' with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISB ...
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Lacedaemon (mythology)
Lacedaemon (; Ancient Greek: Λακεδαίμων ''Lakedaímōn'') or Lacaedemon was the eponymous king of Lacedaemon (i.e. Sparta) in classical Greek mythology. Family Lacedaemon was the son of Zeus and the Pleiad Taygete. By Princess Sparta, the daughter of former King Eurotas In Greek mythology, Eurotas (; Ancient Greek: Εὐρώτας) was a king of Laconia. Family Eurotas was the son of King Myles of Laconia and grandson of Lelex, eponymous ancestor of the Leleges. The ''Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus), Bibliothe ..., he was the father of his heir Amyclas and Eurydice, wife of King Acrisius of Argos. In a rare version of the myth, Taygete was the wife of Lacedaemon and their children were Himerus and Cleodice. Mythology Lacedemon was credited to be the founder of the sanctuary of the Graces, Cleta and Phaenna, near the river Tiasa.Pausanias, 3.18.6 & 9.35.1 with Alcman as the authority for the names of the Charites Notes References * Grima ...
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Eurotas
In Greek mythology, Eurotas (; Ancient Greek: Εὐρώτας) was a king of Laconia. Family Eurotas was the son of King Myles of Laconia and grandson of Lelex, eponymous ancestor of the Leleges. The ''Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus), Bibliotheca'' gave a slight variant of the mythological generation of Eurotas, who was described as the son of Lelex, born from the ground, by his wife Cleocharia. In some accounts, his mother was called Taygete instead. Eurotas had no male heir but he did have two daughters Sparta (mythology), Sparta and Tiasa by Cleta, Clete. Mythology Eurotas bequeathed the kingdom to Lacedaemon (mythology), Lacedaemon, the son of Zeus and Taygete, after whom Mount Taygetus was named, according to Pausanias (geographer), Pausanias.Pausanias, 3.1.2 This Lacedaemon married his daughter Sparta and renamed the state after his wife. Pausanias says: "It was Eurotas who channelled away the marsh-water from the plains by cutting through to the sea, and when the land ...
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