Lacedaemon (;
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
: Λακεδαίμων ''Lakedaímōn'') or Lacaedemon was the eponymous king of
Lacedaemon (i.e. Sparta) in classical
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...
.
Family
Lacedaemon was the son of
Zeus
Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus.
Zeus is the child ...
and the
Pleiad Taygete. By Princess
Sparta
Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...
, 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
*
Grimal, Pierre, ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology'', Wiley-Blackwell, 1996.
*
Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, ''Morals'' translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by.
William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 5
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
*
Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library* Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio.'' ''3 vols''. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903.
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lacedaemon (Mythology)
Children of Zeus
Mythological kings of Sparta
Mythological Laconians
Progenitors in Greek mythology