Sparta in the Ancient Sources: 107 Passages in Greek & English

Homer (11)

Homer, Odyssey 13.372–440Athena's plan; Odysseus disguised as a beggarAthena and Odysseus sit down by the olive tree to plan the death of the suitors. She tells him of the suitors in his house and of Penelope's patience, and that she herself went to Lacedaemon to bring his son home. She makes him look like an old beggar, with wrinkled skin and a ragged cloak, and tells him to go first to the swineherd. She then leaves to fetch Telemachus.
Homer, Iliad 2.559–644The Catalogue of Ships (2): Argos to AetoliaThe Catalogue continues with the men of Argos under Diomedes, the men of Mycenae under Agamemnon, who has the most and best ships, and Menelaus's men from Lacedaemon. It then lists Nestor's men from Pylos, the Arcadians, the Epeians, Odysseus's Cephallenians and the Aetolians under Thoas.
Homer, Odyssey 4.1–112Telemachus at the house of MenelausTelemachus and Peisistratus arrive at the house of Menelaus in Lacedaemon while a wedding feast is being held for his daughter and for his son by a slave woman. Menelaus' squire Eteoneus asks whether to take the strangers in, and Menelaus rebukes him, and they are bathed and fed. Menelaus speaks of his own wanderings and of his grief for Odysseus.
Homer, Iliad 3.111–244Helen on the wall of TroyIris, in the likeness of Laodice, calls Helen to the wall, where she goes with two handmaids and joins Priam and the old men at the Scaean gates. Priam asks her to name the Achaean leaders, and Helen points out Agamemnon, Odysseus and Ajax, and looks in vain for her brothers. Antenor recalls the time when Odysseus and Menelaus came to Troy as envoys.
Homer, Iliad 3.383–461Aphrodite brings Helen to ParisAphrodite sets Paris in his fragrant chamber and, in the likeness of an old woman, summons Helen, who knows the goddess by her neck, breasts and eyes and reproaches her. Helen obeys when the goddess threatens her, speaks scornfully to Paris, and then goes to bed with him. Menelaus ranges through the host looking for Paris, and Agamemnon declares that the victory is Menelaus's and demands Helen and the treasure.
Homer, Iliad 4.1–72The gods in council on OlympusOn Olympus the gods sit in council while Zeus provokes Hera by remarking that Menelaus has two goddesses to help him, Hera and Athena, who merely look on, while Aphrodite keeps his rival safe. Hera answers angrily that her labour against Priam must not be in vain, and Zeus tells her to do as she pleases, asking only that she not hinder him when he destroys a city dear to her. Hera names Argos, Sparta and Mycenae, and Zeus sends Athena down to make the Trojans break the truce.
Homer, Odyssey 1.200–324Athena's counsel to TelemachusAthena prophesies that Odysseus will soon return, and asks whether Telemachus is really the son of such a man. He answers sadly, and she tells him to call the Ithacans to an assembly, bid the suitors go home, and sail to Pylos and Sparta to ask for news of his father. She then vanishes like a bird, and Telemachus knows that he has seen a god.
Homer, Odyssey 2.239–381Mentor's rebuke; Telemachus prepares to sailMentor rebukes the people of Ithaca for sitting by in silence, and Leocritus answers that even Odysseus could not drive so many men from the hall. The assembly breaks up. Telemachus prays by the shore, and Athena in the likeness of Mentor encourages him to make ready, while the suitors mock him in the hall. He has the nurse Eurycleia fill jars with wine and bags with barley, and she swears to tell no one.
Homer, Odyssey 3.201–328Nestor tells of Agamemnon's deathTelemachus wishes that the gods would give him such vengeance, and Nestor tells how Aegisthus seduced Clytemnestra while Agamemnon was away and killed the king on his return. Orestes came home in the eighth year and killed Aegisthus. Nestor tells of Menelaus' stormy journey home, and urges Telemachus to go to Menelaus in Sparta, offering his sons as guides.
Homer, Odyssey 15.1–91Athena goes to SpartaAthena goes to Lacedaemon and finds Telemachus sleepless, with Peisistratus sleeping near, and tells him to go home at once, since the suitors are plotting to ambush him. She tells him to land at the first point of Ithaca and send the ship on to the city, and to go to Eumaeus' hut. At dawn he tells Menelaus that he must go, and Menelaus offers him a tour of Greece, but Telemachus refuses.
Homer, Odyssey 3.404–497The sacrifice to Athena; departure for SpartaAt dawn Nestor sacrifices a heifer with gilded horns to Athena, and his youngest daughter Polycaste bathes Telemachus. Nestor gives him a chariot and horses and sends his son Peisistratus with him. They drive all day, spend the night at Pherae with Diocles, and reach the wheat plain of Lacedaemon on the next day.

Apollodorus (3)

Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 3.10.1–9Hermes, Asclepius, Leda and the suitors of HelenThe Pleiades are named, and Maia bears Hermes to Zeus, who steals Apollo's cattle, invents the lyre and trades it for the cattle and the art of divination. The line of Taygete and Lacedaemon leads to Hyacinth, to Asclepius, son of Apollo and Coronis, whom Zeus strikes with a thunderbolt for raising the dead, and to Tyndareus and Icarius. Zeus, as a swan, lies with Leda, who bears Helen and the Dioscuri (or, in another version, Nemesis lays Helen's egg), and Theseus carries Helen off. The kings of Greece court Helen, and Tyndareus, on Odysseus's advice, binds them by an oath to defend the chosen husband.
Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 2.8.1–5The return of the HeraclidsAfter Heracles' death his sons flee from Eurystheus to Athens, where Eurystheus is killed by Hyllus and Alcmena gouges out the eyes of his severed head. The Heraclids retake the Peloponnese but are driven out by a plague, and Hyllus and Aristomachus are defeated when they misread the oracle about 'the third crop'. Temenus and the sons of Aristodemus finally conquer it with Oxylus as their 'three-eyed' guide, draw lots for Argos, Lacedaemon and Messene (Cresphontes cheats with a clod of earth), and the section closes with the murder of Temenus and the revenge of Aepytus in Messene.
Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 3.11.1–2Castor and Pollux (the Dioscuri) and the children of MenelausMenelaus has Hermione by Helen and sons by other women. Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuri, carry off the daughters of Leucippus, and a quarrel over a cattle raid with Idas and Lynceus ends with Castor killed, Lynceus and Idas dead, and Pollux taken up by Zeus. Pollux refuses immortality without his brother, so they share their time between gods and mortals, and Menelaus inherits the kingdom of Sparta.

Pindar (1)

Pindar, Pythian Odes 5.1–125Pythian 5: for Arcesilas — the Battiads and the colonists of CyrenePindar praises Arcesilas of Cyrene, victor in the chariot race, as blessed with wealth joined to honour, and praises his charioteer. He traces the Dorian colonists from Sparta through Thera and the Heracleidae and Aegeidae to Cyrene, where they brought the Carneian festival. The ode ends with a prayer that Zeus grant the race of Battus a new victory at Olympia.

Euripides (9)

Euripides, Helen 1–67Prologue: Helen at the tomb of Proteus in EgyptHelen tells how Proteus' son Theoclymenus and daughter Theonoe rule Egypt, and she recounts the judgment of Paris. Hera made a phantom in her likeness for Paris, while Hermes hid the real Helen in a cloud and set her down in the house of Proteus. Since Proteus died, his son has wanted to marry her, and she sits as a suppliant at his tomb, keeping herself for Menelaus.
Euripides, Children of Heracles 709–747Third episode: Alcmena begs Iolaus not to leave herAlcmena begs Iolaus not to leave her and the children unprotected, and he tells her that the strangers will care for her. The servant brings him armour and, as they go, mocks his slow pace. Iolaus wishes that his arm were what it was when he sacked Sparta with Heracles, and says that Eurystheus would flee from him.
Euripides, Andromache 421–463Second episode: Menelaus' trick; Andromache curses the SpartansThe Chorus urges Menelaus to be merciful, but Menelaus has her seized, telling her that he held her son's death before her eyes only to make her leave the altar, and that Hermione will decide whether the boy lives. Andromache cries that she was deceived, and curses the Spartans as schemers of guile and masters of lying, and says that they will be punished.
Euripides, Andromache 693–746Third episode: Peleus drives Menelaus awayPeleus says that the credit for victories in war goes to the general, not to the fighters, and that the Spartans are the worst of men, and that it was Achilles' son who took Troy. Menelaus says that he has come to Phthia only under compulsion and will go, and that he will return to Sparta to deal with the matter, and Peleus replies that he is no more than a voice.
Euripides, Andromache 879–919Fourth episode: Orestes arrives and Hermione begs for his helpA stranger arrives, who says that he is Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, on his way to the oracle of Zeus at Dodona, and that he has come to Phthia to see Hermione. Hermione, who knows him as her kinsman, throws herself at his knees and begs for his help, saying that she fears her husband, and that she has done wrong.
Euripides, Helen 437–475Third episode: the Old Woman turns Menelaus awayAn Old Woman at the gate orders Menelaus away, since her master kills Greeks. In answer to his questions she tells him that the land is Egypt and the king is Theoclymenus, son of Proteus. She then says that Helen, daughter of Zeus, is in the house, and he asks whether his wife was taken from the cave.
Euripides, Helen 476–514Third episode: Menelaus puzzles over two Helens and resolves to waitThe Old Woman says that Helen was here before the Achaeans went to Troy, and again tells him to go. Menelaus, bewildered by two wives of the same name, reasons that the same names may belong to many people. He decides to wait for the king, since, as the saying goes, nothing is stronger than necessity.
Euripides, Helen 1642–1692Exodos: the Dioscuri end Theoclymenus' quarrel and foretell the futureThe Dioscuri tell Theoclymenus to spare Theonoe, and say that Helen was destined to return to Sparta. They promise a safe voyage, and say that Helen will become a goddess and that Menelaus will live on the islands of the blessed. Theoclymenus yields, and the Chorus says that the gods bring unhoped-for things to pass.
Euripides, Helen 1429–1511Theoclymenus plans the wedding; choral song on the ship of SidonTheoclymenus says that his house is pure since Menelaus did not die there, and tells the stranger to cast in the offerings and return for the wedding feast. Menelaus prays to Zeus to end their troubles. The Chorus sings of the swift ship bearing Helen to Greece, of the dances at Sparta, of the cranes, and of the Dioscuri.

Apollonius Rhodius (1)

Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.1694–1781Darkness at sea and the return to IolcusNight covers the Cretan sea until Apollo lights the way and the heroes land at Anaphe, where they make offerings. Euphemus' dream of the clod is fulfilled when it becomes the island Calliste, later Thera. Argo sails on past Aegina to Pagasae, where the heroes step ashore.

Callimachus (1)

Callimachus, Hymns 2.1–113Hymn to ApolloThe laurel and the temple tremble as Apollo approaches, and the profane are told to depart while the young men prepare to sing and dance. The poet praises the god's golden gear, his youth, his healing and music, and the altar of horns he built at the age of four in Ortygia. He tells how Apollo guided Battus to found Cyrene, how the Carneian festival is kept there, and how the god killed the serpent at Pytho. The hymn ends with Apollo spurning Envy with his foot.

Theocritus (2)

Theocritus, Idylls 18.1–58Idyll 18: Helen's wedding songTwelve Spartan maidens sing outside the bridal chamber on the wedding night of Helen and Menelaus. They praise Helen, tease Menelaus for sleeping too early, and wish the pair children and lasting happiness. They promise to return at dawn and sing again.
Theocritus, Idylls 22.1–223Idyll 22: The DioscuriA hymn to Castor and Pollux, helpers of sailors and of men in battle. At a spring in the land of the Bebryces Pollux boxes with the giant Amycus and beats him, and Amycus swears never again to wrong strangers. Castor fights Lynceus and kills him, and Zeus strikes down Idas with a thunderbolt. The hymn ends with a prayer to the sons of Tyndarus and with praise of song.

Aristophanes (8)

Aristophanes, The Acharnians 1–203Prologue: Dicaeopolis at the Assembly; Amphitheus and the treatiesDicaeopolis sits alone on the Pnyx, complaining that the Athenians crowd the market-place while the Assembly is empty, and says that he means to interrupt any speaker who talks of anything but Peace. When the Prytanes arrive, Amphitheus is dragged off for claiming that he alone can make peace with Sparta, and Dicaeopolis gives him eight drachmas to make a private treaty for him. After the Great King's envoys and the Thracians brought by Theorus have been paraded, Amphitheus returns, chased by angry Acharnians, and Dicaeopolis chooses the thirty-year treaty.
Aristophanes, The Acharnians 280–392Episode: the Chorus attacks Dicaeopolis; the charcoal-scuttle hostageThe Chorus recognise Dicaeopolis and prepare to stone him as a traitor who made a private treaty. He asks for a hearing and offers to put his head on a chopping-block if he fails to convince them. When they will not listen, he seizes a scuttle of their charcoal as a hostage and threatens it with his sword, until they drop their stones and agree to hear him; he then says he will first dress himself in the loathliest way he can.
Aristophanes, Birds 798–861Episode: the new wings; the city is named CloudcuckooburyPeisthetaerus and Euelpides return with wings and laugh at each other's looks, and Peisthetaerus says that the first need is a grand name for the city. Euelpides rejects Sparta, and Peisthetaerus proposes Cloudcuckoobury, which the Chorus like. Peisthetaerus would keep Athene as guardian of the city, but Euelpides objects, and the Chorus propose a Persian cockerel to hold the citadel. Peisthetaerus sends Euelpides up into the air to help with the wall and calls for a priest to sacrifice to the new gods.
Aristophanes, Lysistrata 1189–1320Exodos: the feast and the closing songsThe chorus invite the audience to a feast. An Athenian and a Spartan come out from the banquet, the worse for drink, and the Spartan sings and dances in honour of his country's gods while the Athenians join in. The choruses close with songs to Artemis and the other gods, and the play ends in a Spartan dance song.
Aristophanes, Peace 236–295Prologue: War and the mortarWar comes out with a huge mortar in which he means to pound the Greek cities, throwing in leeks for Prasiae, garlic for Megara and cheese for Sicily, while Trygaeus looks on in dismay. War sends Riot to fetch a pestle, but Riot comes back empty-handed first from Athens and then from Sparta. War goes in to make a pestle himself, and Trygaeus decides that now is the time to pull out Peace.
Aristophanes, Lysistrata 181–253Prologue: the oath over the wine-cupLysistrata proposes a binding oath, and after some argument the women swear it over a wine-jar and cup in place of a shield and a slaughtered victim. They swear to keep away from their husbands and lovers however they are pressed. Shouts show that the Acropolis has been seized, Lampito leaves to rally the women of Sparta, and Lysistrata and the others go in to help hold the gates.
Aristophanes, The Acharnians 490–571Agon: Dicaeopolis argues that Sparta is not alone to blame for the warThe Chorus ask how a man dares to offer his neck for the enemy, and Dicaeopolis begins by saying that he speaks as a beggar at the Lenaea, when no strangers are present, and that he hates the Lacedaemonians as much as his hearers do. He traces the war to the stealing of Simaetha by young Athenians and of two of Aspasia's women by the Megarians, which led Pericles to pass his decrees against Megara. The Chorus then split, half calling him a villain and half agreeing with him, and one half summons Lamachus to their aid.
Aristophanes, Lysistrata 77–180Prologue: Lampito arrives; the plan to abstainLampito of Sparta arrives with women from Boeotia and Corinth, and Lysistrata asks whether they miss their husbands, who are away at the war. She reveals her plan, that the women must abstain from love until the men make peace, and Calonice and Myrrhina recoil from the idea. Lampito is won over, and Lysistrata says that the older women will seize the Acropolis, with its treasure, that very morning.

Diodorus Siculus (1)

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 4.31.1–4.33.12Heracles: servitude, Troy, Elis and SpartaAfter his labours Heracles gives Megara to Iolaüs and asks for Iole, daughter of Eurytus; he is refused, falls ill, and is told by Apollo to be sold as a slave to pay the sons of Iphitus. He then makes war on Laomedon at Troy and gives the kingdom to Priam, fights Augeas and the Eleans, and defeats the sons of Hippocoön at Sparta, restoring Tyndareüs. The section ends with Augê's secret child.

Ovid (2)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.359–476Pythagoras: the phoenix, the rise and fall of citiesPythagoras describes the transformations of living things: the birth of bees from cattle, of frogs from mud, and of the phoenix, which renews itself from its own pyre. He tells of the changes of sex in the hyena, and of the chameleon and the lynx. Cities, too, rise and fall: Troy, Sparta, Mycenae and Thebes have lost their strength, and Rome is rising. He ends with a plea not to kill animals for food and not to trap them by deceit.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.143–219Ganymede and HyacinthusOrpheus sings of the love of Zeus (Jupiter) for Ganymede, whom the god carries off to heaven as an eagle to be his cup-bearer. He then sings of Apollo's love for Hyacinthus, with whom he plays at quoits, until the discus, thrown by Apollo and deflected by the wind, strikes the boy on the head and kills him. Apollo, unable to restore him, makes a flower grow from his blood, marked with the letters of his grief.

Pausanias (65)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.1.1–9Laconia: the early kings from Lelex to the sons of AristodemusPausanias opens the Laconian book with the early kings, Lelex, Myles, Eurotas and Lacedaemon, who named Sparta after his wife, then Amyclas, whose son Hyacinth is buried at Amyclae, and Oebalus, Tyndareus and the Tyndarid line to Orestes. He recounts the Heraclid return and the death of Aristodemus, whose twin sons Procles and Eurysthenes founded the two royal houses, and Theras’ colony on Thera.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.11.1–11Sparta: the market-place, the Persian Colonnade and the seer TisamenusPausanias begins his description of Sparta, restating his principle of selecting only the most memorable things. He lists the market-place magistracies, the Persian Colonnade with its marble Persians, temples of Caesar and Augustus and the statue of Agias, and tells of the seer Tisamenus and his five victories. He also describes the Chorus and sanctuaries of Pythaean Apollo, Market Zeus and the Fates, with the grave of Orestes and the statue of King Polydorus.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.15.1–11Sparta: heroes’ shrines, Hercules and Hippocoon, Enyalius in fetters and MorphoPausanias lists the shrine of Cynisca, the heroes’ shrines behind the colonnade, the tomb of Alcman and the sanctuaries of Helen and Hercules, and tells how Hercules came to punish Hippocoon’s sons after the death of Oeonus. He also describes Athena Serve-them-right, the temple of Hipposthenes, the fettered Enyalius, Hera Goat-eating, and the temple of armed Aphrodite with its upper storey sacred to Morpho, whose fetters he does not take to be a punishment.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 4.22.1–7After Ira: the Arcadian welcome, the plan against Sparta and the stoning of AristocratesThe Arcadians receive the fleeing Messenians on Mount Lycaeus, while Aristocrates declines to help them. Aristomenes plans a night attack on Sparta with five hundred Messenians and three hundred Arcadians, but the plan is betrayed by Aristocrates’ letter, intercepted by Arcadians. The Arcadians stone Aristocrates to death and set up an inscription in the precinct of Lycaean Zeus.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 7.1.1–9Achaia: Aegialus, Ion and the expulsion of the IoniansPausanias opens his account of Achaia, which was formerly called Aegialus. He tells how Xuthus fled from Thessaly to Athens and then to Aegialus, and how his son Ion married Helice, the daughter of King Selinus, and founded the city of Helice. The Achaeans, driven from Argos and Lacedaemon by the Dorians, then fought the Ionians under Tisamenus. The Ionians were defeated and left for Attica, where the Athenians under Melanthus received them.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 7.8.1–9Achaia: the League, Rome and the defeat of PhilipPausanias tells how Flamininus took Eretria and Corinth with Achaean help, so that the Achaeans became allies of Rome and fought against Philip, the Aetolians and Antiochus. The Achaeans brought Lacedaemon into their confederacy after the fall of Nabis, razed the walls of Sparta and abolished the Spartan training of the lads. Philip was defeated at Cynoscephalae and made a nominal peace. The section ends with a Sibylline oracle on the two Philips and the fall of the Macedonian empire to the men of West and East.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 7.9.1–7Achaia: Roman arbitration between the Achaeans and SpartaPausanias tells how Metellus and his colleagues, rebuffed by the Achaean officers, denounced the Achaeans at Rome, and how the Spartan exiles Areus and Alcibiadas did the same. The Senate sent a commission under Appius, which favoured Sparta and ignored the treaty that gave the Achaean League alone the right to send embassies. The commissioners restored the exiles and rebuilt the walls of Sparta, and Roman-backed Messenian and Achaean exiles were then to be restored to their homes, which the Achaeans reluctantly accepted.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 7.13.1–8Achaia: the Achaean war on Sparta under Damocritus and DiaeusPausanias tells how the Achaeans under Damocritus defeated the Spartans in battle, killing a thousand, but failed to take the city. Damocritus was fined fifty talents and fled. His successor Diaeus garrisoned the towns round Sparta, while the Spartans under Menalcidas broke the truce and sacked Iasus. Menalcidas then poisoned himself, and Pausanias passes judgment on him as the worst of generals and the greatest rascal.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.51.1–8Philopoemen: Sparta, the Romans and his death at MessenePausanias tells how Philopoemen brought Sparta into the Achaean League, shut the gates on Titus and Diophanes, refused the house of Nabis, and later banished Spartan ringleaders, sold Helots and dismantled the walls of Sparta. He opposed those who wished to yield to Rome in everything. In his eighth generalship, though ill and over seventy, he joined the force sent against Messene, was thrown from his horse and wounded, and was poisoned in the Messenian gaol on the orders of Dinocrates. Lycortas then took Messene and the Arcadians brought Philopoemen's bones to Megalopolis.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.7.1–11Sparta: the Eurypontid kings, from Procles to Archidamus IIPausanias lists the Eurypontid house descended from Procles, noting Eurypon, Prytanis, Charillus’ wars against Argos and Tegea, and Nicander’s invasion of Argolis, in which the Asinaeans joined. Later kings include Theopompus, Anaxidamus, Aristo, whose doubts about his son Demaratus led to Demaratus’ exile to Persia, Leotychides, who fled to Tegea, and Archidamus, who ravaged Attica, took Plataea and was not the real instigator of the war.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.10.1–8Sparta: Agesilaus’ last campaigns, Archidamus III and the roads into LaconiaPausanias summarises Agesilaus’ later actions, from Corinth and the Amyclaean battalion destroyed by Iphicrates to Aetolia and his death returning from Egypt. He then turns to Archidamus III, the Sacred War and the Phocian seizure of Delphi, Archidamus’ death in Italy, and his sons Agis and Eudamidas. He ends with the road to Sparta past the oak woods of Scotitas, a trophy of Hercules, Caryae with Artemis Caryatis, Sellasia and Thornax.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.13.1–9Sparta: Carneus, the Dionysiades, and the hill of Argive HeraPausanias notes the tombs of Cynortas, Castor, Idas and Lynceus, a temple of the Saviour Maid and the worship of Domestic Carneus, with explanations of the Dorian worship of Carnean Apollo. He lists the image of Aphetaeus, the colonnaded square, the temple of Dionysus Colonatas with its women’s race, the shrine of Pleuron, the temples of Argive Hera and Protectress Hera on the hill, and the statue of the wrestler Hetoemocles.

53 more passages of Pausanias that name Sparta

Nonnus of Panopolis (1)

Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 31.199–282Book 31: Hera borrows the cestus of AphroditeHera visits Aphrodite on Lebanon and, in answer to her questions, pretends to fear that Semele, Dionysos and the vine will drive her out of Olympos. She then asks to borrow Aphrodite's cestus for a day, to charm Zeus and help the Indians, who she says have always honoured Aphrodite.

Bacchylides (1)

Bacchylides, Dithyrambs 19.1–20.11Dithyrambs 19–20: Io and Argus; Idas and MarpessaDithyramb 19 tells of Io, driven by the gadfly, and asks whether Hermes slew the watcher Argus or lulled him to sleep. She came to the banks of the Nile and bore Epaphus, and from that race sprang Cadmus and Dionysus. Dithyramb 20, a fragment, tells how the maidens of Lacedaemon sang of Idas bringing home Marpessa in a chariot given by Poseidon.

Parthenius of Nicaea (1)

Parthenius of Nicaea, Love Romances 23.1–25.4Chilonis and Acrotatus; Hipparinus and Achaeus; PhayllusCleonymus of Sparta, whose wife Chilonis loves Acrotatus, goes over to Pyrrhus in Epirus and urges him to attack the Peloponnese. Hipparinus, tyrant of Syracuse, persuades the boy Achaeus to live in his palace and, returning in the dark from a victory, is stabbed by him and acquits the boy before he dies. The tyrant Phayllus wins the wife of Ariston with a necklace taken from Delphi, and later her youngest son goes mad and burns the house, and she is consumed in it.

Sparta in the ancient sources

Homer (11)

Apollodorus (3)

Pindar (1)

Euripides (9)

Apollonius Rhodius (1)

Callimachus (1)

Theocritus (2)

Aristophanes (8)

Diodorus Siculus (1)

Ovid (2)

Pausanias (65)

Nonnus of Panopolis (1)

Bacchylides (1)

Parthenius of Nicaea (1)