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Plutarch · c. AD 46-after 119

Life of Lycurgus

Λυκοῦργος
Ancient Sources / Plutarch / Life of Lycurgus

Plutarch's Life of Lycurgus presents the Spartan lawgiver, whose date, travels and death were disputed, and whom Timaeus thought might have been two men. It follows him from his guardianship of his nephew Charilaüs and his travels to the reforms that shaped Spartan society, including the senate, the land lots, iron money, the common messes and the upbringing of the young, and ends with his consulting Delphi and his death. It is paired with the Life of Numa.

Read from the start
Text
Greek original with English translation, 15 passages, about 14000 words in English.
Translator
Bernadotte Perrin (1914)
Edition
Bernadotte Perrin (ed. and trans.), Plutarch's Lives, vol. 1, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1914 (Greek text as digitised by Perseus)
Cite as
Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus 1.1 (by chapter, section)

Contents · 15 passages

  1. 1.1–2.3Who was Lycurgus? Dates, ancestry and the Eurypontid kings664 words
  2. 3.1–4.6Lycurgus guards the infant king Charilaüs and travels to Crete, Ionia and Egypt981 words
  3. 5.1–7.3Lycurgus at Delphi, the Council of Elders, the rhetra and the ephors1446 words
  4. 8.1–9.5Lycurgus redistributes the land and introduces iron money785 words
  5. 10.1–12.7The Spartan common messes; Alcander strikes out Lycurgus' eye1318 words
  6. 13.1–14.4Unwritten laws and the training of Spartan women904 words
  7. 15.1–10Spartan marriage customs and the sharing of children960 words
  8. 16.1–18.4The Spartan upbringing of boys: inspection, the agoge and stealing1482 words
  9. 19.1–20.6Laconic speech: Spartan sayings and the brevity of Lycurgus799 words
  10. 21.1–23.2Spartan music and poetry; the hymn to Castor and war without excess1031 words
  11. 24.1–25.5Spartan leisure, the Helots and life as one community664 words
  12. 26.1–27.4Election of the senators and Spartan burial customs837 words
  13. 28.1–6The krupteia and the treatment of the Helots501 words
  14. 29.1–6Lycurgus at Delphi and his death by fasting590 words
  15. 30.1–31.5Sparta after Lycurgus: Lysander's gold, his honours and the places of his death1003 words

More by Plutarch

English translation by Bernadotte Perrin (1914). Original text: Bernadotte Perrin (ed. and trans.), Plutarch's Lives, vol. 1, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1914 (Greek text as digitised by Perseus).

Greek text and translation from the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Perseus Digital Library); translation public domain. Introductions, summaries and notes © GreekMythology.com.