Lacedaemon (mythology)

Lacedaemon (/læsᵻˈdiːmən/; Greek: Λακεδαίμων) was mythical king of Laconia^[1] and son of the Pleaid Taygete and Zeus in Classical Greek mythology. He was a father of King Amyclas of Sparta and Queen Eurydice of Argos, with Princess Sparta, the daughter of King Eurotas.^[2] Taygete has an association with Artemis in earlier mythology.^[3]

Eurotas bequeathed the kingdom to Lacedaemon, who then renamed the state after his wife,^[1] Sparta, who was also his niece.^[4]

According to Pseudo-Plutarch,^[5] Taygete was the wife of Lacedaemon. Their son was named Himerus.

Notes

1. Pausanias (1918). "III.1.2". 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; London. At the Perseus Project.
2. Grimal, Pierre (1996). "s.v. "Eurydice" (2)". The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 157. ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1.
3. Emmet Robbins, "Heracles, the Hyperboreans, and the Hind: Pindar, "OL." 3", Phoenix 36.4 (Winter 1982:295-305) 302f notes that the association of Artemis with Orthia = Orthosia was under way in the sixth century BCE.
4. Pausanias (1918). "III.1.2". 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; London. At the Perseus Project.
5. Pseudo-Plutarch (1874). "XVII Eurotas". De Fluviis. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Boston; Medford: Little, Brown, and Company. At the Perseus Project.

External links

• Lacedaemon at Myth Index Greek