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ARISTODEMUS (8th century s.c.)

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 499 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ARISTODEMUS (8th See also:century s.c.) , semi-legendary ruler of See also:Messenia in the See also:time of the first Messenian See also:War. Tradition relates that, after some six years' fighting, the Messenians were forced to retire to the fortified See also:summit of Ithome. The Delphic See also:oracle bade them See also:sacrifice a virgin of the See also:house of Aepytus. Aristodemus offered his own daughter, and when her See also:lover, hoping to See also:save her See also:life, declared that she was no longer a See also:maiden, he slew her with his own See also:hand to prove the assertion false. In the thirteenth See also:year of the war, Euphaes, the Messenian See also:king, died. As he See also:left no See also:children, popular See also:election was resorted to, and Aristodemus was chosen as his successor, though the See also:national soothsayers objected to him as the murderer of his daughter. As a ruler he was mild and conciliatory. He was victorious in the pitched See also:battle fought at the See also:foot of Ithome in the fifth year of his reign, a battle in which the Messenians, reinforced by the entire Arcadian See also:levy and picked contingents from See also:Argos and See also:Sicyon, defeated the combined Spartan and Corinthian forces. Shortly afterwards, however, led by unfavourable omens to despair of final success, he killed himself on his daughter's See also:tomb. Though little is known of his life and the See also:chronology is uncertain, yet Aristodemus may fairly be regarded as a See also:historical See also:character. His reign is dated 731—724 B.C. by See also:Pausanias, and this may be taken as approximately correct, though See also:Duncker (See also:History of See also:Greece, Eng. trans., ii. p. 69) inclines to See also:place it eight years later.

Pausanias iv. 9-13 is practically our only authority. He followed as his See also:

chief source the See also:prose history of See also:Myron of See also:Priene, an untrustworthy writer, probably of the 2nd century Inc.; hence a See also:good See also:deal of his See also:story must be regarded as fanciful, though we cannot distinguish accurately between the true and the fictitious. (M. N.

End of Article: ARISTODEMUS (8th century s.c.)

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