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TYRTAEUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 551 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TYRTAEUS , See also:

Greek elegiac poet, lived at See also:Sparta about the See also:middle of the 7th See also:century B.C. According to the older tradition he was a native of the See also:Attic deme of Aphidnae, and was invited to Sparta at the See also:suggestion of the Delphic See also:oracle to assistthe Spartans in the second Messenian See also:war. According to a later version, he was a lame schoolmaster, sent by the Athenians as likely to be of the least assistance to the Spartans (See also:Justin iii. 5; See also:Themistius, Orat. xv. 242; Diod. Sic. xv. 67). A fanciful explanation of his lameness is that it alludes to the elegiac See also:couplet, one See also:verse of which is shorter than the other. According to See also:Plato (See also:Laws, p. 629 A), the citizenship of Sparta was conferred upon Tyrtaeus, although See also:Herodotus (ix. 35) makes no mention of him among the foreigners so honoured. Basing his inference on the ground that Tyrtaeus speaks of himself as a See also:citizen of Sparta (Fr.

2), See also:

Strabo (viii. 362) is inclined to reject the See also:story of his Athenian origin. SuIdas speaks of him as " Laconian or Milesian "; possibly he visited See also:Miletus in his youth, where he became See also:familiar with the Ionic See also:elegy. Busolt, who suggests that Tyrtaeus was a native of Aphidnae in See also:Laconia, conjectures that the entire See also:legend may have been concocted in connexion with the expedition sent to the assistance of Sparta in her struggle with the revolted See also:Helots at Ithome (464). However this may be, it is generally admitted that Tyrtaeus flourished during the second Messenian war (c. 65o B.C.) —a See also:period of remarkable musical and poetical activity at Sparta, when poets like See also:Terpander and Thaletas were welcomed —that he not only wrote See also:poetry but served in the See also:field, and that he endeavoured to compose the See also:internal dissensions of Sparta (See also:Aristotle, Politics, v. 6) by inspiring the citizens with a patriotic love for their fatherland. About twelve fragments (three of them See also:complete poems) are preserved in Strabo, See also:Lycurgus, See also:Stobaeus and others. They are mainly elegiac and in the Ionic See also:dialect, written partly in praise of the Spartan constitution and' See also:King See also:Theopompus (Ebvopla), partly to stimulate the Spartan soldiers to deeds of heroism in the field (`Tsro8ilsacthe See also:title is, however, later than Tyrtaeus). The See also:interest of the fragments preserved from the Ebvoµia is mainly See also:historical, and connected with the first Messenian war. ' The `TsroOiKat, which are of considerable merit, contain exhortations to bravery and a warning against the disgrace of cowardice. The popularity of these elegies in the Spartan See also:army was such that, according to See also:Athenaeus (xiv.

63o F), it became the See also:

custom for the soldiers to sing them See also:round the See also:camp fires at See also:night, the polemarch rewarding the best See also:singer with a piece of flesh. Of the marchingsongs ('Eµ0arr7pca), written in the anapaestic measure and the Doric dialect, only scanty fragments remain (Lycurgus, In Leocratem, p. 211, § 107; See also:Pausanias iv. 14, 5. 15, 2; fragments in T. See also:Bergk, Poetae lyrici graeci, ii.). Verrall (Classical See also:Review, See also:July 1896, May 1897) definitely places the lifetime of Tyrtaeus in the middle of the 5th century B.c., while Schwartz (See also:Hermes, 1899, xxxiv.) disputes the existence of the poet altogether; see also Macan in Classical Review (See also:February 1897) ; H. Weil, Etudes sur l'antiquite grecque (1900), and C. Giarratani, Tirteo e i suoi carmi (1905). There are See also:English verse See also:translations by R. Polwhele (1792) and imitations by H. J.

See also:

Pye, poet See also:laureate (1795), and an See also:Italian version by F. See also:Cavallotti, with See also:text, introduction and notes (1898). The fragment beginning TeOvapivac yap KaX6v has been translated by See also:Thomas See also:Campbell, the poet. The edition by C. A. See also:Klotz (1827) contains a dissertation on the war-songs of different countries.

End of Article: TYRTAEUS

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