User:Ifly6/Lycurgus (lawgiver)

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Lycurgus (/laɪˈkɜːrɡəs/; Greek: Λυκοῦργος Lykourgos) was the legendary lawgiver of Sparta, credited with the formation of it's eunomia ("good order").[1] He is credited with establishing the military-oriented reformation of Spartan society in accordance with the Delphi oracle. The Spartans in the historical period honoured him as god.[2]

Biography[edit]

Historicity and sources[edit]

A multitude of ancient sources mention Lycurgus; it is, however, troubled inasmuch as those accounts evolved according to then-contemporary political priorities and that they are profoundly inconsistent. The oldest is that of Herodotus, who wrote in the latter half of the fifth century BC. His account is likely based on oral accounts from both Spartans and non-Spartans in Greece. The two royal dynasties of Sparta, the Agiads and Eurypontids, both claimed Lycurgus in their ancestries.[3][4] However, that he does not feature in the earliest preserved Spartan source – Tyrtaeus – has led many historians today to doubt his historicity:[5] for example, Massimo Nafissi in A companion to Sparta writes he is "probably mythical".[2] Others have attempted to gleam from the myths that survive some kernel of truth. But most historians "would subscribe to the stark judgement of Antony Andrewes: 'if there was a real Lycurgus, we know nothing of him'".[6]

There is no consensus as to when a historical Lycurgus lived, whether today or in the ancient world (Plutarch, in his Life of Lycurgus, in fact makes this remark in the opening paragraph).[7] Most attempts to date his life are based on when the Great Rhetra, which promulgated the Lycurgus' reforms, occurred.[8] The most accepted date in the ancient world was that based on the genealogy of Ephorus and the chronology of Eratosthenes, which dated the rhetra to 118 years after the reign of one of Sparta's founding kings, Procles, which corresponds to c. 885 BC.[9] Alternatively, an excursus in Thucydides' Archaeology indicates that the reforms were instituted some four hundred years prior to the end of the Peloponnesian war, placing them to 804 or 821 BC.[10] Other historians placed him as early as the tenth century BC.[11]

One artefact, the Disc of Iphitos, also allegedly documents Lycurgus' involvement with the formation of the Olympic Games and would therefore place him c. 776 BC, but the disc is likely a forgery from the fourth century BC.[12][13] More implausibly, Xenophon believed that Lycurgus lived at the foundation of Dorian Sparta during the time of its founding kings, Procles and Eurysthenes, which would have been over a century before Eratosthenes' date, according to his chronology.[14]

The tradition in Sparta of Lycurgus' existence dates to some time between the archaic age and the fifth century.[5] Inasmuch as no Lycurgus is mentioned in Tyrtaeus, it is likely that the legend dates to shortly after Tyrtaeus' time, and therefore the late seventh or early sixth century. It likely emerged from Spartan success in that period and a desire to explain it. His legend was also constantly reworked and expanded through the course of the classical Greek period by securing for Spartans in their times divine sanction and greater legitimacy for actions which they claimed to be a return to Lycurgus' laws.[15]

Life[edit]

In the earlier legends of Lycurgus, namely in the accounts of the Great Rhetra, Lycurgus is not credited with a radical reorganisation of Spartan life or with the institution of the ephorate. These early traditions a "far from uniform" and were likely transmitted orally.[16]

The earliest written account, in Herodotus, indicates that Lycurgus was the guardian and regent of the early Argiad king Leobotes. Herodotus provides two accounts for how the laws which Lycurgus enacted came to him: in the first version, Lycurgus receives those laws from Apollo through the Pythia at Delphi; in the second, based on Sparta's own traditions, Lycurgus bases the reforms off of existing laws in Crete.[17][18]

Legacy[edit]

Spartan constitution[edit]

At various times, the Spartans attributed every one of their institutions to him, except the institution of the dual monarchy.[19] Because the Spartans attributed all manner of laws and customs to him, it is impossible to determine which laws (if any) are his in actuality.[20] However, it is clear today, from comparisons with other archaic Greek states, that Spartan institutions such as men's dining halls, organisation of age cohorts, and the use of iron money were not out entirely out of the norm and had previously existed in other Greek cities: what made them distinctive was for how long they had been preserved at Sparta.[21]

Lycurgus' reforms were supposedly promulgated in a Great Rhetra that he received from the Pythia.[22] It, however, is not genuine and contains anachronistic contents.[8][23] Regardless, Plutarch records it as having included provisions related to Sparta's religious and political practices:

After dedicating a temple to Zeus.. and Athena..., forming phylai and creating obai, and instituting a gerousia of thirty including the kings, then hold an apella from time to time. Thus bring in and set aside [proposals]. The people are to have the right to respond, and power... but if the people speak crookedly, the elders and kings are to be setters-aside.[24]

Reception[edit]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ Hodkinson 2012.
  2. ^ a b Nafissi 2018, p. 95.
  3. ^ Nafissi 2019, p. 97.
  4. ^ Nafissi 2019, citing Hdt., 1.65.2–66.1.
  5. ^ a b Nafissi 2019.
  6. ^ Nafissi 2019; Nafissi 2018, p. 94.
  7. ^ Nafissi 2018, p. 93.
  8. ^ a b Nafissi 2018, p. 98.
  9. ^ Nafissi 2019, citing Ephorus FGrH 70, F 118 and Eratosth. FGrH 241, F 2.
  10. ^ Nafissi 2018, p. 97, citing Thuc., 1.18.1.
  11. ^ Pomeroy et al. 2018, p. 162.
  12. ^ Nafissi 2018, p. 97.
  13. ^ Nafissi 2019 notes two ways the ancients resolved this discrepancy: Timaeus posited the existence of a namesake for the lawgiver who lived later; Eratosthenes posited the disc reflected informal Olympics held before 776 BC.
  14. ^ Nafissi 2018, p. 98, citing Xen. Lac., 10.8.; Lipka 2002, pp. 35–36
  15. ^ Nafissi 2019, pp. 94–95, 98–99.
  16. ^ Nafissi 2018, p. 99.
  17. ^ Hodkinson 2012; Nafissi 2019.
  18. ^ Lipka 2002, p. 35.
  19. ^ Nafissi 2019. "The range of Spartan laws and institutions credited to Lycurgus was extraordinary. Initially, all Spartan institutions were attributed to him with the exception of the diarchy".
  20. ^ Parker, Victor (2007). "Tyrants and lawgivers". In Shapiro, HA (ed.). Cambridge companion to archaic Greece. Cambridge University Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-521-82200-8. See also Lipka 2002, p. 36, noting that the attribution to Lycurgus is "wholly in line with the general tendency of the fifth and fourth centuries... to condense and concentrate the various stories upon one all-reforming legislator".
  21. ^ Pomeroy et al. 2018, pp. 162–63.
  22. ^ Pomeroy et al. 2018, p. 163; Nafissi 2009, p. 126.
  23. ^ Nafissi 2009, p. 129. "The rhetra... is not simply a fake: it is a retrospective reconstruction inserted into an intentional elaboration of [the past]".
  24. ^ Pomeroy et al. 2018, p. 163.

Sources[edit]

Modern sources
Primary sources
  • Herodotus (1920–25) [5th century BC]. Histories. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Godley, Alfred Dennis. Harvard University Press – via LacusCurtius.
  • Plutarch (1914) [2nd century AD]. "Life of Lycurgus". Parallel Lives. Loeb Classical Library. Vol. 1. Translated by Perrin, Bernadotte. Harvard University Press. OCLC 40115288 – via LacusCurtius.
  • Xenophon (2002). Spartan constitution. Texte und Kommentare. Vol. 24. Translated by Lipka, Michael. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-017466-9.
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