Aristodemos (Aipytide)

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Aristodemos ( ancient Greek Ἀριστόδημος ) was according to Pausanias from 732 to 724 BC. King of Messenia . He belonged to the Aipytiden family and was the successor of Euphaes . Damis followed him .

Life

When the Messenian king Euphaes had the unprotected small towns of Messenia evacuated during the First Messenian War and their inhabitants settled on the Ithome , an oracle demanded that a virgin from the Aipytid family should be sacrificed to the gods. The choice fell on the daughter of Lykiskos , who fled with her to Sparta . Aristodemus then voluntarily offered his own daughter. Her fiancé objected that she was already pregnant by him and therefore no longer a virgin. In anger, Aristodemus cut open his daughter's stomach and when they saw that she was not pregnant, they said, despite the objection of the seer Epebolus, that the oracle was fulfilled.

After in 732 BC BC Euphaes fell without a male heir to the throne in the fight against the Spartans, Aristodemus was elected the new king of Messenia. He was able to push back the Spartans and added to them in 727 BC. At the Ithome a heavy defeat. In 724 BC An oracle said that Messenia would fall to those who were the first to sacrifice a hundred tripods to Zeus Ithomatas, whose sanctuary was within the Messenian fortress . The Spartan Oibalos then made a hundred tripods out of clay, entered the city unnoticed and sacrificed them. The Messenians were discouraged by further signs of doom. In addition, his sacrificed daughter appeared to Aristodemus in a dream with her belly slit open and took his weapons from him and replaced them with the insignia of a Messenian nobleman. Thereupon Aristodemus killed himself at the grave of his daughter. Damis was then chosen to be the Messenian general.

The historicity of the literarily embellished events is critically assessed in research and the dates given in Pausanias are considered incorrect and should be set around 40 years later.

swell

  • Pausanias , Travels in Greece 4.9-13.
  • Diodorus , Greek World History , fragment 8,8.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Victor Parker: The Dates of the Messenian Wars ; 1991 Chiron 21: 25-47.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Aristodemus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ἀριστόδημος (Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of Messenia
DATE OF BIRTH 732 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 724 BC Chr.