Lycurgus, a king of Nemæa, in Peloponnesus. He was raised from the dead by Æsculapius. Statius, Thebiad, bk. 5, li. 638.——A giant killed by Osiris in Thrace. Diodorus, bk. 1.——A king of Thrace, son of Dryas. He has been represented as cruel and impious, on account of the violence which he offered to Bacchus. He, according to the opinion of the mythologists, drove Bacchus out of his kingdom, and abolished his worship, for which impiety he was severely punished by the gods. He put his own son Dryas to death in a fury, and he cut off his own legs, mistaking them for vine boughs. He was put to death in the greatest torments by his subjects, who had been informed by the oracle that they should not taste wine till Lycurgus was no more. This fable is explained by observing that the aversion of Lycurgus for wine, over which Bacchus presided, arose from the filthiness and disgrace of intoxication, and therefore the monarch wisely ordered all the vines of his dominions to be cut down, that himself and his subjects might be preserved from the extravagance and debauchery which are produced by too free a use of wine. Hyginus, fable 132.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 6, li. 130.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 22.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 14.—Horace, bk. 2, ode 19.——A son of Hercules and Praxithea daughter of Thespius. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 7.——A son of Pheres the son of Cretheus. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.——An orator of Athens, surnamed Ibis, in the age of Demosthenes, famous for his justice and impartiality when at the head of the government. He was one of the 30 orators whom the Athenians refused to deliver up to Alexander. Some of his orations are extant. He died about 330 years before Christ. Diodorus, bk. 16.——A king of Tegea, son of Aleus, by Neæra the daughter of Pereus. He married Cleophile, called also Eurynome, by whom he had Amphidamas, &c. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 9.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 7.——A celebrated lawgiver of Sparta, son of king Eunomus and brother to Polydectes. He succeeded his brother on the Spartan throne; but when he saw that the widow of Polydectes was pregnant, he kept the kingdom not for himself, but till Charilaus his nephew was arrived to years of maturity. He had previously refused to marry his brother’s widow, who wished to strengthen him on his throne by destroying her own son Charilaus, and leaving him in the peaceful possession of the crown. The integrity with which he acted, when guardian of his nephew Charilaus, united with the disappointment and the resentment of the queen, raised him many enemies, and he at last yielded to their satire and malevolence, and retired to Crete. He travelled like a philosopher, and visited Asia and Egypt without suffering himself to be corrupted by the licentiousness and luxury which prevailed there. The confusion which followed his departure from Sparta now had made his presence totally necessary, and he returned home at the earnest solicitations of his countrymen. The disorders which reigned at Sparta induced him to reform the government; and the more effectually to execute his undertaking, he had recourse to the oracle of Delphi. He was received by the priestess of the god with every mark of honour, his intentions were warmly approved by the divinity, and he was called the friend of gods, and himself rather god than man. After such a reception from the most celebrated oracle of Greece, Lycurgus found no difficulty in reforming the abuses of the state, and all were equally anxious in promoting a revolution which had received the sanction of heaven. This happened 884 years before the christian era. Lycurgus first established a senate, which was composed of 28 senators, whose authority preserved the tranquillity of the state, and maintained a due and just equilibrium between the kings and the people, by watching over the intrusions of the former, and checking the seditious convulsions of the latter. All distinctions were destroyed, and by making an equal and impartial division of the land among the members of the commonwealth, Lycurgus banished luxury, and encouraged the useful arts. The use of money, either of gold or silver, was totally forbidden, and the introduction of heavy brass and iron coin brought no temptations to the dishonest, and left every individual in the possession of his effects without any fears of robbery or violence. All the citizens dined in common, and no one had greater claims to indulgence or luxury than another. The intercourse of Sparta with other nations was forbidden, and few were permitted to travel. The youths were entrusted to the public master as soon as they had attained their seventh year, and their education was left to the wisdom of the laws. They were taught early to think, to answer in a short and laconic manner, and to excel in sharp repartee. They were instructed and encouraged to carry things by surprise, but if ever the theft was discovered they were subjected to a severe punishment. Lycurgus was happy and successful in establishing and enforcing these laws, and by his prudence and administration the face of affairs in Lacedæmon was totally changed, and it gave rise to a set of men distinguished for their intrepidity, their fortitude, and their magnanimity. After this, Lycurgus retired from Sparta to Delphi, or, according to others, to Crete, and before his departure he bound all the citizens of Lacedæmon by a solemn oath, that neither they nor their posterity would alter, violate, or abolish the laws which he had established before his return. He soon after put himself to death, and he ordered his ashes to be thrown into the sea, fearful lest, if they were carried to Sparta, the citizens would call themselves freed from the oath which they had taken, and empowered to make a revolution. The wisdom and the good effect of the laws of Lycurgus have been firmly demonstrated at Sparta, where for 700 years they remained in full force, but the legislator has been censured as cruel and impolitic. He has shown himself inhumane in ordering mothers to destroy such of their children whose feebleness or deformity in their youth seemed to promise incapability of action in maturer years, and to become a burden to the state. His regulations about marriage must necessarily be censured, and no true conjugal felicity can be expected from the union of a man with a person whom he perhaps never knew before, and whom he was compelled to choose in a dark room, where all the marriageable women in the state assembled on stated occasions. The peculiar dress which was appointed for the females might be termed improper; and the law must for ever be called injudicious, which ordered them to appear naked on certain days of festivity, and wrestle in a public assembly promiscuously, with boys of equal age with themselves. These things indeed contributed as much to corrupt the morals of the Lacedæmonians, as the other regulations seemed to be calculated to banish dissipation, riot, and debauchery. Lycurgus has been compared to Solon, the celebrated legislator of Athens, and it has been judiciously observed, that the former gave his citizens morals conformable to the laws which he had established, and that the latter had given the Athenians laws which coincided with their customs and manners. The office of Lycurgus demanded resolution, and he showed himself inexorable and severe. In Solon artifice was requisite, and he showed himself mild and even voluptuous. The moderation of Lycurgus is greatly commended, particularly when we recollect that he treated with the greatest humanity and confidence Alcander, a youth who had put out one of his eyes in a seditious tumult. Lycurgus had a son called Antiorus, who left no issue. The Lacedæmonians showed their respect for their great legislator, by yearly celebrating a festival in his honour, called Lycurgidæ or Lycurgides. The introduction of money into Sparta in the reign of Agis the son of Archidamus was one of the principal causes which corrupted the innocence of the Lacedæmonians, and rendered them the prey of intrigue and of faction. The laws of Lycurgus were abrogated by Philopœmen, B.C. 188, but only for a little time, as they were soon after re-established by the Romans. Plutarch, Lives.—Justin, bk. 3, ch. 2, &c.—Strabo, bks. 8, 10, 15, &c.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 2.—Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 2.
Lycus, a king of Bœotia, successor to his brother Nycteus, who left no male issue. He was entrusted with the government only during the minority of Labdacus, the son of the daughter of Nycteus. He was further enjoined to make war against Epopeus, who had carried away by force Antiope the daughter of Nycteus. He was successful in this expedition. Epopeus was killed, and Lycus recovered Antiope and married her, though she was his niece. This new connection highly displeased his first wife Dirce, and Antiope was delivered to the unfeeling queen and tortured in the most cruel manner. Antiope at last escaped, and entreated her sons Zethus and Amphion to avenge her wrongs. The children, incensed on account of the cruelties which their mother had suffered, besieged Thebes, killed Lycus, and tied Dirce to the tail of a wild bull, which dragged her till she died. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 5.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 5.——A king of Libya, who sacrificed whatever strangers came upon his coast. When Diomedes, at his return from the Trojan war, had been shipwrecked there, the tyrant seized him and confined him. He, however, escaped by means of Callirhoe, the tyrant’s daughter, who was enamoured of him, and who hung herself when she saw herself deserted.——A son of Neptune by Celæno, made king of a part of Mysia by Hercules. He offered violence to Megara the wife of Hercules, for which he was killed by the incensed hero. Lycus gave a kind reception to the Argonauts. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 10.—Hyginus, fables 18, 31, 32, 137.——A son of Ægyptus,——of Mars,——of Lycaon king of Arcadia,——of Pandion king of Athens.——The father of Arcesilaus.——One of the companions of Æneas. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 3.—Pausanias, bk. 1, &c.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, &c.—Hyginus, fable 97 & 159.——An officer of Alexander in the interest of Lysimachus. He made himself master of Ephesus by the treachery of Andron, &c. Polyænus, bk. 5.——One of the Centaurs.——A son of Priam.——A river of Phrygia, which disappears near Colosse, and rises again at the distance of about four stadia, and at last falls into the Mæander. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 273.——A river of Sarmatia, falling into the Palus Mæotis.——Another in Paphlagonia, near Heraclea. Ovid, bk. 4, ex Ponto, poem 1, li. 47.——Another in Assyria.——Another in Armenia, falling into the Euxine near the Phasis. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 367.——One of the friends of Æneas, killed by Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 545.——A youth beloved by Alcæus. Horace, bk. 1, ode 32.——A town of Crete.
Lyde, the wife of the poet Antimachus, &c. Ovid, Tristia, bk. 1, poem 5.——A woman in Domitian’s reign, who pretended that she could remove barrenness by medicines. Juvenal, satire 2, li. 141.
Lȳdia, a celebrated kingdom of Asia Minor, whose boundaries were different at different times. It was first bounded by Mysia Major, Caria, Phrygia Major, and Ionia, but in its more flourishing times it contained the whole country which lies between the Halys and the Ægean sea. It was anciently called Mæonia, and received the name of Lydia from Lydus, one of its kings. It was governed by monarchs who, after the fabulous ages, reigned for 249 years in the following order: Ardysus began to reign 797 B.C.; Alyattes, 761; Meles, 747; Candaules, 735; Gyges, 718; Ardysus II., 680; Sadyattes, 631; Alyattes II., 619; and Crœsus, 562, who was conquered by Cyrus, B.C. 548, when the kingdom became a province of the Persian empire. There were three different races that reigned in Lydia, the Atyadæ, Heraclidæ, and Mermnadæ. The history of the first is obscure and fabulous; the Heraclidæ began to reign about the Trojan war, and the crown remained in their family for about 505 years, and was always transmitted from father to son. Candaules was the last of the Heraclidæ; and Gyges the first, and Crœsus the last, of the Mermnadæ. The Lydians were great warriors in the reign of the Mermnadæ. They invented the art of coining gold and silver, and were the first who exhibited public sports, &c. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 6; bk. 3, ch. 90; bk. 7, ch. 74.—Strabo, bks. 2, 5, & 13.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 2.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 1.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Justin, bk. 13, ch. 4.——A mistress of Horace, &c., bk. 1, ode 8.
Lydias, a river of Macedonia.
Lȳdius, an epithet applied to the Tiber, because it passed near Etruria, whose inhabitants were originally a Lydian colony. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, li. 781; bk. 8, li. 479.
Lydus, a son of Atys and Callithea, king of Mæonia, which from him received the name of Lydia. His brother Tyrrhenus led a colony to Italy, and gave the name of Tyrrhenia to the settlement which he made on the coast of the Mediterranean. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 74.——A eunuch, &c.
Lygdamis, or Lygdamus, a man who made himself absolute at Naxos. Polyænus.——A general of the Cimmerians who passed into Asia Minor, and took Sardis in the reign of Ardyes king of Lydia. Callimachus.——An athlete of Syracuse, the father of Artemisia the celebrated queen of Halicarnassus. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 99.——A servant of the poet Propertius, or of his mistress Cynthia.
Lygii, a nation of Germany. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 42.
Lygodesma, a surname of Diana at Sparta, because her statue was brought by Orestes from Taurus, shielded round with osiers. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 26.