Agiads
The Agiads were the senior royal house at Sparta, descended mythically from the elder of Heraclid twins (Herodotus 6. 52; see Heracles); the junior was known as the Eurypontids. The ...
Alcmaeonidae
A noble Athenian family prominent in politics. Its first eminent member was Megacles, who as archon (see archontes), perhaps in 632/1 bc, involved it in a hereditary curse (see Cylon). ...
alcoholism
n. the syndrome due to physical dependence on alcohol, such that sudden deprivation may cause withdrawal symptoms – tremor, anxiety, hallucinations, and delusions (see delirium tremens). The risk of ...
Arcadian League
Common ethnic identity led to Arcadian federation (see federal states), particularly in the 4th cent. bc. The coin-legend Arkadikon suggests federal ambitions in the 5th cent. bc, and the Spartan ...
Argos
A city in the NE Peloponnese of Greece. One of the oldest cities of ancient Greece, it dominated the Peloponnese and the western Aegean in the 7th century bc. Argive, a citizen of Argos, is used ...
Cleisthenes
Athenian politician, of the Alcmaeonid family, son of Megacles and Agaristē, daughter of Cleisthenes (1) of Sicyon. He was archon (see archontes) under the tyrant Hippias (1) in 525/4 bc, but later ...
Dēmarātus
Eurypontid king of Sparta (reigned c.515–491 bc). He twice obstructed his Agiad co‐king Cleomenes I. Dethroned on a false charge of illegitimacy manipulated through Delphi by Cleomenes, he Medized by ...
Dorieus
‘the Dorian’, royal Spartan, a younger half-brother of Cleomenes (1) I by their polygamous father's first wife. Jealousy, ambition, and disaffection prompted him to lead a colonizing expedition (only ...
Hippias
Tyrant (see tyranny) of Athens 527–510 bc, elder son and successor of Pisistratus, in close association with his brother Hipparchus (1). His rule was at first mild. Leading aristocrats held the ...
Leonidas
(died 480 bc)King of Sparta. He won immortal fame when he commanded a Greek force against the invading Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae. He held the pass long enough to make possible the naval ...
Leotychidas II
Eurypontid king of Sparta (reigned 491–469 bc), succeeded his cousin and former marriage‐rival, the deposed Dēmarātus. In 479, as commander‐in‐chief of the ‘Hellenic League’ fleet, he fomented the ...
Peloponnesian League
The earliest known and longest‐lasting Greek offensive and defensive alliance. The name is modern and inaccurate, since the alliance was neither all‐ and only Peloponnesian nor a league (the members ...
river-gods
Rivers and seas are ultimately derived from Oceanus, the mythical father of all rivers. As personifications of seemingly animate powers river‐gods such as Scamander in the Trojan plain may assume ...
Telesilla
Argive poet (see Argos (2)) of the 5th cent. bc. Later tradition (probably of Argive origin, since her statue at Argos (2) showed her putting on a helmet: Pausanias 2. ...
