Aristomenes The Hero Of Messenia

We have told by what means the Spartans grew to be famous warriors. We

have now to tell one of the ancient stories of how they used their

warlike prowess to extend their dominions. Laconia, their country, was

situated in the southeast section of the Peloponnesus, that southern

peninsula which is attached to the remainder of Greece by the narrow

neck of land known as the Isthmus of Corinth. Their capital city was

ancien ly called Lacedaemon; it was later known as Sparta. In consequence

they are called in history both Spartans and Lacedaemonians.



In the early history of the Spartans they did not trouble themselves

about Northern Greece. They had enough to occupy them in the

Peloponnesus. As the Romans, in after-time, spent their early centuries

in conquering the small nations immediately around them, so did the

Spartans. And the first wars of this nation of soldiers seem to have

been with Messenia, a small country west of Laconia, and extending like

it southward into the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea.



There were two wars with the Messenians, both full of stories of daring

and disaster, but it is the second of these with which we are specially

concerned, that in which the hero Aristomenes won his fame. We shall

not ask our readers to believe all that is told about this ancient

champion. Much of it is very doubtful. But the war in which he took part

was historical, and the conquest of Messenia was the first great event

in Spartan history.



Now for the story itself. In the first Messenian war, which was fought

more than seven hundred years B.C., the leader of the Messenians was

named Aristodemus. A quarrel had arisen between the two nations during

some sacrifices on their border lands. The Spartans had laid a snare for

their neighbors by dressing some youths as maidens and arming them with

daggers. They attacked the Messenians, but were defeated, and the

Spartan king was slain.



In the war that ensued the Messenians in time found themselves in severe

straits, and followed the plan that seems to have been common throughout

Grecian history. They sent to Delphi to ask aid and advice from the

oracle of Apollo. And the oracle gave them one of its often cruel and

always uncertain answers; saying that if they would be successful a

virgin of the house of AEpytus must die for her country. To fulfil this

cruel behest Aristodemus, who was of that ancient house, killed his

daughter with his own hand,--much as Agamemnon had sacrificed his

daughter before sailing for Troy.



Aristodemus afterwards became king, and had a stirring and tragic

history, which was full of portents and prodigies. Thus an old blind

prophet suddenly recovered his sight,--which the Messenians looked upon

to mean something, though it is not clear what. A statue of Artemis (or

Diana) let fall its brazen shield; which meant something more,--probably

that the fastenings had given way; but the ancients looked on it as a

portent. Then the ghost of his murdered daughter appeared to

Aristodemus, pointed to her wounded side, stripped off his armor, placed

on his head a crown of gold and on his body a white robe,--a sign of

death. So, as it seemed evident that he had mistaken the oracle, and

killed his daughter without saving his country, he did the only thing

that remained for him: he went to her grave and killed himself. And with

this tragedy ends all we need to tell about the first champion of

Messenia.



The war ended in the conquest of Messenia by the Spartans. The conquered

people were very harshly treated by the conquerors, being forced to pay

as tribute half the produce of their fields, and to humble themselves

before their haughty masters. As a result, about fifty years afterwards,

they broke out into rebellion, and a second Messenian war began.



This war lasted for many years, the Messenians being led by a valiant

hero named Aristomenes, who performed startling exploits and made

marvellous escapes. Three great battles took place, with various results

and three times Aristomenes made a remarkable sacrifice to the king of

the gods. This was called the Hekatomphonia, and could only be offered

by one who had slain, with his own hands, one hundred enemies in battle.



But great battles were not all. There were years of guerilla warfare.

At the head of a band of brave followers Aristomenes made his way more

than once to the very heart of Laconia, surprised two of its cities, and

on one occasion ventured into Sparta itself by night. Here he boldly

entered the temple of Athene of the Brazen House and hung up his shield

there as a mark of defiance to his enemies, placing on it an inscription

which said that Aristomenes presented it as an offering from Spartan

spoil.



The Messenian maidens crowned their hero with garlands, and danced

around him, singing a war strain in honor of his victories over his

foes. Yet he found the Spartans vigorous and persistent enemies, and in

spite of all his victories was forced at length to take refuge in the

mountain fastnesses, where he held out against his foes for eleven

years.



We do not know all the adventures of this famous champion, but are told

that he was taken prisoner three times by his enemies. Twice he made

marvellous escapes while they were conveying him to Sparta. On the third

occasion he was less fortunate. His foes bore him in triumph to their

capital city, and here he was condemned to be cast from Mount Taygetus

into the Keadas, a deep rock cavity into which they flung their

criminals.



Fifty Messenian prisoners suffered the same fate and were all killed;

but the gods, so we are told, came to their leader's aid. The legend

says that an eagle took Aristomenes on its outspread wings, and landed

him safely in the bottom of the pit. More likely the bodies of the

former victims broke his fall. Seeing no possible way out from the deep

cavity, he wrapped himself in his cloak, and resigned himself to die.

But, while thus lying, he saw a fox prowling among the dead bodies, and

questioned himself how it had found its way into the pit. When it came

near him he grasped its tail, defending himself from its bites by means

of his cloak. Holding fast, he followed the fox to the aperture by which

it had entered, enlarged it so that he could creep out, and soon

appeared alive again in the field, to the surprise of his friends and

the consternation of his foes.



Being seized again by some Cretan bowmen, he was rescued by a maiden,

who dreamed that wolves had brought into the city a chained lion, bereft

of its claws, and that she had given it claws and set it free. When she

saw Aristomenes among his captors, she believed that her dream had come

true, and that the gods desired her to set him free. This she did by

making his captors drunk, and giving him a dagger with which he cut his

bonds. The indiscreet bowmen were killed by the warrior, while the

escaped hero rewarded the maiden by making her the wife of his son.



But Messenia was doomed by the gods, and no man could avert its fate.

The oracle of Delphi declared that if the he-goat (Tragos) should drink

the waters of the Neda, the god could no longer defend that fated

country. And now a fig-tree sprang up on the banks of the Neda, and,

instead of spreading its branches aloft, let them droop till they

touched the waters of the stream. This a seer announced as the

fulfillment of the oracle, for in the Messenian language the fig-tree

was called Tragos.



Aristomenes now, discouraged by the decree of the gods, and finding

himself surrounded, through treachery, by his enemies in his mountain

stronghold, decided to give up the hopeless struggle. He broke fiercely

through the ranks of his assailants with his sons and followers, and

left his country to the doom which the gods had decreed.



The end of his career, like its earlier events, was, according to the

legend, under the control of the deities. Damagetes, the king of the

island of Rhodes, had been told by an oracle that he must marry the

bravest of the Hellenes (or Greeks). Believing that Aristomenes had the

best claim to this proud title, he asked him for the hand of his

daughter in marriage, and offered him a home in his island realm.

Aristomenes consented, and spent the remainder of his days in Rhodes.

From his daughter descended the illustrious family of the Diagoridae.



This romantic story of the far past resembles those of King Alfred of

England, of Wallace and Bruce of Scotland, and of other heroes who have

defended their countries single-handed against a powerful foe. But we

are not done with it yet. There is another singular and interesting

episode to be told,--a legend, no doubt, but one which has almost passed

into history.



The story goes that the Spartans, losing heart at the success of the

Messenians in the early years of the war, took the usual method then

adopted, and sent to the oracle at Delphi for advice. The oracle told

them to apply to Athens for a leader. They did so, sending an embassy to

that city; and in response to the oracle the Athenians sent them a lame

schoolmaster named Tyrtaeus. They did not dare to resist the command of

the god, but they had no desire to render any actual aid to the

Spartans.



However, Apollo seems to have been wiser than the Athenians. The lame

schoolmaster was an able poet as well, and on reaching Sparta he

composed a series of war-songs which so inspirited the army that they

marched away to victory. Tyrtaeus was probably not only an able poet;

very likely he also gave the Spartans good advice in the conduct of the

war, and though he did not lead their armies, he animated them by his

songs and aided them with his advice until victory followed their career

of defeat.



For many years afterwards the war-songs of Tyrtaeus remained highly

popular at Sparta, and some of them have come down to our own days. As

for the actual history of this war, most of what we know seems to have

been written by Tyrtaeus, who was thus not only the poet but the

historian of the Messenian wars.