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Sparta (Lacedaemon)

Accepted11/12HighMainland GreeceHomeric name(s): Λακεδαίμων · Σπάρτη

Menelaus and Helen's kingdom. The valley is certain, the palace is not: Laconia has produced Mycenaean mansions and an early cult of Menelaus, but no palace to match Pylos or Mycenae.

Telemachus reaches Lacedaemon by chariot in Book 4 and finds Menelaus in a hall so bright he compares it to the court of Zeus. Homer's Lacedaemon is 'hollow' and 'full of ravines' — a good description of the Eurotas valley between Taygetus and Parnon.

The Menelaion at Therapne is where the ancient Greeks put him. The hill carries Mycenaean buildings and, from the archaic period onward, a sanctuary of Menelaus and Helen where Herodotus already reports a story of Helen. That is a strong cult tradition attached to a real Bronze Age site, and it is the best Laconia offers.

Identifications proposed

  • The Eurotas valley (Lacedaemon)

    Proposed by: Continuous ancient identification

    Accepted11/12High

    The region Homer calls Lacedaemon is not in doubt: a broad river valley enclosed by Taygetus and Parnon, exactly the 'hollow' the poems describe. The Bronze Age centre within it is the open question, not the valley.

    37.0736, 22.4297· Area

    • ArchaeologyExcavations at the Menelaion, Therapne — Mycenaean mansions and a Late Bronze Age settlement; British School at Athens, from 1909 and again from 1973
    • ArchaeologyHector W. Catling, excavation reports on the Menelaion site, Archaeological Reports (1976–1977)
    • Primary textHomer, Iliad (trans. A. T. Murray, Loeb, 1924)
    Confidence
    11/12 · High confidence
    Textual
    3
    Archaeological
    2
    Scholarly
    3
    Geographic
    3

  • The Menelaion at Therapne

    Proposed by: Excavated by the British School at Athens (1909; 1973–)

    Plausible10/12High

    A hill above the Eurotas with substantial Mycenaean mansions and, from the archaic period, a shrine to Menelaus and Helen. The cult is evidence that Greeks located Menelaus here; it is not evidence that he lived here, and no palace of the Pylos or Mycenae class has been found in Laconia.

    37.0714, 22.4569· Site

    • ArchaeologyExcavations at the Menelaion, Therapne — Mycenaean mansions and a Late Bronze Age settlement; British School at Athens, from 1909 and again from 1973
    • ArchaeologyHector W. Catling, excavation reports on the Menelaion site, Archaeological Reports (1976–1977)
    • Primary textHerodotus, Histories 6.61 — the shrine of Helen at Therapne
    Confidence
    10/12 · High confidence
    Textual
    2
    Archaeological
    3
    Scholarly
    2
    Geographic
    3

Why this class

Accepted at the level of the region and plausible at the level of the palace, which is why the place carries two hypotheses at different scores. The archaeological criterion is what separates them: the valley scores on landscape and continuity, the Menelaion on excavated buildings and cult.

What is disputed

Whether a Mycenaean palatial centre of the Pylos class lies undiscovered under the Eurotas plain, or whether Laconia was governed differently — and therefore whether the Odyssey's Spartan palace is a memory, an anachronism, or an invention.

Sources

  • Primary textHomer, Iliad (trans. A. T. Murray, Loeb, 1924)
  • Primary textHomer, Odyssey (trans. A. T. Murray, Loeb, 1919)
  • ArchaeologyExcavations at the Menelaion, Therapne — Mycenaean mansions and a Late Bronze Age settlement; British School at Athens, from 1909 and again from 1973
  • ArchaeologyHector W. Catling, excavation reports on the Menelaion site, Archaeological Reports (1976–1977)
  • Primary textHerodotus, Histories 6.61 — the shrine of Helen at Therapne