1910–1911
Britannica 11th
Encyclopaedia Britannica · 11th edition
TYRTAEUS, Greek elegiac poet, lived at Sparta about the middle of the 7th century B.C. According to the older tradition he was a native of the Attic deme of Aphidnae, and was invited to Sparta at the suggestion of the Delphic oracle to assist the Spartans in the second Messenian war. According to a later version, he was a lame schoolmaster, sent by the Athenians as likely to be of the least assistance to the Spartans (Justin iii. 5; Themistius, Oral. xv. 242; Diod. Sic. xv. 67). A fanciful explanation of his lamene…
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- OCR text aligned to scanned pages
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- Vol. 27, pp. 551-551