Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/863

Rh LYCORTAS. friend of Philopoemen, to whose policy, pnident at once and patriotic, we find him adhering through- out. In B.C. 189, he was sent as ambassador to Rome, with his rival Diophanes, to receive the senate's decision on the question of the war which the Achaean League had declared against Lacedae- mon ; and, while Diophanes expressed his willing- ness to leave every thing to the senate, Lycortas urged the right of the league to free and indepen- dent action. (Liv. xxxviii. 30 — 34.) In B.C. 186, he was one of tlie three ambassadors sent to Ptolemy V. (Epiphanes), to effect a new alliance between Egypt and the Achaeans ; but, at an as- sembly held at Megalopolis in the next year, when Aristaenus was strategus, neither Lycortas and his colleagues nor the Egyptian envoys, who had ac- companied them from Ptolemy's court, could spe- cify which of the several treaties made in former times with Egypt had now been renewed ; and Lycortas accordingly incurred much blame and furnished a triumph to the party of Aristaenus. (Pol. xxiii. 1, 7, 9.) In the same year (185), Philopoemen and Lycortas defended successfully, at Argos, the treatment of the Lacedaemonians by the Achaeans, which had been censured by Caeci- lius Metellus ; and, when Appius Claudius was sent from Rome, in B.C. 184, to settle the ques- tion, Lycortas, now general of the league, again contended that the Achaeans were justified in the mode in which they had dealt with Lacedaemon : but he did not carry his point with Appius. (Pol. "xxii. 23, xxiii. 1, 7, 10, 11, 12, xxiv. 4 ; Liv. xxxix. 33, 35—37, 48; Plut. PMlop. 16, 17 ; Paus. vii. 9.) In B.C. 183, when Deinocrates and his party had withdrawn Messenia from the league, Lycortas was sent against them by the aged Phi- lopoemen, but was unable to force his way through the passes into Messenia. Being, however, made general of the league, on the death of Philopoemen, at the end of the same year or the beginning of 182, he invaded Messenia and took full vengeance on the chief authors of Philopoemen's murder. [Deinocrates ; Philopoemen.] Soon after Messenia was re-admitted into the league, and Lycortas, at the same time, urged successfully against Diophanes the re-admission of Lacedaemon also. (Pol. xxiv. 12, xxv. 1, 2, Spic. Rel. xxiv. 2, 3; Plut. PhUop. 18—21; Paus. iv. 29; Liv. xxxix. 48—50; Just, xxxii. 1.) In B.C. 180, Lycortas, together with his son Polybius, and Aratus (son of the famous general of the same name), was again appointed ambassador to Ptolemy Epiphanes, who had made the most friendly ad- vances Vo the Achaeans ; but the intelligence of the king's death prevented the embassy from being sent. (Pol. xxv. 7.) In B.C. 179, when Hyper- batus was general of the league, Lycortas spoke strongly against compliance with the requisition of the Romans for the recal of all the Lacedaemonian exiles without exception. On this occasion he was op- posed to Callicrates and Hyperbatus ; and, of course, he became more and more an object of dislike and suspicion to the Romans. He adhered, however, firmly to the moderate policy which he had adopted from the first ; and, when the war between Rome and Perseus broke out, he recommended the Achaeans to preserve a strict neutrality. (Pol. xxvi. 1, &c., xxviii. 3, 6.) In b. c. 168, we find him proposing, in opposition again to Callicrates and Hyperbatus, to send aid to the two Ptolemies (Philometor and Physcon), who had asked for a force, with Lycor- | VOL. II. LYCUROUS. 849 tas for general, against Antiochus Epiphanes ; but his motion was unsuccessful. From this period we hear no more of him. Had he been alive in b. c. 167, he would doubtless have been among the 1000 Achaeans who were apprehended and sent to Rome after the conquest of Macedonia : but his son Polybius makes no mention of him, nor even alludes to him, as one of the prisoners in question. AVe may, therefore, perhaps infer that he was by that time dead. (Pol. xxix. 8 — 10 ; see above, vol. i. p. 569, b; Clint. F. II. vol. iii. pp. 318, 386.) [E. E.] LYCTUS (AvKTOs), a son of Lycaon, and the mythical founder of the ancient town of Lyctos in Crete. (Hom. 11. ii. 647; Eustath. ad Horn. p. 313 ; Steph. Byz. s. ?).) [L. S.] LYCURGUS {AvKovpyos). 1. A son of Dryas, and king of the Edones in Thrace. He is famous for his persecution of Dionysus and his worship on the sacred mountain of Nyseion in Thrace. The god himself leaped into the sea, where he was kindly received by Thetis. Zeus thereupon blinded the impious king, who died soon after, for he was hated by the immortal gods. (Hom. //. vi. 130, &c.) The punishment of Lycurgus was represented in a painting in a temple at Athens. (Paus. i. 20. § 20.) The above Homeric story about Ly- curgus has been much varied by later poets and mythographers. Some say that Lycurgus expelled Dionysus from his kingdom, and denied his divine power ; but being intoxicated with wine, he first attempted to do violence to his own mother, and to destroy all the vines of his country. Dionysus then visited him with madness, in which he killed his wife and son, and cut olF one (some say both) of his legs ; or, according to others, made away with himself. (Hygin. Fuh. 132, 242; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 14.) According to ApoUodorus (iii. 5. $ 1), Dionysus, on his expeditions, came to the kingdom of Lycurgus, but was expelled ; where- upon he punished the king with madness, so that he killed his son Dryas, in the belief that he was cutting down a vine. When this was done, Ly-- curgus recovered his mind ; but his country pro- duced no fruit, and the oracle declared that fertility should not be restored unless Lycurgus were killed. The Edonians therefore tied him, and led him to mount Pangaoum, where he was torn to pieces by- horses. Diodorus (i. 20, iii. Q5) gives a sort of rationalistic account of the whole transaction. Ac- cording to Sophocles {Antic/. 955, &c.), Lycurgus was entombed in a rock. (Comp. Ov. Trisl. v. 3, 39.) 2. A son of Aleus and Neaera, and a brother of Cepheus and Auge, was king in Arcadia, and married to Cleophile, Eurynome, or Antinoe, by whom he became the father of Ancaeus, Epoclius, Amphidamas, and Jasus. (ApoUod. iii. 9. <i 1, &c. ; Schol. adApoUon. Rhod. i. 164.) Some also call Cepheus his son, and add another of the name of Jocrites. (Apollod. i. 8. § 2 ; Steph. Byz. s. v. BwTax'iSai.) Lycurgus killed Arcithous with his lance, meeting him in a narrow valley. He took the club with which his enemy had been armed, and used it himself ; and on his death he be- queathed it to his slave Ereuthalion, his sons having died before him. (Hom. //. vii. 1 42, &c. ; Paus. viii. 4. § 7.) His tomb was aftervv.irds shown at Lepreos, (Paus. v. 5. § 4.) 3. A son of Pronax and brother of Amphlthea, the wife of Adrastus. He took part in the war o£