Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Tyrtaeus

TYRTÆUS, Greek elegiac poet, lived at Sparta about the middle of the 7th century B.C. According to the legend current in later times, he was a native of the Attic deme of Aphidnae, and was invited to Sparta, on the suggestion of the Delphic oracle, to assist the Spartans in the Second Messenian War. It is difficult, if not im possible, to determine the element of truth in this story. Herodotus at least either did not know, or disbelieved, the tradition, which meets us first in Plato (Laws, i. 629A), to the effect that, although Tyrtaeus was by birth an Athenian, he had the Spartan citizenship conferred upon him (see Herod., ix. 35). From Plato down to Pausanias we can trace the gradual growth and expansion of the legend. Ephorus is the first to call Tyrtaeus a lame poet; by later generations he is represented as a lame school master. Basing his inference on the ground that Tyrtaeus speaks of himself as a citizen of Sparta (Fr. 2 v. 3), Strabo (viii. 4, 10) was inclined to reject the story of his Athenian origin, regarding the elegies in question as spurious. On the whole, perhaps, the conjecture of Busolt (Gr. Gesch., p. 166) comes nearest to the truth: the entire legend may well have been concocted during the 5th century in connexion with the expedition sent to the assistance of Sparta in her struggle with the revolted Helots at Ithome. It is possible, as Busolt suggests, that Tyrtaeus was in reality a native of Aphidna in Laconia. However this may be, it is certain from the fragments of his poems that he nourished during the Second Messenian War (circ. 650 B.C.) a period of remarkable musical and poetical activity at Sparta (see Terpander) that he not only wrote poetry but took part in the actual service of the field, and that he endeavoured to compose the internal dissensions of Sparta by inspiring the citizens with a patriotic love for their fatherland and its institutions.

We possess in all about twelve fragments of Tyrtaeus's poetry, varying in length from one to forty-four lines. They are preserved by Strabo, Lycurgus, Stobaeus, and others We may divide them into two varieties, accord ing to the metre and dialect in which they are composed. The first class consists of elegies in the Ionic dialect, written partly in praise of the Spartan constitution and King Theopompus (Ewo/t/a), partly to stimulate the Spartan soldiers to deeds of heroism in the field ( YTroflijKcu the title is, however, later than Tyrtaeus). The interest of the fragments preserved from the Ewo/zta is mainly historical: they form our only trustworthy authority for the events of the First Messenian War (Fr. 5, 6, 7). The YiroOrJKat possess considerable poetic merit, in spite of the occasional monotony of their versification. Addressed to a nation of warriors, they paint in vivid colours the beauty of bravery and the shame of cowardice; there are also lines in them which reveal the soldier as well as the poet, e.g., Fr. 10, 31-32. One striking feature is the genuinely Greek feeling for plastic beauty, showing itself in the beautiful picture of the youthful form lying dead upon the battle-field (Fr. 10, 27-30, and 12, 23-34; see also Symonds's Greek Poets, i. p. 74). The popularity of these elegies in the Spartan army was such that, according to Athenaeus (xiv. 630 F), it became the custom for the soldiers to sing them round the camp fires at night, the polemarch rewarding the best singer with a piece of flesh. Of the second class of Tyrtaeus's poems, marching songs, written in the anapaestic measure and the Dorian dialect, the remains are too scanty to allow of our pronouncing a judgment on their poetic merit.

See Bergk, Poetæ Lyrici Græci, vol. ii. pp. 8-22, Leipsic, 1882. Fragment 10 (τεθνάμεναι γἁρ καλόν, &c.) has been translated into English verse by Campbell.