Though it is true that Pindar fails to mention Lycurgus when mentioning Aegimius’s Doric laws (in the context of links between Aetna (2) and Sparta), this is not a significant silence, since it would have made no sense for the poet to quote Lycurgus, as Sparta and Aetna did not in fact share Spartan customs, only Doric ones. The argument from silence based on Pindar ( Pyth. There is, in any case, no definitive evidence against the idea that Lycurgan tradition was already affirmed in Sparta in the 5th century. 1.1) provides no certain chronological clue. 7 The lack of any mention of Lycurgus in Tyrtaeus’s extant fragments may offer, on the one hand, an approximate terminus post quem to establish the origins of his tradition on the other hand, the so-called Disc of Iphitus (Arist. 536 Rose) had been attributed to him from the very beginning. It is also possible that the so-called Great Rhētra ( Plut. Such a divergence as early as the 5th century gives weight to the hypothesis that the figure of Lycurgus had been known in Sparta since the archaic age. It cannot be ruled out, however, that this version also assumed that the oracle sanctioned Lycurgus’s “Cretan” laws. The second is usually understood to ascribe the origins of Lycurgus’s laws to the Cretan constitution. According to the first version, Lycurgus received the laws directly from Apollo. Herodotus himself reports two versions of the relation between Lycurgus and Delphi. spurium 355 Poltera)-presumably the poet, as Plutarch says, and not his later, more obscure relative the genealogist, as many scholars suppose ( FGrH and BNJ 2 8 F 5 = fr. From the 4th century onwards, the connection to the Eurypontids becomes predominant, but it had already been known to a Simonides (fr. 8.131.2) seems to assume that the lawgiver belonged to that family, since the name “Eunomus” is probably connected to the founder of eunomia. In 1.65.4, Herodotus identifies him a member of the royal family of the Agiads, but his genealogy of the Eurypontids ( Hdt. In focusing on the unhistorical character of Lycurgus, scholars have long downplayed the importance of his legend in the 5th century, but even then varying versions of his biography and achievements were already in circulation. 3.16.6) and probably alluded to by the Delphic oracle he quotes however, it is not entirely clear when the cult assumed the form of divine worship. 31.3, perhaps with contemporary information added by Plutarch, Paus. In these authors’ accounts, the episode is at the origin of the cult of Lycurgus, already known to Herodotus ( Ephorus FgrHand BNJ 70 F 118 apud Strabo 8.5.5, Arist. 29.1–5: the story may go back to Ephorus cf. Only later sources tell of the ruse devised by Lycurgus to protect his laws from being changed: after the citizens promised to keep the laws unchanged during his absence, he visited Delphi, received by the oracle confirmation of their beneficial effect for the city, and then let himself die ( Nic. 3 Travels to Egypt, Ionia, Lybia, Iberia, and India are first recorded later by Diod. These basic elements as well as other details of Herodotus’s narrative reappear in later versions of Lycurgus’s biography: Lycurgus’s royal ancestry, his guardianship of a young king, and his travels to Crete (after Herodotus, Ephorus FGrH and BNJ 70 F 118 apud Strabo 8.5.5, Ephorus FGrH and BNJ 149.18–19 apud Strabo 10.4.18–19, Arist. With the support of the Delphic oracle, Lycurgus changed “all the laws,” and created the gerousia, the ephorate, and the Spartan military organization (there is mention of the syssitia among the military institutions). He says that Lycurgus had brought the Spartans out of an era of extreme political disorder ( kakonomōtatoi) and into one of good order ( eunomiē), which in turn led to the city’s increased power. The earliest extant source for Lycurgus is Herodotus ( 1.65.2–66.1).