For most of its history, theancient Greek city-state ofSparta in thePeloponnese was ruled by kings. Sparta was unusual among the Greekcity-states in that it maintained its kingship past theArchaic age. It was even more unusual in that it hadtwo kings simultaneously, who were called thearchagetai,[1][n 1] coming from two separatelines. According to tradition, the two lines, theAgiads (Ἀγιάδαι,Agiadai) andEurypontids (Εὐρυποντίδαι,Eurypontidai), were respectively descended from the twinsEurysthenes andProcles, the descendants ofHeracles, who supposedly conquered Sparta two generations after theTrojan War. The dynasties themselves, however, were named after the twins' grandsons, the kings Agis I and Eurypon, respectively. The Agiad line was regarded as being senior to the Eurypontid line.[3]
Although there are lists of the earlier purported Kings of Sparta, there is little evidence for the existence of any kings before the middle of the sixth century BC or so.
Spartan kings received a recurring posthumoushero cult like that of the similarly Dorickings of Cyrene.[4] The kings' firstborn sons, as heirs-apparent, were the only Spartan boys expressly exempt from theAgoge; however, they were allowed to take part if they so wished, and this endowed them with increased prestige when they ascended the throne.
Ancient Greeks named males after their fathers, producing apatronymic with the suffix-id-; for example, the sons ofAtreus were the Atreids. For royal houses, the patronymic was formed from the name of the founder or of an early significant figure of a dynasty. A ruling family might thus have a number of dynastic names; for example, Agis I named the Agiads, but he was a Heraclid and so were his descendants.
If the descent was not known or was scantily known, the Greeks made a few standard assumptions based on their cultural ideology. Agiad people were treated as a tribe, presumed to have descended from an ancestor bearing its name. He must have been a king, who founded a dynasty of his name. That mythologizing extended even to place names. They were presumed to have been named after kings and divinities. Kings often became divinities, in their religion.
The Lelegid were the descendants of Lelex (aback-formation), ancestor of theLeleges, an ancient tribe inhabiting the Eurotas valley before the Greeks, who, according to the mythological descent, amalgamated with the Greeks
The Lacedaemonids contain Greeks from the age of legend, now treated as being the Bronze Age in Greece. In the language of mythologic descent, the kingship passed from the Leleges to the Greeks.
TheAtreidai (Latin Atreidae) belong to the Late Bronze Age, or theMycenaean Period. In mythology, they were thePerseids. As the name ofAtreus is attested in Hittite documents, this dynasty may well be protohistoric.
The Spartan kings asHeracleidae claimed descent fromHeracles, who through his mother was descended from Perseus. Disallowed the Peloponnesus, Heracles embarked on a life of wandering. The Heracleidae became ascendant in the Eurotas valley with theDorians who, at least in legend, entered it during an invasion called the Return of the Heracleidae; driving out the Atreids and at least some of the Mycenaean population.
The dynasty is named after its third king Eurypon. Not shown isLycurgus, the lawgiver, a younger son of the Eurypontids, who served a brief regency either for the infant Charilaus (780–750 BC) or for Labotas (870–840 BC) the Agiad.
Ward and nephew of the Spartan reformerLycurgus; War with theArgives; destroyed the border-town ofAegys;Battle of Tegea. Perhaps the first historical Eurypontid king.[8]
^Agesilaus II, distinguished king of Sparta, being asked which was the greater virtue, valor or justice, replied: "Unsupported by justice, valor is good for nothing; and if all men were just, there would be no need of valor".
