Hero Cults at Sparta (Brennan)

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Hero cults at Sparta (Brennan) * A hero was someone whose exploits while he was alive suggested that he was more than human. After his death he was venerated as someone, who while not a god, was still divine and worthy of a cult. * Sometimes a hero was remembered and honoured by a community as a founding father or ancestral figure. In other cases a hero was associated with a particular locality and might be thought of as the ‘spirit of the place.’ * A hero might also serve as a model of behaviour that was socially endorsed. He might be held up as an illustration of the community’s values. * A heroon (hero shrine) might have been a tomb or cenotaph, a tomb without a body, an image of a hero or a place for offerings. Name of Cult | Description | Evidence | The cult of Lykourgos | Lykourgos was the ancestral hero of Sparta whose laws and ‘sayings’ came to define what it was to be Spartan.5th century cult well established | Herodotus tells us that the oracle of Apollo at Delphi was believed to have recognised Lycourgos’ divinity and he notes that after his death a temple was built in his honour.Plutarch (Life of Lykourgos) mentions him as a hero for his wisdom and virtue ‘for he has a temple and each year sacrifices are offered to him as though to a god.’Pausanias mentions the Lakonians made a ‘god’s sanctuary for Lycourgos’ and an ‘altar of Lykourgos.’ | The cult of Menelaos and HelenThe cult of Menelaos and Helen | Menelaos was believed to have been a Mycenaean king in this area of the Pelponnese long before the arrival of the Spartans. He was a hero who, in legend, lived in the time of the Trojan wars.In The Illiad he was the husband of the beautiful Helen who was carried off by the hero Paris of Troy. According to Spartan tradition, Menelaos was able to reclaim his wife and bring her back to Sparta.Helen appears to have been especially
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