Tyrtaeus
historical figure · 2 works · 3 mentions · 4 anchored passages
in the texts
Orations
Spartan martial poet whose verses are compared unfavorably to Homer's.
far more so than the verses of Tyrtaeus among the Spartans.
For of Homer alone their poets make mention in their poems, and otherwise too they are wont to recite him, but always whenever they are about to fight they exhort their own men, just as the verses of Tyrtaeus were recited in Lacedaemon.
Against Leocrates
Athenian-born poet taken to Sparta as a military leader, whose elegiac verses were used to train Spartan soldiers in courage.
Does any Greek not know that they took Tyrtaeus from our city to be their leader and with him defeated their enemies and established their system of training for the young, thus wisely providing for the immediate danger and for their whole future too?
Though they have no regard for other poets, they valued his works so highly that they passed a law which provides that their men, after taking the field, shall be summoned to the king’s tent to hear the verses of Tyrtaeus all together, holding that this of all things would make them most ready to die for their country.