Archidameia

Archidameia (Ancient Greek: Ἀρχιδάμεια) was the name of several women of classical antiquity:

  • Archidameia, a priestess of the Greek goddess Demeter, who, because of love of Aristomenes, set him at liberty when he had been taken prisoner.[1]
  • Archidameia, grandmother of the Spartan king Agis IV, was put to death, together with her grandson, in 241 BCE.[2]
  • Archidameia, a Spartan woman who distinguished herself by her heroic spirit when Sparta was nearly taken by Pyrrhus in 272 BCE, and who opposed the plan which had been entertained of sending the women to Crete. The biographer Plutarch calls her "Archidamia" (Ἀρχιδαμία),[3] but the later military writer Polyaenus calls her "Archidamis" (Ἀρχίδαμις).[4] The latter writer also calls her the daughter of king "Cleadas" (Κλεάδας) or "Cleomenes".

Notes
  1. Pausanias, Description of Greece 4.17.1
  2. Plutarch, Agis 4, 20
  3. Plutarch, Pyrrhus 27
  4. Polyaenus, 8.49

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William (1870). "Archidameia". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. p. 266.

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