LYCURGUS (Gr. Avicap-yos), in Greek history, the reputed founder of the Spartan Constitution. Plutarch opens his biog raphy of Lycurgus with these words : "About Lycurgus, the law giver, it is not possible to make a single statement that is not called in question. His genealogy, his travels, his death, above all, his legislative and constitutional activity have been variously recorded, and there is the greatest difference of opinion as to his date." Nor has modern historical criticism arrived at any certain results. Many scholars, indeed, suppose him to be in reality a god or hero, appealing to the existence of a temple and cult of Lycur gus at Sparta as early as the time of Herodotus (i. 66) (cf. Camb. Ancient Hist., vol. iii.). If this be so, he is probably to be con nected with the cult of Apollo Lycius or with that of Zeus Ly caeus. But the majority of modern historians agree in accepting Lycurgus as an historical person, however widely they may differ about his work.
According to the Spartan tradition preserved by Herodotus, Lycurgus was a member of the Agiad house, son of Agis I. and brother of Echestratus. On the death of the latter he became regent and guardian of his nephew, Labotas (Leobotes), who was still a minor. Other accounts give him a different origin, and make him regent for Charillus. According to Herodotus he introduced his reforms immediately on becoming regent, but the story which afterwards became generally accepted represented him as occupy ing for some time the position of regent, then spending several years in travels, and on his return to Sparta carrying through his legislation when Charillus was king. He is said to have visited Crete, Egypt and Ionia, and some versions even took him to Spain, Libya and India. In any case details of his life are almost certainly mythical. Herodotus derives his constitutional ideas from Crete, but there is a 5th century tradition ascribing them to the initiative of Delphi.
The Reforms.—Herodotus says that Lycurgus changed "all the customs," that he created the military organization and insti tuted the ephorate and the council of elders. To him, further, are attributed the foundation of the apolla (the citizen assembly), the prohibition of gold and silver currency, the partition of the land (As into equal lots, and, in general, the char acteristic Spartan training (ayoo-y77). Some of these statements are certainly false. The council of elders and assembly are not peculiar to Sparta, the ephorate is not generally allowed to be his, and the partition of land never seems to have taken place at Sparta at all—it is probably an attempt to give traditional sanc tion to the ideals of Agis and Cleomenes in the 3rd century. We
may conclude that Lycurgus did not create any of the main, elements of the Spartan Constitution, though he may have regu lated their powers and defined their position. But tradition repre sented him as finding Sparta the prey of disunion, weakness and lawlessness, and leaving her united, strong and subject to the most stable Government which the Greek world had ever seen. Prob ably Giote comes near to the truth when he says that Lycurgus "is the founder of a warlike brotherhood rather than the law giver of a political community." To him we may attribute the unification of the several component parts of the State, the strict military organization and training which soon made the Spartan hoplite the best soldier in Greece, and above all the elaborate and rigid system of education which rested upon, and in turn proved the strongest support of, that subordination of the individual to the State which, perhaps, has had no parallel in the history of the world.
Lycurgus's legislation is very variously dated, and it is not possible either to harmonize the traditions or to decide with con fidence between them. Tradition substantially agrees in placing him in the 9th century.
BIBLIOGRAPEIY.—OUr chief ancient authorities, besides Plutarch's biography, are: Herodotus i. 65; Xenophon, Respublica Lacedae moniorum; Ephorus up. Strabo x. 481, 482 ; Aristotle, Politics, ii.; Pausanias iii. and v. 4; and scattered passages in Plato, Isocrates, Polybius, Diodorus, Polyaenus, etc. Of modern works the most im portant are: E. Meyer, "Lykurgos von Sparta," in Forschungen zur alien Geschichte (Halle, 1892), i. 211 sqq.; A. Kopstadt, De rerum Laconicarnm constitutionis Lycurgeae origine et indole (Greifswald, 1849) ; H. K. Stein, Kritik der Uberlieferung fiber den spartanischen Gesetzgeber Lykurg (Glatz, 1882) ; S. Wide, "Bemerkungen zur spar tanischen Lykurglegende," in Skand. Archiv. i. (1891), 90 sqq.; E. Nusselt, Das Lykurgproblem (Erlangen, 1898) ; H. Bazin, De Lycurgo (Paris, 1885) ; C. Reuss, De Lycurgea quae fertur agrorum divisione (Pforzheim, 1878) ; A. Busson, Lykurgos and die grosse Rhetra (Inns bruck, 1887) ; H. Gelzer, "Lykurg and die delphische Priesterschaft" in Rhein. Mus. xxviii. 1 sqq.; F. Winicker, Stand der Lykurgischen Frage (Graudenz, 1884) ; G. Attinger, Essai sur Lycurgue et ses institutions (Neuchatel, 1892) ; E. Kessler, Plutarch's Leben des Lykurgos; the general Greek histories, and the works on the Spartan Constitution cited under SPARTA.