TYRTAEUS, Greek elegiac poet, lived at Sparta about the middle of the 7th century B.C. According to the older tradition he was a native of the Attic deme of Aphidnae, and was invited to Sparta at the suggestion of the Delphic oracle to assist the Spartans in the second Messenian war. Later accounts reject his Athenian origin but it is admitted that Tyrtaeus flourished during the second Messenian war (c. 65o B.c.)—a period of musical and poetical activity at Sparta, when poets like Terpander and Thaletas were welcomed—that he not only wrote poetry but served in the field, and that he endeavoured to compose the in ternal dissensions of Sparta (Aristotle, Politics, v. 6). About 12 fragments (three of them complete poems) are preserved. They are mainly elegiac and in the Ionic dialect, written partly in praise of the Spartan constitution arid King Theopompus (Ebvopla), partly to stimulate the Spartan soldiers to deeds of heroism in the field ("INroNiKat—the title is, however, later than Tyrtaeus).
The interest of the fragments preserved from the Eiwol.tla is mainly historical, and connected with the first Messenian war. The triro0C/Kat were very popular in the army (Athen. xiv. 63o F.). Of the marching songs ('EOccriipta), written in the anapaestic measure and the Doric dialect, only scanty fragments remain.
Verrall (Classical Review, July 1896, May 1897) definitely places the lifetime of Tyrtaeus in the middle of the 5th century B.c., while Schwartz (Hermes, 1889, xxxiv.) disputes the existence of the poet altogether; see also Macan in Classical Review (Feb. 1897) ; H. Weil, Etudes sur l'antiquite grecque (19oo), and C. Giarratani, Tirteo e i suoi carmi (1905). There are English verse translations by R. Polwhele (1792) and imitations by H. J. Pye, poet laureate (1795), and an Italian version by F. Cavallotti, with text introduction and notes (1898). The fragment beginning T€9pa0vaL -yap KaXav has been translated by Thomas Campbell, the poet.