Lelex (king of Sparta)

For other uses, see Lelex (mythology).

In Greek mythology, Lelex (/ˈliːlɪks/; Ancient Greek: Λέλεξ) was one of the original inhabitants of Laconia which was called after him, its first king, Lelegia.

Mythology

Lelex was said to be autochthonous or his father was the sun god Helios or the sea god Poseidon. He either consorted with the nymph Cleocharia and became the father of Eurotas or was the father of Polycaon and Myles (who himself was Eurotas's father). Some called his wife Peridia and their children were Myles, Polyclon, Bomolochus and Therapne.

In one tradition, again, Lelex was described as the son of Spartus, and father of Amyclas. The eponymous heroine Lakonia was credited to be a daughter of Lelex as well.

Through Myles, Lelex was the grandfather of Eurotas, who had a daughter named Sparta. This woman later married Lacedaemon who named the city of Sparta after his wife; however, the city's name would also be his own, as it was called either Lacedaemon or Sparta interchangeably.

Sources indicate that Perseus was a descendant of Lelex. The latter's great-granddaughter Sparta gave birth to a daughter named Eurydice who had married Acrisius, the king of Argos. Eurydice became the mother of Danaë, thus making her Perseus’ grandmother.

Lelex appears to have been conceived by ancient mythographers as the eponymous founder of the Leleges, a semi-mythical people who lived on both sides of the Aegean Sea. He had a heroön at Sparta.

References

• Beck, Hans, Localism and the Ancient Greek City-State, University of Chicago Press, 2020, ISBN 978-0-226-71134-8. Google books.
• Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
• Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1
• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. ISBN 0-674-99328-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Band XII, Halbband 2, edited by Wilhelm Kroll, Stuttgart, J. B. Metzler, 1925. Wikisource.
• Stephanus of Byzantium, Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorum quae supersunt, edited by August Meineike (1790–1870), published 1849. A few entries from this important ancient handbook of place names have been translated by Brady Kiesling. Online version at the Topos Text Project.