TYRTAEUS

flourished c. 650 BC, , Sparta Greek elegiac poet, author of stirring poetry on military themes supposedly composed to help Sparta win the Second Messenian War. Greek tradition after Tyrtaeus' time claimed that he was an Athenian or Milesian schoolmaster, sent to Sparta in reluctant compliance with an oracle, to strengthen Spartan morale. It is probable, however, that stories of his non-Laconian origin were invented after the 6th-century revolution at Sparta, when other Greeks could no longer imagine that Sparta had ever been able to produce its own poets. Only fragments of Tyrtaeus' poems survive; these combine exhortations to courage and self-discipline with reminders of past victories and assurances of future successes.