Lelex (king of Sparta)

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.

Lelex was said to be autochthonous ^[1] or his father was the sun god Helios or the sea god Poseidon.^[2] He either consorted with the nymph Cleocharia and became the father of Eurotas ^[3] or was the father of Polycaon and Myles (who himself was Eurotas's father).^[4] Some called his wife Peridia and their children were Myles, Polyclon, Bomolochus and Therapne.^[5]

In one tradition, again, Lelex was described as the son of Spartus, and father of Amyclas.^[6] The eponymous heroine Lakonia was credited to be a daughter of Lelex as well.^[2]

Through Myles, Lelex was the grandfather of Eurotas, who had a daughter named Sparta.^[7] This woman later married Lacedaemon ^[8] 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.^[9]

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.^[10] He had a heroön at Sparta.^[11]

• 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.