Editing Aristodemus

{{Short description|Legendary ancestor of the Spartan kings}}
{{For|others with the same name|Aristodemus (disambiguation)}}

[[Image:Route of Karanos to establish his own kingdom.png|thumb|right|350px|The Heracleidae attacks on the Peloponessus.]]

In [[Greek mythology]], '''Aristodemus''' ([[Ancient Greek]]: Ἀριστόδημος) was one of the [[Heracleidae]], son of [[Aristomachus (Heracleidae)|Aristomachus]] and brother of [[Cresphontes]] and [[Temenus]]. He was a great-great-grandson of [[Heracles]] and helped lead the fifth and final attack on [[Mycenae]] in the [[Peloponnese]].<ref>''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'' ii. 8.</ref>

Aristodemus and his brothers complained to the [[oracle]]{{clarify|date=September 2022}} that its instructions had proved fatal to those who had followed them; the oracle had told [[Hyllas]] to attack through the narrow passage when the third fruit was ripe. They received the answer that by the "third fruit" the "third generation" was meant, and that the "narrow passage" was not the isthmus of [[Corinth, Greece|Corinth]], but the straits of [[Rhium]]. They accordingly built a fleet at [[Naupactus]], but before they set sail, Aristodemus was struck by lightning (or shot by [[Apollo (god)|Apollo]]) and the fleet destroyed, because one of the [[Heraclidae]] had slain an [[Acarnania]]n soothsayer.

His brothers were later able to conquer the Peloponnese.

By his wife [[Argia (mythology)|Argia]], daughter of King [[Autesion]] of [[Ancient Thebes (Boeotia)|Thebes]], he was the father of twin kings [[Eurysthenes]] and [[Procles]], the ancestors of the two royal houses of [[Sparta]].<ref>[http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.6.vi.html Herodotus, History of Herodotus, book 6]</ref>

== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}

== General and cited sources ==
* [[Georg Busolt]]. ''Griechische Geschichte'', Part I, Chapter 11, Section 7, where a list of authorities is given.
* [[Diodorus Siculus]], iv. 57, 58.
* [[Euripides]], ''[[Heraclidae]]''.
* [[George Grote]]. ''History of Greece'', Part I, Chapter XVIII.
* [[Herodotus]], ix. 27.
* [[Karl Otfried Müller]]. ''Dorians'', Part I, Chapter 3.
* [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], i. 32, 41, ii. 13, 18, iii. I, iv. 3, v. 3.
* [[Pindar]], [[Pythia]], ix. 137.
* [[Connop Thirlwall]]. ''History of Greece'', Chapter VII.

{{Kings of Sparta}}

[[Category:Heracleidae]]
[[Category:Ancient Messenians]]