The domain of Menelaos (Menelaus).
Located in the southern portion of the Peloponnesian Peninsula, Lakedaimon1 included—Amyklai (Amyclae), Augeiai (Augeiae), Bryseiai (Bryseiae), Helos, Laas, Messe, Oitylos (Oetylus), Pharis, and Sparta. Lakedaimon is an acceptable name for the city of Sparta and the surrounding territory.
During the Trojan War, King Menelaos of Sparta commanded the Achaian (Achaean) soldiers from Lakedaimon. He mustered sixty ships to sail to Troy, which would have carried approximately 6,900 men.
Helen, wife of Menelaos, was abducted by Trojan Prince Alexandros (Paris) and became Helen of Troy.
According to the traveler-historian Pausanias, the eponymous founder of Lakedaimon was a son of the god Zeus and a woman named Taygete. Lakedaimon named the principal city of his kingdom after his wife Sparta, and the nearby mountain after his mother, Taygete.
1. Lakedaimon—also called Lakonia (Laconia)
Approximate Geographic Center
Latitude North, Longitude East
37.0457, 22.6603
| References: Homer, Iliad book 2, line 581; book 3, lines 239, 244, 387, 443 Pausanias, Description of Greece book 3.1.2 |