Tyrtæus

, a Greek elegiac poet, born in Attica, son of Archimbrotus. In the second Me enian war, the Lacedæmonians were directed by the oracle to apply to the A then i ans for a general, if they wished to finish their expedition with succe , and they were contemptuously presented with Tyrtæus. The poet, though ridiculed for his many deformities, and his ignorance of military affairs, animated the Lacedæmonians with martial songs, just as they wished to raise the siege of It home, and inspired them with so much courage, that they defeated the Me enians. For his services, he was made a citizen of Lacedæmon, and treated with great attention. Of the compositions of Tyrtæus nothing is extant but the fragments of four or five elegies. He flourished about 684 B.C. Justin , bk. 2 , ch. 5 .— Strabo , bk. 8 .— Aristotle , Politics , bk. 5 , ch. 7 .— Horace , Art of Poetry , li. 402 .— Ælian , Varia Hist or i a , bk. 12 , ch. 50 .— Pausanias , bk. 4 , ch. 6 , .