Aristomenes of Messene

Daniel Ogden is Professor of Ancient History in the University of Exeter, after teaching in Swansea between 1991 and 2003. With the Classical Press of Wales he has also published In Search of the Sorcerer's Apprentice: The Traditional Tales of Lucian's Lover of Lies (2007); and, as editor, Polygamy, Prostitutes and Death (2nd ed., 2023); The Hellenistic World: New Perspectives (2002). His books for other presses include Greek Bastardy (OUP, 1996); Greek and Roman Necromancy (Princeton, 2001); Magic, Witchcraft and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds (OUP, 2nd ed, 2009); Alexander the Great: Myth, Genesis and Sexuality (UEP, 2011); Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman World (OUP, 2013); Dragons, Serpents and Slayers in the Classical and Early Christian Worlds (OUP, 2013); The Legend of Seleucus (CUP, 2017); The Werewolf in the Ancient World (OUP, 2021); The Strix-Witch (CUP, 2021); The Dragon in the West (OUP, 2021); The Tyrants of Corinth: Legends of Cypselus and Periander (Routledge, 2024). He has edited The Oxford Handbook of Heracles (OUP, 2021); The Cambridge Companion to Alexander the Great (CUP, 2024). Polygamy, Alexander and Seleucus together form a loose trilogy.

'Aristomenes, the legendary hero of the Second Messenian War, and the subject of much of Book 4 of Pausanias' Periegesis, is an intriguing and much-neglected figure. Daniel Ogden's reconstruction of the ways in which Aristomenes may have been represented across many centuries of shifting narrative tradition goes a long way towards compensating for that neglect.' Jason König, Classical Review, 2005, 574-5. '... this work is not only highly interesting, but also provides an informative and indeed authoritative discussion of one of Greek history's lesser known heroes, whose existence alone sheds much light on the overall development of myth and legend, with the likelihood that many such tales developed not in the Dark Age or earlier, but rather in the Classical period.' Richard J. Evans, Mnemosyne, 2008, 696-8.

• PrefaceMap of Aristomenes' MesseniaIntroduction: Aristomenes, greatest glory of Messenia1. Pausanias' account of the Aristomenes legend2. The Aristomenes legend as popular tradition3. From Achilles to Aesop: the nature and character of Aristomenes4. Aristomenes loses his shield5. Aristomenes in and out of the underworld6. Aristomenes and the mysteries7. Aristomenes, Aristodemus and the hairy heart8. Aristomenes and historyConclusionAppendix 1: Aristomenes in the Messeniaca of Rhianus of BeneAppendix 2: The reconstruction of the Aristomenes tradition from Tyrtaeus to Stephanus of ByzantiumAppendix 3: Unfinished tales – the Nachleben of Aristomenes in English literature and The Arabian NightsSupplementary ChapterBibliographyIndex 1: Ancient sources for AristomenesIndex 2: General