Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Lacedaemon.
The gallery
Eurotas and Lakedaimonia mosaic
Unknown (Roman mosaicist), 4th century AD
Hatay Archaeology Museum (inv. 826): Eurotas faces the labelled personification of Lakedaimonia — the Spartan land that takes its name from Lacedaemon, son of Zeus and Taygete. Late Antique floor art keeps the king’s eponym alive as geography even when the mortal founder himself goes unpainted.
Genealogy of Taygete and Lacedaemon
Modern didactic chart, 21st century
A schematic Pleiad genealogy naming Taygete and her son Lacedaemon — the stem by which Sparta’s eponymous king enters the Atlas line. Classroom mythography rather than salon painting, it still marks the rare places where Lacedaemon is labelled as a person.