Tyndareüs

King of Sparta. Tyndareüs (Τυνδάρεως) was the son of Oebalus and Gorgophone, who was daughter of Perseus and Andromeda. Tyndareüs was the brother of Icarius and Arene. He was also the half-brother of Hippocoön, his rival.

Tyndareüs succeeded his father at Oebalus' death. Tyndareüs became the first important king of Sparta. There was not much myth recorded about his father and his ancestors who ruled Sparta and Laconia.

Hippocoön

Hippocoön (Ἰπποκόων) was a son of Oebalus and the naiad Bateia. Hippocoön was the half-brother of Tyndareüs, Icarius and Arene. Hippocoön became the father of twelve sons: Dorycleus, Scaios, Enarophoros, Euteiches, Boucolos, Lycaithos, Tebros, Hippothoos, Eurytos, Hippocorystes, Alcinous and Alcon. This list of Hippocoön's sons was given in Apollodorus' Library.

When their father died, Tyndareüs as the eldest son became the new king of Sparta. Hippocoön was jealous of Tyndareüs so with the help of his twelve sons, they drove Tyndareüs and Icarius out of Sparta.

Tyndareüs fled to Calydon with his brother, and they became suppliants to the House of Calydon, the king of Calydon. During his stay in the Calyonian court, Tyndareüs met and fell in love with Leda, the sister of Althaea, who was the wife of Oeneus. It was in this court that he met the hero Heracles (Hercules), who was also a guest of Oeneus.

Heracles had previously gone to Sparta, asking Hippocoön to purify him for the murder of Iphitus, the son of King Eurytus of Oechalia, but Hippocoön refused, so Hippocoön earned Heracles' enmity. Heracles could only atone for Iphitus' murder, if Heracles served as a slave to Omphale, the great Lydian Queen. Omphale later released Heracles, taking the hero as her lover. Heracles had already defeated the armies of Laomedon, Augeias and Neleus.

So after some years had passed, Heracles was in Calydon when Tyndareüs arrived. Heracles agreed to restore the throne to Tyndareüs.

Heracles gathered an army in Calydon and at Tegea in Arcadia. In the battle at Sparta, Heracles killed Hippocoön and all twelve sons of his. With Hippocoön's death, Heracles restored the kingdom to Tyndareüs.

Before Tyndareüs left Aetolia, he married Leda and took her back with him to Sparta, where he ruled once more.

Leda and her Children

Tyndareüs married Leda (Λήδα), daughter of Thestius and Eurythemis. Leda was the sister of Althaea, who married the Calydonian king Oeneus (see House of Calydon), and of Hypermnestra, who married Oicles and became the mother of the Argive seer warrior, Ampharius (see Adrastus in Houses of Aroglis).

According to a popular myth, Zeus fell in love with Tyndareüs' beautiful wife. One day, Zeus transformed himself into a swan. In this form, Zeus lulled Leda to sleep before he ravished the sleeping queen. On that same night, Tyndareüs also had intercourse with his wife. From these unions, Leda laid four eggs and when the eggs hatched, she became the mother of four children. From Tyndareüs, Leda became the mother of Castor (Κάστωρ) and Clytemnestra (Κλυταιμνἠστρα). And from Zeus, she was the mother of Polydeuces (Πολυδεύκης; in Latin, his name is Pollux) and Helen (Ἑλένη). The twins, Castor and Polydeuces became known as the Dioscuri (Διόσκουροι), and were Sparta's greatest heroes.

Tyndareüs and Leda were also the parents of another daughter named Timandra, who became wife of Echemus (Echemos). Apollodorus also mentioned a second daughter named Phylonoe. The goddess Artemis made Phylonoe immortal, but it is not known why Phylonoe was given such an honour. It can reasonably be suggested that she was one of the companions in the hunt.

Tyndareüs' sister Arene married her half-brother/cousin Aphareus, son of Perieres and Gorgophone. Aphareus became the king of Messenia. Arene was the mother of twins named Idas and Lynceus. Idas and Lynceus were rivals and mortal enemies of the Spartan twins, Castor and Polydeuces (Pollux). All four sailed with Jason and the Argonauts, as well as hunting together in the Calydonian Boar Hunt. In the end, the two sets of twins fought and killed one another, with only Polydeuces surviving. Castor and Polydeuces were transformed into the constellation Gemini, and they were worshipped as gods, patrons of sailors and young warriors. See Dioscuri and Idas and Lynceus for the two twins.

According to several different accounts, Helen wasn't Leda's daughter, but rather that of Nemesis, goddess of retribution, whom Zeus fell in love with.

According to one account, Zeus was transformed into a swan while Nemesis fled from him, first in the form of a fish, then later as a goose. Zeus caught up with Nemesis and ravished her while they were still in the forms of the two different birds.

In another account, Aphrodite helped her father to seduce Nemesis. Aphrodite transformed herself into an eagle or a hawk pursuing a swan, which was actually Zeus. The swan fled into Nemesis' arms, and she protected the bogus bird from the hawk. That night while Nemesis slept, embracing the swan, Zeus raped her in this form.

Both accounts were the same after Zeus ravished the goddess. Nemesis became pregnant, laying a beautiful egg in the woods, which was found by a shepherd. The shepherd presented the egg to Leda, who kept it in a chest until the egg hatched and Helen was born. So Nemesis was really the mother of Helen, while Leda reared the child as her own. Most authors said that Nemesis was Helen's real mother, but she was usually referred to as a daughter of Leda. See Helen and Nemesis.

Whatever the relationship was between Helen and her brothers, or with their mother, the Dioscuri were Helen's protectors. When Helen was twelve, the hero Theseus and his friend Peirithous abducted her. The Dioscuri, with their army, rescued her (while Theseus was absent in the Underworld), and deprived Theseus of his mother and his kingdom, Athens.

During the ninth year of the Trojan War, according to Homer in the Iliad, Helen did not know that her brothers had died and become gods, because they were absent from the war.

Helen and her Suitors

When Helen reached a marriageable age, her beauty became known far and wide. Many powerful princes and heroes sought her hand in marriage. There were too many suitors to name here, but you will find most of the names in the Catalogue of Ships in my Facts & Figures about the Trojan War page. These include the Argive Diomedes, the Salamian Ajax, the Cretan Idomenus, and Menelaüs. Some of them in the list were not her actual suitors, who would later fight at Troy. That included people like Agamemnon (who married Helen's sister, Clytemnestra), Odysseus (who wanted to marry Helen's cousin, Penelope), Nestor (it was actually Nestor's son Antioclus who was Helen's suitor) and Achilles (who was living in the court of Lycomedes, on the island of Scyrus, not pursuing Helen).

Tyndareüs feared that with any husband that he or his daughter might choose, the rest of them would become his enemies. Odysseus was the wisest and most cunning of the Greeks at that time. Odysseus suggested that each suitor had to take a solemn oath to accept her choice and to protect Helen's husband and father, when it became necessary. All of her suitors took this oath, and in the end Helen chose Menelaüs, brother of Agamemnon.

When Menelaüs married Helen, Tyndareüs abdicated, allowing Menelaüs to rule Sparta in his place. Helen became the mother of Hermione.

Tyndareüs did not forget Odysseus' wise advice, so he helped the hero to win his niece's hand in marriage. Odysseus won Penelope, daughter of Icarius, in a footrace against other suitors. Penelope became the mother of Telemachus and lived in Ithaca with her husband. Odysseus' long absence from Ithaca caused many rude suitors to seek her hand in marriage, since Odysseus was believed to be dead. Odysseus returned after twenty years and killed all of her suitors. See the Odyssey about Odysseus' adventures after the Trojan War.

Unlike her cousins Helen, Clytemnestra and Timandra, Penelope was a model of faithfulness and loyalty to her husband. Tyndareüs' daughters all committed adultery, because he had forgotten to sacrifice to Aphrodite. Aphrodite punished Tyndareüs by cursing all three daughters of Leda, turning them into adulteresses.

Timandra was married to Echemus, but she ran off with Phyleus of Dulichium. Clytemnestra was married to Agamemnon, but she took his cousin as her lover when her husband fought at Troy. And Helen had also eloped with Paris, which started the Trojan War.

Menelaüs and Helen weren't married for very long before Paris, a Trojan prince, seduced Menelaüs' wife, and then Paris spirited Helen away with the help of Aphrodite. They eloped and fled to Troy. Menelaüs called upon the former suitors of Helen to help him win her back. This resulted in the famous Trojan War.

See the Judgement of Paris in the Trojan War. Also read Helen, Menelaüs and Paris.

According to Euripides' play, Orestes, Tyndareüs was still alive when Orestes wanted to marry his cousin Hermione, Tyndareüs' grand-daughter. As far as I can tell, Tyndareüs' death was not recorded.