Lampido and the Spartan royal family · Lexicon

From the book

Alcibiades I

Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordLampido is identified as daughter of Leotychides, wife of Archidamus and mother of Agis; the three men are described as having been kings.
In Alcibiades ISocrates imagines Lampido, like Amestris, wondering that a badly reared young man proposes to compete with her son.
In this editionThe supplied note identifies Agis II and observes that his accession in 427/6 falls after the proposed dramatic period.
A place to readLampido and the three royal relations complete the imagined foreign appraisal.

Meaning

Lampido is identified as daughter of Leotychides, wife of Archidamus and mother of Agis; the three men are described as having been kings.

Use in the book

Socrates imagines Lampido, like Amestris, wondering that a badly reared young man proposes to compete with her son. The three-generation identification gives her authority within the dynastic world against which Alcibiades is being measured. Her family is not an incidental pedigree: it embodies the continuous royal preparation that Socrates contrasts with his and Alcibiades’ private status. None of these four figures appears as a speaker, and no actual statement by Lampido is reported. The rhetorical comparison ends by asking whether the enemies’ women understand the requirements of competition better than the Athenians themselves.

Places to read

123e–124aLampido and the three royal relations complete the imagined foreign appraisal.

Translation in this edition

The supplied note identifies Agis II and observes that his accession in 427/6 falls after the proposed dramatic period. The wording “all of whom have been kings” therefore creates a chronological difficulty; it must not be used to assert a fully consistent exact dramatic year. Lampito is an alternative form reported in the note, not Burnet’s spoken form here.

Ἆγις

Attested: Ἄγιδος (agidos; 124a). Agis, Lampido’s son, included among the kings in her family. Lexical identification: lemma: Ἆγις. See Lampido and the Spartan royal family.

Ἀρχίδαμος

Attested: Ἀρχιδάμου (archidamou; 124a). Archidamus, Lampido’s husband, included among the kings in her family. Lexical identification: lemma: Ἀρχίδαμος. See Lampido and the Spartan royal family.

Λαμπιδώ

Attested: Λαμπιδώ (lampidō; 123e). Lampido, the Spartan royal woman imagined as assessing the challenger to her son. Lexical identification: lemma: Λαμπιδώ. See Lampido and the Spartan royal family.

Λεωτυχίδης

Attested: Λεωτυχίδου (leōtychidou; 124a). Leotychides, Lampido’s father, included among the kings in her family. Lexical identification: lemma: Λεωτυχίδης. See Lampido and the Spartan royal family.

Source note

The supplied edition, note 47 on 124a, compares Herodotus 6.71 and Plutarch, Agesilaus 1, and gives the accession of Agis as 427/6. This is the note’s basis for the chronological caution, not a date supplied in the dialogue.