page_title: Aristomenes
section_title: Other narratives
hierarchical_section_title: Aristomenes / Other narratives
context_page_description: Aristomenes was a king of Messenia, celebrated for his struggle with the Spartans in the Second Messenian War, and his resistance to them on Mount Eira for 11 years. At length the mountain fell to the enemy, while he escaped and, according to legend, was snatched up by the gods; in fact he died at Rhodes.
context_section_description: Another tradition represents him as captured and slain by the Spartans during the war. Though there seems to be no conclusive reason for doubting the existence of Aristomenes, his history, as related by Pausanias, following mainly the Messeniaca of the Cretan epic poet Rhianus (about 230 BC), is evidently largely interwoven with fictions. These probably arose after the foundation of Messene in 369 BC. Aristomenes's statue was set up in the stadium there: his bones were fetched from Rhodes and placed in a tomb surmounted by a column, and more than five centuries later heroic honours were still paid to him, and his exploits were a popular subject of song.
  According to explorer Richard Francis Burton, one story about Aristomenes, in which he had been thrown into a pit and had to escape—being set free by Archidameia—is the principal inspiration for one of the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor in the Arabian Nights.
caption: A girl saves Aristomenes by Franc Kavčič
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