Hesperia
“Memoryscape” at the Spartan Menelaion
by Nicolette Pavlides
Hesperia, Volume 94, Issue 3
Page(s): 305-341
Stable URL:
Year: 2025
ABSTRACT:
This article examines how the Menelaion sanctuary and the Late Helladic remains at Therapne (Sparta) became lieux de mémoire, “memory spaces” of the local past. The “sacralization” of the landscape at Therapne is viewed in the context of the gradual naissance of Spartan state formation ca. 700 BCE, when Sparta slowly established itself as a community, and of the subsequent monumentalization of the sanctuary in the Archaic period. The inception of the cult at the end of the 8th or early 7th century BCE illustrates how heroes could serve as anchors for later communities undergoing periods of transformation, allowing them to define themselves through their local past.