Aristomenes

Aristomenes was a member of the Aepytid family, the son of Nicomedes (or, according to another version, of Pyrrhus) and Nicoteleia, and took a prominent part in stirring up the revolt against Sparta and securing the co-operation of Argos and Arcadia.

At length Eira was betrayed to the Spartans (668 BC according to Pausanias), and after a heroic resistance Aristomenes and his followers had to evacuate Messenia and seek a temporary refuge with their Arcadian allies.

Aristomenes retired to Ialysus on Rhodes, where Damagetus, his son-in-law, was king, and died there while planning a journey to Sardis and Ecbatana to seek aid from the Lydian and Median sovereigns.

[3] 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.

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,[4] and more than five centuries later heroic honours were still paid to him, and his exploits were a popular subject of song.