Aristomĕnes in Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

（Ἀριστομένης). A Messenian, the hero of the second war with Sparta, who belongs more to legend than to history. He was a native of Andania, and was sprung from the royal line of Aepytus. Tired of the yoke of Sparta, he began the war in B.C. 685. After the defeat of the Messenians, in the third year of the war, Aristomenes retreated to the mountain fortress of Ira, and there maintained the war for eleven years, constantly ravaging the land of Laconia. In one of his incursions the Spartans overpowered him with superior numbers, and, carrying him with fifty of his comrades to Sparta, cast them into the pit where condemned criminals were thrown. The rest perished; but not so Aristomenes, the favourite of the gods; for legends tell how an eagle bore him up on its wings as he fell, and a fox guided him on the third day from the cavern. But the city of Ira, which he had so long successfully defended, fell into the hands of the Spartans, who again became masters of Messenia, B.C. 668. Aristomenes settled at Ialysus, in Rhodes, where he married his daughter to Damagetus, king of Ialysus.

Read More about Aristomĕnes in Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities