Homer uses only the former, and in some passages seems to denote by it the Achaean citadel, the Therapnae of later times, in contrast to the lower town Sparta. Lacedaemon is now the name of a separate department, which had in 1907 a population of 87,106.
This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Lacedaemon was also the mythical founder of Sparta, a son of Zeus and Taygete.