with a pregnant wife. When this child was born, Lycurgus named the child Charilaus ("joy of the people") and transferred his kingship to the baby. After that, given his reputation as a man who could readily lay down the supreme power out of respect for justice, he could rule the Spartans in his capacity as the guardian of his nephew Charilaus. The young king's mother and her relatives envied and hated Lycurgus. He was slandered and accused of plotting the death of Charilaus. Travels Lycurgus finally decided that the only way that he might avoid blame in case something should happen to the child would be to go traveling until Charilaus had grown up and fathered a son to secure the succession. Therefore, Lycurgus gave up all of his authority and set out on a celebrated, though no doubt legendary, journey. His first destination was Crete, like Sparta a Dorian land, where he studied the laws of Minos. During this time he met a composer named Thales, whose music could soothe the masses, inspiring his listeners to become better people. Spartan and Cretan institutions did indeed have common characteristics, but, though some direct borrowing may have occurred, such similarities are in general more likely to be because of the common Dorian inheritance of Sparta and Crete rather than because some individual such as Lycurgus imported Cretan customs to Sparta. Traveling after that to Asia Minor, homeland of the Ionian Greeks, he found it instructive to compare the refined and luxurious lifestyle of the Ionians with the stern and disciplined culture of the Dorians. Some say that Lycurgus subsequently traveled as far as Egypt, Spain, and India. In Ionia, Lycurgus discovered the works of Homer. Lycurgus compiled the scattered fragments of Homer and made sure that the lessons of statecraft and morality in Homer's epics became widely known. According to Plutarch, the Egyptians claim that Lycurgus visited them too, and that he got from the Egyptians the idea of separating the military from the menial workers, thus refining later Spartan society, in which Spartans were not allowed to practice manual crafts. Return to Sparta After Lycurgus had been absent for a while, the Spartans wrote and begged him to come back. As they admitted, only Lycurgus was really a king in their heart, although others wore a crown and claimed the title. He had the true foundation of sovereignty: a nature