EPEUNACTE, or EPEUNETE, in Grecian Antiquity, were a class of Spartan citizens believed to have sprung from the union of the Helots with the widows of the Spartans who had fallen in the Messenian war. They seem to have been identical with the Partheniae; who, finding themselves excluded from the privileges which they believed their due, and classed with Helots, conspired with them to make war on their oppressors. This unnatural war, however, was soon brought to a close; and the Partheniae emigrated in a body under the command of Phalanthus to Italy, where they founded Tarentum.