Statue of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, Naples. This is a Roman copy of the Athenian original, now lost

Harmodius (circa 530 BC - 514 BC) and Aristogeiton (circa 550 BC - 514 BC), known as "the Liberators" and "the Tyrannicides", became heroes in Athens through their role in the overthrow of the Tyranny of the Peisistratid family. Harmodius and Aristogeiton File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 580s BC - 570s BC - 560s BC - 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC Events and Trends 538 BC - Babylon occupied by Jews transported to Babylon are allowed to return to... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 560s BC - 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC - 470s BC - 460s BC Events and Trends Establishment of the Roman Republic March 12, 515 BC - Construction is completed on the... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 600s BC - 590s BC - 580s BC - 570s BC - 560s BC - 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC Events and Trends Carthage conquers Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica 559 BC - King Cambyses I of Anshan dies... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 560s BC - 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC - 470s BC - 460s BC Events and Trends Establishment of the Roman Republic March 12, 515 BC - Construction is completed on the... Tyrannicide, similar to regicide, literally means the killing of a tyrant. ... The Acropolis in central Athens, one of the most important landmarks in world history. ... A tyrant (from Greek τύραννος týrannos) is a usurper of rightful power, possessing absolute power and ruling by tyranny. ...

Peisistratus seized power in 541 BC and established a radical regime. Peisistratus is usually called a tyrant, but the Greek word tyrannos does not mean a cruel and despotic ruler, merely one who took power by force. Peisistratus was in fact a very popular ruler, who made Athens wealthy and powerful, although the old aristocratic families he had driven from power hated him. When Peisistratus died in 527 BC - 528 BC, his sons Hippias and Hipparchus succeeded him. They continued their father's policies, but their popularity declined after Hipparchus began to abuse the power of his position. In Greek mythology, Pisistratus (also transliterated as Peisístratos) was a friend of Telemachus and a son of Nestor. ... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 590s BC - 580s BC - 570s BC - 560s BC - 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC Events and Trends 548 BC -- Croesus, Lydian king, defeated by Cyrus. ... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 570s BC - 560s BC - 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC - 470s BC Events 529 BC - Cambyses II succeeds his father Cyrus as ruler of Persia. ... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 570s BC - 560s BC - 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC - 470s BC Events 529 BC - Cambyses II succeeds his father Cyrus as ruler of Persia. ... Hippias was one of the sons of Pisistratus, and was tyrant of Athens in the 6th century BC. Hippias succeeded Pisistratus in 527 BC, and in 525 BC he introduced a new system of coinage in Athens. ... Hipparchus was one of the sons of Pisistratus who became tyrant of Athens when Pisistratus died in 527 BC. Hipparchus ruled jointly with his brother Hippias. ...

In 514 BC Hipparchus sought the sexual favours of Harmodius, who was, the historian Thucydides tells us, "then in the flower of youthful beauty," which would have made him about 15. Harmodius was the eromenos (younger lover) of Aristogeiton, whom Thucydides describes as "a citizen then in middle rank of life" - possibly aged about 35 and a member of one of the old aristocratic families. Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 560s BC - 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC - 470s BC - 460s BC Events and Trends Establishment of the Roman Republic March 12, 515 BC - Construction is completed on the... Bust of Thucydides Thucydides (between 460 and 455 BC–circa 400 BC, Greek Θουκυδίδης, Thoukudídês) was an ancient Greek historian, and the author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens. ...

Sexual relations between an older man (the erastes) and a youth were sanctioned by custom in Athens and other Greek cities, although these relationships were not homosexual in the modern sense of the word, but paederastic. Such relationships were governed by strict conventions, and Hipparchus's actions in trying to steal Aristogeiton's eromenos was a definite breach of the rules. (Thucydides says bluntly that Aristogeiton "was his lover and possessed him.") Since its inception, the term homosexuality has acquired multiple meanings. ... Pederasty, as idealized by the ancient Greeks, was a relationship and bond between an adolescent boy and an adult man outside of his immediate family. ...

Harmodius rejected Hipparchus and told Aristogeiton what had happened. Hipparchus, spurned, avenged himself by having Harmodius' young sister disqualified from carrying a ceremonial offering basket at the Panathenaea festival on the pretext she was not a virgin, as was required. This was such a mortal offence to Harmodius's family that he and Aristogeiton resolved to assassinate both Hippias and Hipparchus and thus to overthrow the tyranny. The Panathenaic Games were a set of games held every four years in Athens in Ancient Greece. ...

The plot - to be carried out by means of daggers hidden in the ceremonial myrtle wreaths - involved a number of other co-conspirators, but seeing one of these greet Hippias in a friendly manner on the assigned day, the two thought themselves betrayed and rushed into action, ruining the carefully laid plans. They managed to kill Hipparchus, stabbing him to death as he was organizing the Panathenaean processions at the foot of the Acropolis, but the two lovers were killed on the spot by Hipparchus's guards, and there was no revolt. This article refers to acropoleis in general. ...

Aristotle in the Constitution of Athens preserves a tradition that Aristogeiton died only after being tortured in the hope that he would reveal the names of other conspirators. During his ordeal, personally overseen by Hippias, he feigned willingness to betray his co-conspirators, claiming only Hippias' handshake as guarantee of safety. Upon receiving the tyrant's hand he is reputed to have berated him for shaking the hand of his own brother's murderer, upon which the tyrant wheeled and struck him down on the spot. Likewise, there is a tradition that Aristogeiton was in love with a courtesan (see hetaira) by the name of Leæna (lioness) who also was kept by Hippias under torture - in a vain attempt to force her to divulge the names of the other conspirators - until she died. It was said that it was in her honor that Athenian statues of Aphrodite were from then on accompanied by stone lionesses [after Pausanias]. Aristotle, marble copy of bronze by Lysippos. ... In ancient Greece, Hetaerae were courtesans, that is to say, sophisticated companions and prostitutes. ... Pausanias was Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ...

His brother's murder led Hippias to establish an even stricter dictatorship, which proved very unpopular and was overthrown, with the help of an army from Sparta, in 510 BC. This was followed by the reforms of Cleisthenes, who established a democracy in Athens. Sparta (Greek Σπάρτη) was a city in ancient Greece, whose territory included, in Classical times, all Laconia and Messenia, and which was the most powerful state of the Peloponnesus. ... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 560s BC - 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC - 470s BC - 460s BC Events and Trends Establishment of the Roman Republic March 12, 515 BC - Construction is completed on the... Cleisthenes (also Clisthenes or Kleisthenes) was a noble Athenian who reformed the constitution of ancient Athens and set it on a democratic footing in 508 BC. He was a relative of Cleisthenes of Sicyon, through the latters daughter Agarista and her husband Megacles. ...

Subsequent mythology thus came to identify the romantic figures of Harmodius and Aristogeiton as martyrs to the cause of Athenian freedom, and they became known as "the Liberators" (eleutherioi) and "the Tyrannicides" (tyrannophonoi). According to later writers, descendants of Harmodius and Aristogeiton were given hereditary privileges, such as sitesis (the right to take meals at public expense in the town hall), ateleia (exemption from certain religious duties), and proedria (front-row seats in the theater). Since it is not known if Harmodius had any descendants (it is most unlikely that Aristogeiton did), this may be a later invention, but it illustrates their posthumous status.

After the establishment of democracy, the sculptor Antenor was commissioned to produce a statue group of Harmodius and Aristogeiton that was erected in the Agora. This statue group was stolen by the Persians when they occupied Athens in 480 BC (see Persian Wars). It was returned to Athens by Alexander the Great (according to the historian Arrian) or by Seleucus I (according to the Roman writer Valerius Maximus). In the meantime, however, the Athenians had commissioned Critius and Nesiotes to produce new statues, which were set up in about 477 BC. Antenor was an Athenian sculptor, of the latter part of the 6th century BC. He was the creator of the joint statues of the tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogeiton, set up by the Athenians on the expulsion of Hippias. ... Map of the Agora of Athens in Socrates and Platos time An agora (αγορά), translatable as marketplace, was an essential part of an ancient Greek polis or city-state. ... The Persian Empire is the name used to refer to a number of historic dynasties that have ruled the country of Persia (Iran). ... Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 530s BC 520s BC 510s BC 500s BC 490s BC - 480s BC - 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC Years: 485 BC 484 BC 483 BC 482 BC 481 BC _ 480 BC _ 479 BC... The Greco-Persian Wars or Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Greek world and the Persian Empire that started about 500 BC and lasted until 448 BC. The term can also refer to the continual warfare of the Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire against the Parthians and... Alexander the Great fighting the Persian king Darius (Pompeii mosaic, from a 3rd century BC original Greek painting, now lost). ... Lucius Flavius Arrianus Xenophon (c 92-c 175), known in English as Arrian, was a Roman historian. ... Silver coin of Seleucus. ... The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus), until its radical reformation in what was later to be known as the Byzantine Empire. ... Valerius Maximus was a Latin writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes. ... Critias is also a work by Plato, see [1] for a translation. ... Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 520s BC 510s BC 500s BC 490s BC 480s BC - 470s BC - 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC Years: 482 BC 481 BC 480 BC 479 BC 478 BC - 477 BC - 476 BC 475 BC...

Both statue groups are now lost, but the later work was extensively copied in Hellenistic and Roman times. An excellent copy may be seen in the Archaeological Museum in Naples. It shows idealised portraits of the two heroes: a nude, clean-shaven Harmodius (with a much more adult physique than he would actually have had), thrusting a sword forward in his upraised left hand, another sword in his right hand; and the bearded Aristogeiton, also brandishing two swords, a chlamys, or cape, draped over his left shoulder. Of the four swords only the hilts are left, and the original head of Aristogiton having been lost, another has been set in its place and is only a poor fit. The term Hellenistic (established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen) in the history of the ancient world is used to refer to the shift from a culture dominated by ethnic Greeks, however scattered geographically, to a culture dominated by Greek-speakers of whatever ethnicity, and from the political dominance... Location within Italy Naples (Italian Napoli, Neapolitan Napule, from Greek Νέα Πόλις - Néa Pólis - meaning New City; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is the largest city in southern Italy and capital of Campania Region. ...

Another tribute to the two heroes was a hymn sung as a drinking song (skolion) at the symposia, written by Callistratus, an Athenian poet known only for this work. This ode, found in Athenaeus, has been translated by many modern poets, among whom Edgar Allan Poe, who composed this version in 1827: Originally, the term symposium referred to a drinking party; the Greek verb sympotein means to drink together. The term has since come to refer to any academic conference, irrespective of drinking. ... Callistratus of Aphidnae (Greek: Καλλιστράτος Kallistratos) was a friend of Callicrates, a political person and an Athenian orator of the 4th century BC, a strategos in 378 and was executed in 355. ... Athenaeus (ca. ... This daguerreotype of Poe was taken less than a year before his death at the age of 40. ... 1827 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

Hymn to Aristogeiton and Harmodius

I
Wreathed in myrtle, my sword I'll conceal
Like those champions devoted and brave,
When they plunged in the tyrant their steel,
And to Athens deliverance gave.

II
Beloved heroes! your deathless souls roam
In the joy breathing isles of the blest;
Where the mighty of old have their home
Where Achilles and Diomed rest

III
In fresh myrtle my blade I'll entwine,
Like Harmodius, the gallant and good,
When he made at the tutelar shrine
A libation of Tyranny's blood.

IV
Ye deliverers of Athens from shame!
Ye avengers of Liberty's wrongs!
Endless ages shall cherish your fame,
Embalmed in their echoing songs!

The story of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, and its treatment by later Greek writers, is illustrative of attitudes to homosexuality in ancient Greece. Both Thucydides and Herodotus say that the two were lovers, without making any comment on this fact: clearly they assumed that their readers would be familiar with institutionalised homosexuality and would find nothing remarkable about it. It has been suggested that Homosexuality in the militaries of ancient Greece be merged into this article or section. ... Bust of Herodotus Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: Ἡροδοτος, Herodotos) was a historian who lived in the 5th century BC (484 BC-ca. ...

The story continued to be cited as an admirable example of heroism and devotion for many years. In 346 BC, for example, the politician Timarchus was prosecuted (for political reasons) on the grounds that he had been a prostitute. The orator who defended him, Demosthenes, cited Harmodius and Aristogeiton, as well as Achilles and Patroclus, as examples of the beneficial effects of homosexual relationships. The fact that the statues of the Liberators were still being copied in Roman times shows the durability of their legend. Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC - 340s BC - 330s BC 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 351 BC 350 BC 349 BC 348 BC 347 BC 346 BC 345 BC 344 BC 343... Coin of Timarchus. ... Demosthenes Demosthenes (384 BC – 322 BC) is generally considered the greatest of the Attic orators, and thus the greatest of all Ancient Greek orators. ... For other uses, see Achilles (disambiguation). ... A cup depicting Achilles bandaging Patroklos arm, by Sosias. ...

External links

• Livius, Harmodius and Aristogeiton by Jona Lendering
• Story of Harmodius and Aristogiton