Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/364

Rh 360 HARMODIUS. geiton had educated Harmodius, and was as proud of him as he was fond, while he looked with jealousy on Hipparchus, who was ambitious, it seems, of the same distinction as an attracter of the love and confidence of the young. A youth, who was beloved by Harmodius, and had been ac- customed to look up to him and Aristogeiton as patterns of wisdom, became acquainted with Hip- parchus, and transferred to him his affection and admiration ; and this circumstance excited the anger of the two friends, and urged them to the murder. They communicated their plot to a few only, in order to lessen the chance of discovery, but they hoped that many would join them in the hour of action. The occasion they selected for their enterprise was the festival of the great Pana- thenaea and the day of the solemn procession of armed citizens from the outer Cerameicus to the temple of Athena Polias, — the only day, in fact, on which they could appear in arms without ex- citing suspicion. When the appointed time arrived, the two chief conspirators observed one of their ac- complices in conversation with Hippias, who was standing in the Cerameicus and arranging the order of the procession. Believing, therefore, that they were betrayed, and wishing to wreak their ven- geance before they were apprehended, they rushed back into the city with their daggers hid in the myrtle-boughs which they were to have borne in the procession, and slew Hipparchus near the Leocorium. Haiinodius was immediately cut down by the guards. Aristogeiton at first escaped, but was afterwards taken, and, according to the tes- timony of Polyaenus, Justin, and Seneca, which is confirmed by the language of Thucydides, was put to the torture. He named as his accomplices the principal friends of Hippias, who were executed accordingly, and being then asked if he had any more names of conspirators to give, he answered that there was no one besides, whose death he desired, except the tyrant. According to another account, he pretended, while under the torture, that he had some communication to make to Hippias, and when the latter approached him, he seized one of his ears with his teeth, and bit it off. (Herod, v. 55, 56, vi. 109, 123; Thuc. i. 20, vi. .54—57 ; Pseudo-Plat. Hipparch. p. 229 ; Plat. Symp. p. 182 ; Arist. Polit. v. 10, ed. Bekk., IViet. ii. 24. § 5 ; Schol. ad Arist. AcJi. 942 ; Aelian, V. H. xi. 8 ; Perizon. ad loc. ; Polyaen. i. 22 ; Justin, ii. 9 ; Seneca, de Ira, ii. 23 ; Diog. Laert. ix. 26). [Leaena.] Four years after this Hippias was expelled, and thenceforth the policy and spirit of party combined witti popular feeling to attach to Harmodius and Aristogeiton among the Athenians of all succeeding generations the character of patriots, deliverers, and martyrs, — ^names often abused indeed, but seldom more grossly than in the present case. Their deed of murderous vengeance formed a fa- vourite subject of drinking-songs, of which the most famous and popular is preserved in full by Athenaeus. To be born of their blood was es- teemed among the highest of honours, and their descendants enjoyed an immunity from public bur- dens, of which even the law of Leptines (b. c. 355) did not propose to deprive them. (Aesch. c. Timarch. §§ 132, 140 ; Athen. xv. p. 695 ; Aristoph. Ach. 942, 1058, Lysistr. 632, Ves>p. '25,Eq. 783 ; Aristot. Rhet. ii. 23. § 8 ; Suid. s. w. 'Ayopaa-u, F.U fivpTOv Kd5(f, Udpoivus, ^opTJau ; Dcm. c. Lept. HARMONIA. pp. 462, 466.) Their tombs are mentioned by Pausanias (i. 29) as situated on the road from the city to the Academy. Their statues, made of bronze by Antenor, were set up in the Agora in the inner Cerameicus, near the temple of Ares, in B. c. 509, the year after the expulsion of Hippias ; and this, according to Aristotle and Pliny, was the first instance of such an honour publicly conferred at Athens, Conon being the next, as Demosthenes tells us, who had a bronze statue raised to him. When Xerxes took the city, he carried these sta- tues away, and new ones, the work of Critias, were erected in B. c. 477. The original statues were afterwards sent back to the Athenians from Susa, according to Pausanias by Antiochus, ac- cording to Valerius Maximus by Seleucus, but, as we may believe, on the testimony of Arrian and Pliny, by Alexander the Great. We learn, finally, from Diodorus, that when the Athenians were anxious to pay the highest honours in their power to Antigonus and Demetrius Poliorcetes, in B. c. 307, they placed their statues near those of Har- modius and Aristogeiton. (Paus. i. 8 ; Aristot. Rhet. i. 9. § 38 ; Dem. c. Lept. p. 478 ; Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 4, 8 ; Val. Max. ii. 10. Ext. 1 ; Arr. Anab. iii. 16, vii. 19 ; Diod. xx. 46.) [E. E.] HARMO'NIA {'Apfiovia), a daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, or, according to others, of Zeus and Electra, the daughter of Atlas, in Samothrace. When Athena assigned to Cadmus the government of Thebes, Zeus gave him Hannonia for his wife, and all the gods of Olympus were present at the marriage. Cadmus on that day made lier a present of a peplus and a necklace, which he had received either from Hephaestus or from Europa. (ApoUod. iii. 4. § 2.) Other traditions stated that Harmonia received this necklace {opfxos) from some of the gods, either from Aphrodite or Athena. (Diod. iv. 48, V. 49 ; Pind. Pyth. iii. 167 ; Stat. 77^6. ii. 266 ; comp. Hes. Theog. 934 ; Horn. Hymn, in ApoU. 195.) Those who described Harmonia as a Samothracian related that Cadmus, on his voyage to Samothrace, after being initiated in the mys- teries, perceived Harmonia, and carried her off with the assistance of Athena. When Cadmus was obliged to quit Thebes, Harmonia accompanied him. When they came to the Encheleans, they assisted them in their war against the lUyrians, and conquered the enemy. Cadmus then became king of the lUyrians, but afterwards he and Har- monia were metamorphosed into dragons and trans- ferred to Elysium ; or, according to others, they were carried thither in a chariot drawn by dragons. (Apollod. iii. 5. § 4 ; Eurip. Bacch. 1233; Ov. Met' iv. 562, &c.) Hannonia is renowned in ancient story chiefly on account of the fatal neck- lace she received on her wedding day. Polyneices, who inherited it, gave it to Eriphyle, that she might persuade her husband, Amphiaraus, to undertake the expedition against Thebes, (Apollod. iii. 6. § 2 ; Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. iii. 167.) Through Alcmaeon, the son of Eriphyle, the necklace came into the hands of Arsinoe, next into those of the sons of Phegeus, Pronous and Agenor, and lastly into those of the sons of Alcmaeon, Amphoterus and Acarnan, who dedicated it in the temple of Athena Pronoea at Delphi. (Apollod. iii. 7. §§ 5—7.) The necklace had wrought mischief to all who had been in pos- session of it, and it continued to do so even after it was dedicated at Delphi. Phayllus, the tyrant, stole it from the temple to gratify his mistress, the