Harmodios (in Greek old Ἁρμόδιος / Harmódios ) and Aristogiton ( Ἀριστογείτων / Aristogeítôn ), both died in 514 av. J. - C., are the tyrannoctones (of τύραννος / túrannos , “tyrant” and κτείνω / kteínô , “to kill”), assassins of the Athenian Tyrant Hipparque.

The two principal relations of the murder are those of Thucydide (VI, 56-59) and of the Constitution of Athens (XVIII) allotted to Aristote.

The assassination

Aristogiton is an Athenian of middle-class; Harmodios, his/her young lover, belongs to the aristocratic circles of the city. According to Thucydide, Harmodios pushes back the advances of Hipparque, one of the Pisistratides. To be avenged, this one first of all invites the sister of the young man to being Canéphore with the Panathénées, honor reserved to the girls of the more big families of Athens, then the hunting publicly of the procession to the pretext which it does not deserve this honor. According to Aristote, it is Thessalos, wire of the concubine argienne of Pisistrate, and thus half-brother of Hipparque, which is pushed back by Harmodios and prevents the sister of the young man from being canéphore.

The incident encourages Harmodios and Aristogiton to be gotten rid of Hipparque, author of offense, but more especially its brother Hippias, to only exert truly the power. The lovers recruit a small band quickly; their plan is to benefit from the procession of Large the Panathénées to assassinate Hippias and Hipparque. Thucydide specifies that it was the “only day when it was possible to the citizens who were to form the procession to be assembled out of weapons without exciting mistrust”. Aristote protests against this detail, asserting for its part that “then the procession out of weapons was not made; this use was introduced later by the democracy. ”

The said day, Harmodios and Aristogiton observe one of entreated discussing with the Céramique - on the Acropole, according to Aristote - with Hippias surrounded by its guards. Fearing to be betrayed, they turn back and meet on their Hipparque road, well off its escort. They stab it, Harmodios is killed shortly after by the guards, while Aristogiton flees in crowd. It is stopped a little later tortured and carried out, not without to have had time to acknowledge the name of its accomplices, all aristocrats.

The legend

The group of Tyrannoctones

Harmodios and Aristogiton are treated as hero after the fall of Hippias. Bronze statues, work of Anténor, are set up in their honor on the agora on a date which remains discussed: Pline Old the locates it the same year as the end of the royalty at Rome, i.e. in 510 - 509 av. J. - C. Cependant, Pline more probably refers to the fall of the tyranny of Hippias, actually occurred in 510 av. J. - C. It is not at all certain that the erection of the group was contemporary of this event: to emphasize Harmodios and Aristogiton would have amounted minimizing the role of the aristocratic family of the Alcméonides, craftsmen of the inversion of Hippias, in the re-establishment of the democracy. One supported that it took place in 490 av. J. - C., after the Bataille of Marathon, or in 498 av. J. - C., at the time of the Ostracisme of the alcméonide Mégaclès. At all events, Pausanias as Pline agree to say that they are the first official statues of the city.

Carried by the Persian king Xerxès I {{er}} at the time of the bag of Athens in 480 av. J. - C., they are replaced by another group due to Critios and Nésiotès, that the Marbre of Paros date of 477 - 476 av. J. - C.. The group of Anténor is then restored, according to Arrien, by Alexandre Large the, according to Pausanias, by Antiochos I {{er}} or, according to Valère Maxime, by Séleucos I {{er}}.

One generally identifies two statues of the archaeological National museum of Naples, found with the Villa Adriana, like copies of the second group. They represent, slightly larger than natural, on the right Harmodios, right-hand man raised and holding a dagger, ready to strike; on the left, Aristogiton tightens ahead its left arm covered with a coat, to undoubtedly protect itself, while its right-hand man, armed, is rejected behind. The group is represented of face, the spectator being thus in the position of the victim. This iconography is taken again on the shield of Athéna of a panathénaïque amphora gone back to 400 av. J. - C. approximately and, in low-relief, on the throne of Elgin gone back to 300 av. J. - C. approximately, attesting popularity of the tyrannoctones.

Other honors

The Athenian popular songs also allot to the tyrannoctones a place in the islands of the Happy, at the sides of Achille. It is not possible to give their names to the slaves; the defamatory remarks in their opposition are also prohibited. Their descendants are the subject also of particular regards: Plutarque reports that Aristide the Juste gives a ground in dowry to a grand-daughter of Aristogiton, if poor that it could not find a husband, and the Marie with a citizen of good birth.

However, as of the traditional time, Thucydide had endeavoured to relativize the range of the gesture of the tyrannoctones, declaring at the conclusion of its account: “thus a wound of love explains successively, at Harmodios and Aristogiton, the idea first of the plot and the blow of audacity caused by a sudden panic. ”