Harmodius
Family: Athenian · Role: conspirator · First appears: Book 1 · Chapter 1 · Part 3
In Book 1, Harmodius and Aristogiton suspected that Hippias had been warned and abandoned their plan to attack him. Instead, near the temple of the daughters of Leos, they killed Hipparchus as he arranged the Panathenaic procession.
In Book 6, the account describes Harmodius as young and beautiful, and Aristogiton as his lover. After Harmodius rejected Hipparchus’s solicitations and told Aristogiton, Hipparchus arranged to insult him by inviting and then rejecting Harmodius’s sister from a procession. Harmodius and Aristogiton conspired to overthrow the tyranny; at the festival they attacked and killed Hipparchus by the Leocorium, and Harmodius was killed on the spot.
Relationship record
Life events
- Harmodius and Aristogiton suspected Hippias had been warned and abandoned their plan to attack him.(Book 1 · Chapter 1 · Part 3)
- With: Aristogiton Hippias
- “suspecting, on the very day, nay at the very moment fixed on for the deed, that information had been conveyed to Hippias by their accomplices, concluded that he had been warned, and did not attack him”
- Harmodius and Aristogiton killed Hipparchus while he was arranging the Panathenaic procession.(Book 1 · Chapter 1 · Part 3 · 📍 near the temple of the daughters of Leos)
- With: Aristogiton Hipparchus
- “fell upon Hipparchus near the temple of the daughters of Leos, and slew him as he was arranging the Panathenaic procession.”
- Harmodius rejected Hipparchus's solicitation.(Book 6 · Chapter 19 · Part 4)
- With: Hipparchus
- “Solicited without success by Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus, Harmodius told Aristogiton”
- Harmodius told Aristogiton that Hipparchus had solicited him.(Book 6 · Chapter 19 · Part 4)
- With: Aristogiton
- “Solicited without success by Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus, Harmodius told Aristogiton”
- Harmodius rejected Hipparchus's second solicitation.(Book 6 · Chapter 19 · Part 4)
- With: Hipparchus
- “Hipparchus, after a second solicitation of Harmodius, attended with no better success”
- Hipparchus arranged to insult Harmodius after his solicitations were rejected.(Book 6 · Chapter 19 · Part 4)
- With: Hipparchus
- “unwilling to use violence, arranged to insult him in some covert way.”
- Hipparchus invited Harmodius's sister to carry a basket, then rejected her as unworthy.(Book 6 · Chapter 19 · Part 4)
- With: Hipparchus
- “by first inviting a sister of his, a young girl, to come and bear a basket in a certain procession, and then rejecting her, on the plea that she had never been invited at all owing to her unworthiness.”
- Aristogiton and Harmodius arranged a conspiracy to overthrow the tyranny.(Book 6 · Chapter 19 · Part 4)
- With: Aristogiton
- “Aristogiton and Harmodius were to begin, but were to be supported immediately by their accomplices against the bodyguard.”
- Aristogiton and Harmodius attacked and killed Hipparchus.(Book 6 · Chapter 19 · Part 4 · 📍 the Leocorium)
- With: Aristogiton Hipparchus
- “and meeting with Hipparchus by the Leocorium recklessly fell upon him at once, infuriated, Aristogiton by love, and Harmodius by insult, and smote him and slew him.”
- Harmodius was killed.(Book 6 · Chapter 19 · Part 4)
- “Harmodius was killed on the spot.”
- Harmodius and Aristogiton conspired and committed the rash action.(Book 6 · Chapter 19 · Part 5)
- With: Aristogiton
- “In this way offended love first led Harmodius and Aristogiton to conspire, and the alarm of the moment to commit the rash action recounted.”
Book 1 · Chapter 1 · Part 3
- with Hipparchus (Harmodius and Aristogiton killed Hipparchus together.) “fell upon Hipparchus near the temple of the daughters of Leos, and slew him as he was arranging the Panathenaic procession.”
- with Aristogiton (They acted together in the plot against Hipparchus.) “The general Athenian public fancy that Hipparchus was tyrant when he fell by the hands of Harmodius and Aristogiton, not knowing that Hippias, the eldest of the sons of Pisistratus, was really supreme, and that Hipparchus and Thessalus were his brothers; and that Harmodius and Aristogiton suspecting, on the very day, nay at the very moment fixed on for the deed, that information had been conveyed to Hippias by their accomplices, concluded that he had been warned, and did not attack him, yet, not liking to be apprehended and risk their lives for nothing, fell upon Hipparchus near the temple of the daughters of Leos, and slew him as he was arranging the Panathenaic procession.”
Book 6 · Chapter 19 · Part 4
- courtship with Aristogiton “Harmodius was then in the flower of youthful beauty, and Aristogiton, a citizen in the middle rank of life, was his lover and possessed him.”
- admirer: Hipparchus “Solicited without success by Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus, Harmodius told Aristogiton, and the enraged lover, afraid that the powerful Hipparchus might take Harmodius by force, immediately formed a design, such as his condition in life permitted, for overthrowing the tyranny.”
Book 6 · Chapter 19 · Part 5
- with Aristogiton (They conspired together.) “In this way offended love first led Harmodius and Aristogiton to conspire”
⭐ Constellation map → · 📖 Read the original → · 🗂 Character index → · 🕰 Chronicle → · 📍 Places →
Extracted from the original text of History of the Peloponnesian War. Made with Rho MD.