In The Persian Boy , the second part of the trilogy that Mary Renault dedicated to Alexander the Great, the famous Hellenist narrates a conversation between the Macedonian and his eunuch Bagoas –a historical figure who previously served in the court of King Darius III– and whom the author turned into the narrator in first person of all those events of which he was a witness. The dialogue between the two goes like this:
As we have seen, Alexander tells his eunuch Bagoas, much loved by the Macedonian king –although all the favorable sources in this regard do not coincide, as in Quinto Curcio For example, that affection is described by Plutarch, who narrates the famous dance contest and subsequent kiss that, incited by his guests, Alexander gave to Bagoas after he won the dance (Plutarch, Parallel lives V. 67)– the story of the tyrannicides Aristogiton and Harmodius , a story that mixes love and courage, eroticism and citizenship in equal parts, its figures being praised by Athenian democracy. But why was it called tyrannicides – from the Latin tyrannus , "illegitimate ruler", from the Greek τύραννος (týrannos ) and from the Latin «cid », kill– this pair of lovers?
We are in Athens at the end of the 6th century BC. C. A government in the form of a tyranny, and led by Pisistratus , has taken over the city of Attica taking advantage of the political deterioration experienced by the pólis since the death of the lawgiver Solon. Even so, it goes without saying that the negative concepts that we associate with the form of government that tyranny represents, did not have such a pejorative charge in Ancient Greece. But was this the first time that a tyrant had come to power in Athens? And in the other city-states? In truth, tyrants were nothing new and had been "playing" in Greek history for various periods since the 7th century BC. C. There were plenty of tyrants. In Asiatic Greece and the islands, Thrasybulus of Miletus and Polycrates of Samos; in the Peloponnese Fidon of Argos; in Sicily, the infamous Falaris of Agrigento, famous for his method of torture:the Phalaris bull. Thus, we have to highlight the tyrant Pisistratus, who after trying to take the Acropolis once, tried a second time after a pact with Megacles, son of Alcmeon, and then a third, after the failure of the link with his daughter. Thus, Herodotus tells us:
Oppressed or not, Herodotus tells us that, far from ruling with an iron fist, Pisistratus, although owner and lord of the Athenians, reinforced, both internally and externally, the city of Athens, keeping intact the existing magistracies, contributing "much and well to the adornment of the city, ruling under the old plan." (I, 59, 6). Some years later, Athens is governed by his son, the tyrant Hippias, aided in the government by his brother, Hipparchus. Both are known by the patronymic of the Pisistratidas , for being both sons of the same tyrant.
Aristogiton and Harmodius
On the other hand, we have Harmodius, a young Athenian nobleman. His dear lover Aristogitón was from the middle class –because in Ancient Greece it was very normal for a young ephebe , as eromenos and already entered adolescence, began his entry into adulthood through the figure of the lover or erastés , older-. The two belonged, according to Herodotus, to a Gefirea family (V. 55). Thus, both were carved into two incredible statues as a monument to courage and placed in the Agora of Athens. To tell the truth, the sources differ on the true origin that caused the tyrannicide. Here we will point out two. One of them alludes to the celebration of the Panathenaic –annual religious civic festival celebrated during the month of Hecatombeon and that the Pisistratidas revitalized with their policies – in honor of Athena, the patron deity of the city. Also, this was according to Thucydides, the only festival in which those who participated in the procession were allowed to bear arms. However, according to the first theory, the young Harmodius would feel outraged when Hipparchus – who, more symbolically, co-ruled Athens with his brother Hippias, Pisistratus's natural successor – prevented his sister from participating as canephora – maidens who carried on their heads the basket of flowers and myrtle– in the parade of the year 514, when Hipparchus found out that she was not a virgin. Deeply outraged at this offense, Harmodius, together with the help of his inseparable Aristogiton, made a resolution:the assassination of the tyrant Hipparchus.
Another version intertwines with the first, this time being that Hipparchus tried to seduce to Harmodius, and the latter, faithful to Aristogiton, rejected the former. Wounded in his pride, Hipparchus decided to take revenge on Harmodius by preventing his sister – after having promised him – from participating in the Panathenaic, knowing that this would mean shame and dishonor for the family (Thucydides, VI. 56).
Tyrannicide
Be that as it may, when the appointed day came, they discovered that both tyrants were not together. Hippias was in the neighborhood of the Ceramic (according to Thucydides, the point from where the procession started. According to Aristotle, next to the Leocorio, Const. Athens , 18, 3) surrounded by his personal escort. On the other hand, Hipparchus was "next to the one called Leocorio" without an escort or guard, which they take advantage of to jump on him and stab him to death . Aristogiton avenged jealousy. Harmodio, the outrage to his family. Blood flowed through the Agora, but not only that of the tyrant would flow. According to Thucydides, Harmodius met his death immediately. As for his faithful lover Aristogiton, he managed to flee, albeit for a short time, since he was arrested, and to find out if he had accomplices, he was horribly tortured and finally executed. The tyrant who was left alive, Hippias, brutalized his reign of terror.
But the reality is sometimes more stubborn, in reference to the story that the tyrannicides saved the give Athenian tyranny. This story does not hold if we stop at the versions offered by Herodotus V.55; Thucydides VI. 59; and Aristotle himself Const. Athens , 19, 3-6. In addition to the fact that before the assassination of Hipparchus, the tyranny was not even half as repressive as it was after the tyrannicide. The tyrannicides did not bring democracy to Athens, since Hippias would continue in power for four more years, finally overthrown in 511 BC. C. after a Spartan intervention led by Cleomenes I and with the help of the Alcmaeonids, who, at the time, were in exile. Thus, the tyrant Hippias was ostracized by Darius I and would end up conspiring, twenty-one years later, to unleash a Persian expedition against the Greeks:the First Medical War. What is clear is that a legend was born. They called that act that was born of a personal offense "tyrannicide", and commissioned by Cleisthenes, who had already established democracy, the Athenian sculptor Antenor sculpted two magnificent bronze statues, being exalted as champions of freedom.
History wanted those two statues to undertake a long journey when much later, during the Second Medical War , the Persians sacked the city, and as part of the loot, they took the statues to the palace of Xerxes in Susa, in the heart of his vast empire. Alexander III of Macedon, whom many Athenians did not consider Greek, already predicted the final fate of these statues when he was sent by his father to negotiate peace with the Athenians, after the overwhelming victory at Chaeronea, and discovered the looting (see Athens vs. Philip:The Battle of Chaeronea in Ancient and Medieval No. 21:Philip II of Macedon).
All in all, Alejandro ended upkeeping the promise what he did to Bagoas:bring the statues of those Athenians back. Many other goods were also captured there, for example:what Xerxes brought with him from Greece, especially the bronze statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton. «These artistic works were returned by Alexander to the Athenians. They now stand in the Ceramic of Athens […]» (Arriano, Anab . III. 16; trans. A. Guzmán Guerra, ed. Gredos). Thus, the statues would return to Greece, to Athens, but not accompanying the king who restored them to their rightful place, since Alexander did leave Greece never to return. But that is another story.
Bibliography
- Dominguez Monedero, A. J. (1991). The polis and the Greek colonial expansion (8th-6th centuries) . Ed. Synthesis. Madrid.
- Renault, M. (2011). The Persian Boy . Alexander the Great II Trilogy . (Original publication year:1972). Translation of Maria Antonia Menini. Ed. Edhasa. Barcelona.
Primary sources
- Aristotle. Constitution of the Athenians . Introduction, translations and notes by Manuela García Valdés. Ed. Gredos. Madrid. 1984.
- Arian. Anabasis of Alexander the Great . Book III . Introduction by Antonio Bravo García; translation and notes by Antonio Guzmán Guerra. Ed. Gredos. Madrid. 1982.
- Herodotus. Stories. Book I-V . Translation and notes by Carlos Schrader. Ed. Gredos. Madrid. 1982.
- Plutarch. Parallel Lives. Book VI . Introductions, translations and notes by Jorge Bergua Cavero, Salvador Bueno Morillo and Juan Manuel Guzmán Hermida. Ed. Gredos. Madrid. 2007.
- Thucydides. Peloponnesian War . Book VI . Translation and notes by Juan José Torres Esbarranch. Ed. Gredos. Madrid. 1982.This article is part of the 1st Desperta Ferro Historical Microessay Contest. The documentation, veracity and originality of the article are the sole responsibility of its author.