Harmodius (lived late 6th century BC)

Athenian who conspired with Aristogeiton to murder the the tyrants Hippias and Hipparchus at the Greater Panathenaea festival 514 BC. Their plans misfired and although they succeeded in assassinating Hipparchus, Harmodius was himself immediately killed by the guards.

Aristogeiton escaped but was later captured and put to death by Hippias. After the expulsion of Hippias 510 BC, Harmodius and Aristogeiton came to be known as ‘tyrannicides’ and regarded as patriots and martyrs. A monument to them was put up in the agora (marketplace) of Athens, and their descendants were given hereditary privileges.

Harmodius and Aristogeiton informed a few friends of their plans, and as the moment for the assassination approached, they saw one of their accomplices talking with Hippias, and jumped to the conclusion that they had been betrayed. They therefore immediately killed Hipparchus, who was standing nearby.

A surviving contemporary drinking song celebrates their deed.

The historian Thucydides rejected the widespread popular fiction in his own day that the pair had put an end to the Pisistratid tyranny (see Pisistratus), pointing out that Hippias remained as sole tyrant until he was expelled 510 BC, and stressing the personal nature of their hostility to the two tyrants.