Athenian Lovers Became Democratic Symbols

In 514 B.C., Athenian homosexual lovers Harmodius and Aristogeiton assassinated Hipparchus, the brother of Athens's ruling tyrant Hippias. After Hipparchus pursued Harmodius romantically and publicly humiliated his sister following his rejection, the lovers plotted to kill both brothers during the Panathenaic festival but reached only Hipparchus. Guards killed Harmodius immediately, while authorities captured and executed Aristogeiton, and Hippias imposed a harsher tyranny until Spartan king Cleomenes I forced him into exile in 510 B.C., clearing the way for Cleisthenes's democratic reforms. Later Athenians celebrated the lovers as the Tyrannicides and the preeminent symbols of democratic freedom, partly to obscure Sparta's role in ending the tyranny.

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