Leaina Before the Judges, by Hans Holbein the Younger

Leaina ( grc-gre, Λέαινα, "lioness") is a pseudo-historical figure, supposedly a hetaera and, according to a later tradition, the

mistress Mistress is the feminine form of the English word "master" (''master'' + ''-ess'') and may refer to: Romance and relationships * Mistress (lover), a term for a woman who is in a sexual and romantic relationship with a man who is married to a d ...

of Aristogeiton the Tyrannicide. Original versions of the story of Aristogeiton portray him, on the contrary, as the lover of Harmodius, for whom he decided to overthrow the tyrant Hipparchus. Hipparchus had feelings for Harmodius, and he tried to humiliate him after his feelings were rejected. In 514 B.C., Harmodius and Aristogeiton, a male couple, were inspired to overthrow the tyranny of Hippias and Hipparchus at Athens. Hipparchus was murdered, but Hippias escaped, and seized the surviving conspirators. According to later versions of the story, told among others by Plutarch, among those captured was the hetaera Leaina, lover of Aristogeiton, or Harmodius, or both. Leaina was tortured to get information about the conspiracy. According to Pausanias, the

Athenians Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

later set up a statue of a bronze lioness on the

Acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, ...

in her memory: "When Hipparchus died, Hippias tortured Leaena to death, because he knew she was the mistress of Aristogeiton, and therefore could not possibly, he held, be in ignorance of the plot. As a recompense, when the tyranny of the Peisistratidae was at an end, the Athenians put up a bronze lioness in memory of the woman, which they say Callias dedicated and Calamis made." Leaina was commemorated on account of her stubborn resolve under the torture of the tyrant. Athenaeus (who believed Leaina's lover was Harmodius) says: "There was also a courtesan named Leaena, whose name is very celebrated, and she was the mistress of Harmodius, who slew the tyrant. And she, being tortured by command of Hippias the tyrant, died under the torture without having said a word." According to Jerome, Leaina rose to the occasion even further; to preserve her silence, and to frustrate her torturers, she bit her tongue off, and so died: "Harmodius and Aristogiton killed the tyrant Hipparchus, and the courtesan Leaena their friend, when compelled with torments, lest she betray her companions, she amputated her tongue with her teeth." Therefore, the brass lioness statue at the entrance to the Acropolis was without a tongue: "And Leaena also has a splendid reward for her self-control. She was a courtesan belonging to the group led by Harmodius and Aristogeiton and shared in the conspiracy against the tyrants — with her hopes, all a woman could do; for she also had joined in the revels about that noble mixing-bowl of Eros and through the god had been initiated into the secrets which might not be revealed. When, therefore, the conspirators failed and were put to death, she was questioned and commanded to reveal those who still escaped detection; but she would not do so and continued steadfast, proving that those men had experienced a passion not unworthy of themselves in loving a woman like her. And the Athenians caused a bronze lioness without a tongue to be made and set up at the Propylaea in the Acropolis of Athens, representing by the spirited courage of the animal Leaena's invincible character, and by its tonguelessness her power of silence in keeping a holy secret."Polyaenus, Strategems, 8.45
/ref> The statue was not made by Calamis but by the Athenian sculptor Amphicrates, according to Pliny. It is possible that Leaena's story, replacing the account of Harmodius and Aristogeiton as a couple, was invented to explain the existence of the lioness statue with the missing tongue, or perhaps to accommodate the

homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitude (psychology), attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, h ...

of writers from late antiquity.Kapparis (2018), p. 100–101. "This story is a revision of the traditional tale in order to explain the bronze lioness with the missing tongue, and probably also to gloss over the uncomfortable feeling of later antiquity audiences over the homosexual relationship of those two most glorious heroes from the Athenian past."

Notes

References

Primary sources

* Pliny the Elder, ''Natural History'' VII.23.87, XXXIV.19.72 * Eusebius, ''Chronicon 106.1-7'' * Plutarch, Moralia ''On Talkativeness'' 505E * Polyaenus, ''Stratagems'' 8.45

Secondary sources

* Plutarch, ''The Morals,'' volume 4, trans. William W. Goodwin w/ Introduction by Ralph Waldo Emerson, (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1878
The Online Library of Liberty
* The Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens By Eva C. Keuls, p. 194, University of California Press (1993), * Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Volume I, Book II, Chapter III, Section III, by Baron Edward Bulwer Lytto
Project Guttenberg
* Eusebius, Chronicon, ed R. Helm (Leipzig, Germany 1913), 106.1-7

External links

*{{Commons category inline, Leaena __NOTOC__ Hetairai 6th-century BC Athenians 6th-century BC Greek women Greek rebels Greek torture victims Ancient Athenian women Ancient rebels Greek female prostitutes

See also

Notes

References

Primary sources

Secondary sources

External links