Introduction: Today we are going to focus on one of the most innovative and important sculpture groups of the early 5th century B.C., the statues of the Tyrannicides Harmodios and Aristogeiton by the sculptors Kritios and Nesiotes. The group was set up in the centre of the Agora or marketplace in Athens in 477/6 B.C. and while the originals are not preserved, we have a number of copies made in the Roman period, which you see on the right, and several 5th-century painted representations, one of which is on the left, as well as part of their base with the remains of several verses describing these deeds. As you know from the texts on the web, Aristogeiton and Harmodios, along with others, planned, in 514 B.C., to kill Hippias, the tyrant of Athens, and his brother Hipparchos at the Great Panathenaia, the great quadrennial festival of Athena which was similar to the Olympic festival. In the event, only Hipparchos was assassinated while Harmodios was killed instantly and Aristogeiton not long afterwards and Hippias remained the tyrant of Athens for another four years. By 477/6, however, the heroes of the deed were Harmodios and Aristogeiton and a revolutionary statue group was erected in their honour in the Agora. Why is this group revolutionary and why might the Athenians have wanted to do something completely different with this group? Several things set this group apart from earlier sculpture: it is two men in an action group; it is meant to be seen from all sides, as you can see from this view; the viewer stands in for Hipparchos who is not shown; it shows known historical men performing a known historical deed; and the group was erected in a secular, not sacred context. We will come back to the issue of why the Athenians chose this group after we have looked at some of the Tyrannicides' predecessors and contemporaries. Unlike the Egyptians and the people of Mesopotamia, the Greeks liked their art to tell stories, but not ones about the specific patron of the work. The Greeks created nothing like Assurbanipal's lionhunts or the Egyptian Pharaohs' conquest narratives until after the middle of the 5th century B.C. Instead, they depicted what we would call their myths, but what they called their history; for them, for example, the Trojan War really happened, just as we read about it in the Iliad. They also placed these stories in a completely different setting than the Egyptians and the Assyrians did. The stories were placed in sanctuaries, in sacred settings, and on the exterior of buildings. In the Ionic order, developed in Asia Minor, the story went on the frieze in a long continuous band above the columns as on the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi, here in the diagram in Honour and Flemming, while, in the Doric order of the Mainland, sculpture went in the triangular pediment just under the roof, here, and on the individual panels of the metopes above the columns, here.

The Temple of Artemis on Corfu: The problems created by putting sculpture in a triangular space are immediately apparent in our earliest preserved stone pediment from the Temple of Artemis on the island of Corfu, west of the Greek Mainland and dated ca. 580 B.C. The problem is how does one place sculpture in a space where all the figures can not be the same size. As you can see, the solution adopted here was to show three scenes from at least two stories in two different scales at the same time (physically point this out). In the centre, the large Medousa flanked by two panthers faces out. She has an apotropaic or warding off function: she protects the temple while at the same time she is a symbol of divine wrath because she was once beautiful and loved by the gods. In the sides there are two combat scenes at a much smaller scale; on the right, is the one from the right side. Notice what a useful device combats are: they involve dead bodies and here there is one in each of the small difficult corners of the pediment; on the right, you see the one from the right side. The drooping beard suggests that the artists are interested in how to depict a dead body realistically. Also notable is the high relief which was used to carve these sculptures; we saw nothing like this in Egypt or in Mesopotamia.

The Temple of Aphaia on Aigina: The high relief which we see in the Corfu pediment led during the second half of the sixth century to pediments where the figures were not carved in relief, but in the round, just like statues and were then placed in the pedimental space. There are at least three examples, including one in Delphi and one in Athens, from the last 30 years of the 6th century but we do not have time to discuss them today. You should know, however, that they do exist and that their sculpture was carved in the round and not in relief. These buildings form the link with our next monument. At the beginning of the 5th century, on the island of Aigina, off the coast of Athens, the Aiginetans set to work on the sanctuary of the goddess Aphaia. They built a new Doric temple which they planned to adorn with the usual pedimental groups; you see the temple on the left and a plan of the sanctuary on the right. Something, and we do not know what, happened, however, before the building was finished and radical changes were made. At this point, we know from the remains that the east end of the temple had been completed and the east pediment was already in place. It was now removed and placed on a long, low rectangular base in front of the temple where the west pediment, which seems not yet to have been on the building, was also installed; here and here. It was possible for the Aiginetans to erect the pediments in this way because they were not reliefs but statues sculpted in the round, as were the replacement pediments; from which you see this detail on the left. In this new setting on the ground, visitors could appreciate both the backs and the carved details, neither of which would have been visible when they were on the temple. At the same time, two replacement pediments were carved and set into place on the building. Both groups show combats with Athena standing in the centre and they should date to about 490-480 B.C. The stories are the two sacks of Troy: here on the west side the sack by the Greeks under Agamemnon and here on the east side the earlier sack by Herakles and Telamon, the grandson of Zeus and the nymph Aigina, and so a local hero. If you have read the Iliad, you will remember that Telamon's sons Aias, in Latin Ajax, and Teukros were on the expedition led by Agamemnon. Thus the theme seems to be the local heroes at Troy. The west pediment is considered the earlier to the two because it is stylistically less advanced. The composition, as you see, is centred around Athena who stands in the centre with her shield. She is flanked by two apparently identical fighting pairs and next to each of them is an archer who fires at the dying and dead who fill up the corners of the space; you see on the left the archer from the left side. In this composition, the centre is rather static and the action of the sides moves away from the centre. We are still in the world of the very late Archaic. Notice the elaborate patterns of Athena's clothing and her little smile; here on the left; they are both typical of this period. The dying warrior from the right corner has the same expression even though he is pulling an arrow from his torso; his long hairstyle too belongs in the late Archaic period. His head was in the corner of the pediment, which is how you identify the west side, and he does not fill the space as well as if he were reversed with his feet in the corner. On the east side, the dying warrior on the left end was set with his feet in the corner and what a contrast he makes with the warrior of the west side. He does not smile, he grimaces; as you see on the right. We have no doubt that he is dying and dying quickly and painfully. His lower body and his left hand are already going limp. Athena too no longer smiles nor does the splendid Herakles. Notice the care with which his muscles have been show and the details of his armour. We are at the threshold of the early Classical period. The overall composition is different too; as you see on the right. Yes, Athena still stands in the middle and is flanked by fighting pairs, but they were apparently different. The figures beyond the pairs rush into the centre and the archers shoot across the space; as you see in this detail. The outward movement of the centre is balanced by the inward movement of the end. Notice also how the figures have been designed so that there is a fairly even diminution in height from the centre to the ends even though the figures are all the same scale. On the west side, in contrast, the diminution is not as even and the space is less evenly filled.

The Temple of Zeus at Olympia: If the sculpted East pediment of the Temple of Aphaia marks the very start of the early Classical period, then the sculptures of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia (on the right) mark the height of this period known as the Severe Style, to which the Delphi Charioteer discussed in Honour & Flemming also belongs. Construction on the temple here in the sanctuary at Olympia seems to have started about 470 B.C. and to have been finished by about 457. Unlike the pediments from the Temple of Aphaia, the ones here are not both action groups. The east pediment is static and quiet while the west pediment is another action group, a combination which has precedents, including the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi, in the Archaic period. Although visitors would have seen the west side first, we are going to start with the east pediment on the front of the building. What is happening here on the east side? We see the origins of the Olympic Games. Pelops is about to race Oinomaos, king of Pisa, the area around Olympia, for the hand of his daughter Hippodameia. Like lots of other fathers, Oinomaos did not want his daughter to marry, so he challenged the suitors to a chariot race and killed them when they lost. Pelops won the race because he persuaded the king's groom to replace the linchpins of the chariot with wax which melted during the race. The wheels fell off and Oinomaos was killed. Although Pelops did not suffer, the gods took vengeance on his descendants who included Agamemnon. What we see here is the moment before the race. Zeus is standing ready to judge the situation with the two protagonists on either side. Next to Pelops stands Hippodameia, who pulls her veil over her head in the gesture of a bride, and next to Oinomaos his wife; the positions of the two women should have been reversed when the pediment was recently reinstalled. Zeus' head, as you can see, was clearly turned to his right, the well-omened side, to indicate that Pelops will win. This central group is flanked by chariots and on-lookers fill up the rest of the space. We, the viewers, know the story which is crucial to understanding the action because the figures in the pediment do not know what will happen. Only the old seer on the right side seems to have any idea of the horror to come; you see him now on the right. Although Oinomaos will suffer shortly for killing the other suitors, in the end, Pelops' family will pay for his deeds too. It can not be accident that this story about the origins of the games, cheating in contests, and divine judgement was placed on the east side of this temple because it is this side which looked out over the stadium and hippodrome of the sanctuary; here and here. Zeus stood in judgement over all competitors, both human and heroic: those who did not cheat, those who cheated and were caught, and those whose cheating was detected only by him. Eventually, Zeus would punish these otherwise undetected cheaters too. What changes can we see from the Aiginetan pediments? The drapery is treated differently and the women, like Hippodameia, are wearing a different type of garment, a peplos, rather than the chiton of the Athena from Aigina. The heavy, doughy folds are typical of the sculpture of this building. The folds of the women's garments do not make the elaborate patterns which we see on Athena's clothes. The long vertical lines of the garments on the Olympia pediment recall the flutes of the columns which stood below the figures. The old seer is a masterpiece in the depiction of old age; look at his flabby torso and his receding hair, but he is a beautiful old man and the terrible ravages of age do not appear in his face. This art must be beautiful, as were the combats on the Temple of Aphaia. On the west side, we have the battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs, beasts half man and half horse, at the wedding feast of the hero Peirithoos. In the centre, stands Apollo pointing out the ringleader mauling the bride to the groom. On the other side stands, Theseus, the best friend of the groom. Each of the heroes is about to dispatch a centaur. This central group is flanked by two fighting centaur and Lapith groups (this group is from the right side) while other Lapiths fill the ends; these Lapiths are from the left corner. We can see again how a combat makes it relatively easy to fill the space and how the height of the figures diminishes evenly from the centre to the corners. As on the east side, we see the flat, heavy, rubbery folds of the drapery. We should notice that while some of the human figures should be hurt, like the bride here, none of the human figures screams, grimaces, or shows a lot of pain. In contrast, the faces of the centaurs, here and here, are rather like masks. Another change is reflected in the men's hair: it is all short and only the god Apollo wears the long archaic style which is rolled up at the back; as you see here. On this building, the sculpture was not confined to the pediments. Six metope panels were placed over the porch at each end of the building; on the left are the metopes of the east side. They showed in relief the 12 labours of Herakles, the great Peloponnesian hero and sometimes considered a founder of the games. This series marks the first time that all 12 labours appear together and the depiction here sets the canon. In the first metope on the east side, we see the young Herakles resting after killing the Nemean Lion which is clearly dead with his limp tongue and Athena stands nearby to comfort him. Herakles is clearly young here because he does not have a beard and so, surprizingly, is Athena. By the third metope, where Herakles presents the dead Stymphalian birds to Athena, he has a beard and is more mature. Notice that Athena too is now more mature, a young woman wearing the aegis, but not her helmet. We see again the flat, heavy folds of Athena's peplos and should remember that details would have been added in paint. In metopes of the west side, now on the left, Athena appears again in the tenth metope with the now familiar drapery, this time with series of vertical folds. Here Herakles holds up the sky while Atlas fetches the apples of the Hesperides; notice how the moulding above the metope is used as the sky. A mature and almost maternal Athena calmly assists the hero with one hand; goddesses do not have to struggle. On the twelfth metope, now on the right, Athena appears again as Herakles cleans the stable of Augeas under her direction. Herakles is now the mature adult hero and Athena is warrior goddess, the form in which they are both best known. Clearly one of the interests here is to show the stages of a man's life from the beardless youth to the bearded mature adult and the development of the hero is strikingly mirrored by the goddess, just in case we missed the point.

The Tyrannicides at Athens: Although we have not looked at every sculpted pediment from the Archaic and early Classical periods, from what we have just seen, you will agree that action groups belong on temples in a sanctuary; they may also, as on the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi, go on sacred storehouses, but the setting is not secular. Thus, in 477/6 B.C. when the Athenians decided to erect the statues of Harmodios and Aristogeiton by the sculptors Kritios and Nesiotes here in the Agora, the secular and civic marketplace, they were doing something completely new and different. In essence, they took two figures from a fight scene off a temple pediment and put them on a low base. We saw something similar at the sanctuary of Aphaia, but the space was still a sacred one. Also, unlike those pediments and the west pediment at Olympia, we do not see Hipparchos actually dying. He is not shown at all and so this group is also a little like the east pediment at Olympia: the viewer has to know the story and mentally to supply the conclusion. As you can see, the triangular composition encourages the viewer to move around the group and see it from different angles, which one could never do with pedimental sculpture once it was carved and set in place. The Tyrannicides, however, were located in the middle of a large open space next to the Panathenaic Way, the great processional road which ran from the Kerameikos, through the Agora, up to the Akropolis (here to here); we will come back to the festival in a couple of minutes. In the meantime, we should note several features of the group. As in the Olympia metopes, we see both the beardless youth and the bearded mature adult, but this difference in age is suggested only by the faces and not by the bodies. Although we know from our historical sources that there was certainly an age difference between the older Aristogeiton and the younger Harmodios, we see here also an interest in heroes of these two different ages. Harmodios' pose with the right hand raised up above his head and the lowered left arm behind him enters Greek art at this moment; his right hand should be closer to his head than it is on this Roman copy. In fact, both Theseus, whom see you see on the left, and Peirithoos on the Olympia west pediment were shown in just this way and the pose is clearly how you kill tyrants and evil-doers. The heads of the two Athenian statues are interesting because, again like the humans on the temple at Olympia, they have short hair although, in 514, the two men almost certainly had long like their other aristocratic compatriots. What you are looking at right now are clearly marble statues, but these are Roman copies from the villa of the Roman emperor Hadrian at Tivoli near Rome in Italy. The originals, however, were in bronze and would not have had the tree trunks which now support the statues. We know about the group from these copies as well as others, from literary descriptions, and from depictions in other materials, like this Panathenaic amphora and this fragment of an Attic jug. These two pots both date to the very end of the 5th century B.C., a significant time both for the Athenians and for the Tyrannicides. Additionally excavations of a sculptors' shop at Baiae near Naples in Italy produced part of a cast of the face of Aristogeiton and parts of the group's limbs and drapery; on the left you see the cast and on the right how it fits into Aristogeiton's overall face. From several ancient sources, we know that the Tyrannicides stood in the Agora. Pausanias described them after the Temple of Apollo, here, and before the Odeion of Agrippa, here, and, as you can see, this description means that they stood next to the Panathenaic Way probably on the remains of this monument base. Unfortunately we do not know exactly how this triangular group on its rectangular base was oriented in relationship to the processional street; the evidence of the Roman period suggests that they may have faced north so that they faced the viewer walking from the Kerameikos to the Akropolis. The location of the statues alongside the Panathenaic Way meant that, every year on 28 Hekatombaion, the high point of the festival for Athena, the Panathenaic procession would have passed the statues on the anniversary of the heroes' deed and of Harmodios' death. We must ask, therefore, what was the relationship of the heroized Harmodios and Aristogeiton to this festival? From a number of ancient sources, we learn that the Tyrannicides were celebrated in song and honoured equally with the heroes and gods. Offerings were also made to them by one of the Athenian officials and, by the end of the fifth century B.C., they were celebrated in song at the Panathenaia as the liberators of Athens. These songs and offerings were part of the festival of Athena and probably happened on 28 Hekatombaion, the day of the procession through the city from the Kerameikos to the goddess Athena on the Akropolis, and thus, as you know from Thucydides, the anniversary of the Tyrannicides' deed. But how, you rightly ask, did Harmodios and Aristogeiton who did not kill the tyrant Hippias and did not free the city come to be considered the liberators of Athens? Thucydides himself stated that "the multitude of the Athenians ... think that Hipparchos was killed ... when he was tyrant" and he argued strongly against this idea. In fact, this notion seems to have developed almost immediately because, already by the end of the 6th century, aristocrats at drinking parties were singing lines like "I will carry my sword in a myrtle branch, just like Harmodios and Aristogeiton, when, at the sacrifices to Athena, they killed the tyrant, the man Hipparchos" and "your fame will always be throughout the earth, most beloved Harmodios and Aristogeiton because you killed the tyrant and made Athens have equal rights". The verses on the base of the statue group probably contained similar ideas, as the verses on another monument in honour of these two men certainly did. Thucydides' further statement, that people of Athens know by hearing that the tyranny of Peisistratos and his sons was overthrown, not by themselves and Harmodios, but by the Lakedaimonians, suggests the existence of a popular tradition which gave credit for the overthrow of the tyrants not to the Spartans, but to the Tyrannicides. I would suggest to you that this popular tradition was officially sanctioned because it would not otherwise have been mentioned or alluded to on public monuments and that it was spread at the Panathenaia by the cult of Harmodios and Aristogeiton. Our evidence about the cult thus suggests that it was instituted very shortly after the events and was connected with the commission of the original group made by the sculptor Antenor. This group was the one which the Persian King Xerxes carried off in 480/79 after capturing Athens. The mere fact that the original group, also of bronze, was carried away and not melted down attests to its symbolic importance to the Athenians; and the ex-tyrant Hippias, who was with Xerxes, would have know exactly what the group meant. Unfortunately, we have absolutely no idea what this earlier set of statues, the first true portraits in Greek art, looked like. We know that the group was set up either in 510/09 B.C. or in 508/7 B.C. just about here in the Agora and, if you think of statues of the last decade of the 6th century, you will realize that we have nothing preserved which looks at all like the later group. The date of the erection of Antenor's group is important, but we can not choose with certainty between 510/09 and 508/7 B.C. A date in 510/09 B.C. means that the group was set up immediately after Hippias was forced out by the Alkmeonidai and the Spartans in 511/10. At the beginning of 510, the first Great Panathenaia since the assassination of Hipparchos and the subsequent expulsion of the tyrant Hippias was held. It would have been an appropriate time for the group to have been erected. The year 508/7, however, is even more appropriate because it was in this year that the democracy, a completely new form of government, was introduced by Kleisthenes. The statues of Harmodios and Aristogeiton, erected in the Agora, were also connected topographically with the new government. It was only in the last eight years of the sixth century that the centre of government was transferred to the area of the Agora between the north slope of the Areiopagos and the Eridanos River. We now know that it was the new democracy which constructed both the Old Bouleuterion, the seat of the new council, here, and the Stoa Basileios, the seat of one of the new chief officials, here, new buildings for a new government. These building are important too because, for the first time, the Doric order was used for secular civic architecture rather than for buildings in a sacred sanctuary. With this construction belongs also the Altar of Aphrodite Ourania, here, and the erection of the two boundary stones, here, all dated ca. 500 B.C. As you can see, these monuments anchored the west side of the market square and marked the democracy's possession of this space. The east side of the area was probably limited by the Panathenaic Way itself and the Altar of Aphrodite Ourania, but also by the statues of the new democratic heroes standing here by themselves alongside the road of the procession. Their importance is indicated by their isolation and the area around them was to remain restricted and largely free of monuments until at least the period of the Roman emperor Augustus in the late 1st century B.C. Likewise, no statue of a historical person, either living or recently dead, was erected in the Agora for over 100 years. As the creation of the new government, the Tyrannicides were clear physical markers of its power and domain. Their close connection with the other projects built by the democracy in the Agora suggests that they too should be dated to 508/7 B.C. and the last years of the century. The importance of the Tyrannicides to the Athenians is demonstrated by the events just before the dedication of the new group in 477/6 B.C. In 479, after the Greek defeated the Persians decisively, the Athenians returned to a city which had been completely levelled: Thucydides tells us that only small portions of the fortifications remained standing and most of the houses were in ruins. The Athenians had a lot of work to do and, in fact, they do not seem to have rebuilt their civic buildings for at least 10 years, but, two years after they returned, they set up new statues of Harmodios and Aristogeiton, such were their priorities. Their liberators had to preside over the civic centre. In this connection, it can not be accident that the new statues showed both men with the short hair associated, not with the Archaic aristocrats, but with the democrats; you see here Harmodios' head. Contrast their hair with that of the Kritios Boy made not more than five years before or his near contemporary, the Blond Boy; their long hair has been rolled up in the two typical aristocratic fashions. This choice of short hair must be deliberate. It can not be accident either that at just this time Harmodios and Aristogeiton were shown on this red-figured stamnos killing Hipparchos. The Tyrannicides were the liberators of Athens, the founders of the new democratic state and their presence was far more important than new buildings; the government could wait, but Athens needed her founders present. The Tyrannicides as liberators appeared also at the end of the fifth century in connection with the terrible events of the very late fifth century. In 404, after losing the almost 30 year war with the Spartans, the Athenians quickly fell under the very conservative, autocratic control of the 30 Tyrants, 30 conservative, aristocratic Athenians. Many democrats were killed and others left the city. By the middle of 403, however, the tyrants had been ousted and democracy once again ruled Athens. The Great Panathenaia of 402/1 marked the first celebration of the festival since the restoration. It was probably at this time that songs for the anti-tyrannical heroes who liberated the city were first sung with songs for the Tyrannicides, the ultimate liberators of Athens. Indeed, the statues of Harmodios and Aristogeiton were shown as the emblem of Athena's shield on at least some of the prizes vases given that year. The heroes are the agents of Athena against her enemies, originally the tyrant Hippias and his brother Hipparchos and then the later 30 Tyrants. So close were the associations between the Tyrannicides, the democracy, and freedom of Athens that the statue group appeared on this jug made just at this time, but there are no representations from periods when the democracy was not threatened. What we see then is that the Tyrannicides, as the liberators of Athens, provided the democracy with its own founding heroes, the ktistai or founders, as it were, of the new state. In order to serve this function, the period of time between their death in 514 B.C. and the liberation of Athens by the Alkmeonidai and the Spartans in 511/10 had to be de-emphasized. The foreign intervention of the Spartans, moreover, was inappropriate for the foundation of the new government, hence Harmodios and Aristogeiton, the liberators, came into being. The addition of the cult of the Tyrannicides to the Panathenaia allowed the new democracy to demonstrate its possession of the festival in much the same way that its control of the city was shown through the construction in the Agora. As liberators and agents of the goddess, the heroes signalled Athena's approval of the killing of Hipparchos, and thereby the establishment of the new order, for whose cause she had abandoned the Peisistratidai. Since she was said to have brought Peisistratos back to Athens from exile (Hdt. 1.60.; Arist., Ath. Pol. 14.4), her support must have been crucial for the new government. That the goddess approved seems certain because nowhere in the tradition is there any indication of the minor detail that the assassination was a sacrilege which polluted her festival. In fact, the sacrilege was committed by the Peisistratidai. Herodotos indicates in his account of the death of Hipparchos (Hdt. 5.55-56) that his assassination was divinely sanctioned and, in some versions, Harmodios' sister was first invited and then uninvited to serve as a kanephoros or basket-bearer in the Panathenaic procession. The implication is that Harmodios' sister, the Tyrannicides, and the goddess were all wronged and the tyranny had consequently become a sacrilege, hence the goddess' approval. Hippias further polluted the festival and offended the goddess by having Harmodios, and later Aristogeiton, killed. These acts, in turn, led to the fall of the tyranny and to the new cult. Once the heroized Tyrannicides became Athena's agents, the tyrants became her enemies, the equivalent of the Giants, and her victory over the Giants was the original cause for the celebration of the Panathenaia. The location of the statues in the Agora has a variety of repercussions. The heroes watched over the absolute centre of the new democratic state and served as role models for young Athenian men. They interacted with the Panathenaic festival when songs were sung to them. As the guardians of the Agora they had help from several other sources. By the end of the fifth century, the democratic nature of the marketplace had been emphasized by the construction of several buildings, the Stoa Poikile (here), the Stoa Basileios (here), and the Hephaisteion (here), which were all decorated with the exploits of Theseus, the other great democratic hero and a player in the mythology of the Panathenaic festival. Theseus led the Athenians against their external enemies, especially the Amazons, and was the model of the proper king, while the Tyrannicides were the liberators and led the Athenians against internal tyrants. In their roles as the protectors of democratic Athens, the Tyrannicides and Theseus were aided by the 10 Eponymous Heroes, the hero-founders, as it were, of the 10 tribes introduced by Kleisthenes as part of the democratic reforms; every Athenian belonged to one of these ten tribes. This group of 10 statues stood somewhere in the Agora in the 5th century B.C. but we do not know where. At the end of the 5th century, they may very well have stood here in the south-west corner of the square. Shortly after 350 B.C., however, a new monument for them was set up across from the Old Bouleuterion or council house and from here they watched over the marketplace. They also watched their descendants, as it were, as they marched in the Panathenaic procession in their military units, which were organized by tribe. Thus all the hero-guardians of the democracy also played a role in the great festival of Athena, although the Tyrannicides held the staring role. The cult of Harmodios and Aristogeiton was certainly not celebrated at the statues in the Agora and the rites may well have taken place at the tomb of Harmodios and Aristogeiton, which was seen by Pausanias. Songs may also have been sung when the Panathenaic procession came by the statues in the Agora. The participants would have been re-enacting the role of the Tyrannicides, since they did their deed at the time of the procession. At the same time, the ability of the participants to process freely and democratically was made possible, according to the cult, only by the actions of Harmodios and Aristogeiton. As the liberators of Athens and the heroes of the new democracy, the Tyrannicides were spatially divorced from the area of the Leokorion, where they killed Hipparchos, somewhere here along the Panathenaic Way north and west of the Agora, and they took up a new residence here in the marketplace, the centre of the democratic city. As heroes, their cult accompanied that of Athena and, through it, the goddess indicated her approval of their deed, the killing of the tyrant Hipparchos, and the result, the liberation of her city and the establishment of the democratic government. That Athena continued to support Athens would have been clear from ritual repetition of the cult and the songs at each succeeding Panathenaia. Under the guardianship of Harmodios and Aristogeiton, who were aided by Theseus and the Eponymous Heroes, democratic Athens had nothing to fear and knew that she retained the approval of her chief goddess.

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