Leaena

Who is Leaena?

Leaina was a hetaera and the mistress of Aristogeiton the Tyrannicide.

When Anaxandridas II was king of Sparta in the 6th century BC, Harmodius and Aristogeiton were inspired to overthrow the tyranny of Hippias and Hipparchus at Athens.

Hipparchus was murdered, but Hippias escaped, and seized the surviving conspirators. 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 later set up a statue of a bronze lioness on the Acropolis 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 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."