Hippocleides

Who is Hippocleides?

Hippocleides, the son of Teisander, was an Athenian nobleman, who served as Eponymous Archon for the year 566 BC – 565 BC.

He was a member of the Philaidae, a wealthy Athenian family which was opposed to the Peisistratus family. During his term as archon he set up the statue of Athena Promachos in Athens and oversaw a reorganization of the Panathenaia festival.

As a young man he competed for the hand of Agariste, the daughter of Cleisthenes, the tyrant of Sicyon. By the end of the competitions, only Hippocleides and Megacles remained. According to Herodotus, Hippocleides became intoxicated during a dinner party with Cleisthenes, and began to act like a fool; at one point he stood on his head and kicked his legs in the air, keeping time with the flute music. When Hippocleides was informed by Cleisthenes "Oh son of Teisander, you have just danced away your marriage," his response was "οὐ φροντὶς Ἱπποκλείδῃ",. The phrase, according to Herodotus, became a common expression in the Greek world.

The phrase was well-known to later authors; Aristophanes paraphrases it in The Wasps, and Plutarch, who disliked Herodotus, says the author "would dance away the truth" like Hippocleides.