In a myrtle bough conceal’d
The sacred sword I’ll dare to wield
Which in thy hand Harmodius shone
When thou with Aristogiton
The tyrant slew in freedom’s cause,
And gave to Athens equal laws.
Harmodius much belov’d ’tis said,
Thou art not number’d with the dead;
But in the Islands of the Blest
Thou hast attain’d eternal rest.
Where fam’d for speed Achilles lives,
And great Tydides still survives
In a myrtle bough conceal’d
The sacred sword I’ll dare to wield
Which in thy hand Harmodius shone
In thine brave Aristogiton.
See near the smoking sacrifice
Beneath their rage Hipparchus lies;
Whilst he Minerva’s aid implor’d
He sank beneath their vengeful sword.
Belov’d Harmodius thy great name,
Through ev’ry age shall honour claim,
And dearest Aristogiton
Thou too the glorious palm hast won;
For ye the tyrant slew in freedom’s cause,
And gave the Athenians equal laws.
Ictinus
March 16th 1806
The translator begs leave to say for the information of the Editress (not that he has the presumption to suppose “she is not well read”) that Hipparchus here mentioned together with Hippias were the sons of Pisistratus the celebrated tyrant who after various vicissitudes of fortune, firmly established himself in the government of Athens and left the tyranny to Hipparchus, who was slain at a sacrifice to Minerva by Harmodius and Aristogiton as related by the poet, upon which event Hippias fled to Persia and was the principal instigator of Darius to the invasion of Greece. The memory of these tyrannicides was ever after held in the highest veneration by the Athenians and they were esteemed scarcely inferior to their deities. The people very soon had a opportunity of manifesting their gratitude for “having heard that a granddaughter of Aristogiton lived in mean circumstances in Lemnos and continued unmarried by reason of her poverty, they sent for her to Athens and married her to a man of a considerable family, giving her for a portion an estate in the borough of Potamos.”
Tea Chest
From the Greek of Alcaeus by Ictinus
April 16, 1806