The ambiguity of the public and the private spheres in the Athenian polis of the Tyrannicides and Pericles

Abstract

In the 5th and 6th centuries BC, the city-state of Athens lived two symptomatic events. In 514 BC, Harmodius and Aristogiton killed the tyrant Hippias, during the Panathenean Festival. According to Thucydides, Hipparchus – Hippias brother – sexually harassed Harmodius, who would have rejected him. Hipparchus would then have revenged himself and publicly humiliated Harmodius’ sister. Consequently, the tyrant was killed and the act was understood as a rebellion against tyranny in Athens. In the middle of the fifth century BC, between 440 and 429 BC, Pericles maintained a love affair with a woman from Miletus, called Aspasia. That would be a relationship of a private nature; however, it entered in the public sphere from the moment that Aspasia was accused of influencing political decisions of Pericles, which caused him to be accused of having promoted the revolt of Samos in 440. The two cases cited are examples of events of the private life of individuals that, ultimately, had major consequences in public life. This paper aims to examine how this ambiguity between the two universes had revealed to be frequent in Classical Antiquity, particularly in Athens, and how the phenomenon was understood by the societies that experienced it.