Leaina

Leaina in front of her judges. Drawing by Hans Holbein the Younger (approx. 1517–1519)

Leaina (Greek lioness ) was an Athenian hetaera .

She was involved in the conspiracy of Harmodios and Aristogeiton , or at least that was what the tyrant Hippias suspected , since she was Aristogeiton's lover. He captured her and tortured her, but she remained silent. Tertullian ( Serm. Ad Martyres ) reports that in order not to be able to reveal anything, she bit off her tongue. To honor their courage, the Athenians are said to have added the sculpture of a lioness without a tongue to the portrait of the tyrant murderer .

swell

Pliny the Elder , Naturalis Historia VII.23
Plutarch , Peri adoleschias § 505
Alexander from Alexandro , Dies Geniales . Rome 1522. I.30
Pausanias I.23
Aegidius Menagius ( Gilles Ménage von Angers), Historia Mulierum Philosopharum. 96

literature

Marga Hirsch: The Athenian murderers of tyrants in historiography and folk legend . In: Klio 20 (1926), pp. 129–167, on Leaina: pp. 152–153, note 3.
Hans Volkmann: Leaina 1. In: Der Kleine Pauly , Vol. 3 (1969), Col. 525.

personal data
SURNAME	Leaina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Athenian hetaera
DATE OF BIRTH	6th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH	5th century BC Chr.