[Anthony]

the following is copied and pasted from an email i sent to my friends:

this is truly comedy. i was brushing up on greek history this morning, and i came upon the topic of these 2 greek guys who assassinated a greek tyrant. the following paragraph is the aftermath (one was murdered on the spot and the other was tortured then murdered after not giving up co-conspiritors), thus making them martyrs:

Subsequent history came to identify the romantic figures of Harmodius and Aristogeiton as martyrs to the cause of Athenian freedom, possibly for political and class reasons, and they became known as "the Liberators" (eleutherioi) and "the Tyrannicides" (tyrannophonoi). According to later writers, descendants of Harmodius and Aristogeiton's families were given hereditary privileges, such as sitesis (the right to take meals at public expense in the town hall), ateleia (exemption from certain religious duties), and proedria (front-row seats in the theater).


LOL. that last privilege is fucking comedy.

(setting: 50 years after the assassination)
Greek maitre-d': "i'm sorry sir, i don't see your name on the list for this Greek play, you'll have to wait on stand-by"
descendent of Harmodius: "motherfucker - do you know who i am?? i'm the fucking son of Harmodius' grandchild!"
Greek maitre-d': "Apologies! Please right this way...we have a great front row seat that you would enjoy."


HAHAHAHAHA