HARLINGEN, a seaport in the province of Friesland, Holland, on the Zuider Zee, and the terminus of the railway and canal from Leeuwarden (15½ m. E.). It is connected by steam tramway by way of Bolswaard with Sneek. Pop. (1900) 10,448. Harlingen has become the most considerable seaport of Friesland since the construction of the large outer harbour in 1870-1877, and in addition to railway and steamship connexion with Bremen, Amsterdam, and the southern provinces there are regular sailings to Hull and London. Powerful sluices protect the inner harbour from the high tides. The only noteworthy buildings are the town hall (1730-1733), the West church, which consists of a part of the former castle of Harlingen, the Roman Catholic church, the Jewish synagogue and the schools of navigation and of design. The chief trade of Harlingen is the exportation of Frisian produce, namely, butter and cheese, cattle, sheep, fish, potatoes, flax, &c. There is also a considerable import trade in timber, coal, raw cotton, hemp and jute for the Twente factories. The local industries are unimportant, consisting of saw-mills, rope-yards, salt refineries, and sail-cloth and margarine factories.
HARMATTAN, the name of a hot dry parching wind that blows during December, January and February on the coast of Upper Guinea, bringing a high dense haze of red dust which darkens the air. The natives smear their bodies with oil or fat while this parching wind is blowing.
HARMODIUS, a handsome Athenian youth, and the intimate friend of Aristogeiton. Hipparchus, the younger brother of the tyrant Hippias, endeavoured to supplant Aristogeiton in the good graces of Harmodius, but, failing in the attempt, revenged himself by putting a public affront on Harmodius’s sister at a solemn festival. Thereupon the two friends conspired with a few others to murder both the tyrants during the armed procession at the Panathenaic festival (514 B.C.), when the people were allowed to carry arms (this licence is denied by Aristotle in Ath. Pol.). Seeing one of their accomplices speaking to Hippias, and imagining that they were being betrayed, they prematurely attacked and slew Hipparchus alone. Harmodius was cut down on the spot by the guards, and Aristogeiton was soon captured and tortured to death. When Hippias was expelled (510), Harmodius and Aristogeiton became the most popular of Athenian heroes; their descendants were exempted from public burdens, and had the right of public entertainment in the Prytaneum, and their names were celebrated in popular songs and scolia (after-dinner songs) as the deliverers of Athens. One of these songs, attributed to a certain Callistratus, is preserved in Athenaeus (p. 695). Their statues by Antenor in the agora were carried off by Xerxes and replaced by new ones by Critius and Nesiotes. Alexander the Great afterwards sent back the originals to Athens. It is not agreed which of these was the original of the marble tyrannicide group in the museum at Naples, for which see article [Greek Art], Pl. I. fig. 50.
See Köpp in Neue Jahrb. f. klass. Altert. (1902), p. 609.
HARMONIA, in Greek mythology, according to one account the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, and wife of Cadmus. When the government of Thebes was bestowed upon Cadmus by Athena, Zeus gave him Harmonia to wife. All the gods honoured the wedding with their presence. Cadmus (or one of the gods) presented the bride with a robe and necklace, the work of Hephaestus. This necklace brought misfortune to all who possessed it. With it Polyneices bribed Eriphyle to persuade her husband Amphiaraus to undertake the expedition against Thebes. It led to the death of Eriphyle, of Alcmaeon, of Phegeus and his sons. Even after it had been deposited in the temple of Athena Pronoia at Delphi, its baleful influence continued. Phayllus, one of the Phocian leaders in the Sacred War (352 B.C.) carried it off and gave it to his mistress. After she had worn it for a time, her son was seized with madness and set fire to the house, and she perished in the flames. According to another account, Harmonia belonged to Samothrace and was the daughter of Zeus and Electra, her brother Iasion being the founder of the mystic rites celebrated on the island (Diod. Sic. v. 48). Finally, Harmonia is rationalized as closely allied to Aphrodite Pandemos, the love that unites all people, the personification of order and civic unity, corresponding to the Roman Concordia.
Apollodorus iii. 4-7; Diod. Sic. iv. 65, 66; Parthenius, Erotica, 25; L. Preller, Griech. Mythol.; Crusius in Roscher’s Lexikon.