She was, on suspicion, arrested and put to the torture by Hippias, brother to the tyrant, but refused to betray her accomplices. Yet, alive to the severity of the torments she endured, she was fearful that her resolution would not hold out long, and in the despair of a generous mind, fearing to commit a base action, she bit through her tongue, and spat it in the face of her tormentor.
As soon as the Athenians recovered their liberty, they erected to her honour the statue of a lion without a tongue.
She exhibited an early taste for poetry, which was at first checked by her parents, till they perceived the strong bent of her inclination; and the praise and encouragement of friends, inclined them to let her proceed. She appears to have been of a melancholy turn of mind probably from ill health, for she died young in 1746. Two volumes of poems, in which is an unfinished play, were published after her decease; in them she generally calls herself Myra.
LEBRIXA (FRANCES DE), Daughter of the celebrated Antony Lebrixa,
Was a learned rhetorician; and when her father was ill, or otherwise engaged, used to give public lectures in his stead, in the university of Alcala.
