Aspasia (/æˈspeɪʒ(i)ə,-ziə,-ʃə/;[2]Ancient Greek:ἈσπασίαGreek:[aspasíaː];c. 470 – after 428 BC[a]) was ametic woman inClassical Athens. Born inMiletus, she moved to Athens and began a relationship with the statesmanPericles, with whom she had a son namedPericles the Younger. According to the traditional historical narrative, she worked as acourtesan and was tried forasebeia (impiety), though modern scholars have questioned the factual basis for either of these claims, which both derive from ancient comedy. Though Aspasia is one of the best-attested women from the Greco-Roman world, and the most important woman in the history of fifth-century Athens, almost nothing is certain about her life.
Aspasia was portrayed inOld Comedy as aprostitute and madam, and in ancient philosophy as a teacher and rhetorician. She has continued to be a subject of both visual and literary artists until the present. From the twentieth century, she has been portrayed as both a sexualised and sexually liberated woman, and as a feminist role model fighting for women's rights in ancient Athens.
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We must make do with the sources that mention her, even when they fundamentally distort reality.
— Nicole Loraux, "Aspasia, Foreigner, Intellectual".[5]
Aspasia was an important figure in the history of fifth-centuryAthens,[6] and is one of the women from the Greco-Roman world with the most substantial biographical traditions.[7] The earliest literary sources to mention Aspasia, written during her lifetime, are fromAthenian comedy,[7] and in the fourth century BC she appears inSocratic dialogues.[8] After the fourth century, she appears only in brief mentions of complete texts, or in fragments whose full context is now lost,[9] until the second century AD, whenPlutarch wrote hisLife of Pericles, the longest and most complete ancient biographical treatment of Aspasia.[10] Modern biographies of Aspasia are dependent on Plutarch,[11] despite his writing nearly seven centuries after her death.[10]
It is difficult to draw any firm conclusions about the real Aspasia from any of these sources: as Robert Wallace puts it, "for us Aspasia herself possesses and can possess almost no historical reality".[12] Aside from her name, father's name, and place of birth, Aspasia's biography is almost entirely unverifiable, and the ancient writings about her are frequently more of a projection of their own (without exception male) preconceptions than they are historical fact.[13] Madeleine Henry's full-length biography covers what is known of Aspasia's life in only nine pages.[14]
Aspasia was born, probably no earlier than 470 BC,[b][16] in theIonian Greek city ofMiletus[c] (in modernAydın Province, Turkey), the daughter of a man called Axiochus.[18] Ascholiast onAelius Aristides wrongly claims that Aspasia was aCarian prisoner of war and a slave;[19] this is perhaps due to confusion with the concubine ofCyrus the Younger, also called Aspasia.[20] The circumstances surrounding Aspasia's move to Athens are unknown.[19] One theory, first put forward by Peter Bicknell based on a fourth-century tomb inscription, suggests that Alcibiades of Scambonidae, the grandfather of the famousAlcibiades, married Aspasia's sister while he was in exile in Miletus following hisostracism, and Aspasia went with him when he returned to Athens.[19] Bicknell speculates that this was motivated by the death of Aspasia's father Axiochus in the upheaval in Miletus following its secession from theDelian League in 455/4 BC.[21]
According to the conventional understanding of Aspasia's life, she worked as a courtesan and then ran a brothel.[17] Some scholars have challenged this view. Peter Bicknell notes that the "pejorative epithets applied to her by comic dramatists" are unreliable.[16] Madeleine Henry argues in her biography of Aspasia that "we are not required to believe that Aspasia was a whore because a comic poet says she was", and that the portrayal of Aspasia as involved in the sex trade should "be looked upon with great suspicion".[22] Cheryl Glenn contends that Aspasia actually opened an academy for women that became "a popular salon for the most influential men of the day", includingSocrates,Plato, and Pericles,[23] and Rebecca Futo Kennedy suggests that the accusations in comedy that she was a brothel-keeper derived from this.[24] Despite these challenges to the traditional narrative, many scholars continue to believe that Aspasia worked as a courtesan or madam.[25] Konstantinos Kapparis argues that the kinds of comic attacks made on Aspasia would not have been acceptable to make about a respectable woman, and that it is therefore likely that Aspasia did have a history as asex worker before she began her relationship with Pericles.[26] Whether or not Aspasia worked as a courtesan, her later life, in which she apparently achieved some degree of power, reputation, and independence, has similarities to the lives of other prominenthetairai ("courtesans") such asPhryne.[27]
In Athens, Aspasia met and began a relationship with the statesmanPericles. It is uncertain how they met;[28] if Bicknell's thesis is correct then she may have met him through his connection to Alcibiades' household.[21] Kennedy speculates that whenCleinias, the son of the elder Alcibiades, died at theBattle of Coronea, Pericles may have become thekurios (guardian) of Aspasia.[24] Aspasia's relationship with Pericles began some time between 452 and 441.[d][29] The exact nature of Pericles and Aspasia's relationship is disputed. Ancient authors variously portrayed her as a prostitute, his concubine, or his wife.[30] Modern scholars are also divided. Rebecca Futo Kennedy argues that they were married;[31] Debra Nails describes Aspasia as "thede facto wife of Pericles";[19] Madeleine Henry believes that Pericles' citizenship law of 451/0 made marriage between an Athenian and ametic illegal, and suggests a quasi-maritalpallakia ("concubinage") enforced by contract;[32] and Sue Blundell describes Aspasia as ahetaira and mistress of Pericles.[33]
Aspasia and Pericles had a son,Pericles the Younger, born no later than 440/39 BC.[e][28] At the time of Pericles the Younger's birth, Pericles had two legitimate sons,Paralus and Xanthippus. In 430/29, after the death of his two elder sons, Pericles proposed an amendment to his citizenship law of 451/0 which would have made Pericles the Younger able to become a citizen and inherit. Though many scholars believe that this was specifically for Pericles, some have suggested that a more general exception was introduced, in response to the effect of thePlague of Athens andPeloponnesian War on citizen families.[35]
According to Plutarch, Aspasia was prosecuted forasebeia (impiety) by the comic poetHermippus.[36] She was supposedly defended by Pericles and acquitted.[37] Many scholars have questioned whether this trial ever took place, suggesting that the tradition derives from a fictional trial of Aspasia in a play by Hermippus.[12] Vincent Azoulay compares the trial of Aspasia to those ofPhidias andAnaxagoras, both also connected to Pericles, and concludes that "none of the trials for impiety involving those close to Pericles is attested with certainty".[38]
In 429 BC, Pericles died. According to ancient sources, Aspasia then married another politician,Lysicles, and gave birth to another son, Poristes.[39] As "Poristes" is not otherwise known as a name – it means "supplier" or "provider",[40] and was a euphemism for "thief"[41] – some scholars have argued that the name comes from a misunderstanding of a joke in a comedy.[40][37][24] Henry doubts whether Aspasia had a child with Lysicles,[40] and Kennedy questions whether she married Lysicles at all.[24] Pomeroy, however, suggests that Poristes' unusual name may have been chosen by Lysicles for political reasons, to draw attention to his providing for the people of Athens.[42] Lysicles died a year after Pericles, in 428, and nothing is recorded of Aspasia's life after this point.[19] It is unknown where or when she died.[1]
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In the classical period, two primary schools of thought developed around Aspasia. One tradition, deriving from Old Comedy, emphasises her influence over Pericles and her involvement in the sex trade; the other, which can be traced back to fourth-century philosophy, concentrates on her intellect and rhetorical skill.[43] Some scholars have also proposed that the portrayal of several female characters in Athenian tragedy commented on Aspasia, including Euripides'Medea[44] andPhaedra,[45] and Sophocles'Jocasta.[46]
The only surviving ancient sources to discuss Aspasia which were written during her life are from comedy. The surviving comic tradition about Aspasia – unlike her male contemporaries – focuses on her sexuality.[47]Aristophanes, the only writer of Old Comedy for whom complete works survive, refers to Aspasia only once in his surviving corpus, inAcharnians.[48] In a passage parodying the beginning ofHerodotus'Histories,[49] Aristophanes jokes that theMegarian decree was retaliation for the kidnapping of twopornai ("prostitutes") from Aspasia.[24] A similar charge, attributed by Plutarch toDuris of Samos, that Aspasia was responsible for Athens' involvement in theSamian War, may have derived from this.[f][12] The mention of Aspasia'spornai inAcharnians is also the earliest known instance of the tradition that she worked as a brothel-keeper.[51]
Outside of Aristophanes, mentions of Aspasia are known from the surviving fragments ofCratinus andEupolis.[52] In a fragment of Cratinus'Cheirons, Aspasia is described as "Hera-Aspasia, a dog-eyed concubine".[53] Eupolis mentions Aspasia by name in three surviving fragments. InProslapatians, she is compared toHelen of Troy – like Aspasia, blamed for starting a war – and inPhiloi toOmphale, who ownedHerakles as a slave.[54] Eupolis also alluded to Aspasia inDemes, where Pericles, having been brought back from the dead, asks after his son; he is informed that he is alive, but is ashamed of having aporne as a mother.[55] Aspasia is also known to have been mentioned byKallias, though the scholion to Plato'sMenexenus which reports this is garbled and it is uncertain what Kallias said about her.[56] She may also have appeared in a play by Hermippus – this is possibly the source of the anecdote told by Plutarch that Aspasia was prosecuted by him forasebeia and for supplying free-born women for Pericles to have sex with.[57] Later authors to follow the comic tradition in focusing on Aspasia's sexuality and improper influence over Pericles, for example inClearchus'Erotika.[58]
In the fourth century, four philosophers are known to have written Socratic dialogues which feature Aspasia. Those byAntisthenes and Plato portray her negatively, in a way resembling her portrayal in comedy; Aeschines andXenophon show her in a more positive light.[59] In the dialogues by Plato, Xenophon, and Aeschines, Aspasia is portrayed as an educated, skilled rhetorician, and a source of advice for marital concerns.[60]Armand D'Angour has argued that Diotima, to whom Socrates attributes his understanding of love inSymposium, is based on her.[61] In the Hellenistic and Roman periods, some authors followed Aspasia's more positive portrayal in Socratic literature, distancing her from prostitution and situating her in a tradition of wise women.Didymus Chalcenterus wrote about exceptional women in history in hisSymposiaka, downplaying her sexuality but noting her influence on Socrates' philosophy and Pericles' rhetoric.[58] Both Athenaeus and Maximus of Tyre report that Socrates advisedCallias to have Aspasia teach his son.[62] In Rome,Cicero andQuintillian used the conversation between Aspasia and Xenophon in Aeschines' dialogue as a good example ofinductio.[63]
Aspasia's earliest post-classical portrayal is in the letters ofHéloïse toAbelard.[64] Héloïse cites Aspasia's conversation with Xenophon and his wife in Aeschines' dialogue, which she probably knew through Cicero's reference to it, and proposes Aspasia as an example for how she should live her own life.[65]
In the late medieval and early modern periods, Aspasia appeared in several catalogues, a fashionable genre at the time. She was included in three "medallion books", with an imagined portrait and a brief biography. The first of these wasGuillaume Rouille'sPromptuarium Iconum, which derives its depiction of Aspasia from Plutarch and focuses on her relationship with Pericles;[66] inGiovanni Angelo Canini'sIconografia, Aspasia is depicted wearing a helmet and shield.[67] Aspasia also featured in two catalogues of women in this period as a teacher and philosopher: inArcangela Tarabotti'sTirannia Paterna, which portrays her as a teacher of rhetoric, andGilles Ménage'sHistoria Mulierum Philosopharum, in which Aspasia is described as teaching rhetoric to Pericles and Socrates, and philosophy to Socrates.[68]
By the eighteenth century, Aspasia was widely enough known to be included in dictionaries and encyclopedias, where depictions of her were largely based on Plutarch.[67] In 1736,Jean Leconte de Bièvre published theHistoire de deux Aspasies, also based on Plutarch's depiction, which portrayed Aspasia as an educated woman and Pericles' teacher as well as his wife.[69] The eighteenth century also saw the first known image of Aspasia to be created by a woman,Marie Bouliard'sAspasie.[70] The painting depicts Aspasia with one breast bared, looking into a handheld mirror and with a scroll in her other hand. Though the bare breast references the eroticised traditions surrounding Aspasia, Madeleine Henry argues that the portrait differs from more pornographic depictions of women, with Aspasia looking into the mirror rather than out at the viewer, and holding a scroll rather than a cosmetic object such as a comb.[71]
In the nineteenth century, Plutarch's narrative dominated the interpretation of Aspasia in both novels and paintings.[72] In the visual arts, the sexualised side of Aspasia was represented byJean-Léon Gérôme's paintingSocrates Seeking Alcibiades in the House of Aspasia, but this pornographised representation was relatively uncommon.[73]Honoré Daumier's lithograph ofSocrates at the House of Aspasia depicts Aspasia as a "lorette", an ambiguous social position which referred to "loose, vulgar or 'liberated' women".[74] Other artists of the period depicted an Aspasia active in public life, and interacting with the most renowned men of the period. InHenry Holiday's painting ofAspasia on the Pnyx, she is shown with another woman at the site of theAthenian assembly, the center of male public space in the city,[75] while in two paintings byNicolas-André Monsiau she is shown at the centre of discussions with celebrated Athenian intellectuals and politicians.[76] InSocrates and Aspasia, she converses with Socrates and Pericles; inAspasia in Conversation with the Most Illustrious Men of Athens,Euripides,Sophocles, Plato, and Xenophon are also among those included.[77] In both of these paintings, Aspasia is speaking and commanding the attention of these men.[78] Melissa Ianetta argues thatGermaine de Staël's novelCorinne models its heroine after Aspasia, placing her in the same tradition of feminine rhetorical skill.[79]
An alternative nineteenth-century representation of Aspasia positioned her as a respectable wife. The authorsWalter Savage Landor andElizabeth Lynn Linton portrayed Aspasia as a good Victorian wife to Pericles in their novelsPericles and Aspasia andAmymone: A Romance of the Days of Pericles.[80]Lawrence Alma-Tadema's paintingPhidias and the Frieze of the Parthenon also shows Aspasia as a respectable companion to men.[81] By contrast,Robert Hamerling's novelAspasia showed her as a proto-feminist with far more agency than these romanticised accounts.[82]
The twentieth century saw on the one hand increasing interest in Aspasia separately from her relationships with men, and on the other more prurient concern with her sexuality.[83] The former strand of Aspasia's reception saw the Latvian author, feminist, and politicianElza Rozenberga, who took the pseudonym Aspazija, model her campaigning for women's rights after what she saw as Aspasia's example.[84] Aspasia was also taken as a feminist role-model byJudy Chicago, who included her as one of the thirty-nine women given a place in her artworkThe Dinner Party.[85] Recent novels have tended towards the more explicitly sexualised portrayal of Aspasia, includingAchilles His Armour by the classicistPeter Green,[86] Madelon Dimont's andDarling Pericles.[86] InTaylor Caldwell'sGlory and the Lightning (1974), Aspasia is raised as ahetaira but surpasses the intellectual expectations of her tutors and establishes a school for girls, tutoring the daughters of wealthy Athenian aristocrats. The 2018 video gameAssassin's Creed Odyssey, which features Aspasia in a major role, follows the ancient tradition which portrayed her as ahetaira. She is depicted as using her femininity to gain political power by manipulating men and through her connections to other women across the Greek world.[87]
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