Aspasia (after 428 BC) was a metic woman who lived in Classical Athens. Born in Miletus, she moved to Athens and began a relationship with the statesman Pericles. According to the traditional historical narrative, she worked as a hetaira, though modern scholars have questioned the factual basis for this claim, which derives 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's relationship with Pericles began between 452 and 441 BC. Both ancient and modern scholars have variously described her as Pericles's concubine and as his or wife. They had a son, Pericles the Younger; Pericles may also have defended her against a charge of asebeia (impiety) recorded in traditional accounts of Aspasia's life. As with her status as a courtesan, this narrative may also stem from Athenian comedy, and several modern scholars have questioned its historicity. After Pericles's death in 429 BC, she is believed to have married the politician Lysicles; nothing is known of Aspasia's life after his death in 428 BC.
Athenian writers of Old Comedy portrayed Aspasia as a prostitute and madam, with improper and excessive control over Pericles; this approach was also adopted by the Roman-era biographer Plutarch. Ancient philosophical writers portrayed her as a skilled rhetorician and philosopher; she may have been a model for the character of Diotima in the Symposium of Plato. Early modern receptions of Aspasia generally followed this latter approach, though Plutarch's characterisation of her became more prominent in nineteenth-century portrayals of her. 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.
Sources
Aspasia was an important figure in the history of fifth-century Athens, and is one of the women from the Greco-Roman world with the most substantial biographical traditions. The earliest literary sources to mention Aspasia, written during her lifetime, are from Athenian comedy, and in the fourth century BC she appears in Socratic dialogues. After the fourth century, she appears only in brief mentions of complete texts, or in fragments whose full context is now lost, until the second century AD, when Plutarch wrote his Life of Pericles, the longest and most complete ancient biographical treatment of Aspasia. Modern biographies of Aspasia are dependent on Plutarch, despite his writing nearly seven centuries after her death.
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". 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. Madeleine Henry's full-length biography covers what is known of Aspasia's life in only nine pages.
Life Early life Aspasia was born, probably no earlier than 470 BC, in the Ionian Greek city of Miletus (in modern Aydın Province, Turkey), the daughter of a man called Axiochus. A scholiast on Aelius Aristides wrongly claims that Aspasia was a Carian prisoner of war and a slave; this is perhaps due to confusion with the concubine of Cyrus the Younger, also called Aspasia. The circumstances surrounding Aspasia's move to Athens are unknown. One theory, first put forward by Peter Bicknell based on a fourth-century tomb inscription, suggests that Alcibiades of Scambonidae, the grandfather of the famous Alcibiades, married Aspasia's sister while he was in exile in Miletus following his ostracism, and Aspasia went with him when he returned to Athens. Bicknell speculates that this was motivated by the death of Aspasia's father Axiochus in the upheaval in Miletus following its secession from the Delian League in 455/4 BC.
Life in Athens
According to the conventional understanding of Aspasia's life, she worked as a courtesan and then ran a brothel. Some scholars have challenged this view. Peter Bicknell notes that the "pejorative epithets applied to her by comic dramatists" are unreliable. 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". Cheryl Glenn contends that Aspasia actually opened an academy for women that became "a popular salon for the most influential men of the day", including Socrates, Plato, and Pericles, and Rebecca Futo Kennedy suggests that the accusations in comedy that she was a brothel-keeper derived from this. Despite these challenges to the traditional narrative, many scholars continue to believe that Aspasia worked as a courtesan or madam. 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 a sex worker before she began her relationship with Pericles. 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 prominent hetairai ("courtesans") such as Phryne, Kapparis writes.
In Athens, Aspasia met and began a relationship with the statesman Pericles. It is uncertain how they met; if Bicknell's thesis is correct then she may have met him through his connection to Alcibiades' household. Kennedy speculates that when Cleinias, the son of the elder Alcibiades, died at the Battle of Coronea, Pericles may have become the kurios (guardian) of Aspasia. Aspasia's relationship with Pericles began some time between 452 and 441. The exact nature of Pericles and Aspasia's relationship is disputed. Ancient authors variously portrayed her as a prostitute, his concubine, or his wife. Modern scholars are also divided. Rebecca Futo Kennedy argues that they were married; Debra Nails describes Aspasia as "the de facto wife of Pericles"; Madeleine Henry believes that Pericles' citizenship law of 451/0 made marriage between an Athenian and a metic illegal, and suggests a quasi-marital pallakia ("concubinage") enforced by contract; and Sue Blundell describes Aspasia as a hetaira and mistress of Pericles.
Aspasia and Pericles had a son, Pericles the Younger, born no later than 440/39 BC. 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 the Plague of Athens and Peloponnesian War on citizen families.
According to Plutarch, Aspasia was prosecuted for asebeia (impiety) by the comic poet Hermippus. She was supposedly defended by Pericles and acquitted. 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. Vincent Azoulay compares the trial of Aspasia to those of Phidias and Anaxagoras, both also connected to Pericles, and concludes that "none of the trials for impiety involving those close to Pericles is attested with certainty".
In 429 BC, Pericles died. According to ancient sources, Aspasia then married another politician, Lysicles, and gave birth to another son, Poristes. As "Poristes" is not otherwise known as a name – it means "supplier" or "provider", and was a euphemism for "thief" – some scholars have argued that the name comes from a misunderstanding of a joke in a comedy. Henry doubts whether Aspasia had a child with Lysicles, and Kennedy questions whether she married Lysicles at all. 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. Lysicles died a year after Pericles, in 428, and nothing is recorded of Aspasia's life after this point. It is unknown where or when she died.
Legacy Ancient reception
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. Some scholars have also proposed that the portrayal of several female characters in Athenian tragedy commented on Aspasia, including Euripides' Medea and Phaedra, and Sophocles' Jocasta.
Comic tradition 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. Aristophanes, the only writer of Old Comedy for whom complete works survive, refers to Aspasia only once in his surviving corpus, in Acharnians. In a passage parodying the beginning of Herodotus' Histories, Aristophanes jokes that the Megarian decree was retaliation for the kidnapping of two pornai ("prostitutes") from Aspasia. A similar charge, attributed by Plutarch to Duris of Samos, that Aspasia was responsible for Athens' involvement in the Samian War, may have derived from this. The mention of Aspasia's pornai in Acharnians is also the earliest known instance of the tradition that she worked as a brothel-keeper.
Outside of Aristophanes, mentions of Aspasia are known from the surviving fragments of Cratinus and Eupolis. In a fragment of Cratinus' Cheirons, Aspasia is described as "Hera-Aspasia, a dog-eyed concubine".Cratinus, fr. 259 Eupolis mentions Aspasia by name in three surviving fragments. In Proslapatians, she is compared to Helen of Troy – like Aspasia, blamed for starting a war – and in Philoi to Omphale, who owned Herakles as a slave. Eupolis also alluded to Aspasia in Demes, 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 a porne as a mother. Aspasia is also known to have been mentioned by Kallias, though the scholion to Plato's Menexenus which reports this is garbled and it is uncertain what Kallias said about her. 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 for asebeia and for supplying free-born women for Pericles to have sex with. Later authors to follow the comic tradition in focusing on Aspasia's sexuality and improper influence over Pericles, for example in Clearchus' Erotika.
Philosophical tradition
In the fourth century, four philosophers are known to have written Socratic dialogues which feature Aspasia: Antisthenes, Plato, Aeschines and Xenophon. Armand D'Angour has argued that the character of Diotima in Plato's Symposium, to whom Socrates attributes his understanding of love, is also based on her. In the dialogues by Plato, Xenophon, and Aeschines, Aspasia is portrayed as an educated, skilled rhetorician, and a source of advice for marital concerns. Antisthenes' depiction of Aspasia was apparently more critical, portraying her as controlling Pericles with her femininity.