Aspasia
According to the traditional historical narrative, she worked as a courtesan and was tried for asebeia (impiety), though modern scholars have questioned the factual basis for either of these claims, which both derive from ancient comedy.
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.
[7] The earliest literary sources to mention Aspasia, written during her lifetime, are from Athenian comedy,[7] and in the fourth century BC she appears in Socratic dialogues.
[14] Aspasia was born, probably no earlier than 470 BC,[b][16] in the Ionian Greek city of Miletus[c] (in modern Aydın Province, Turkey), the daughter of a man called Axiochus.
[19] 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.
[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", including Socrates, Plato, and Pericles,[23] and Rebecca Futo Kennedy suggests that the accusations in comedy that she was a brothel-keeper derived from this.
[21] 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.
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.
[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.
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] and Phaedra,[45] and Sophocles' Jocasta.
[48] In a passage parodying the beginning of Herodotus' Histories,[49] Aristophanes jokes that the Megarian decree was retaliation for the kidnapping of two pornai ("prostitutes") from Aspasia.
[24] 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.
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.
[54] 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.
[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 for asebeia and for supplying free-born women for Pericles to have sex with.
[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.
[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 his Symposiaka, downplaying her sexuality but noting her influence on Socrates' philosophy and Pericles' rhetoric.
[78] Melissa Ianetta argues that Germaine de Staël's novel Corinne models its heroine after Aspasia, placing her in the same tradition of feminine rhetorical skill.
[87] The 2018 video game Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which features Aspasia in a major role, follows the ancient tradition which portrayed her as a hetaira.
