Aspasia (/æˈspeɪʒ(i)ə, -ziə, -ʃə/; Ancient Greek: Ἀσπασία Greek: [aspasíaː]; c. 470 – after 428 BC) was a metic woman in Classical Athens. Born in Miletus, she moved to Athens and began a relationship with the statesman Pericles, with whom she had a son named Pericles the Younger. 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. 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 in Old Comedy as a prostitute 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.
We must make do with the sources that mention her, even when they fundamentally distort reality. — Nicole Loraux, "Aspasia, Foreigner, Intellectual".
Aspasia was an important figure – and the most important woman – 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.
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.
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.
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.