  (circa
470-410 BC), Greek adventurer and consort of the Athenian statesman Pericles,
born in Miletus, Asia Minor. She was noted for her beauty, genius, and
political influence. She married Pericles after he secured a divorce from
his first wife; subsequently, their home became a gathering place for the
learned and distinguished people of Athens. Aspasia apparently exercised
considerable influence on Pericles and has been charged by some historians
with responsibility for the Samian revolt and the Peloponnesian War. On
one occasion the Athenian comic poet Hermippus charged her with impiety,
but she was successfully defended by Pericles. After the death of his two
sons by his first marriage, Pericles obtained from the state full rights
of citizenship for his son by Aspasia. (Microsoft Encarta)
Another source adds:
Aspasia of Miletus was a woman who lived during fifth century B.C. in
Miletus,a cultivated city which was a Far-Eastern Greek subject-alley.
She came to Athens as a well-educated woman, which was rare for that day
and age. Aspasia seemed to be the only woman in Classical Greece to have
made a name for herself publicly. As far as being an excellent rhetorician,
Aspasia gained a reputation which was honored by men such as Plato, Xenophon,
cicero, Athenaeus, adn Plutorch (Glenn, 1994a). Once Socrates calles her
his rhetorics teacher.
Apasia was active in the "most famous intellectual circle in Athens."
Her work effected such legends of the time as Plato and Cicero. Both Aspasia
and Plato taught that belief and truth were not alike and rhetoric has
the potential to deviate from the truth and be decietful to the audience.
Cicero's chapter on argumentation was based on Aspasia's lesson of induction.
She even opened an academy for women, which later became a "popular salon"
for Plato, Socrates, Anaxoagoras, Sophcles, Phidias, Pericles, and other
philosophers at the time (Glenn, 1994a). |
TEMPLE
OF ASPASIA
