Aspasia 1

vol. II p.1716-1721

Aspasia (Ἀσπασία). 1)

From Miletus, the daughter of Axiochos (Plut. Pers. 24, 2. Diodor. o. Athn. in Schol. Plat. Menex. 235 e. Clem. Alex. strom. 124 p. 264, 22 S. Harpokr. Suid.), the second wife of Perikles. The report from Herakleides Pontikos περὶ ἡδονῆς in Athenaios XI 533 d that she originated from Megara or came from Megara to Athens is false, <40> and probably comes from a misunderstanding (cf. Ad. Schmidt Das perikleische Zeitalter I 1877, 290). The fact that we know a little more about Aspasia than about other women from the 5th century is primarily owed to her relationship with Perikles, though our knowledge is sparse enough. The only directly contemporary sources for Aspasia’s life are the comedies, as well as the descriptions from the followers of Socrates; <50> the reports from later antiquity can be traced back to these two historic traditions, their explanation, and their delivery. Why and how Aspasia arrived at Athens, and how she became known to Perikles, is unknown. A very uncertain suggestion is that it was through her great fellow countryman Hippodamos of Miletus (see there), who was active in the middle of the 5th century in Athens and was friendly with Perikles, that she gained the opportunity to seek out Athens and get to know Perikles. <60> The date of the beginning of her relations with Perikles can be placed precisely in the 40s of the 5th century.

The birth of Perikles and Aspasia’s son, Perikles the younger (Plut. Per. 24, 6. 37, 5. Schol. Plat. Menex. 235 e. Harpokr. Suid. s. Ἀσπασία and δημοποίητος. Lexic. Seguer. in Bekker Anecd. I 453) must have happened later, at some time between 445 and 440, <page break 1716/1717> since this son was probably already a hellenotamia in 410/9 (CIA I 188, 8) and doesn’t seem to have hurried into public life especially early (Eupol. Δῆμοι frg. 98 K.). On the other hand, Perikles’ relationship with Aspasia can hardly be placed before the year 449, since it was only in 451/0 that Perikles released the famous law stating that, <10> from that point onwards, only the son of Attic citizens could be recognised as a full citizen (Aristot. Ἀθ. πολ. 26, 4 now decisively against Dunker S.-Ber. Akad. Berl. 1883, 935ff. = Abhandlungen aus d. griech. Gesch. 1887, 124ff.; cf. Plut. Per. 37. Ael. var. hist. VI 10. XIII 24. Suid. s. δημοποίητος). At the time, his two sons from his first marriage were still alive, Xanthippos and Paralos (Plut. Per. 37, 3); when he died in 430, Xanthippos was just married (Plut. ibid. 36, 1. cf. Stesimbrotos in Athen. XIII 589 d and Plut. ibid. 13, 11. 36, 3). <20> To support this, Perikles couldn’t have entered his marriage with the mother of these sons before 453, since Kallias, this woman’s son from her first marriage with Hipponikos, could hardly have been born long before 453: he was still serving as a strategos in 392 (Xen. hell. IV 5, 13) and took part in the peace negotiations in Sparta in 371 (ibid. VI 3, 2-6). Perikles had a particular stroke of luck, <30> which was considered in different ways by the ancients in its dramatic romanticism, because he had been able to set straight the democracy he had released by removing all foreign elements of society, as far as it was possible, and by declaring that a marriage between a citizen and a foreign wife should not be seen as fully valid in future, but he had come to know and love the foreign Aspasia. He divorced the wife he didn’t love, and married her, with her consent, to another man. <40> He himself married Aspasia (Plut. Per. 24, 5). It is explicitly stated that Aspasia really did become his married wife (Plut. loc. cit. Diod. of Athens in Schol. Plat. Menex. 235 e. Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 527. Harpokr. Suid.; the account introduced by φασὶν from Harpokration, Suidas, and the Lexic. Seguer. loc. cit., saying that Aspasia had been Perikles’ ἐρωμένη, shouldn’t be forced, and doesn’t have any particular weight besides, cf. Synk. I p. 482 Bonn.); <50> likewise, the story that Perikles represented Aspasia in court (cf. below) can be confirmed, but according to Attic law at the time, marriage with a foreigner was not seen as full; a son who came from one of these relationships was considered a nothos.

The baselessness of the long-dominant view - that Aspasia had been nothing more than a regular hetaira with some amount of wit - has been demonstrated by Adolf Schmidt loc. cit. 288ff. rather long-windedly and pompously, but correct at its core. When Duncker Gesch. d. Altertums IX 25 tried to revive this view again, he was unsuccessful: Perikles’ law about full citizenship, the existence of which he denies in order to gain the main support for his views, has now been confirmed (cf. above). Likewise, v. Wilamowitz’s idea (Aristoteles und Athen I 263, 7. II 99, 35) that even her name shows that she was a hetaira does not hold up before a diligent examination. <page break 1717/1718> The account that Aspasia was a popular name for hetairai in Ionia is incorrect; the only example that v. Wilamowitz could bring up for this, in any case, was that the beloved of Kyros the younger had been called Aspasia, but this speaks more against his claim than in favour of it (cf. below nr. 2). Either way, the name seems to have come from Ionia. <10> Even on an older inscription (5th century) from Chios (IGA 382) we come across it, but for a respectable woman: ἐσλῆς τοῦτο γυναικός … Ἀσπασίης, furthermore we find a Chierian Aspasia in Bull. Hell. III 326 and CIA II 3411, and an Andrian CIA II 2787. In Attica, the name Aspasia turns up in CIA II 666, 14. 2542. 3543. 3544. III 2426, in Boeotia IGS 846, in Achaia Athen. Mitt. III 81. Bull. hell. IV 521 - of course, more examples could be added on here -, but there is never a trace suggesting that this is the name of hetairai, <20> in fact, it would be much easier to prove the opposite. The catalogue published by Pernice-Maass (Athen. Mitt. XVIII 1893, 16ff.) of a female thiasos of Paros, in which the name Aspasia turns up three times and which the editor sorts it as a group of hetairai, most likely has just as little to do with hetairai. In fact, it is also difficult to see what could be opposed from the start in the female name Ἀσπασία, <30> which was on par with the male name Ἀσπάσιος (CIA II 2542. III 465, 80. IGS 3055. Bull. hell. III 76. CIG 3140 [Smyrna]. 7164 [Gemme], cf. Pape-Benseler s. v.). Both names mean nothing more than the Italian Benvenuto (which, however, corresponds to Εὐέλθων more precisely), the middle-latin Optatus, as well as the German Willicumo, Uuielachomo, and Williquema, Willicoma. <40>

Perikles was at the prime of his life and his achievements, he was in his forties when he married Aspasia. A real affinity drew him to the woman who was mentally far superior to the Attic women at the time, who combined her freer nature with a freer and broader outlook, who brought alongside her individual female spirit a fine understanding and viewpoint on oratorical and philosophical problems from her Ionian home (Antisthenes in Plut. Per. 24, 5. 6, cf. 32, 3. Athen. XIII 589 a). <50> This was surely the reason why Aspasia took part in Perikles’ internal plans and duties, and she probably influenced things here and there too. However, her knowledge and interests spread her influence yet further. With it, she stepped into the middle of the academic philosophical movement, a good part of which had come from Ionia, and she influenced the best men in Athens at the time, namely Perikles and his circle of friends, and through her knowledge and interests Aspasia must have held a distinguished position in this circle herself; she held it. <60> The vast mental advancement in Athens after the Persian war did only and could only affect the men; the appeal and suggestion of exchanging thoughts with an intellectually distinguished woman remained fruitless. Aspasia first made it possible, and with it she brought new life to enlightenment-philosophy. <page break 1718/1719> All reports completely match up in the emphasis they put on Aspasia’s intellectual impact, we are even told that Sokrates communicated with her, seeking her company (Xen. mem. II 6, 36; Oecon. 3, 14. Plat. Menex. 235 e with Schol. Clem. Alex. strom. 124 p. 264, 22 S. Plut. Per. 24, 3. Luk. imag. 17; de salt. 25. Athen. V 219 c. e. 220 e. Hermesianax in Athen. XIII 589 d. 599 a. b. Max. Tyr. diss. 38, 4. Synes. Dion 59. Harpokr. s. Ἀσπασία). <10> However, it is probably incorrect that Xenophon and Xenophon’s wife are mentioned as having discussions with Aspasia by Aeschines the Socratic in Cic. de inv. I 51. 52 = Quint. V 11, 28f., though a similar conversation to the one extant could have actually been held; Xenophon was still very young and hardly married at the time Aspasia was alive. <20> The fact that many comments on this are exaggerated and anecdotal does nothing to alter the fact that Aspasia was named as Perikles’ teacher in oratory (Plat. Menex. 235 e with Schol. Clem. Alexandr. strom. loc. cit. Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 527. Plut. Per. 24, 3. 4. Luk. amor. 30. Aristeid. XLVI 131. Alkiphron ep. I 34. Harpokr. Suid. Lexic. Seguer.).

The unusual and new thing which the dominant men in Perikles’ circle attracted must, however, have seemed like something outrageous to the masses, and enabled opponents of Perikles and his politics. <30> A two-fold attack could be made against Aspasia - first, a religious one, since she took part enthusiastically in their search for explanations and spurred on even Athenian citizen women to get to know her too (Plut. Per. 24, 3. 32, 1); and second, a national one: a woman took on a dominant position in the Athenian state, and this woman wasn’t an Athenian, but a foreigner, a daughter of the effeminate and sexual Ionia (Athen. V 220 b), <40> not the full wife of Perikles, but according to the view of Athens she was a ‘left-hand’ woman, a second-rate woman. Even people who valued Perikles’ greatness, like the comic Eupolis, would have been angry at him about this.

Comedy found Aspasia to be a very convenient topic for their more or less seriously intended ill-humoured jokes; they could be certain of their audience’s reaction. Aside from the nicknames Omphale, Deianeira, <50> Hera (Kratinos, Eupolis in Plut. Per. 24, 6. Schol. Plat. Menex. 235 e = Kratin. Χείρονες frg. 241. Eupolis Φίλοι frg. 274 K.), which draw parallels between Perikles’ family and the Olympians, Aspasia was also mocked as παλλακὴ κυνῶπις and πόρνη (Kratin. Χείρονες frg. 241. Eupolis Δῆμοι frg. 98). This ludicrous exaggeration of Aspasia’s marriage that wasn’t fully legal, these regular insults, so to speak, used by comedy against women, <60> at best form the basis of all scholarship about Aspasia allegedly being a hetaira (Herakleid. Pont. in Athen. XII 533 d. Luk. de salt. 25; Gall. 19. Alkiphr. epist. I 34. Suid., cf. Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 527. Ad. Schmidt loc. cit. 289ff.).

People have also blamed Aspasia for certain acts from Perikles’ politics: she has been blamed for the Samian war (Plut. Per. 24, 1. 25, 1. Duris and Theophr. in Harpokr. Suid. Lexic. Seguer. Bekk. Anecd. I 453), <page break 1719/1720> for the Peloponnesian war (Aristoph. Acharn. 524ff. with Schol. Plut. Per. 30, 4. Harpokr. Suid. Lexic. Seguer. Synk. I p. 482. 489; cf. Eupolis Προσπάλτιοι frg. 249 K.), but this was not because of rubbish or a bad joke, which in one case seems to have given rise to a ridiculous fairy-tale that Aspasia had owned a brothel (Athen. XIII 569f. 570 a. Plut. Per. 24, 3; cf. Ad. Schmidt loc. cit. 293f.). <10> In the same way, the comparison between Aspasia and the hetaira Thargelia (Plut. Per. 24, 2, cf. Luk. Eun. 7) which Schmidt 296 has likely correctly traced back to Duris of Samos (by Busolt Gr. Gesch. II 578, 4 to Stesimbrotos), is probably linked to the accusation that Aspasia caused the Samian war.

Those who opposed the orthodox priesthood and aristocracy, who fought against Perikles and who were winning more and more ground dangerously near the deciding battle with Sparta, <20> didn’t rest in making use of and feeding the gossip about Aspasia. And when people began to crack down on the men in Perikles’ circle, first on Pheidias, and later against Anaxagoras, Aspasia was also put on trial; they knew that this would be the deepest strike against Perikles as a person. The comedic poet Hermippos made the charge - it cannot be determined with certainty when, though probably at the end of the 30s - against Aspasia of asebia, as well as prostitution; <30> supposedly, she herself organised dates for free women with her husband. The old accusations turn up here in a slightly newer form. Perikles lead the defense as her legal representative, and shed bitter tears in his passion there. Aspasia was acquitted (Plut. Per. 32, cf. 13, 9. 10. Antisthenes ? - in Plutarch Aeschines - in Athen. XIII 589 e, cf. Schol. Aristoph. Knig. 969. Schol. on Hermog. Rhet. gr. VII 165 Walz). <40> On the other hand, a little later, in the crisis during the first year of the war, the opposition managed to topple Perikles. After a short while, he turned up again at the head of Athens, but then the plague demanded cruel victims from those close to him. After Perikles, along with his other relatives and friends, had lost both sons from his first marriage, he begged the people and got them to not allow his name to die out, and they granted full citizenship to his son by Aspasia, Perikles the younger (Plut. Per. 37. Suid. s. δημοποίητος). He died soon after (429). <50>

Aspasia then married one of his faithful companions, the shepherd Lysikles, only to leave him again, however, in the next year 428 (Thuc. III 13. Schol. Aristoph. Knig. 132. Aeschin. Sokr. in Plut. Per. 24, 4. Schol. Plat. Menex. 235 e. Harpokr.). Even from this short marriage, a son was born, whom Aeschines loc. cit. names Ποριστής; clearly, <60> this is a nickname which the comics gave the boy in order to recall his father’s final journey to Ionia and Karia to collect the remaining federal funds (cf. Schol. Aristoph. Fro. 1505. Thuc. VIII 48, 6). Although Schmidt loc. cit. 181 has tried to refute Aspasia’s son Poristes and her marriage with Lysikles, this absolutely cannot be consolidated with tradition. Aspasia’s later fate is unknown. <page break 1720/1721> However, as we now know following v. Wilamowitz (Aristot. u. Athen I 263, 7) persuasively traced back the long-known sources of a certain Diodoros in the Schol. on Plat. Menex. 235 e to the book περὶ μνημάτων (instead of περὶ Μιλήτου; Maehly Philol. VIII 219 also had Diodoros of Athens in mind) by the periegetes Diororos of Athens, she lived on in Attica, died in Attica, and was buried there. The socratics kept her memory alive, and indeed in a mostly favourable way. <10> Aeschines and Antisthenes write an Aspasia dialogue, seemingly with different slants (cf. Natorp Philol. LI 489ff.). Xenephon commemorates her with high esteem (mem. II 6, 36; Oecon. 3, 14), as well as Menexenos, whether he belonged to Plato or not, despite his ironic tone (cf. Plut. Per. 24, 4).

We do not have an authentic depiction of Aspasia extant. The herm with her name on it in the Vatican Museum (Visconti Iconogr. Gr. I T. 15 a; Mus. Piocl. VI T. 30. Baumeister Denkmäler d. klass. Altertums I 140) doesn’t belong to her (cf. W. Helbig Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen Roms I nr. 282, where the older literature about the herms is collected). Her connection to a bust in Berlin is also very uncertain (Beschreibung der antik. Skulpt. 1890 nr. 605), of which there is a replica in the Louvre (Clarac Musée p. 1082, 393), <30> cf. Bernouilli Archäol. Ztg. XXXV 1877, 56f. For a list of literature about Aspasia, see Ad. Schmidt loc. cit. 94, 1.

([Judeich.])