Aspasia

Aspasia (Greek Ἀσπασία * around 470 BC in Miletus; † around 420 BC in Athens ) was a Greek philosopher, speaker and the second wife of Pericles.

Biography

Aspasia of Miletus ( in the present province of Aydın, Turkey) founded in Athens a philosophical salon where she was not only host, but also an estimated speaker. My works are not obtained from Aspasia, even if in Plato's dialogue Menexenos an alleged speech of Aspasia is played. From the records of other philosophers and witnesses, however, shows that the highly educated woman probably had contact with the new philosophical movements of Ionia. Socrates, Sophocles, Euripides, Pheidias ( Phidias ) and the elite of that time could have turned into her house. In Plato Menexenos Socrates invokes Aspasia as his teacher of rhetoric. On the other hand Aspasia is represented and belittled by ancient comedy writers, especially from the famous Aristophanes as a courtesan. According to Plutarch ( Plut. Per 24.2) it should have taken Thargelia of Miletus as a model.

Plutarch, it is also reporting that they descended from a certain Axiochos and come from Miletus ( Plut. Per 24). Aspasia probably had an illegitimate son with Pericles, who was given the name of his father. Due to the so-called bastard Law of 451 BC, which could arise from full citizenship only from the combination of Athenian citizens, Pericles was the younger, who was one of the Athenian generals later, initially excluded. The connection between an Athenian and a Milesian was legally concubinage and contradicted the Attic social structure. Therefore, the assumption is that it was Pericles ' mistress or courtesan. The evil talk was followed by the accusation that she was (441 BC) have been for the outbreak of the Sami revolt responsible, and an indictment by the comic poet Hermippus, who ( 433/32 BC) accused the asebeia and pandering. Pericles himself was able to achieve an acquittal with difficulty. Whether she was really responsible for the uprising, is unknown, enough political influence but she seems to have had.

After Pericles ' death ( 429 BC ) lived with Aspasia Lysicles, a follower of Pericles, who worked as a sheep dealer, until her death on in Athens. This is so Plut. Per 24 2-3, they came by a respected man.

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