Aspasia

Marble portrait herm identified by an inscription as Aspasia, possibly copied from her grave. Aspasia (after 428 BC) was a metic woman who lived in Classical Athens. Born in Miletus, she moved to Athens and began a relationship with the statesman Pericles. According to the traditional historical narrative, she worked as a hetaira, though modern scholars have questioned the factual basis for this claim, which derives 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's relationship with Pericles began between 452 and 441 BC. Both ancient and modern scholars have variously described her as Pericles's concubine and as his or wife. They had a son, Pericles the Younger; Pericles may also have defended her against a charge of asebeia (impiety) recorded in traditional accounts of Aspasia's life. As with her status as a courtesan, this narrative may also stem from Athenian comedy, and several modern scholars have questioned its historicity. After Pericles's death in 429 BC, she is believed to have married the politician Lysicles; nothing is known of Aspasia's life after his death in 428 BC.

Athenian writers of Old Comedy portrayed Aspasia as a prostitute and madam, with improper and excessive control over Pericles; this approach was also adopted by the Roman-era biographer Plutarch. Ancient philosophical writers portrayed her as a skilled rhetorician and philosopher; she may have been a model for the character of Diotima in the Symposium of Plato. Early modern receptions of Aspasia generally followed this latter approach, though Plutarch's characterisation of her became more prominent in nineteenth-century portrayals of her. 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.