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120-472: 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

240-570: 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

360-414: A Homer for our panegyrist, or other of his craft whose verses might charm for the moment only for the impression which they gave to melt at the touch of fact, we have forced every sea and land to be the highway of our daring, and everywhere, whether for evil or for good, have left imperishable monuments behind us. Such measures impelled Pericles' critics to hold him responsible for the gradual degeneration of

480-610: A behavior which the Athenians considered to be impious. After consultations with its allies, Sparta sent a deputation to Athens demanding certain concessions, such as the immediate expulsion of the Alcmaeonidae family including Pericles and the retraction of the Megarian Decree, threatening war if the demands were not met. The obvious purpose of these proposals was the instigation of a confrontation between Pericles and

600-572: A brother-in-law of Cimon, as a symbol of unity and employed him several times to negotiate important agreements. In the spring of 449 BC, Pericles proposed the Congress Decree, which led to a meeting ("Congress") of all Greek states to consider the question of rebuilding the temples destroyed by the Persians. The Congress failed because of Sparta's stance, but Pericles' intentions remain unclear. Some historians think that he wanted to prompt

720-399: 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

840-621: A confederation with the participation of all the Greek cities; others think he wanted to assert Athenian pre-eminence. According to the historian Terry Buckley the objective of the Congress Decree was a new mandate for the Delian League and for the collection of "phoros" (taxes). Remember, too, that if your country has the greatest name in all the world, it is because she never bent before disaster; because she has expended more life and effort in war than any other city, and has won for herself

960-469: 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 ,

1080-513: A decade. The causes of the Peloponnesian War have been much debated, but many ancient historians lay the blame on Pericles and Athens. Plutarch seems to believe that Pericles and the Athenians incited the war, scrambling to implement their belligerent tactics "with a sort of arrogance and a love of strife". Thucydides hints at the same thing, believing the reason for the war was Sparta's fear of Athenian power and growth. However, as he

1200-517: A decree dispatching an expedition to Samos, "alleging against its people that, although they were ordered to break off their war against the Milesians, they were not complying". In a naval battle the Athenians led by Pericles and nine other generals defeated the forces of Samos and imposed on the island an Athenian administration. When the Samians revolted against Athenian rule, Pericles compelled

1320-441: A figure that suggested himself as a bald old man, and also inserted a very fine likeness of Pericles fighting with an Amazon. Aspasia , who was noted for her ability as a conversationalist and adviser, was accused of corrupting the women of Athens to satisfy Pericles' perversions. The accusations against her were probably nothing more than unproven slanders, but the whole experience was very bitter for Pericles. Although Aspasia

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1440-456: 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

1560-582: A good Victorian wife to Pericles in their novels Pericles and Aspasia and Amymone: A Romance of the Days of Pericles . Lawrence Alma-Tadema 's painting Phidias and the Frieze of the Parthenon also shows Aspasia as a respectable companion to men. By contrast, Robert Hamerling 's novel Aspasia showed her as a proto-feminist with far more agency than these romanticised accounts. The twentieth century saw on

1680-563: A helmet , this is not the case; the helmet was actually the symbol of his official rank as strategos (general). Our policy does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. It is called a democracy, because not the few but the many govern. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if to social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar

1800-443: A hostile action, the Athenians refused to admit their emissaries. With his last attempt at negotiation thus declined, Archidamus invaded Attica , but found no Athenians there; Pericles, aware that Sparta's strategy would be to invade and ravage Athenian territory, had previously arranged to evacuate the entire population of the region to within the walls of Athens. No definite record exists of how exactly Pericles managed to convince

1920-495: A major role, follows the ancient tradition which portrayed her as a hetaira . She is depicted as using her femininity to gain political power by manipulating men and through her connections to other women across the Greek world. Old Comedy Old Comedy is the first period of the ancient Greek comedy , according to the canonical division by the Alexandrian grammarians . The most important Old Comic playwright

2040-577: A passage parodying the beginning of Herodotus ' Histories , Aristophanes jokes that the Megarian decree was retaliation for the kidnapping of two pornai ("prostitutes") from Aspasia. A similar charge, attributed by Plutarch to Duris of Samos , that Aspasia was responsible for Athens' involvement in the Samian War , may have derived from this. The mention of Aspasia's pornai in Acharnians

2160-466: A populist policy to cajole the public. According to Aristotle , Pericles' stance can be explained by the fact that his principal political opponent, Cimon , was both rich and generous, and was able to gain public favor by lavishly handing out portions of his sizable personal fortune. The historian Loren J. Samons II argues, however, that Pericles had enough resources to make a political mark by private means, had he so chosen. In 461 BC, Pericles achieved

2280-600: A power greater than any hitherto known, the memory of which will descend to the latest posterity. During the Second Sacred War Pericles led the Athenian army against Delphi and reinstated Phocis in its sovereign rights on the oracle . In 447 BC Pericles engaged in his most admired excursion, the expulsion of barbarians from the Thracian peninsula of Gallipoli , to establish Athenian colonists in

2400-493: A scroll rather than a cosmetic object such as a comb. In the nineteenth century, Plutarch's narrative dominated the interpretation of Aspasia in both novels and paintings. In the visual arts, the sexualised side of Aspasia was represented by Jean-Léon Gérôme 's painting Socrates Seeking Alcibiades in the House of Aspasia , but this pornographised representation was relatively uncommon. Honoré Daumier 's lithograph of Socrates at

2520-517: A war – and in Philoi to Omphale , who owned Herakles as a slave. Eupolis also alluded to Aspasia in Demes , where Pericles, having been brought back from the dead, asks after his son; he is informed that he is alive, but is ashamed of having a porne as a mother. Aspasia is also known to have been mentioned by Kallias , though the scholion to Plato's Menexenus which reports this is garbled and it

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2640-414: A woman, Marie Bouliard 's Aspasie . The painting depicts Aspasia with one breast bared, looking into a handheld mirror and with a scroll in her other hand. Though the bare breast references the eroticised traditions surrounding Aspasia, Madeleine Henry argues that the portrait differs from more pornographic depictions of women, with Aspasia looking into the mirror rather than out at the viewer, and holding

2760-542: Is Aristophanes – whose works, with their daring political commentary and abundance of sexual innuendo, de facto define the genre. The only extant plays of Old Comedy are credited to Aristophanes. There are only fragments and 'testimonia' of all other Old Comedy playwrights and plays. The word "comedy" ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : κωμῳδία , kōmōidía ) derives from the words for 'revel' and 'song' ( κῶμος , kōmos , and ᾠδή , ōidē ) and according to Aristotle comic drama actually developed from song. The first official comedy at

2880-462: Is also the earliest known instance of the tradition that she worked as a brothel-keeper. Outside of Aristophanes, mentions of Aspasia are known from the surviving fragments of Cratinus and Eupolis . In a fragment of Cratinus' Cheirons , Aspasia is described as "Hera-Aspasia, a dog-eyed concubine". Eupolis mentions Aspasia by name in three surviving fragments. In Proslapatians , she is compared to Helen of Troy – like Aspasia, blamed for starting

3000-663: Is based on her. In the Hellenistic and Roman periods, some authors followed Aspasia's more positive portrayal in Socratic literature, distancing her from prostitution and situating her in a tradition of wise women. Didymus Chalcenterus wrote about exceptional women in history in his Symposiaka , downplaying her sexuality but noting her influence on Socrates' philosophy and Pericles' rhetoric. Both Athenaeus and Maximus of Tyre report that Socrates advised Callias to have Aspasia teach his son. In Rome, Cicero and Quintillian used

3120-497: Is depicted wearing a helmet and shield. Aspasia also featured in two catalogues of women in this period as a teacher and philosopher: in Arcangela Tarabotti 's Tirannia Paterna , which portrays her as a teacher of rhetoric, and Gilles Ménage 's Historia Mulierum Philosopharum , in which Aspasia is described as teaching rhetoric to Pericles and Socrates, and philosophy to Socrates. By the eighteenth century, Aspasia

3240-517: 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

3360-495: Is generally regarded as an admirer of Pericles, Thucydides has been criticized for bias against Sparta . Pericles was convinced that the war against Sparta, which could not conceal its envy of Athens' pre-eminence, was inevitable if unfortunate. Therefore, he did not hesitate to send troops to Corcyra to reinforce the Corcyraean fleet, which was fighting against Corinth . In 433 BC the enemy fleets confronted each other at

3480-609: 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

3600-463: 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

3720-403: Is speaking and commanding the attention of these men. Melissa Ianetta argues that Germaine de Staël 's novel Corinne models its heroine after Aspasia, placing her in the same tradition of feminine rhetorical skill. An alternative nineteenth-century representation of Aspasia positioned her as a respectable wife. The authors Walter Savage Landor and Elizabeth Lynn Linton portrayed Aspasia as

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3840-487: Is uncertain what Kallias said about her. She may also have appeared in a play by Hermippus – this is possibly the source of the anecdote told by Plutarch that Aspasia was prosecuted by him for asebeia and for supplying free-born women for Pericles to have sex with. Later authors to follow the comic tradition in focusing on Aspasia's sexuality and improper influence over Pericles, for example in Clearchus' Erotika . In

3960-449: The demos , in which he saw an untapped source of Athenian power and the crucial element of Athenian military dominance. (The fleet, backbone of Athenian power since the days of Themistocles, was manned almost entirely by members of the lower classes. ) Cimon, in contrast, apparently believed that no further free space for democratic evolution existed. He was certain that democracy had reached its peak and Pericles' reforms were leading to

4080-482: The Attic phyle (clan) of Acamantis ( Ἀκαμαντὶς φυλή ). His early years were quiet; the introverted young Pericles avoided public appearances, instead preferring to devote his time to his studies. According to Herodotus and Plutarch , Agariste dreamed, a few nights before Pericles' birth, that she had borne a lion. Legends say that Philip II of Macedon had a similar dream before the birth of his son, Alexander

4200-493: The Battle of Sybota and a year later the Athenians fought Corinthian colonists at the Battle of Potidaea ; these two events contributed greatly to Corinth's lasting hatred of Athens. During the same period, Pericles proposed the Megarian decree , which resembled a modern trade embargo. According to the provisions of the decree, Megarian merchants were excluded from the market of Athens and the ports in its empire. This ban strangled

4320-553: The City Dionysia was not staged until 487/6 BCE, by which time tragedy had already been long established there. The first comedy at the Lenaia was staged later still, only about 20 years before the performance there of The Acharnians , the first of Aristophanes' surviving plays. According to Aristotle, comedy was slow to gain official acceptance because nobody took it seriously, yet only 60 years after comedy first appeared at

4440-686: The Corinthian gulf , before returning to Athens. In 451 BC, Cimon returned from exile and negotiated a five years' truce with Sparta after a proposal of Pericles, an event which indicates a shift in Pericles' political strategy. Pericles may have realized the importance of Cimon's contribution during the ongoing conflicts against the Peloponnesians and the Persians . Anthony J. Podlecki argues, however, that Pericles' alleged change of position

4560-414: 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

4680-515: The Middle comedy . The trend from Old Comedy to New Comedy saw a move away from highly topical concerns with real individuals and local issues towards generalized situations and stock characters. This was partly due to the internationalization of cultural perspectives during and after the Peloponnesian War. For ancient commentators such as Plutarch and Aristotle, New Comedy was a more sophisticated form of drama than Old Comedy. However, Old Comedy

4800-551: The archonship in 458–457 BC and bestowed generous wages on all citizens who served as jurymen in the Heliaia (the supreme court of Athens) some time just after 454 BC. His most controversial measure, however, was a law of 451 BC limiting Athenian citizenship to those of Athenian parentage on both sides. Rather, the admiration of the present and succeeding ages will be ours, since we have not left our power without witness, but have shown it by mighty proofs; and far from needing

4920-467: The de facto ruler of the state. In 440 BC Samos went to war against Miletus over control of Priene , an ancient city of Ionia on the foot-hills of Mycale . Worsted in the war, the Milesians came to Athens to plead their case against the Samians. When the Athenians ordered the two sides to stop fighting and submit the case to arbitration in Athens, the Samians refused. In response, Pericles passed

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5040-473: The parody of the ‘senior’ drama, tragedy . Possibly due to the influence of tragedy was the important role of a heroic figure in Aristophanic comedy: as Northrop Frye put it, “In Aristophanes there is usually a central figure who constructs his (or her) own society in the teeth of strong opposition”. The diminished role of the protagonist (and chorus) in his latest works marks a point of transition to

5160-469: The "Periclean Acropolis", which included the Propylaea , the Parthenon and the golden statue of Athena, sculpted by Pericles' friend, Phidias . In 449 BC Pericles proposed a decree allowing the use of 9,000 talents to finance the major rebuilding program of Athenian temples. Angelos Vlachos, a Greek Academician , points out the use of the alliance's treasury, initiated and executed by Pericles, as one of

5280-578: The "prytani" (singular, "prytaneis"), Pericles had no formal control over their scheduling; rather, the respect in which Pericles was held by the prytanies was apparently sufficient to persuade them to do as he wished. While the Spartan army remained in Attica, Pericles sent a fleet of 100 ships to loot the coasts of the Peloponnese and charged the cavalry to guard the ravaged farms close to the walls of

5400-496: The Athenian contingent in the Greek victory at Mycale just five years later. Pericles' mother, Agariste, was a member of the powerful and controversial noble family of the Alcmaeonidae , and her familial connections played a crucial role in helping start his political career. Agariste was the great-granddaughter of the tyrant of Sicyon , Cleisthenes , and the niece of the Athenian reformer Cleisthenes . Pericles belonged to

5520-418: The Athenian democracy. Constantine Paparrigopoulos , a major modern Greek historian, argues that Pericles sought for the expansion and stabilization of all democratic institutions. Accordingly, he enacted legislation granting the lower classes access to the political system and the public offices, from which they had previously been barred. According to Samons, Pericles believed that it was necessary to raise

5640-414: The Athenians for forty years. If this was so, Pericles must have taken up a position of leadership by the early 460s BC – in his early or mid-thirties. Throughout these years he endeavored to protect his privacy and to present himself as a model for his fellow citizens. For example, he would often avoid banquets, trying to be frugal. In 463 BC, Pericles was the leading prosecutor of Cimon,

5760-644: The City Dionysia, Aristophanes observed that producing comedies was the most difficult work of all. Competition at the Dionysian festivals needed dramatic conventions for plays to be judged, but it also fuelled innovations. Developments were quite rapid and Aristotle could distinguish between 'old' and 'new' comedy by 330 BCE. The origins of the Old Comedy were traced by Aristotle to the komos or celebratory festival processions of ancient Greece, and

5880-494: The Coinage Decree, which imposed Athenian silver coinage, weights and measures on all of the allies. According to one of the decree's most stringent provisions, surplus from a minting operation was to go into a special fund, and anyone proposing to use it otherwise was subject to the death penalty. It was from the alliance's treasury that Pericles drew the funds necessary to enable his ambitious building plan, centered on

6000-536: The Delian League transformed into an Athenian empire is generally considered to have begun well before Pericles' time, as various allies in the league chose to pay tribute to Athens instead of manning ships for the league's fleet, but the transformation was speeded and brought to its conclusion by Pericles. The final steps in the shift to empire may have been triggered by Athens' defeat in Egypt, which challenged

6120-455: The Great . One interpretation of the dream treats the lion as a traditional symbol of greatness, but the story may also allude to the unusually large size of Pericles' skull, which became a popular target of contemporary comedians (who called him "Squill-head", after the squill or sea-onion). Although Plutarch claims that this deformity was the reason that Pericles was always depicted wearing

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6240-411: The Greek mainland which it had acquired since 460 BC, and both Athens and Sparta agreed not to attempt to win over the other state's allies. In 444 BC, the conservative and the democratic factions confronted each other in a fierce struggle. The ambitious new leader of the conservatives, Thucydides (not to be confused with the historian of the same name), accused Pericles of profligacy, criticizing

6360-505: The House of Aspasia depicts Aspasia as a " lorette ", an ambiguous social position which referred to "loose, vulgar or 'liberated' women". Other artists of the period depicted an Aspasia active in public life, and interacting with the most renowned men of the period. In Henry Holiday 's painting of Aspasia on the Pnyx , she is shown with another woman at the site of the Athenian assembly ,

6480-616: The Megarian economy and strained the fragile peace between Athens and Sparta, which was allied with Megara. According to George Cawkwell , a praelector in ancient history , with this decree Pericles breached the Thirty Years' Peace "but, perhaps, not without the semblance of an excuse". The Athenians' justification was that the Megarians had cultivated the sacred land consecrated to Demeter and had given refuge to runaway slaves,

6600-461: The Peloponnesian War. The period during which he led Athens as Archon (ruler), roughly from 461 to 429 BC, is sometimes known as the " Age of Pericles ", but the period thus denoted can include times as early as the Persian Wars or as late as the following century. Pericles promoted the arts and literature, and it was principally through his efforts that Athens acquired the reputation of being

6720-528: The Spartans, and with neither side willing to back down, the two cities prepared for war. According to Athanasios G. Platias and Constantinos Koliopoulos, professors of strategic studies and international politics , "rather than to submit to coercive demands, Pericles chose war". Another consideration that may well have influenced Pericles' stance was the concern that revolts in the empire might spread if Athens showed itself weak. In 431 BC, while peace already

6840-579: 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

6960-461: The absurdities implicit in the traditional religion were open to ridicule. The polis was not allowed to be slandered, but as stated in the biography section of this article, that could depend on who was in the audience and which festival was involved. For convenience, Old Comedy, as represented by Aristophanes' early plays, is analysed below in terms of three broad characteristics—topicality, festivity and complexity. Dramatic structure contributes to

7080-504: The account of this period is the issue of the Peace of Callias , which allegedly ended hostilities between the Greeks and the Persians. The very existence of the treaty is hotly disputed, and its particulars and negotiation are ambiguous. Ernst Badian believes that a peace between Athens and Persia was first ratified in 463 BC (making the Athenian interventions in Egypt and Cyprus violations of

7200-490: The audience that nobody is above mockery in Old Comedy—not even its patron god and its practitioners. Gods, artists, politicians and ordinary citizens were legitimate targets; comedy was a kind of licensed buffoonery, and there was no legal redress for anyone who was slandered in a play. There were certain limits to the scope of the satire, but they are not easily defined. Impiety could be punished in fifth century Athens, but

7320-440: The besieging force was defeated and destroyed. In 451–450 BC the Athenians sent troops to Cyprus . Cimon defeated the Persians in the Battle of Salamis-in-Cyprus , but died of disease in 449 BC. Pericles is said to have initiated both expeditions in Egypt and Cyprus, although some researchers, such as Karl Julius Beloch , argue that the dispatch of such a great fleet conforms with the spirit of Cimon's policy. Complicating

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7440-421: The best insight into fifth century ideas about this god.) Old Comedy can be understood as a celebration of the exuberant sense of release inherent in his worship. It was more interested in finding targets for satire than in any kind of advocacy. During the City Dionysia, a statue of the god was brought to the theatre from a temple outside the city, and it remained in the theatre throughout the festival, overseeing

7560-633: The center of male public space in the city, while in two paintings by Nicolas-André Monsiau she is shown at the centre of discussions with celebrated Athenian intellectuals and politicians. In Socrates and Aspasia , she converses with Socrates and Pericles; in Aspasia in Conversation with the Most Illustrious Men of Athens , Euripides , Sophocles , Plato, and Xenophon are also among those included. In both of these paintings, Aspasia

7680-617: The city's dominance in the Aegean and led to the revolt of several allies, such as Miletus and Erythrae . Either because of a genuine fear for its safety after the defeat in Egypt and the revolts of the allies, or as a pretext to gain control of the League's finances, Athens transferred the treasury of the alliance from Delos to Athens in 454–453 BC. By 450–449 BC the revolts in Miletus and Erythrae were quelled and Athens restored its rule over its allies. Around 447 BC Clearchus proposed

7800-419: The city. When the enemy retired and the pillaging came to an end, Pericles proposed a decree according to which the authorities of the city should put aside 1,000 talents and 100 ships, in case Athens was attacked by naval forces. According to the most stringent provision of the decree, even proposing a different use of the money or ships would entail the penalty of death. During the autumn of 431 BC, Pericles led

7920-469: The city. This promise was prompted by his concern that Archidamus, who was a friend of his, might pass by his estate without ravaging it, either as a gesture of friendship or as a calculated political move aimed to alienate Pericles from his constituents. In any case, seeing the pillage of their farms, the Athenians were outraged, and they soon began to indirectly express their discontent towards their leader, who many of them considered to have drawn them into

8040-471: The company of the philosophers Protagoras , Zeno of Elea , and Anaxagoras . Anaxagoras, in particular, became a close friend and influenced him greatly. Pericles' manner of thought and rhetorical charisma may have possibly been in part products of Anaxagoras' emphasis on emotional calm in the face of trouble, and skepticism about divine phenomena. His proverbial calmness and self-control are also often regarded as products of Anaxagoras' influence. In

8160-472: The complexity of Aristophanes' plays. However, it is associated with poetic rhythms and meters that have little relevance to English translations and it is therefore treated in a separate section. Old Comedy's emphasis on real personalities and local issues makes the plays difficult to appreciate today without the aid of scholarly commentaries—see for example articles on The Knights , The Wasps and Peace for lists of topical references. The topicality of

8280-429: The control of hostile oligarchs. In 446 BC, a more dangerous uprising erupted. Euboea and Megara revolted. Pericles crossed over to Euboea with his troops, but was forced to return when the Spartan army invaded Attica . Through bribery and negotiations, Pericles defused the imminent threat, and the Spartans returned home. When Pericles was later audited for the handling of public money, an expenditure of 10 talents

8400-474: The conversation between Aspasia and Xenophon in Aeschines' dialogue as a good example of inductio . Aspasia's earliest post-classical portrayal is in the letters of Héloïse to Abelard . Héloïse cites Aspasia's conversation with Xenophon and his wife in Aeschines' dialogue, which she probably knew through Cicero's reference to it, and proposes Aspasia as an example for how she should live her own life. In

8520-514: The educational and cultural center of the ancient Greek world. He started an ambitious project that generated most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis , including the Parthenon . This project beautified and protected the city, exhibited its glory, and gave work to its people. Pericles also fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics called him a populist . Pericles

8640-468: The eruption of the Peloponnesian War, Pericles and two of his closest associates, Phidias and his companion, Aspasia , faced a series of personal and judicial attacks. Phidias , who had been in charge of all building projects, was first accused of embezzling gold meant for the statue of Athena and then of impiety, because, when he wrought the battle of the Amazons on the shield of Athena, he carved out

8760-540: The expulsion of Cimon, the unchallengeable leader of the democratic party became the unchallengeable ruler of Athens. He remained in power until his death in 429 BC. Pericles made his first military excursions during the First Peloponnesian War, which was caused in part by Athens' alliance with Megara and Argos and the subsequent reaction of Sparta. In 454 BC he attacked Sicyon and Acarnania . He then unsuccessfully tried to conquer Oeniadea on

8880-513: 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

9000-594: The fourth century, four philosophers are known to have written Socratic dialogues which feature Aspasia. Those by Antisthenes and Plato portray her negatively, in a way resembling her portrayal in comedy; Aeschines and Xenophon show her in a more positive light. In the dialogues by Plato, Xenophon, and Aeschines, Aspasia is portrayed as an educated, skilled rhetorician, and a source of advice for marital concerns. Armand D'Angour has argued that Diotima, to whom Socrates attributes his understanding of love in Symposium ,

9120-505: The inscriptions of dedication in his own name. His stance was greeted with applause, and Thucydides was soundly, if unexpectedly, defeated. In 442 BC, the Athenian public voted to ostracize Thucydides from the city for 10 years and Pericles was once again the unchallenged ruler of the Athenian political arena. Pericles wanted to stabilize Athens' dominance over its alliance and to enforce its pre-eminence in Greece. The process by which

9240-425: The largest embezzlements in human history; this misappropriation financed, however, some of the most marvellous artistic creations of the ancient world. The Samian War was one of the last significant military events before the Peloponnesian War. After Thucydides' ostracism, Pericles was re-elected yearly to the generalship, the only office he ever officially occupied, although his influence was so great as to make him

9360-507: The late medieval and early modern periods, Aspasia appeared in several catalogues, a fashionable genre at the time. She was included in three "medallion books", with an imagined portrait and a brief biography. The first of these was Guillaume Rouille 's Promptuarium Iconum , which derives its depiction of Aspasia from Plutarch and focuses on her relationship with Pericles; in Giovanni Angelo Canini 's Iconografia , Aspasia

9480-520: The leader of the conservative faction who was accused of neglecting Athens' vital interests in Macedon . Although Cimon was acquitted, this confrontation proved that Pericles' major political opponent was vulnerable. Around 461 BC, the leadership of the democratic party decided it was time to take aim at the Areopagus , a traditional council controlled by the Athenian aristocracy, which had once been

9600-540: The most powerful body in the state. The leader of the party and mentor of Pericles, Ephialtes , proposed a reduction of the Areopagus' powers. The Ecclesia (the Athenian Assembly) adopted Ephialtes' proposal without opposition. This reform signaled the beginning of a new era of "radical democracy". The democratic party gradually became dominant in Athenian politics, and Pericles seemed willing to follow

9720-576: The one hand increasing interest in Aspasia separately from her relationships with men, and on the other more prurient concern with her sexuality. The former strand of Aspasia's reception saw the Latvian author, feminist, and politician Elza Rozenberga , who took the pseudonym Aspazija, model her campaigning for women's rights after what she saw as Aspasia's example. Aspasia was also taken as a feminist role-model by Judy Chicago , who included her as one of

9840-527: The peace), and renegotiated at the conclusion of the campaign in Cyprus, taking force again by 449–448 BC. John Fine, in contrast, suggests that the first peace between Athens and Persia was concluded in 450–449 BC, due to Pericles' calculation that ongoing conflict with Persia was undermining Athens' ability to spread its influence in Greece and the Aegean . Kagan believes that Pericles used Callias ,

9960-526: 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. In the classical period, two primary schools of thought developed around Aspasia. One tradition, deriving from Old Comedy, emphasises her influence over Pericles and her involvement in the sex trade; the other, which can be traced back to fourth-century philosophy, concentrates on her intellect and rhetorical skill. Some scholars have also proposed that

10080-436: The people; this event, indeed, would come about a few years later. At that time, the Athenians unhesitatingly followed Pericles' instructions. In the first legendary oration Thucydides puts in his mouth, Pericles advised the Athenians not to yield to their opponents' demands, since they were militarily stronger. Pericles was not prepared to make unilateral concessions, believing that "if Athens conceded on that issue, then Sparta

10200-402: The phallic songs that accompanied them. Although the earliest Athenian comedy, from the 480s to 440s BCE, is almost entirely lost, it is clear that comedy had already crystallised into a highly structured form, with the chorus playing a central role. The most important poets of the period were Magnes , whose work survives only in a few fragments of dubious authenticity, and Cratinus , who took

10320-752: The plays had unique consequences for both the writing and the production of the plays in ancient Athens. The Lenaia and City Dionysia were religious festivals, but they resembled a gala rather than a church service. Horace claimed a formative role for the Old Comedy in the making of Roman satire . The Old Comedy subsequently influenced later European writers such as Ben Jonson , Racine , and Goethe . Also, François Rabelais , Miguel de Cervantes , Jonathan Swift , and Voltaire may have derived elements from it. Western writers took particular inspiration from Aristophanes' disguising of political attacks as buffoonery. Old Comedy displays similarities to modern-day political satires such as Dr. Strangelove (1964) and

10440-400: The plays like a privileged member of the audience. In The Frogs , the god appears also as a dramatic character, and he enters the theatre ludicrously disguised as Hercules . He observes to the audience that every time he is on hand to hear a joke from a comic dramatist like Phrynichus (one of Aristophanes' rivals) he ages by more than a year. This scene opens the play, and it is a reminder to

10560-419: The political elimination of this opponent using ostracism . The accusation was that Cimon betrayed his city by aiding Sparta . After Cimon's ostracism, Pericles continued to promote a populist social policy. He first proposed a decree that permitted the poor to watch theatrical plays without paying, with the state covering the cost of their admission. With other decrees he lowered the property requirement for

10680-581: The portrayal of several female characters in Athenian tragedy commented on Aspasia, including Euripides' Medea and Phaedra , and Sophocles' Jocasta . The only surviving ancient sources to discuss Aspasia which were written during her life are from comedy. The surviving comic tradition about Aspasia – unlike her male contemporaries – focuses on her sexuality. Aristophanes , the only writer of Old Comedy for whom complete works survive, refers to Aspasia only once in his surviving corpus, in Acharnians . In

10800-589: The prize at the City Dionysia probably sometime around 450 BCE. Although no complete plays by Cratinus are preserved, they are known through hundreds of fragments: he was noted in antiquity both for a mastery of plot and for the obscene vehemence of his attacks on Pericles . Aristophanes satirized and lampooned the most prominent personalities and institutions of his time, as can be seen, for example, in his scurrilous portrayal of Socrates in The Clouds , and in his racy anti-war farce Lysistrata . Aristophanes

10920-516: The rebels to capitulate after a tough siege of eight months, which resulted in substantial discontent among the Athenian sailors. Pericles then quelled a revolt in Byzantium and, when he returned to Athens, gave a funeral oration to honor the soldiers who died in the expedition. Between 438 and 436 BC Pericles led Athens' fleet in Pontus and established friendly relations with the Greek cities of

11040-462: The region. At this time, however, Athens was seriously challenged by a number of revolts among its subjects. In 447 BC the oligarchs of Thebes conspired against the democratic faction. The Athenians demanded their immediate surrender, but after the Battle of Coronea , Pericles was forced to concede the loss of Boeotia to recover the prisoners taken in that battle. With Boeotia in hostile hands, Phocis and Locris became untenable and quickly fell under

11160-429: The region. Pericles focused also on internal projects, such as the fortification of Athens (the building of the "middle wall" about 440 BC), and on the creation of new cleruchies , such as Andros , Naxos and Thurii (444 BC) as well as Amphipolis (437–436 BC). Pericles and his friends were never immune from attack, as preeminence in democratic Athens was not equivalent to absolute rule. Just before

11280-458: The residents of Attica to agree to move into the crowded urban areas. For most, the move meant abandoning their land and ancestral shrines and completely changing their lifestyle. Therefore, although they agreed to leave, many rural residents were far from happy with Pericles' decision. Pericles also gave his compatriots some advice on their present affairs and reassured them that, if the enemy did not plunder his farms, he would offer his property to

11400-409: The revolt there. He then punished the landowners of Chalcis , who lost their properties. The residents of Histiaea , meanwhile, who had butchered the crew of an Athenian trireme , were uprooted and replaced by 2,000 Athenian settlers. The crisis was brought to an official end by the Thirty Years' Peace (winter of 446–445 BC), in which Athens relinquished most of the possessions and interests on

11520-519: The same solution. Because the comic machinery is easier to spot in Aristophanes (where there is no attempt, as in Shaw, to disguise it with any surface realism), what Aristophanes has done becomes a helpful point of reference from which to study what Shaw has done." Pericles Pericles ( / ˈ p ɛr ɪ k l iː z / , ‹See Tfd› Greek : Περικλῆς ; c.  495 – 429 BC)

11640-617: 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

11760-460: The sources that mention her, even when they fundamentally distort reality. 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

11880-619: The spring of 472 BC, Pericles presented The Persians of Aeschylus at the Greater Dionysia as a liturgy , demonstrating that he was one of the wealthier men of Athens. Simon Hornblower has argued that Pericles' selection of this play, which presents a nostalgic picture of Themistocles ' famous victory at Salamis , shows that the young politician was supporting Themistocles against his political opponent Cimon , whose faction succeeded in having Themistocles ostracized shortly afterward. Plutarch says that Pericles stood first among

12000-502: The stalemate of populism. According to Paparrigopoulos, history vindicated Cimon, because Athens, after Pericles' death, sank into the abyss of political turmoil and demagogy . Paparrigopoulos maintains that an unprecedented regression descended upon the city, whose glory perished as a result of Pericles' populist policies. According to another historian, Justin Daniel King, radical democracy benefited people individually, but harmed

12120-412: The state. In contrast, Donald Kagan asserts that the democratic measures Pericles put into effect provided the basis for an unassailable political strength. After all, Cimon finally accepted the new democracy and did not oppose the citizenship law, after he returned from exile in 451 BC. Ephialtes' murder in 461 BC paved the way for Pericles to consolidate his authority. Without opposition after

12240-418: The televised buffoonery of Monty Python and Saturday Night Live . George Bernard Shaw was profoundly influenced by Aristophanian comedy-writing. According to Robert R. Speckhard, "like Shaw, Aristophanes wrote comedies of ideas, and, though one finds no evidence that Shaw is indebted to Aristophanes, it is clear that in facing much the same dramatic problem that Aristophanes faced, Shaw came up with much

12360-429: The thirty-nine women given a place in her artwork The Dinner Party . Recent novels have tended towards the more explicitly sexualised portrayal of Aspasia, including Achilles His Armour by the classicist Peter Green , Madelon Dimont's Darling Pericles , and Taylor Caldwell 's Glory and Lightning , in which Aspasia is raised as a courtesan. The 2018 video game Assassin's Creed Odyssey , which features Aspasia in

12480-481: 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"

12600-440: The war. Even when in the face of mounting pressure, Pericles did not give in to the demands for immediate action against the enemy or revise his initial strategy. He also avoided convening the ecclesia, fearing that the populace, outraged by the unopposed ravaging of their farms, might rashly decide to challenge the vaunted Spartan army in the field. As meetings of the assembly were called at the discretion of its rotating presidents,

12720-429: The way he spent the money for the ongoing building plan. Thucydides initially managed to incite the passions of the ecclesia regarding these charges in his favor. However, when Pericles took the floor, his resolute arguments put Thucydides and the conservatives firmly on the defensive. Finally, Pericles proposed to reimburse the city for all questionable expenses from his private property, with the proviso that he would make

12840-403: The way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. His family's nobility and wealth allowed him to fully pursue his inclination toward education. He learned music from the masters of the time ( Damon or Pythocleides could have been his teacher) and he is considered to have been the first politician to attribute importance to philosophy. He enjoyed

12960-677: Was a Greek politician and general during the Golden Age of Athens . He was prominent and influential in Ancient Athenian politics, particularly between the Greco-Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War , and was acclaimed by Thucydides , a contemporary historian, as "the first citizen of Athens". Pericles turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire and led his countrymen during the first two years of

13080-483: 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

13200-523: Was acquitted thanks to a rare emotional outburst of Pericles, his friend Phidias died in prison according to Plutarch; however, he is also credited with the later statue of Zeus at Olympia , therefore this is debated, and another friend of his, Anaxagoras, was attacked by the ecclesia for his religious beliefs. Beyond these initial prosecutions, the ecclesia attacked Pericles himself by asking him to justify his ostensible profligacy with, and maladministration of, public money. According to Plutarch, Pericles

13320-450: Was descended, through his mother, from the powerful and historically influential Alcmaeonid family. He, along with several members of his family, succumbed to the Plague of Athens in 429 BC, which weakened the city-state during a protracted conflict with Sparta . Pericles was born c.  495 BC , in Athens, Greece. He was the son of the politician Xanthippus , who, though ostracized in 485–484 BC, returned to Athens to command

13440-479: Was in fact a complex and sophisticated dramatic form incorporating many approaches to humour and entertainment. In Aristophanes' early plays, the genre appears to have developed around a complex set of dramatic conventions, and these were only gradually simplified and abandoned. The City Dionysia and the Lenaia were celebrated in honour of Dionysus, the god of wine and ecstasy. ( Euripides ' play The Bacchae offers

13560-403: Was invented by ancient writers to support "a tendentious view of Pericles' shiftiness". Plutarch states that Cimon struck a power-sharing deal with his opponents, according to which Pericles would carry through the interior affairs and Cimon would be the leader of the Athenian army, campaigning abroad. If it were actually made, this bargain would constitute a concession on Pericles' part that he

13680-458: Was not a great strategist. Kagan's view is that Cimon adapted himself to the new conditions and promoted a political marriage between Periclean liberals and Cimonian conservatives. In the mid-450s the Athenians launched an unsuccessful attempt to aid an Egyptian revolt against Persia, which led to a prolonged siege of a Persian fortress in the Nile Delta. The campaign culminated in disaster;

13800-408: Was not sufficiently justified, since the official documents just referred that the money was spent for a "very serious purpose". Nonetheless, the "serious purpose" (namely the bribery) was so obvious to the auditors that they approved the expenditure without official meddling and without even investigating the mystery. After the Spartan threat had been removed, Pericles crossed back to Euboea to crush

13920-534: Was only one of a large number of comic poets, however, working in Athens in the late 5th century BCE; his biggest rivals were Hermippus and Eupolis . Classical literary criticism placed Aristophanes somewhere between the harshness of Cratinus and the smoothness of Eupolis. All the Old Comedy writers worked within a highly structured format – parodos , agon , and parabasis – which paradoxically offered maximum scope for improvisatory flights of fancy. Song, dance, costume, and chorus all played important roles, as did

14040-440: Was precarious, Archidamus II , Sparta's king, sent a new delegation to Athens, demanding that the Athenians submit to Sparta's demands. This deputation was not allowed to enter Athens, as Pericles had already passed a resolution according to which no Spartan deputation would be welcomed if the Spartans had previously initiated any hostile military actions. The Spartan army was at this time gathered at Corinth, and, citing this as

14160-478: Was so afraid of the oncoming trial that he did not let the Athenians yield to the Lacedaemonians . Beloch also believes that Pericles deliberately brought on the war to protect his political position at home. Thus, at the start of the Peloponnesian War, Athens found itself in the awkward position of entrusting its future to a leader whose pre-eminence had just been seriously shaken for the first time in over

14280-433: Was sure to come up with further demands". Consequently, Pericles asked the Spartans to offer a quid pro quo . In exchange for retracting the Megarian Decree, the Athenians demanded from Sparta to abandon their practice of periodic expulsion of foreigners from their territory ( xenelasia ) and to recognize the autonomy of its allied cities, a request implying that Sparta's hegemony was also ruthless. The terms were rejected by

14400-469: Was widely enough known to be included in dictionaries and encyclopedias, where depictions of her were largely based on Plutarch. In 1736, Jean Leconte de Bièvre published the Histoire de deux Aspasies , also based on Plutarch's depiction, which portrayed Aspasia as an educated woman and Pericles' teacher as well as his wife. The eighteenth century also saw the first known image of Aspasia to be created by

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