User:Caeciliusinhorto/Aspasia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aspasia (/æˈspeɪʒ(i)ə, -ziə, -ʃə/;[2] Greek: Ἀσπασία Greek: [aspasíaː]; c. 470 – after 428 BC[lower-alpha 1]) was a metic woman in Classical Athens. Born in Miletus, she moved to Athens and began a relationship with the statesman Pericles, with whom she had a son, Pericles the Younger. Though she is one of the best-attested women from the Greco-Roman world, almost nothing is certain about her life.
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.