Incomparable Aspasia

Title

Creator

Ludwig, Emil

Language

English

Source

Panorama Volume XIX (No. 12) December 1967

Year

1967

Subject

Aspasia, c. 470 BCE – c. 400 BCE

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

A woman’s influence over a statesman

Fulltext

■ A woman’s influence over a statesman. INCOMPARABLE ASPASIA In a half circle, against a background of Olympian clouds, I see a lovely Greek. She steps forward, she raises her lovely arms, she smiles. Orators commence singing her praises; satirists ridicule her; philosophers consult her; the statesman turns to her with unfathomable questions. Is she a queen whose power extended from one coast to another, whose ships dotted the sea, and whose warriors peopled distant wastes? Did she trace her descent from the gods? Or was she at least the wife' of a ruler or the mother of a poet? None of these. Her ancestry is un known, as is also her real name. The dates of her birth and death are not known to a certainty. Not even the face that gave her her power is known, although many a mar ble head is supposed to re present hers. She herself chose the name of Aspasia, the Beloved. Whether or not she actually came from Miletus to Athens, the daughter of a slave, no body knows. It is only known that at the age of twenty-five, thanks to the charm of her mind and body, she was one of the circle of brilliant, au dacious skeptics who existed in Athens at its prime. And here she met the man who at that time was on the threshold of great power. He was Pericles, and he was probably twenty years older than she. Pericles had a wife and children but in ancient Athens the wife was confined to the house, and had no claims on the husband, while he had all rights over her. Marriage served for no thing but the production of pureblooded children. At this time — the fifth century B.C. — it was even a subject for ridicule that a great war had once been caused by the ab duction of a king’s wife. Wives lived in obscurity, without honor or position, without social pleasures and line clothes. Meanwhile, other women who had cap tured the fancies of the Athenians displayed their 40 Panorama beauty and wit, culture and charm at all the banquets for all the graces of art, love, conversation, and ironic dis course were expected of them. Pericles, after meeting As pasia, separated from his wife and began a brilliant life with Aspasia. He re mained with her, one might almost say under her in fluence, for twenty years, un til the plague carried him off. Just as he was far and above the greatest Greek of his time, so was she the only Greek woman who was decid edly a match for him. A great man willingly grants this position to a woman, since she is not in competition with him. Could Aspasia, or any of the Aspasias who have followed her through the cen turies, have interferred with the ambitions of a Pericles? No, they could act as nothing but a stimulus because they always strove to please him. The importance of such a woman is that she existed — nothing more. In the morn ing she awoke thinking of her beauty; hours were spent in caring for it, for if she failed to please the man of her choice as a woman, all her influence vanished. When ever he came to her with a question, all her own inte rests had to be laid aside. Since a woman’s insight into humanity — especially the insight of a superior woman — is naturally greater than that of a man, Pericles in volved in wordly entangle ments, found her his natural adviser. The devotion of her love — his mastery and his submission — bound the ties closer and closer over heart and mind, those ties which between friends of the same sex are so easily broken. And through one crisis after an other a relationship gradually developed which vacillated constantly between mind and heart. Yet an ambitious man rarely concedes such as as cendancy to another man. On arrival and departure Pericles always kissed Aspa sia on the forehead, Plutarch informs us, and this is a sym bol of their relationship. The fact that she induced him to enter the war against Samos, and even the Peloponnesian War, which destroyed Athens’ power, is not necessarily against her. It merely de monstrates her influence in politics, for a Pericles does not permit himself to be in December 1967 41 fluenced in such decisions by an ordinary woman. And now let us follow the two friends to the Sympo sium. Here Aspasia plays the zither. And then a general conversation begins truly pla tonic in nature. Aspasia re poses on the divan beside the reclining men, talks with Hip pocrates about medicine, with Phidias about art, with Anaxagoras about philosophy. Yes, even Socrates himself, who both domestically and socially was not an admirer of women, had called him self her pupil only half iron ically. Forleles* great funeral oration in The second year of the war was supposed to be her work. But jealousy spread, and since it cpuld not attack her powerful friend, it was direct ed against Aspasia. The scan dal became courageous; an accusation against her was inevitable; she remained in stead of fleeing. Pericles himself came before the judges in her defense. His tears evidently saved her, perhaps also his prestige. But not long afterwards, he himself was on trial. He was deprived of his office, his career was threatened, and, moreover, his two sons were taken away from him. And always the fearless wo man stood close by to sup port him. But the reversal of Athenian favor, just an er ratic and whimsical then as now, called him back. Final ly the plague carried Pericles off, and Aspasia remained alone. — Emil Ludwig, con densed from The American M agazine. 42 Panorama

pages

40+

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