Wikipedia:Today's featured article/February 28, 2007



Aspasia was a renowned woman of ancient Greece, famous for her romantic involvement with the Athenian statesman Pericles. She was born in the city of Miletus in Asia Minor, but at some point she travelled to Athens, where she spent the rest of her life. After Pericles' death, she was allegedly involved with Lysicles, another Athenian statesman and general. She had a son with Pericles, Pericles the Younger, who was elected general and was executed after the Battle of Arginusae. Aspasia appears in the philosophical writings of Plato and other philosophers and is regarded by modern scholars as an exceptional person who distinguished herself due to her political influence and intellectual charisma. However, almost nothing is certain about her life. While ancient writers report that Aspasia was a brothel keeper and a harlot, many of these were comic poets who intended to ridicule Pericles and the war rather than document anything factual about Aspasia, and their accounts are disputed. Some researchers question even the assessment that she was a hetaera, or courtesan. (more...)

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