Aspasia
Famed Milesian companion
Aspasia was a Greek woman of the 5th century BCE, companion to the Athenian statesman Pericles.
Ancient sources credit her with intellectual influence and rhetorical skill unusual for women of her time.
Her name has become shorthand for a cultured, influential woman in a man's sphere, or sometimes for a courtesan of wit and education.
Greece's capital city
- Golden AgeLegendary period of perfection
- AcropolisFortified hilltop in Athens
- ParthenonAncient Greek hilltop temple
- democracyRule by the people
stateswoman · political influence · consort · citizenship law · legitimacy · funeral oration · Thucydides · Plutarch
Paid aristocratic companion
- companionOne who keeps company
- symposiumFormal expert discussion meeting
- foreign-bornNative to elsewhere
- unconventionalDeparting from standard practice
independence · elite society · socialite · influential · controversial · liberated · cultivated · refined
Persuasive verbal grace
- oratoryFormal eloquent discourse
- persuasionConvincing through reasoning
- speechwritingCrafting formal spoken remarks
- Socratic dialogueInquiry through successive questions
dialectic · argumentation · discourse · teacher · diction · articulateness · instruction · fluency
Ancient Athenian questioning philosopher
- PlatoGreek philosopher, academy founder
- sophistDeceptive rhetorical trickster
- dialogueSpoken exchange between parties
- wisdomGood judgment from experience
intellectual circle · Xenophon · interlocutor · thinker · inquiry · education
Classical Mediterranean civilization
- classical antiquityGreco-Roman historical period
- biographicalAbout a person's history
- PlutarchGreek biographer, Roman era
- primary sourcesFirsthand historical evidence
historical controversy · legend · feminist icon · trailblazer · legacy · scholarship · classical studies
Athens
Greece's capital city
- Golden AgeLegendary period of perfection
- AcropolisFortified hilltop in Athens
- ParthenonAncient Greek hilltop temple
democracy · stateswoman · political influence · consort · citizenship law · legitimacy · funeral oration · Thucydides · Plutarch
courtesan
Paid aristocratic companion
- companionOne who keeps company
- symposiumFormal expert discussion meeting
- foreign-bornNative to elsewhere
unconventional · independence · elite society · socialite · influential · controversial · liberated · cultivated · refined · hostess
eloquence
Persuasive verbal grace
- oratoryFormal eloquent discourse
- persuasionConvincing through reasoning
- speechwritingCrafting formal spoken remarks
Socratic dialogue · dialectic · argumentation · discourse · teacher · diction · articulateness · instruction · fluency · public speaking
Socrates
Ancient Athenian questioning philosopher
- PlatoGreek philosopher, academy founder
- sophistDeceptive rhetorical trickster
- dialogueSpoken exchange between parties
wisdom · intellectual circle · Xenophon · interlocutor · thinker · inquiry · education
ancient Greece
Classical Mediterranean civilization
- classical antiquityGreco-Roman historical period
- biographicalAbout a person's history
- PlutarchGreek biographer, Roman era
primary sources · historical controversy · legend · feminist icon · trailblazer · legacy · scholarship · classical studies
- rhetoricrhetoric, persuasion, oratory, argumentation, debate
- 5th Century BCPericles, Socrates, Parthenon, Battle of Marathon, Peloponnesian War
- ancient AthensAcropolis, Parthenon, Agora, agora, Pericles
- Ancient WomenSappho, Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Nefertiti, Boudicca
- Ancient GreeksSocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Homer, Pericles
- Ancient PhilosophersSocrates, Aristotle, Plato, Pythagoras, Epicurus
AspasiaPericles
Fifth-century Athenian statesman
autochthon · archon · Socrates · full citizen · Plato