Aspasia
3 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Aspasia. All 3 are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
as-pa'shi-a, a celebrated woman of Greece. The dates of her life are not known well, but she flourished during the so-called Age of Pericles. She was a native of Miletus. She appears to have been a woman of talent, education, and beauty. She removed to Athens in her youth. Here she attracted the attention of Pericles. As she was not a citizen of Athens, Pericles could not, under the laws of the city, make her his wife, but he lived with her as such, and made her the mistress of an elegant home. Like Madame de Stael, Aspasia made her home the resort of intellectual people. Anaxagoras, the philosophical friend of Pericles, was a frequent visitor here. Socrates delighted in her wit. Phidias, the wonderful artist, liked to come in and talk about his work. Walter Savage Landor, who never allows a date to interfere with his saying a good thing, intimates that Thucydides read his history to Aspasia for criticism, and that the great playwriters, Sophocles and Aristophanes, were eager for her commendation. However this may be, the home of Pericles and Aspasia may be termed with justice the "intellectual center of Athens." Aspasia is one of the few women of Greece that require mention. In order to understand the intellectual position of Aspasia, it is necessary to hold in mind that the women of Greece were educated for health and household duties only. It will hardly do to say of women who were wont to listen to the masterpieces of the world's greatest tragedians, that they were illiterate; and yet the fact is that the wives of even the most eminent men in Greece were not taught to read and write. By way of exception, Aspasia seems to have been a truly remarkable woman.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a celebrated Grecian, belonging to a family of some note in Miletus, and was early distinguished for her graces of mind and person. She went to Athens after the Persian War, and by her beauty and accomplishments soon attracted the attention of the leading men of that city. She engaged the affections of Pericles, who is said to have divorced his former wife in order to marry her. Their union was harmonious throughout. Their house was the resort of the wisdom and wit of Athens. Plato says that she formed the best speakers of her time, and, chief among them, Pericles himself. The sage Socrates was a frequent visitor at her salons, drawn thither, it is insinuated, by the double attraction of eloquence and beauty. Anaxagoras, Phidias, and Alcibiades were also numbered among her admirers. The envy which assailed the administration of Pericles was unsparing in its attacks on his mistress. Her fearless speculation aroused their superstitious zeal. She shared the impeachment, and narrowly escaped the fate, of her friend Anaxagoras. She was accused by Hermippus of disloyalty the gods, and of introducing freed to women into her house to gratify the impure tastes of Pericles. He himself pleaded her cause triumphantly, and Aspasia was acquitted. She survived Pericles some years.
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
Daughter of Axiochus, born at Melitus. She came to Athens , where she taught eloquence. Socrates was one of her scholars. She so captivated Pericles by her accomplishments that he made her his wife. The conduct of Pericles and Aspasia greatly corrupted the morals of the Athenians, and caused much dissipation in the state. .
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The facts on the page have barely moved, but the judgement on them has been reversed. Where 1000 Classical Characters told readers in 1900 that "the conduct of Pericles and Aspasia greatly corrupted the morals of the Athenians," historians now trace almost every such charge — the brothel-keeping, the procuring of women, the impiety trial reported by Hermippus — to Athenian comic stage attacks on Pericles and to Plutarch, who wrote some five centuries after her death. What survives scrutiny is closer to what Collier's noted in 1921 from Plato: that she was credited with training speakers, including Pericles, and in the Menexenus Socrates has her compose a funeral oration. Aiton's 1910 point that she could not legally marry Pericles is sound and ironic, since it was Pericles' own citizenship law of 451 BC that barred unions with non-Athenians; their son, Pericles the Younger, was later granted citizenship by special vote.
Written for this edition, 2026.