3.1 Online Document Assignment 3: Aspasia: Gender Roles in Classical Athens

Online Document Assignment 3

ASPASIA

Gender Roles in Classical Athens

We know very little for certain about Aspasia. As the mistress of the most powerful man in Athens, she attracted the interest of a number of writers, both during her lifetime and after it. Writers’ characterizations of Aspasia, however, reveal more about their ideas of appropriate gender roles than they do about Aspasia herself. When Socrates suggested that Aspasia may have written Pericles’s famous funeral oration, the intended implications were twofold: first, that Pericles’s reputation as a master orator was unearned, and second, that he had failed in his duty as the male head of a household by allowing Aspasia to participate in the public world of men. In other words, Aspasia’s strength was proof of Pericles’s weakness. The need to police the line between men’s and women’s worlds is evident even in works meant to praise Aspasia. Her intellectual gifts are applauded when they were used to create a stimulating domestic environment for Pericles, but not when they were used to influence Pericles’s public actions.

The powerful influence of gender expectations on so much of the commentary on Aspasia alerts us to a crucial fact. As extraordinary as Aspasia may have been, she was still constrained by the social and cultural norms that shaped the lives of all Athenian women. Aspasia managed to create a public space in which her voice could be heard. At the same time, we should not forget that it was her relationship with Pericles, and his indulgence, that made this possible. We can, therefore, gain a greater understanding of Aspasia and her choices by delving deeper into Athenian ideas about women’s lives in general. As you examine the evidence, consider what it tells us about the lives of Athenian women. What expectations were placed upon them? What roles were they assigned in Athenian social and cultural life?

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  1. Question

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