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ASPASIA de MILETO. 4K — Transcript

by Francisco Díaz Filosofía XXI · 2,262 words · 362 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:22Hello, how are you? My name is Paco
0:25Díaz. On this channel, we offer
0:27academic content related to philosophy.
0:30Today we are launching a series of
0:32videos about the philosophers included
0:35in the high school curriculum. In
0:38chronological order, we must begin with
0:40Aspasia of Miletus. This video is about
0:43her. We will dedicate the first part to
0:46offering a few insights into the role
0:49of women in Ancient Greece. We will do
0:53so with the help of Professor of
0:55Ancient History, Adolfo Domínguez
0:57Monedero, based on an interesting
0:59lecture he gave at the Juan March
1:00Foundation. It is important to
1:04highlight that the literary sources
1:06that provide us with information on the
1:09role of women in Greek society come
1:11from male writers. That is to say, the
1:15image of women presented to us is an
1:18eminently masculine vision, because 99%
1:21of these texts, if not more, are
1:24written by men. On the other hand, the
1:27majority of the sources that historians
1:30use to reconstruct a narrative about
1:33the functions that women performed at
1:35that time belong mostly to the city of
1:38Athens. Thus, in general, we are
1:40unaware of the role assigned to women
1:43in most of the thousand-plus cities of
1:46ancient Greece. And another point:
1:50almost everything known about women in
1:52the Greek world corresponds to the
1:54economically privileged groups. In
1:57other words, we have less data on the
2:00lives of less affluent people.
2:04Therefore, regarding the information
2:07available on women in ancient Greece,
2:10we find a male vision centered on a
2:12very specific part of Athenian society.
2:31To understand the role of women in the
2:33Greek world, it is necessary to talk
2:35about marriage. Marriage in ancient
2:38Greece was arranged between men without
2:40the woman's participation. No romantic
2:43love between lovers. It was very common
2:46for neighbors or friends with three or
2:49four-year-old children to decide to
2:51marry them off in the future. When a
2:56woman in the Greek world, at least in
2:58Athens, got married, she had stopped
3:00being a girl only a short time before,
3:03and it was very normal for her to be 15
3:05. The man could be 25 or 30 years old.
3:1030 years old was a very common age to
3:13take a wife. Her mother had taught her
3:20what her duties were, and when her
3:23husband took her as his wife, he became
3:26the educator of that girl of barely 15.
3:30What was expected of her was that she
3:32prepare to become a good wife and a
3:34good mother, especially a good mother,
3:36since her function was to provide new
3:39citizens to her polis and continue her
3:41husband's lineage. Women embraced
3:47motherhood as a moment of fulfillment,
3:49as part of their total integration into
3:51the Greek world. In ancient Greece,
3:56women had no legal, political, or
3:59social recognition. They lived removed
4:02from the public sphere and could not
4:04attain citizen status, so they could
4:06neither vote nor participate in
4:08politics. Aristotle himself stated in
4:12his Politics that excessive freedom and
4:15licentiousness of women is very harmful
4:18to the good governance of the city. A
4:23woman's life in that patriarchal
4:25society was a life in the shadow of her
4:27husband, a life dedicated to caring for
4:29the home. We see this already in the
4:32Homeric poems, the oldest manifestation
4:35of Greek literature. In the domestic
4:41space governed by the head of the
4:43family, the woman was secluded in the
4:45gynaikeion, surrounded by her servants,
4:48daughters, and sometimes the husband's
4:50mother. The gynaikeion was a room for
4:54exclusive female use that was usually
4:56located in the most secluded part of
4:58the house. The power a woman had in the
5:02house was granted by her husband. Her
5:05function in the house was to dedicate
5:07herself to her chores, to remain
5:09unnoticed. Among her tasks, weaving
5:12clothing for family consumption stood
5:14out. Although Greek women spent most of
5:18their time in their homes, they could
5:21also access the public space. But there
5:24were very few situations in which it
5:26was justified for women to leave the
5:28house. For example, to participate in
5:32religious festivities or to lead
5:34funeral rituals. This canonical model
5:40of womanhood had some exceptions, for
5:43example, priestesses. This was also the
5:47case for the Hetairai. The Hetairai
5:49refer to an important group of women as
5:51characteristic as they are difficult to
5:53categorize. It would not be appropriate
5:56to call them just prostitutes, as their
5:58status was ambiguous and very fluid.
6:02The Hetairai accompanied men at
6:05banquets, entertaining them with dance,
6:08music, and conversation. Their status
6:11allowed them to access the male realm
6:14and also education. This set them apart
6:17from the rest of Athenian women. The
6:21Hetairai were the only truly free women
6:24. They also had economic independence
6:27and paid taxes. Aspasia has reached our
6:52days thanks to the writings of ancient
6:54authors such as Plato, Aristophanes, or
6:57Xenophon. Plutarch also mentions her in
7:00his works. However, no text written by
7:03her has been preserved. Her figure has
7:06been the subject of admiration and
7:08controversy throughout history and has
7:10been represented in art and literature
7:13as a symbol of the intelligent and free
7:15woman. She was a woman of great
7:20eloquence and intelligence who
7:22influenced many of the writers,
7:24thinkers, and statesmen of her time.
7:29And who was Aspasia? Aspasia of Miletus
7:33is quite an enigma. Despite being the
7:36most famous woman of Athens 'Golden Age
7:38, there is little one can say about her
7:41with certainty. Plutarch, the Roman
7:47philosopher and historian, wondered
7:49what great art or power of charm this
7:52woman possessed that allowed her to
7:54captivate the greatest statesmen and
7:56gave philosophers the opportunity to
7:59speak of her in such exalted terms.
8:04Most experts in ancient history present
8:06Aspasia of Miletus as a teacher of
8:09rhetoric and as a historian and
8:11chronicler. She had great influence on
8:16cultural and political life in
8:18Periclean Athens. Without fully leaving
8:24the realm of conjecture, we can say
8:27that Aspasia was born around 470 BC in
8:30a city in Asia Minor, specifically
8:33Miletus. Miletus is located on the
8:38Anatolian peninsula, in what is now
8:40Turkey. The first Greek philosophers,
8:45such as Anaximander and Anaximenes,
8:47were also born there. Little is known
8:50about her family and childhood,
8:52although everything seems to indicate
8:54that Aspasia belonged to a wealthy
8:56family. The excellent education she
8:58received confirms this. In Ionian
9:02cities, unlike what happened in Athens,
9:05both boys and girls went to public
9:07school and shared learning on equal
9:10footing. Aspasia moved to Athens when
9:15she was young. The reasons for this
9:18change of residence are unknown. Athens
9:23was reaching its peak splendor at the
9:25time, and literature and the arts shone
9:27in a special way. The beautiful
9:32Milesian settled there and soon became
9:34famous for her wit, her charisma, and
9:36her dazzling beauty. Regarding her life
9:39in Athens during her first years there,
9:42there is hardly any reliable data.
9:45Among the various pieces of information
9:47available, reports regarding the years
9:49her union with Pericles lasted are the
9:52most reliable. In Athens, Aspasia ran a
9:58salon or school, or perhaps a brothel.
10:01Here lies the doubt, a reasonable doubt
10:04, since the account that has reached us
10:07from that era carries a perspective
10:09tainted by patriarchal prejudices, and
10:12perhaps an unmasking effort is required
10:14. The fact is that the space we are
10:19referring to was visited by men from
10:21the city's most important circles, such
10:23as Socrates, Anaxagoras, or Pericles.
10:28Pericles was the decisive politician of
10:30Athenian democracy in its heyday and
10:32the most brilliant ruler of classical
10:35Greece. He brought democracy to a
10:39higher degree of perfection and
10:40achieved the historical consolidation
10:42of this system of government by the
10:44people and for the people. It is said
10:48that he fell in love with Aspasia and
10:50made her his mistress, abandoning his
10:53legitimate wife to live publicly with
10:55that beautiful and witty Ionian woman,
10:5720 years his junior. Since she was a
11:02foreigner and a hetaira, they could not
11:04legally marry, but they were
11:05effectively considered husband and wife
11:07. They had a son named Pericles the
11:11Younger; Aspasia was Pericles' faithful
11:13companion throughout his political life
11:16and supported him in his decisions.
11:21Aspasia is mentioned in the writings of
11:23Plato, Aristophanes, Xenophon, and
11:25other authors of the era. Plutarch
11:28refers to her in his biography of
11:30Pericles. Socrates, the great Athenian
11:34philosopher, friend and student of
11:36Aspasia, was fascinated by her
11:38intelligence. It seems she acted as a
11:42teacher and inspiration for Socrates '
11:44philosophical vocation. It is said that
11:48he learned the art of rhetoric and
11:50dialectics from her. Xenophon, an
11:53Athenian historian and general, was
11:56also a student of Socrates and Aspasia.
12:00In his memoirs of Socrates, Xenophon
12:02describes Aspasia as an intelligent
12:05woman capable of giving good advice to
12:07men. He also mentions her in his work*
12:11Oeconomicus*, where he presents her as
12:13a model wife. Aspasia was a central
12:22figure in the cultural sphere of
12:24Athenian democracy. Despite the
12:27difficult circumstances imposed on
12:29women in ancient Greece, Aspasia stood
12:31out and adapted to the circle of
12:33friends of sophists and philosophers.
12:37She drew attention for her
12:39communication and persuasion skills.
12:43She managed to awaken the admiration
12:44and respect of philosophers, something
12:46improper for a woman in Athens. This
12:51fact, along with the influence she
12:52exerted over Pericles, provoked much
12:54rejection among the most conservative
12:55sectors. It is said that Aspasia
12:59inspired the famous funeral oration he
13:01delivered in honor of those who fell in
13:03the Peloponnesian War. But besides
13:07being a woman, our protagonist had to
13:09live with another label: being a
13:11foreigner. For the Athenians,
13:15foreigners, just like women, could not
13:17participate in the city's decisions.
13:23The comic playwright Aristophanes and
13:25some other conservative dramatists
13:27directed their criticisms and slanders
13:29against Aspasia. The opposition of
13:33people and institutions to the
13:35liberation and emancipation of women,
13:37embodied in a way by Aspasia, is a
13:40perfectly conceivable assumption. It is
13:44not difficult to find today reactionary
13:46emulators of Aristophanes slandering
13:48and viciously ridiculing those who
13:50fight for women's liberation. As we
13:56said before: Aspasia may have been a
13:58hetaira, and perhaps she, like any
14:01other woman who aspired to be free in
14:03Athens, possibly voluntarily assumed
14:06the role of hetaira; for, as Professor
14:08José Solana Dueso has noted, what else
14:11could a cultured and educated woman be
14:14in Athens, if not a hetaira? If not by
14:20assuming the role of hetaira, as Solana
14:23Dueso suggests, how else could a woman
14:26gain any access to the masculine world
14:28that held the reins of art, politics,
14:31and intellectual life? Hetairai, as
14:41explained by Sarah Pomeroy, author of
14:43Goddesses, [ __ ], Wives, and Slaves,
14:46were trained in the arts of dance,
14:48music, and rhetoric, and could hold
14:51conversations with leading politicians
14:53and aristocrats about philosophy,
14:56politics, and current events. They had
15:00access to the intellectual life of
15:02Athens, and a popular courtesan who was
15:04not a slave had the freedom to be with
15:06whomever she pleased. Attacking Aspasia
15:11meant, in a way, attacking Pericles. As
15:14the prestigious Hellenist Pedro Olalla
15:17reminds us, Aspasia had to undergo a
15:19trial for impiety, accused by Pericles'
15:22enemies of corrupting Athenian women
15:24and providing them to Pericles. Aspasia
15:29had to appear before a tribunal
15:31composed of 100 Athenian citizens to
15:33answer these serious charges, though
15:35she managed to be acquitted thanks to
15:37Pericles 'help. What were these
15:42conservative figures really referring
15:45to with their accusations? Surely to
15:49the fact that Aspasia ran a house where
15:52she was likely teaching these women the
15:55craft of being hetairai. Or, in other
15:58words, she was teaching them how to be
16:00free women. Aspasia, through her
16:05relationships with important
16:07philosophers, likely incited reflection
16:10on equality between men and women, as
16:12they regarded her as more intelligent
16:14than the rest. Pericles himself bravely
16:19committed to the defense of women. He
16:23even left written for his funeral
16:26epitaph a moving phrase for that era. "
16:30Here lies a man who always believed in
16:32the political virtue of women." Surely
16:36because he shared the same aspirations
16:38of emancipation with the woman who was
16:40his companion and teacher of oratory.
16:44After the death of Pericles, Aspasia
16:46remarried, in this case to a wealthy
16:48cattle trader. From this point on, her
16:52trail is lost to history. In conclusion
17:08, we can say that Aspasia of Miletus
17:11has gone down in history as a free
17:13woman with advanced ideas, a woman who
17:17managed to reach a level of influence
17:20and notoriety until then reserved only
17:23for men. It seems to us an act of
17:26justice to vindicate the figure of this
17:29thinker, recognizing the importance of
17:31her role as a woman who broke the molds
17:34of her time. A woman who contributed to
17:37the cultural, political, and
17:39philosophical development of Athens.
17:42Aspasia was a pioneer of feminism, as
17:45she defended equal rights and
17:47opportunities between men and women and
17:50dared to express her ideas with freedom
17:53and eloquence. She has been reclaimed
17:57by different feminist movements
17:59throughout history, which have taken
18:02her as an example of an empowered,
18:05intelligent, and brave woman. Today,
18:08she remains a source of inspiration for
18:11many women who fight for their rights
18:14and their participation in public life.
18:18Well, at this point, we say goodbye
18:20until the next video in this series
18:22that we are dedicating to female
18:24philosophers. In the next class, we
18:28will take a leap through time of
18:30several centuries. From the Athens
18:32where Aspasia lived, we are going to
18:34move to Alexandria, because our next
18:36installment corresponds to the figure
18:38of Hypatia, Hypatia of Alexandria. See
18:41you next time.

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