Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/122

 100 HISTORY OF GREECE. criticism, that the most distinguished Athenians of all agea and characters, Sokrates among the number, visited her, and several of them took their wives along with them to hear her also. The free citizen women of Athens lived in strict and almost oriental recluseness, as well after being married as when single: everything which concerned their lives, their happiness, or their rights, 'was determined or managed for them by male rela- tives : and they seem to have been destitute of all mental culture and accomplishments. Their society presented no charm nor interest, which men accordingly sought for in the company of the class of women called hetaerae, or courtezans, literally female companions ; who lived a free life, managed their own affairs, and supported themselves by their powers of pleasing. These wo- men were numerous, and were doubtless of every variety of personal character: but the most distinguished and superior among them, such as Aspasia and Theodote, 1 appear to have been the only women in Greece, except the Spartan, who either inspired strong passion or exercised mental ascendency. Perikles had been determined in his choice of a wife by those family considerations which were held almost obligatory at Athens. and had married a woman very nearly related to him, by whom he had two sons, Xanthippus and Paralus. But the marriage, having never been comfortable, was afterwards dissolved by mutual consent, according to that full liberty of divorce which the Attic law permitted ; and Perikles concurred with his wife's male relations, who formed her legal guardians, in giving her a way to another husband. 2 He then took Aspasia to live with him, bringing contempt upon the real accusation against the Megarians, the purpose for which Aristophanes produces it. This is one of the many errors in respect to Grecian history, arising from the practice of construing passages of comedy as if they were serious and literal facts. 1 The visit of Sokrates with some of his friends to Theodote, his dialogue with her, and the description of her manner of living, is among the most furious remnants of Grecian antiquity, on a side very imperfectly known to us (Xenophon, Memorab. iii, 11). Compare the citations from Eubulus and Antiphanes, the comic writers, apud Athenamm, xiii, p. 571, illustrating the differences of character ana behavior between some of these hetaera and others, and Athcnae. xiii, p. 589.
 * Plutarch, Pci ikies, c. 24 E/ra r^f ov/ifiiuacuf OVK o' arjf avrcif