Aspasia of Miletus (c 470-410 BCE)

Quotation

So now: what if that woman had a better husband than you? Would you prefer hers or your own? - (see below for context)

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Research

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Biographical

There is a tradition that Aspasia of Melitus was the teacher of Socrates. She was a contemporary of his and the companion of the Greek general Pericles.

The notion that she influenced Socrates is drawn in part from the tone of a conversation between her character in a fragment of the lost dialogue Aspasia written by Aeschines. The fragment is preserved in Cicero's Inventione Rhetorica. The conversation is between Aspasia [A] and the wife of Xenophon [X]:

[A] Tell me, please, wife of Xenophon, if your neighbour had a better piece of gold jewelry than you, would you prefer hers or your own?

[X] Hers, said the wife.

[A] So--if she should have a dress or other feminine ornament more expensive than you have, would you prefer hers or yours?

[X]Hers, naturally, said the wife.

[A] So now: what if that woman had a better husband than you? Would you prefer hers or your own?

Here the woman blushed. Aspasia, however, began to interrogate Xenophon himself...

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