One of the most remarkable women of antiquity, Aspasia, was born at Miletus. The circumstance that in Athens marriage with foreign women was illegal, has originated the erroneous notion that Aspasia was a courtesan. She certainly broke the restraint which confined Athenian matrons to the seclusion of their own homes, for after her union with Pericles, who had parted from his first wife by mutual consent, her house became the rendezvous of all the learned and distinguished people in Athens. Socrates often visited her. Her beauty, varied accomplishments, and political insight were extraordinarily great. From the comic writers and others she received much injustice. Hermippus, the comic poet, took advantage of the temporary irritation of the Athenians against Pericles, to accuse Aspasia of impiety; but the eloquence of the great statesman procured her acquittal. Her influence over Pericles must have been singularly great, and was often caricatured - Aristophanes ascribing to her both the Samian and the Peloponnesian wars, the latter on account of the robbery of a favorite maid of hers. Plutarch vindicates her against such accusations. Her son by Pericles was allowed to assume his father's name.

After the death of Pericles (429 B.C.) Aspasia formed a union with Lysicles, a wealthy cattle-dealer, who, through her influence, became an eminent man in Athens.