Ancient · c. 470–400 BC
Who did Aspasia influence?
Students and legacy
Milesian rhetorician in Athens whose salon taught Socrates and Pericles to speak.
Aspasia influenced Socrates. That is 1 line of the 448 documented lines of influence between the 279 thinkers on this map.
Read on Wikipedia Portrait: Unknown artist, Public domain See the whole map
Who was Aspasia?
Aspasia, born in Miletus, lived in Athens as a resident foreigner and became the partner of Pericles, with whom she had a son. Ancient comedy called her a courtesan and claimed she was tried for impiety, but modern scholars doubt both stories, and almost nothing about her life is certain.
Comic writers and later Plutarch pictured her as having improper influence over Pericles, while philosophical writers described her as a skilled rhetorician and thinker; she may have been the model for Diotima in Plato's Symposium. In the 20th century she became both a feminist role model and a symbol of sexual freedom.
Summarized from the lead of the Wikipedia article.
Who did Aspasia influence?
1 thinker on this map draws directly on Aspasia.
- Socrates c. 470–399 BC
Two steps away from Aspasia
The second generation
- Through Socrates: Antisthenes, Aristippus, Xenophon, Plato, Diogenes of Sinope, Søren Kierkegaard
Contemporaries of Aspasia
Thinkers on this map born within 25 years of Aspasia, with no direct line between them.
- Philolaus c. 470–385 BC
- Prodicus c. 465–395 BC
- Democritus c. 460–370 BC
- Gorgias c. 485–380 BC
- Protagoras c. 490–420 BC
- Empedocles c. 494–434 BC
- Antisthenes c. 446–366 BC
- Zeno of Elea c. 495–430 BC
Aspasia by the numbers
- Direct influences
- 0
- Direct followers
- 1
- Thinkers upstream
- 0
- Thinkers downstream
- 215
- Wikipedia languages
- 55 — #37 of 54 among ancient philosophers
- Card rarity
- Epic
Questions about Aspasia
- Who influenced Aspasia?
- No earlier thinker on this map is recorded as a direct influence on Aspasia.
- Who did Aspasia influence?
- Socrates.
- When did Aspasia live?
- c. 470–400 BC. The map files Aspasia under the ancient world.
- How rare is the Aspasia card?
- Wikipedia carries an article on Aspasia in 55 languages, which makes it an Epic card. Legendary starts at 100 languages, Epic at 50 and Rare at 25.
More ancient philosophers
- Confucius 551–479 BC
- Aristotle 384–322 BC
- Plato c. 428–348 BC
- Socrates c. 470–399 BC
- Pythagoras c. 570–495 BC
- Laozi c. 6th c. BC
- Cicero 106–43 BC
- Thales of Miletus c. 624–546 BC