12 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



"the human form divine " that ever came from a sculp^ 

 tor's chisel. 1 



On account of the relations of the hetaerge, especially 

 those of the fourth and fifth centuries B.C., with the great- 

 est men of their time, the writers of antiquity thought 

 them of sufficient importance to preserve their history. 

 One author has left us an account of no fewer than one 

 hundred and thirty-five of them. But, of all those whose 

 names have come down to us, by far the most noted, accom- 

 plished and influential was the famous Aspasia of Miletus. 

 In many respects she was the most remarkable woman 

 Greece ever produced. Of rare talent and culture, of 

 extraordinary tact and finesse, of a fascinating personality 

 combined with the grace and sensibility of her sex, together 

 with a masculine power of intellect, "this gracious Ionian, " 

 as has well been said, * ' stands with Sappho on the pinnacle 

 of Hellenic culture, each in her own field the highest femi- 

 nine representative of an esthetic race." 



At an early age she won the passionate love of the great 

 statesman Pericles, after which she entered upon that mar- 

 velous career which secured for her a place in the front 

 rank of the most eminent women of all time. "Her house 

 became the resort of all the great men of Athens. Soc- 

 rates was often there. Phidias and Anaxagoras were inti- 

 mate acquaintances, and probably Sophocles and Euripi- 

 des were in constant attendance. Indeed, never had any 

 woman such a salon in the whole history of man. The 

 greatest sculptor that ever lived, the grandest man of all 

 antiquity, philosophers and poets, sculptors and painters, 

 statesmen and historians, met each other and discussed 

 congenial subjects in her rooms. And probably hence has 



i For information respecting the hetaerse the reader is referred to 

 the Letters of Alciphron, to Lucian's Dialogues on courtesans, and 

 more particularly to the Deipnosophists of Athenseus, Chap. XIII. 

 See also The Lives and Opinions of the Ancient Philosophers, by 

 Diogenes Laertius, Bohn Edition, London. 



