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Why Is Aspasia a Woman? Reflections on Plato's Menexenus

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Why Is Aspasia a Woman? Reflections on Plato's Menexenus Why is Aspasia a Woman? Reflections on Plato’s Menexenus Peter Adamson Though there were many women philosophers in antiquity, we do not have a single philosophical work that can be ascribed with any confidence to a female author. One apparent exception, the letters written by early female Pythagoreans like Theano and Myia, has proved upon closer inspection to date from centuries after these women lived.1 In light of this our best access to the ideas of ancient women philosophers is provided by male ancient phi- losophers, especially in dialogues that feature female characters as speakers. We have several such works from late antiquity, including early writings by Augustine that feature his mother Monica and a remarkable work by Gregory of Nyssa in which his sainted sister Macrina, like a latter day Socrates, discours- es on the immortality of the soul from her deathbed. From classical antiquity, for most people the example that leaps to mind would be Diotima in Plato’s Symposium. But she is not the only woman to take center stage in a Platonic dialogue. There is also the Menexenus,2 which consists almost entirely of a speech composed by Aspasia, who unlike Diotima was certainly a real person and indeed a significant player on the political scene of Periclean Athens. Commentators on the Menexenus sometimes lament that it does not get much attention from scholars of the Platonic corpus.3 But that is only true relative to the voluminous secondary literature that has been devoted to other dialogues. In fact this brief work has been considered from a variety of standpoints. Its central speech has been compared to other antique funeral orations,4 notably the speech of Pericles which the Menexenus also credits to Aspasia (236b5); we know it through the version recorded by Thucydides. The funeral speech within the dialogue is recited by Socrates from memory, having had it drilled into him by Aspasia, his “teacher of oratory” (236a1). She 1 Huizenga 2013, Nails 1989, Pomeroy 2013 and, for a survey of these and other female thinkers from antquity, Waithe 1987. 2 I use the Greek text from Plato 1903 and quote with occasional modifications from the trans- lation of Paul Ryan in Plato 1997. 3 For instance Monoson 1998, 489: “a far more interesting dialogue than is usually supposed.” 4 Clavaud 1980, Glenn 1994, Henderson 1975 (“Plato’s purpose was to write a pastiche of the funeral speech,” 33), Loraux 1986. © Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2020 | doi:10.30965/9783846765333_005 70 Peter Adamson composed it by combining improvisation with bits written earlier as a model funeral speech for fallen Athenian warriors (236b3-4). For many interpreters the dialogue is partly, or entirely, ironic and critical in character. Some take it to be little more than a parody of rhetorical techniques on Plato’s part, and especially of Gorgias’ style.5 Others see it as serving an immediate political purpose. It may have been a rebuke to the policies of dem- ocratic Athens,6 or be intended to encourage respectful and well-funded treat- ment of fallen soldiers.7 Still others, noting the chronological impossibilities in the dialogue and the intriguing fact that “Menexenus” was also the name of one of the historical Socrates’ children, have advanced the notion that Socrates appears here as a kind of ghost speaking from the grave to his own son.8 My aim here is not to offer an overall reading of the dialogue in the context of antique funeral oration, political events, or even Plato’s other works. Rather I want to address the question of why Plato has chosen to make Aspasia the central figure of the dialogue. Though this question has not always been taken seriously,9 I am certainly not the first to pose it. Charles Kahn identified it as the first of five central puzzles raised by the Menexenus.10 There can be little doubt that Aspasia’s involvement serves to tie the dialogue closely to the figure of Pericles. As we know from other sources, notably Plutarch’s Life of Pericles, Aspasia was romantically linked to the great Athenian statesman, presumably as his “concubine (παλλακίς)” since as a metic she could not have married him.11 She was known for her intelligence and skill as a rhetorician, credited with (or blamed for) shaping Pericles’ speeches and even his political policies. After his death, she married Lysicles and helped to make him a successful orator and politician.12 Plutarch also conveys (without necessarily accepting these charg- es) that she was a notorious and divisive figure, accused of running prostitutes, 5 This would fit with the remark of Philostratus that Aspasia “sharpened up Pericles’ speak- ing style in the manner of Gorgias.” See the report at Boys-Stones and Rowe 2013, §8.6. 6 For Kahn 1963, 229, it is “a kind of political pamphlet, written out of deep loyalty to the noblest traditions of Athens, but out of heartbreak, shame, and fury at the present policy of the city” (229). He emphasizes its plea for pan-Hellenic unity. For Haskins 2005, 26, the target of Plato’s critique is the Peace of Antalkidas, agreed by Athens in 287. 7 Huby 1957. 8 Dean-Jones 1995, Rosenstock 1994. 9 Huby 1957, 109-10: “It is difficult to know what to make of the statement that the speech is the work of Aspasia, but as the pretence wears very thin at the end of the dialogue [she cites 248d], we should probably not attach too much importance to this point.” 10 Kahn 1963, 220. 11 Henry 1994, 13-14. 12 A scholium to the Menexenus itself claims that she trained Pericles, Plato, and Callias in oratory, as well as Lysicles. See Boys-Stones and Rowe 2013, §8.7..
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