Aspasia

One day, during the sultry season, in the city of the Athenians, a slender, girlish figure, accompanied by a female slave, hastily crossed the Agora. A singular result of this w...

Pericles had spent many a wakeful night, since the meeting of the critics in Phidias’ house. His mind was occupied with the treasure of Delos, with which a new era of power and...

When Pericles and Anaxagoras left the house, they went down the street leading from the great theatre of Dionysus to the foot of the southern declivity of the Acropolis, and the...

Far and wide in cloudless blue, the horizon of peace extended over Athens. Her fame was constantly increasing, and no rival seemed to desire to assail her power. Urged by a migh...

Among the wealthy and prominent citizens of Athens, at the time the events narrated here occurred, were two men, who strove to vie with each other not only in magnificent gifts...

The pleasant, shaded valley of the Cephissus was speedily reached by leaving the ancient city of Athens in a northerly direction, turning slightly to the left of the Cerameicus,...

Since the magnificent building, devoted by Pericles to musical performances, had been dedicated and opened with a contest between musicians, the Athenians flocked to the souther...

No one enters so thoroughly into his work as the sculptor. Phidias’ only walk was between the Acropolis and his studio. Even in his dreams he saw nothing but his statues of the...

Those who passed the house of the wealthy Hipponicus in Athens, during the spring month Elaphebolion of the fourth year of the eighty-fourth Olympiad, heard the sound of flutes...

For several days after Hipponicus’ victory and the ensuing conversation with Aspasia, Pericles was the prey of various emotions, aroused by the Milesian’s love of freedom, and d...

“I shouldn’t have thought it,” cried old Callippides, standing in the midst of one of the numerous groups of Athenians, who assembled in the great market-place of the Piræeus, w...

Pericles felt as if he had breathed a sultry atmosphere ever since he stepped upon the coast of Asia Minor. He had entered the land of the statue of Diana with the thousand brea...

Aspasia went in disguise on board the ship, which conveyed the Athenian commander from Miletus to his fleet off Samos. As the trireme passed out of the harbor into the glitterin...

When a great man is honored by his native land, praised by the world, and all offer him reverence, love, and homage, there is often one spot where his greatness shrivels, where...

If it is true, as related by legend and the famous author of the Eumenides, that on the Athenian Acropolis Prometheus brought down fire from heaven and delivered it to man, it i...

“That is beauty itself!” cried the Athenians, when Phidias had finished the new bronze statue of Pallas, ordered by the Lemnians, and revealed it for the first time to the gaze...

Several years had passed. Aspasia had battled bravely, but could not boast of having conquered. The stormy scene in the Thesmophorian temple had become known throughout the city...

Pericles and Aspasia had not wandered to Elis, to see the Olympian racers dart towards the goal, the wrestlers and pugilists struggle over the sand, or to hear the loud shouts,...

The Peloponnesian journey of Pericles and Aspasia formed a strange contrast to their Ionian honeymoon. On the gay strand of Miletus, victorious womanhood with soft arms drew the...

The boy had grown into a youth and reached his majority, for he had attained his eighteenth year. According to Athenian custom, he had been introduced into the popular assembly...

According to Aspasia’s supposition, it was an easy-matter for Pericles to demand the restoration of the stolen girls by the Megarians; for at that time, from various reasons, th...

Pericles, accompanied by his friend Sophocles, entered the Agora early in the morning just as the gloomy Euripides came up with the truth-seeker. Somewhat surprised at the sight...

After the relief from the anxiety and distress of war, the winter festivals were celebrated in Athens with twofold splendor and gayety. Yet mirth was still more fully unchained,...

On the eventful night, when Simaitha was crowned queen of pleasure at the joyous banquet in Pericles’ house, and the torches of thronging Bacchantes glittered in every street in...