A contributor to learning in Athens, Aspasia of Miletus (c. 470 BC-410 BC) boldly surpassed the limited expectations for women by establishing a renowned girl's school and a popular salon. She lived free of female seclusion and conducted herself like a male intellectual while expounding on current events, philosophy, and rhetoric. Her fans included the philosopher Socrates and his followers, the teacher Plato, the orator Cicero, the historian Xenophon, the writer Athenaeus, and the statesman and general Pericles, her adoring common-law husband.

Renowned for talent, brilliant accomplishments, and beauty, Aspasia, daughter of Axiochus, was born to a literate Anatolian household around 470 BC in Miletus, the southernmost Ionian city and the greatest Greek metropolis of Asia Minor. Although there is no history of her early life, she obtained an education and developed interests in high culture. Her attainments were unusual for a woman living in the male-dominated societies of the...