Like many another great figure of ancient times, Pericles was not exactly a handsome man. He is said to have had a misshapen head. For that reason he always wore a magnificent war helmet, which of course also reinforced his image as a military leader.
He was as stingy at home as he was generous with public funds, in part because his wife and children had a longing for the finer things in life. This may have led to his divorce (his wife's name is not known) and to his children's later ill will toward their father.
In 445 B. C., however, Pericles met the woman who became the love of his life: Aspasia (uh-SPAY-zhuh; c. 470-410 B. C.). Aspasia was that rarest of figures in ancient Greece: a strong, outspoken woman. Athens excelled in many ways, but its treatment of women was not one of them. Athenians considered it scandalous when Aspasia opened a school of rhetoric. She even dared to speak her mind publicly, which earned her sharp rebuke from many, but she won the friendship of Socrates and the deep admiration of Pericles.
Because so many people wanted to live in his Athens, Pericles in 451 b. c. had established a law effectively preventing Athenian men from marrying outsiders. This greatly elevated the attraction of an Athenian bride, but it prevented him from marrying Aspasia. Nonetheless, they lived together and even had a son, whom they named after his father.
His relationship with Aspasia became one of the many issues that Pericles's enemies used against him; so, too, did the building of the Parthenon. Anyone who achieves as much as Pericles did is bound to have foes, but his enemies were not the ones who brought about his end. To a large extent, Pericles himself can be blamed for that.
World History
