The ancient sources provide only limited information about the role of women in science. But one of the important figures was Aspasia, the cohort of Pericles. Aspasia was from Miletus, a leading center of science. She was probably associated with “Anaximander and Archelaus, Pericles and Socrates teachers respectively”. A hetaera, one of the elegant, immoral companions of the rich and famous of Athens, she was Pericles attendant for many years, holding forth in salon fashion among the intellectual elite of mid-fifth-century Athens. She supposedly opened a school of philosophy, having not only well-born women but some of Athens most important men as her students.
Citation: Women and Science. (2004). In Science in the Ancient World: An Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/abcsciaw/women_and_science
Image Citation: The Athenian patroness of science and consort of Pericles, Aspasia (fifth century BCE). From G. Staal and F. Holl, New York: D. Appleton & Co., between 1860 and 1888.
(Library of Congress)
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