[285] We do not know the circumstances which induced Aspasia to come to Athens. Plutarch suggests that she was led to do so by the example of Thargalia. For full accounts of the career of Aspasia see Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, Vol. III.; Ivo Bruns, Frauenemancipation in Athen; the fine monograph, Aspasie de Milet, by Becq Fouquières; Donaldson's Woman, pp. 60-67; also Ellis, Psychology of Sex, Vol. VI. p. 308.
[286] Pericles at the time of his meeting Aspasia was married, but there was incompatibility of temper between him and his wife. He therefore made an agreement with his wife to have a divorce and get her remarried. Aspasia then became his companion and they remained together until the death of Pericles. Their affection for one another was considered remarkable. Plutarch tells us, as an extraordinary trait in the habits of a statesman who was remarkable for his imperturbability and control, that Pericles regularly kissed Aspasia when he went out and came in. When Pericles died Aspasia is said to have formed a friendship with Lysicles, and through her influence raised him to the position of foremost politician in Athens (Donaldson, op. cit., pp. 60, 61 and 63).
[287] Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, Vol. III. p. 124.
[288] Psychology of Sex, Vol. VI. p. 308; Donaldson, op. cit., p. 62.
[289] Frauenemancipation in Athen, p. 19.
[290] Medea, Mr. Gilbert Murray's translation.
[291] Frazer thinks that the Roman kingship was transmitted in the female line; the king being a man of another town or race, who had married the daughter of his predecessor and received the crown through her. This hypothesis explains the obscure features of the traditional history of the Latin kings; their miraculous birth, and the fact that many of the kings from their names appear to have been of plebeian and not patrician families. The legends of the birth of Servius Tullius which tradition imputes to a look, or that Cœculus the founder of Proneste was conceived by a spark that leaped into his mother's bosom, as well as the rape of the Sabines, may be mentioned as traces pointing to mother-descent (Golden Bough, Pt. I. The Magic Art, Vol. II. pp. 270, 289, 312).
[292] Quoted from Position of Woman, Actual and Ideal; Essay on "The Position of Woman in History," p. 38.
[293] Letourneau, Evolution of Marriage, pp. 120, 201. The usus was similar to the Polynesian marriage, and was the consecration of the free union after a year of cohabitation. By it the wife passed as completely under the manum mariti as if she had eaten of the sacred cake.
[294] Hobhouse, Morals in Evolution, Vol. I. p. 210. The eating of the cake would seem to the ancient mind to have been connected with magic, and was regarded as actually effacious in establishing a unity of the man and the woman.