Pericles

However, the affection which Pericles had for Aspasia seems to have been rather of an amatory sort. For his own wife was near of kin to him, and had been wedded first to Hipponicus, to whom she bore Callias, surnamed the Rich; she bore also, as the wife of Pericles, Xanthippus and Paralus. Afterwards, since their married life was not agreeable, he legally bestowed her upon another man, with her own consent, and himself took Aspasia, and loved her exceedingly.

Twice a day, as they say, on going out and on coming in from the market-place, he would salute her with a loving kiss. But in the comedies she is styled now the New Omphale, now Deianeira, and now Hera. Cratinus[*](In his Cheirons, Kock, Com. Att. Frag. i. p. 86. ) flatly called her a prostitute in these lines:—

1. As his Hera, Aspasia was born, the child of Unnatural Lust,
2. A prostitute past shaming.

1. And my bastard, doth he live?

1. Yea, and long had been a man,
2. Had he not feared the mischief of his harlot-birth.