Book 13
56
And did not Aristotle the Stagirite have a son named Nicomachus by a courtesan named Herpyllis? and did he not live with her till his death? as Hermippus informs us in the first book of his History of Aristotle, saying that great care was taken of her in the philosopher's will. And did not our admirable Plato love Archaianassa, a courtesan of Colophon? so that he even composed this song in her honour:— My mistress is the fair Archaianassa From Colophon, a damsel in whom Love Sits on her very wrinkles irresistible. Wretched are those, whom in the flower of youth, When first she came across the sea, she met; They must have been entirely consumed. And did not Pericles the Olympian (as Clearchus tells us in the first book of his treatise on Amatory Matters) throw all Greece into confusion on account of Aspasia, not the younger one, but that one who associated with the wise Socrates; and that, too, though he was a man who had acquired such a vast reputation for wisdom and political sagacity? But, indeed, Pericles was always a man much addicted to amorous indulgences; and he cohabited even with his own son's wife, as Stesimbrotus the Thasian informs us; and Stesimbrotus was a contemporary of his, and had seen him, as he tells us in his book entitled a Treatise on Themistocles, and Thucydides, and Pericles. And Antisthenes, the pupil of Socrates, tells us that Pericles, being in love with Aspasia, used to kiss her twice every day, once when he entered her house, and once when he left it. And when she was impeached for impiety, he himself spoke in her behalf, and shed more tears for her sake than he did when his own property and his own life were imperilled. Moreover, when Cimon had had an incestuous intrigue with Elpinice, his sister, who was afterwards given in marriage to Callias, and when he was banished, Pericles contrived his recal, exacting the favours of Elpinice as his recompense.
