Book Review: Pericles and Aspasia by Yvonne Korshak
A multifaceted novel about the relationship between Athens' greatest strategist and his favorite hetaira
A vitally important anecdote before we begin: I saw this book on presale months ago advertised in one of the fancy literary magazines I get through my library, and took a picture of it in my phone rather than adding it to my wishlist as I usually do in order to take special notice to look into it. As I often find myself running over my budget for new novels, I decided to hold off on picking it up until I’d cleared more through my healthy backlog of books to review. Imagine my surprise when I found a copy in the used paperback section of The Strand’s outdoor carts. Naturally I snatched it up for a song. The moral of this story? Good things come to those who wait.
Immediately off the bat, there are parallels to draw between this novel and Ivan Yefremov’s Thais of Athens1 that carry over into real observations about similarities in their historical lives. Both being foreign-born hetairai of the Greek world thrust into politics because of their relationships with powerful men. I’m certain I’ve read this comparison elsewhere, but the artistry of both novels has helped to breathe life into the characters in ways that nonfiction works lack.
A real highlight of this novel is the way Korshak writes Pericles’ diction. Modern scholars are only left to speculate on how much Thucydides quotes directly from the original text of Pericles’ speeches and how much has been paraphrased from memory, but there’s a certain potency from a combination of pithiness and structure to what has been passed down that the author has replicated. At no point is Pericles a fire-and-brimstone kind of fearmonger; when he speaks, everything he wants to touch on is laid out plainly and calmly. Matters in need of address are touched on in due course as they arise. It’s interesting that the author abstains from the trope of the ancient feminist retelling subgenre of making the girlboss secretly the source of the historical figure’s virtue; Plato’s Menexenus dialogue shows Grecian precedent for the assumption that Pericles’ speech-writing was a collaborative effort. In this novel he’s perfectly well-spoken on his own merits and has already established his reputation in Athens. Instead, his flaw is that he’s absolutely smitten with Aspasia.
Korshak narrows in on Pericles’ restrictions on relations with foreign women among the deme while maintaining this relationship with a foreign hetaira. Though it does not violate the letter of the law he has written, it’s hypocritical enough to rouse his opponents into gossip. His infatuation with her causes him to brush any criticism aside, but Aspasia doesn’t exactly share his feelings. Though she gets along well with Pericles, she’s still traumatized from the shipwreck. Additionally, from her perspective, there’s nothing keeping Pericles from sending her away if the political atmosphere becomes too hostile. Her position as his hetaira only exists as long as he chooses to pay for her services. Even if he treats her as he would a wife, the laws he has passed prohibit her from receiving any of the meager protections she would have if she were. All her possessions and her father’s scrolls could be gone in an instant.
Outside of my approval of the dedication to historical accuracy in this novel, I greatly enjoyed this relationship dynamic. The way Aspasia’s cleverness acts as both an asset to Pericles and to her own interests really emphasizes that quality in her and makes the most out of her sparse characterization from the historical record. There are only a handful of women from antiquity whose reputations men have deemed important enough to preserve, and most of the good ones survive from their qualities of chastity or matronliness. Sappho shares this distinction, but her work has come to us without her story, and Hypatia exists in a grey area between antiquity and the dark ages, so it’s interesting to have as much information about Aspasia as we do.
I also very much appreciated the short biographies in the back of the book. The characters hardly make up any Tolstoy-esque maze of an ensemble cast, but it’s nice to have an easy point-of-reference to check to see who is an historical figure, and who had to be invented for the plot to move smoothly. I’ve seen a few other novels in the genre do this but none of them were interesting enough to talk about so I haven’t had the opportunity to bring it up yet. Korshak also provides a secondary glossary that sources all of the relevant ancient texts one would need to reference to build an understanding of the main characters firsthand, as well as how their broader veracity weighs against the historical record.
This is a 2-star book. There are a few plot beats across the storyline that feel like they were included in order to reach the maximum potential agreeability for an audience rather than aiming for pithiness. This makes it easy to recommend to anyone, but difficult to adorn with a perfect rating. For example, I could imagine couples enjoying this together because it intertwines some of the complexities of relationships with Pericles’ military and domestic strategizing. This also strikes me as a particularly good book club book. Keep an eye out for the sequel, The Sword of the War God, which is scheduled to come out later this year.
I began a review for that novel years ago and it got lost in the shuffle. At some point I'd like to return to it down the line because obviously it had some impact on me.