Agariste (mother of Pericles)
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Agariste | |
|---|---|
Αγαρίστη  | |
| Spouse(s) | Xanthippus |
| Children | Pericles, Ariphron |
| Parent(s) |
|
| Family | Alcmaeonidae |
Agariste (c. 520-510 BCE - ?)[1] was the mother of the Athenian statesman Pericles.
Agariste was the daughter of Hippocrates, a member of the Alcmaeonidae family, a wealthy, powerful, a notorious family in Ancient Greece. She was named for her grandmother, Agariste of Sicyon.[1] Around 500 BCE, she married Xanthippus, a politician and military leader who would later command the Athenian fleets in victory at the Battle of Mycale. Their first child was a boy, Ariphron. They had a daughter, whose name is not preserved, and another son, Pericles.[2]
According to Herodotus (6.131), a few days before Pericles' birth, she had a dream where she gave birth to a lion, which the ancient Greeks believed foretold the prominence of Pericles.[2] Thomas Harrison notes that this story "is widely understood to refer to the Athenian empire of the period of Pericles’ dominance.[3]