Xanthippe (/zænˈθɪpi/;Ancient Greek:Ξανθίππη[ksantʰíppɛː]; fl. 5th–4th century BCE) was anancient Athenian, the wife ofSocrates and mother of their three sons:Lamprocles, Sophroniscus, andMenexenus. She was likely much younger than Socrates, perhaps by as much as 40 years.[1] InXenophon'sSymposium, she is described byAntisthenes as "the most difficult, harshest, painful, ill-tempered" wife; this characterisation of Xanthippe has influenced all subsequent portrayals of her.[2]
Little is known about the life of Xanthippe.[3] The ancient sources that mention her do so primarily to illustrate something about the character ofSocrates, rather than provide any biographical information about Xanthippe.[4] She was probably born around 440 BCE,[5] making her around 30 years younger than Socrates, who was bornc. 470.[6] Xanthippe's father may have been called Lamprocles, and Socrates and Xanthippe'seldest son been named after him; this may have been the Lamprocles mentioned byAristophanes in theClouds, who was a well-known musician in fifth-century Athens.[7]
Xanthippe and Socrates apparently married after 423 BCE, as in Aristophanes'Clouds, first produced in that year, Socrates seems to be unmarried.[8] She bore Lamprocles around 415 or 414 BCE.[9][10] She may have been the mother of Socrates' other two children, Sophroniscus andMenexenus.[11]Athenaeus andDiogenes Laertius both report versions of a story that Socrates married twice, once to Xanthippe and once toMyrto, the daughter or granddaughter ofAristides the Just. This story has generally not been believed by modern scholars, though some have accepted it – for instance J. W. Fitton, who argues that Myrto was Socrates' wife whereas Xanthippe was a citizenpallake ("concubine").[12][13]
On the basis of her name (a compound ofhippos, "horse", which often indicated a noble background)[14] and the fact that her eldest son was, contrary to the usual Athenian practice, not named after Socrates' father, some scholars have suggested that she was from an aristocratic family.[15] Fitton however notes that non-aristocratic Athenians with "hippos" names are known, and argues that though Xanthippe was an Athenian citizen she was not from an especially aristocratic family.[16]
Xanthippe is mentioned only once byPlato, in thePhaedo,[17] depicted sitting by Socrates on the night before his execution.[18] There is no evidence in Plato's portrayal of the shrewish Xanthippe of later tradition.[19] The characterisation of Xanthippe as a difficult wife derives from Xenophon's depiction of her: in theMemorabilia, though she is not named her son Lamprocles complains of her harshness, and in Xenophon'sSymposium,Antisthenes describes her as "the most difficult, harshest, painful, ill-tempered" wife.[20] Socrates says that he chose her precisely because of her argumentative spirit:
It is the example of the rider who wishes to become an expert horseman: "None of your soft-mouthed, docile animals for me," he says; "the horse for me to own must show some spirit" in the belief, no doubt, if he can manage such an animal, it will be easy enough to deal with every other horse besides. And that is just my case. I wish to deal with human beings, to associate with man in general; hence my choice of wife. I know full well, that if I can tolerate her spirit, I can with ease attach myself to every human being else.[21]
Later ancient authors, such asDiogenes Laertius, largely follow Xenophon's characterisation of her as a difficult wife.[6] Several of the anecdotes reported by Diogenes serve to show Socrates' wit, and to contrast his temperament with that of his wife.[22] In one story told by several ancient sources, Xanthippe pours a jug of water over Socrates' head;[6] according to Diogenes he responded with the quip "Did I not say that thundering Xanthippe also makes water?"[23]
Medieval authors who mention Xanthippe largely repeat the ancient anecdotes about her, and follow the example of Xenophon and Diogenes Laertius in portraying her as a difficult wife. In theWife of Bath's Tale, for example,Geoffrey Chaucer retells Diogenes' story of Xanthippe pouring a water-jug over Socrates' head, though in his version the jug is filled with urine. This story has also historically been popular with visual artists. The first positive portrayal of Xanthippe comes from the 1405Book of the City of Ladies byChristine de Pizan: her version of Xanthippe attempts to save Socrates from death by taking the poison from him.[6]
This portrayal of Xanthippe continued into the early-modern period.William Shakespeare, for instance, cites her as a proverbially bad wife inThe Taming of the Shrew. During theEnlightenment, some followed in the tradition of a shrewish Xanthippe – such asPieter Langendijk in hisXantippe, of het booze wyf des filozoofs Sokrates beteugeld. Others, however, began to treat her more sympathetically: the German scholarChristoph August Heumann was the first to question the historicity of the negative ancient anecdotes about her.[6]
From the 19th century, feminist authors have also portrayed Xanthippe sympathetically: for instance in the Victorian poetAmy Levy's poemXanthippe: A Fragment. Some feminist portrayals of Xanthippe present her traditional assertiveness as a positive characteristic: inCynthia Ozick's "Puttermesser and Xanthippe" the golem Xanthippe chooses that name in recognition of her own independence from her creator, as "Xanthippe alone had the courage to gainsay Socrates". In modern feminist thought, Xanthippe has been taken as emblematic of the history of women's subjugation.[6]
In his essay "The Case for Xanthippe" (1960),Robert Graves suggested that the stereotype of Xanthippe as a misguided shrew is emblematic of an ancient struggle between masculinity (rationality, philosophy) and femininity (intuition, poetry), and that the rise of philosophy in Socrates' time has led to rationality and scientific pursuit coming to exercise an unreasonable dominance over human life and culture.
Asteroid156 Xanthippe is named in her honour.
In 1995, P. Naskrecki and R.K. Colwell[24] gave thepatronymXanthippe to a genus of flower mite that inhabits flowers of palms of the genusSocratea and is probablyphoretic on the beetles that pollinate the palm.
A species of African white-toothed shrew was described byWilfred Hudson Osgood in 1910 asCrocidura xantippe, common name "Xanthippe's shrew."
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