Xanthippe
Xanthippe (Gr. Ξανθίππη) was the wife of Socrates. There are far more stories about her than there are facts. She is believed to have been much younger than the philosopher, perhaps by as much as forty years. She was famed for her sharp face and is said to have been the only person to ever have beaten Socrates in a discussion. After one particular quarrel, she was supposed to have emptied a chamber pot on Socrates's head, causing him to remark, "After thunder there generally falls rain."
Xanthippe means "yellow horse", from greek "ksanthos" (yellow) and "hippos" (horse). Her name now means any nagging scolding person, especially a shrewish wife. According to some sources, Socrates later remarried. Socrates' saying "Marry or marry not, in any case you'll regret it" was supposedly in contemplation of his wife.
The following clerihew was written about her in the 20th century:
- Whenever Xanthippe
- Wasn't feeling too chippy
- She would say to Socrates:
- "Why can't you have been Hippocrates?"
Literary references
In Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio compares Katherina "As Socrates' Xanthippe or a worse" in Act 1 Scene 2. (Read here)
The novelist Henry Fielding describes the shrewish Mrs. Partridge thus:
She was, besides, a profest follower of that noble sect founded by Xantippe of old; by means of which she became more formidable in the school than her husband; for, to confess the truth, he was never master there, or anywhere else, in her presence. ... for she continued longer in a state of affability, after this fit of jealousy was ended, than her husband had ever known before: and, had it not been for some little exercises, which all the followers of Xantippe are obliged to perform daily, Mr Partridge would have enjoyed a perfect serenity of several months.
- The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Book II, Chapters iii & iv.
The English Victorian poet Amy Levy wrote a dramatic monologue called "Xantippe"[1].
"Puttermesser and Xanthippe" is the title of one of the chapters of American Jewish novelist Cynthia Ozick's 1997 novel The Puttermesser Papers, a National Book Award finalist.
In Michelle Cliff's poem "The Garden," the speaker wears a t-shirt that reads "Xantippe."