Editing Xanthippe (section)

{{Short description|Ancient Athenian, wife of Socrates}}
{{About|Socrates' wife|other uses|Xanthippe (disambiguation)}}
[[File:Xantippe.jpg|thumb|Portrait from ''[[Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum]]'' (1553) by [[Guillaume Rouillé]]]]

'''Xanthippe''' ({{IPAc-en|z|æ|n|ˈ|θ|ɪ|p|i}}; {{Langx|grc|Ξανθίππη}} {{IPA|grc|ksantʰíppɛː|}}; fl. 5th–4th century BCE) was an [[Classical Athens|ancient Athenian]], the wife of [[Socrates]] and mother of their three sons: [[Lamprocles]], Sophroniscus, and [[Menexenus]]. She was likely much younger than Socrates, perhaps by as much as 40 years.<ref>She must have been young enough to give birth to their three children [[Plato]] describes in his writings:  In the ''[[Apology (Plato)|Apology]]'' 34d, the sons are described as quite young: two of them "children", the other a "lad"; in Plato's ''[[Phaedo]]'' 60a, one of them is small enough to be held in his mother's arms.  Both dialogues take place when Socrates is supposed to have been 70 years old.</ref> In [[Xenophon]]'s ''[[Symposium (Xenophon)|Symposium]]'', she is described by [[Antisthenes]] as "the most difficult, harshest, painful, ill-tempered" wife; this characterisation of Xanthippe has influenced all subsequent portrayals of her.{{sfn|Saxonhouse|2018|p=613}}