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Xanthippe
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==Life== Little is known about the life of Xanthippe.{{sfn|Saxonhouse|2018|p=611}} The ancient sources that mention her do so primarily to illustrate something about the character of [[Socrates]], rather than provide any biographical information about Xanthippe.{{sfn|Saxonhouse|2018|p=612}} She was probably born around 440 BCE,{{sfn|Nails|2002|p=299}} making her around 30 years younger than Socrates, who was born {{circa|470}}.{{sfn|Strobl|2015}} Xanthippe's father may have been called Lamprocles, and Socrates and Xanthippe's [[Lamprocles|eldest son]] been named after him; this may have been the Lamprocles mentioned by [[Aristophanes]] in the ''[[Clouds (Aristophanes)|Clouds]]'', who was a well-known musician in fifth-century Athens.{{sfn|Nails|2002|p=183}} Xanthippe and Socrates apparently married after 423 BCE, as in Aristophanes' ''Clouds'', first produced in that year, Socrates seems to be unmarried.{{sfn|Woodbury|1973|p=12}} She bore Lamprocles around 415 or 414 BCE.{{sfn|Bicknell|1974|p=1}}{{sfn|Fitton|1970|p=66}} She may have been the mother of Socrates' other two children, Sophroniscus and [[Menexenus]].<ref>e.g. {{harvnb|Woodbury|1973|pp=12β13}} believes that Xanthippe was the mother of Sophroniscus and Menexenus; {{harvnb|Fitton|1970|p=57}} accepts [[Diogenes Laertius]]'s claim that their mother was [[Myrto]].</ref> [[Athenaeus]] and [[Diogenes Laertius]] both report versions of a story that Socrates married twice, once to Xanthippe and once to [[Myrto]], the daughter or granddaughter of [[Aristides 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 citizen {{Transliteration|grc|pallake}} ("concubine").{{sfn|Nails|2002|p=209}}{{sfn|Fitton|1970}} On the basis of her name (a compound of {{Transliteration|grc|hippos}}, "horse", which often indicated a noble background){{sfn|Fitton|1970|p=64}} 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.{{sfn|Brickhouse|Smith|1990|p=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.{{sfn|Fitton|1970|pp=60–64}}
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