ABSTRACT
Xanthippe, Shr 1.2.70, F1 'Zentippe,' wife of the ancient Athenian philosopher Socrates. According to gossip among the ancients she was extremely shrewish. This folklore is easy to accept given the exasperations of living with her husband. His seemingly careless attitudes are lampooned in Aristophanes' Clouds—and responding accordingly. Diogenes Laertius in his Lives and Opinions of the Eminent Philosophers (c. early 3rd c. AD) reports that Aristotle says that Socrates had two wives, Xanthippe was the first and Myrto the second.
