X is for Xanthippe

PETRUCHIO.

Signior Hortensio, 'twixt such friends as we

Few words suffice; and therefore, if thou know

One rich enough to be Petruchio's wife,

As wealth is burden of my wooing dance,

Be she as foul as was Florentius' love,

As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd

As Socrates' Xanthippe or a worse,

She moves me not, or not removes, at least,

Affection's edge in me, were she as rough

As are the swelling Adriatic seas:

I come to wive it wealthily in Padua;

If wealthily, then happily in Padua.

--Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, Act 1, Scene 2

As far as I'm concerned, if you earn yourself a mention in Shakespeare, you've officially made it into history. We all know who Socrates is (or so I hope), but just who was this Xanthippe of his?

A lot more fun than Socrates, for one thing. His wife, for another. The stories of her legendary shrewishness abound, from the one where she trampled on a cake sent to Socrates by his friend Alcibiades, to the incident where she emptied a chamber pot on her husband's head. The philosopher Xenophon wrote that Xanthippe was "the hardest to get along with than all the women there are." But Socrates (in Xenophon's Symposium) defends her: 

"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, if I can tolerate her spirit, I can with ease attach myself to every human being else."

Oh, wait, maybe that wasn't exactly defending her. No, no it wasn't at all. Obviously Socrates got no more than he was asking for.

I feel more justified than ever in liking Aristotle best.