Xanthippe(5th century BC)
Socrates' wife
and matron of ancient Athens. The couple had three sons, Lamprokles, Sophroniskos
and Menexenos, and she is said to have had a bad temper and to have been the
very personification of the constantly nagging wife.
Her contemporaries did not picture her as such a terrible person as the later
Romans did. According to later stories, Socrates knew he was marrying a hag,
but did so to practice his patience.
A well known anecdote about the angry Xanthippe is the one where she was so
angry with her husband that she threw a bucket of washing water on him. The
philosopher then replied: after thunder comes rain. Socrates' saying "Marry
or marry not, in any case you'll regret it" was supposedly in contemplation
of his wife.