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Xanthippe
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<p>Xanthippe was an <a href="/facts/Classical_Athens/a3b6Hpbw">ancient Athenian</a>, the wife of <a href="/facts/Socrates/djIKjImv">Socrates</a> and mother of their three sons: <a href="/facts/Lamprocles/DzeDeLjF">Lamprocles</a>, Sophroniscus, and <a href="/facts/Menexenus/FSU3bRUC">Menexenus</a>. She was likely much younger than Socrates, perhaps by as much as 40 years. In <a href="/facts/Xenophon/d3uAqxEu">Xenophon</a>'s <i><a href="/facts/Symposium_(Xenophon)/mfJW12N7">Symposium</a></i>, she is described by <a href="/facts/Antisthenes/Pbqlmdqp">Antisthenes</a> as "the most difficult, harshest, painful, ill-tempered" wife; this characterisation of Xanthippe has influenced all subsequent portrayals of her. </p>