Xanthippe’s Harshness: at the Root of Socrates’ Endurance and Paideutic Mission

The tradition on Xanthippe begins with the first-generation Socratics, namely with Plato and Xenophon. In a famous passage of Plato’s Phaedo, Xanthippe pays her last visit to Socrates before he drinks the hemlock (60b). She is in tears and has her young baby with her. Socrates asks his associates to take her home: apparently, he does not endure her. Xenophon provides a different picture. He depicts Xanthippe as “the harshest woman ever” (khalepōtatē, at X. Smp. 2.10; see also Mem. 2.2). Later sources all confirm this feature of Xanthippe, and Socrates as deliberately enduring her harshness. This tradition suggests that Socrates needs Xanthippe to be harsh: as Antisthenes asks Socrates why he would not educate her – as he does with all his other fellow citizens – he replies “If I can endure her, I will easily get along with every other human being.” (X. Smp. 2.10) This seems to entail that Socrates regards Xanthippe as a necessary exercise (Gell. 1.17.1–3), or, to put it in a more radical way: as the daily exercise he needs to easily (rhadiōs) get along with his fellow citizens. Without the training of Xanthippe’s harshness, Socrates would not be able to sustain the burden of dealing with all of Athens’ citizens (cf. Pl. Ap. 21b–22e), which would entail the failure of his paideutic mission. Xanthippe plays therefore a key role for Socrates, possibly even more than other charismatic women from which he learns important notions (such as Diotima and Aspasia).