Xanthippe

The Light Behind the Sun

Much aligned by early Christian historiographers and to a lesser extent ignored by modern thinkers of women’s liberation in her own unvarnished way, Xanthippe, the so-called shrewish wife of Socrates struggled single-handed to feed the family, though neglected by the Socrates who chose to be at the Agora or various symposia in search of beauty and truth!

Socrates, falsely accused and condemned to die for corrupting the youths of Athens and accepts the verdict disdainfully , she violently resenting when forbidden from attending the last few hours of his life in peace. She mournfully calls it the rape of her soul!

After the dignified demise when the most eminent lawyer incited the masses it ends in bloodshed where the three accusers are destroyed.  Xanthippe feels utterly sad by the devastation and berates the lawyer whose brief was rejected by Socrates any dignity of a philosopher!     

However, the nadir of her life is the phony respect accorded by the city fathers beseeching her consent to raise a memorial bust of her husband.

With utter cool smirk she retorts:: … I am being honored to be the widow of a man whose wife I never felt!

When their harangue continues she goes berserk and the curtain falls. Danus, the betraying servant bemoans: grumbles: The noble die while the human dirt like me survive.