In Plato's dialogues, an idealized Socrates expounds the ideas for which Plato will, until the end of history, be famous. The world of Forms; the ideal Republic with its totalitarian masterplan; the tribute to Eros, god of love (or at least of homosexual love); the promise of the soul's salvation - all this has come down to us in the distinctive tone of voice of Plato's teacher. But how much of it did Socrates believe? Were Plato's contemporaries really taken in? Who was Plato anyway? And what lay behind his philosophy, from which the real world of men and women so rigorously excluded? Until the discovery of the Xanthippic Dialogues, we had no answer to those questions. Now at last the real Plato is revealed to us, by the women whom he banished from his arguments. In this brilliant and witty exposé, the mask of abstraction is lifted, to reveal the truth that lies beneath. And the truth is Xanthippe: wife and Socrates, teacher of Aristotle, and Founding Mother of the Western world. This is a book that no feminist can afford to ignore. -- from back cover.