The ideal women of Homer's Odyssey Ancient Greek society treated women as secondary citizens. Restrictions were imposed on the social and domestic actions of many aristocratic women in ancient Athens. The women depicted in Homer's Odyssey, however, are ideal. Penelope, Clytaemestra, Athena and Helen are all women with exceptional freedom and power. Before comparing the women of the Odyssey with those of Athens, it is useful to take a look at the lives of the latter. A respected woman was expected to have characteristics including obedience, virtue, refinement, productivity, honor, beauty, talent, and intelligence (social conscience). Sarah B. Pomeroy has studied this aspect of ancient life and discusses it in her book Families in Classical and Hellenistic Greece. It states that the women of this Athenian polis (city-state) are part of their husbands' oikos. Although these women had some power within the oikos, their primary responsibility was the procreation of children. They held very little and most likely no political power. They lived according to the guidelines set by society which were quite restrictive. They must not carry out outdoor work, because otherwise they would become "potential prey for rapists and seducers" (Pomeroy 21). The wife had to be kept chaste and pure, so there was a need for a slave. Not only were women not allowed to go outdoors, but they were not to come into contact with strangers, especially men. Because men competed “to earn honor at the expense of other men's honor, and wives were often mere adolescents” (Pomeroy 21). These "mere adolescent" wives were not only confined to their roles as women, but were also physically confined within the walls of... middle of paper... ancient times. Perhaps men feared that women, if they were in a position of power, would be as repressive as men. Whatever the multiple reasons for the situation in which women lived, the truth is that they have an invaluable value to society. There may not be a female president for some years to come, but without women in modern society there would be no male presidents either. Works Cited Aeschylus. "Agamemnon." Greek tragedies. Ed. David Grene and Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: University of Chicago P, 1953. 1-61.Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin, 1996.Pomeroy: Pomeroy, Sarah B. Families in Classical and Hellenistic Greece: Representations and Realities. New York: Oxford UP, 1997.Pomeroy2: Pomeroy, Sarah B. Dee, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Oxford SU.