The Women of Homer's OdysseyHomer's Odyssey, by, is generally considered to be a male-dominated poem: the hero is male and the majority of the characters are men. We follow the men as they attempt to return to Ithaca. However, even though women are not the main characters, they are omnipresent in much of the story. The women play a very important role in the unfolding of the story: they all want to marry, help or hurt Odysseus. During his journey, Odysseus meets three different women who want him to be their husband: Circe, Calypso, Nausicca, and finally a woman who is his true wife: Penelope. Each of these women has a profound effect on Odysseus's journey home. Yet even though these women are much more powerful than ordinary Greek women, they still carry a certain semblance of "good womanhood" in Greek society. Circe, although not the first woman we meet in the Odyssey, is the first woman Odysseus meets on his path. return journey after the Trojan War. She's not an ordinary woman! She is not separated from men outside of her oikos like women are supposed to be (Pomeroy 21). Good Greek women must be chaperoned by a male member of their oikos whenever they are in the presence of foreign men. "The visitor to the Greek house met only the male members of the family; when strangers were in the house, he... middle of paper... her husband and they all tried to accomplish this in different ways manners It is interesting that even though there are many men in the story, the women seem to exert power over Odysseus's journey: holding him hostage or letting him go depending on the different, slightly naughty women. (except Penelope, of course) seems to testify to the fact that Greek men were wary of the power of unconfined and unchaperoned women London: 1997. Pomeroy, SB Families in Classical and Hellenistic Greece in New York..: 1997.