After this Ischomachus died, his widow moved in with her daughter and son-in-law Callias and soon became pregnant with the man's child, which eventually led to the daughter's suicide attempt. Callias was frequently parodied in Athenian comedies for his sexual excesses and pseudo-intellectualism. The import of such irony has also been the subject of much contention: are his wife's actions a sign of a bad education or just the inevitable result of the loss of the controlling influence in her life? How responsible was Ischomachus for his daughter's marriage to a man of such poor character? Gender roles and social change in Oeconomicus According to Sarah Pomeroy, the change from the fifth to fourth century largely was the shift from communal concerns to self-interested concerns. This general societal acceptance of the importance of the domestic sphere is represented in Oeconomicus examination of marital relationships and household management. In Pomeroy's commentary, she argues that Xenophon views a wife as more than just a means of reproduction. This is contrary to misogynistic Athenian ideals of marriage where once a wife birthed the necessary number of children, she was essentially viewed as a consumer. In Oeconomicus, Ischomachus incorporates his wife into household management as soon as they are married and even relies on her to run the household. He does not hide away assets he sees as property, rather he shares them with her. He sees his marriage as a give-and-take relationship, where both he and his wife share equal parts in its success. Manuscripts Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 227 See also Ancient economic thought Notes References Conversations of Socrates by Xenophon, edited by Robin H. Waterfield, Penguin Classics 1990 Strauss, Leo, Xenophon's Socratic Discourse: An Interpretation of the "Oeconomicus", Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1970 Henry W. Spiegel (1987). "Xenophon," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 4, pp. 935–36. Xenophon, The Shorter Socratic Writings: "Apology of Socrates to the Jury", "Oeconomicus", and "Symposium," trans. and with interpretive essays by Robert C. Bartlett, with Thomas Pangle and Wayne Ambler, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, The Agora Editions, 1996 External links Translation of the Oeconomicus by H.G. Dakyns at Project Gutenberg Review of a recent edition of the Oeconomicus Note on the ironic interpretation of the Oeconomicus Commentary on the Greek text by A H N_Sewell Works by Xenophon Socratic dialogues Home economics Economy of ancient Greece