ABSTRACT
All speeches reported in the Odyssey are necessarily “epic” in form, i.e., in diction and versification, but only a few are recapitulations of epic themes. The many bardic performances described in the Odyssey thus permit us to form a composite picture of the membership and behavior of the typical audience in the world of the poem. There is evidence that an expanded number of Greek-speaking women had access to a literary education during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. An examination of the Odyssey's content and genre increases the plausibility of women’s inclusion in its implied audience. By dramatizing its inclusion of women in its audience, the Odyssey likewise models their response: like Arete, they should be pleased, and consider their status enhanced by this inclusion. Women of different eras have undoubtedly read the poem differently under the influence of their historical circumstances and of shifts in the prevailing gender ideology.
