The dialogue between the model Athenian landowner Ischomachus and his wife recounted in Xenophon's Oeconomicus appears to offer a rare glimpse of the inner workings of an -ordinary Athenian household and a rare portrait of an ordinary Athenian wife. Through Ischomachus's report to Socrates of a series of conversations in which he instructed his wife in her proper activities. the dialogue provides both an account of the occupations of an Athenian wife and observations on her role in the household by both herself and her husband.