"Mother,"
poised Telemachus broke in now, "my father’s bow –
no Achaean on earth has more right than I
to give it or withhold it, as I please.
…As for the bow now,
men will see to that, but I most of all:
I hold the reins of power in this house."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 21, lines 381-384. When Penelope says that the beggar (Odysseus disguised) should have his chance to string the boy of Odysseus, Telemachus asserts his authority as head of the household. Greek society at the time was very patriarchal. Telemachus tells his mother to attend to her tasks and that a decision about the bow will be made by men.