Hospitality In Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome And Biblical Times

Xenia is the generosity and hospitality the Greek give to their guest when people come over to their home. Hospitality plays a major role in Greek society. In American society, today hospitality is not a priority. The most we do is let guest in to sit and offer maybe food and water. In the Odyssey Homer shows in Greek culture that hospitality is very important several times in the text and should treat everyone as royalty.

Hospitality, nothing strange about that, we all have experienced it at some points in our lives. However, some of us might not know that hospitality has played an important role in many people’s lives over thousands of years. Hospitality changes people’s lives.

Hospitality is defined as the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Hospitality is something that can be seen everywhere, regardless of geographical location, religion, etc. This initially sparked my interest because hospitality is something does not require anything special to do. Everywhere a person goes, hospitality can be seen in some way, shape, or form.

In two of the texts considered this Fall—Genesis and the Odyssey, there are many incentives to show hospitality. Hospitality, when extended with the best intentions, speaks to the values of the ancient world as well as of the character of who extend it—usually these gestures are rewarded kindly by the master or divine being of the respective culture, but sometimes they are not. Arguably, hosts in Genesis understand hospitality as an opportunity to display their piety, and they expected to find favor with The Lord. Seemingly, hosts in the Odyssey share the same understanding of hospitality, going to great lengths to provide for their guests. In both texts, hosts find favor with divine

Hospitality is mentioned all throughout the book. Hospitality is important to the people in that time. Zeus’s law of hospitality is that any stranger that comes to your home, the host must be willing to feed, entertain, and maybe offer them a bath and anything else they might be in need of without question until those things had been given, and also give them a parting gift. “It’s wrong my friend, to send any stranger packing-even one who arrives in worse shape than you. Every stranger and beggar comes from Zeus and whatever scrap they get from the likes of us, they’ll find it welcome.” (Book 14 pg.303 Line 64) This statement shows how important it is that the people follow Zeus’ law of xenia. Along with providing great hospitality the guest has to be respectful as well. Some of the biggest parts in the book that shows hospitality is with the Cyclops, and the goddesses Circe and Calypso, the suitors and the Phaeacians.

Homer is believed to have lived around 8th century B.C. Ironically, Homer’s life coincides with the earliest known manuscript of the Holy Bible, the Codex Amiatinus. Although Homer possibly lived during the rise of very significant biblical prophets such as Amos, Hosea, Zachariah, Isaiah and Jonah, Homer writes his epic poem, The Odyssey, in a strictly pagan method. Both The Odyssey and the Holy Bible praise the virtue of hospitality; however, it is evident that the Ancient Greeks and the Hebrews have contrasting motivations for hospitality. Therefore, it is no surprise that Odysseus’ voyage home was epically arduous.

Secondly, hospitality is creating a welcoming atmosphere, listening, responding, and welcoming ideas from all people with an open mind. In class we discussed the social construction of gender. We must eliminate this to create a sense of hospitality. Men are closed minded and don’t realize what women have to deal with on a daily basis. We need to broaden our horizons

Hospitality shaped Greek life. This unspoken code, highly valued in Greek society, established responsibilities for both guests and hosts. Demonstrating generosity and kindness, honorable hosts offered their guests extravagant feasts, luxurious baths, and lavish housing. In response, gracious guests showed courtesy and respect to their hosts by refraining from abusing the hospitality extended towards them. Hospitality reveals the moral character of both hosts and guests in the Homerian epic The Odyssey.

Throughout Homer's The Odyssey, Odysseus the main character in the story is tested with the true meaning of hospitality. In the heroic age, hospitality was viewed as punishment or acceptance of a stranger. While Odysseus longed for his return to home, he faced the two different kinds of hospitality offered within the heroic age. My theory is that Odysseus was provided with good hospitality when he would enter a town that allowed him to eat at their table, bathed within their baths, and sleep within their homes. The townspeople and their king often provided superior hospitality for strangers without questioning them first. It's thought that maybe the wonderful hospitality was provided in return of viewing the stranger as a

The Greeks have been known for their hospitality and politeness, especially when treating guests- whether strangers or not. This is demonstrated near the beginning of the Odyssey when Telemachus went to Pylos to visit Nestor. Nestor, not knowing who he was taking into his home as guests, treated them with great honor and respect. "Now is the time," he said, "for a few questions, now that our young guests have enjoyed their dinner. Who are you, strangers? Where are you sailing from, and where to, down the highways of sea water (p 299)?" If ever Greeks were to serve themselves before their guests or even a little better than them, then they were breaking the most basic of all Greek customs,

Each culture treats strangers and guests with distinct differences from every other culture. One of the most hospitable cultures was that of the ancient Greeks, exemplified in Homer’s The Odyssey by both gracious hosts and guests. In Greece and The Odyssey, not only was good hospitality etiquette expected, but the added pressure from the conviction that the gods would punish the host if guests were treated without respect (whether they were poor or rich) further compelled excellent manners. The Odyssey illustrates the proper etiquette when dealing with guests.

The most common situation or scene from the ancient Greek literature often appears to be the scenes in which the characters are in foreign lands, lost, or just plain weary. This results in the need for hospitality to be shown to the travelers. Hospitality was shown to wandering strangers and wayfarers for several reasons. The most obvious of these, was that the host may himself, one day, be in trouble

spiritual and respectful of the land upon which they lived. They were skilled in the ways

The virtues within the Qur’an regarding hospitality and generosity seem to be a product of the landscape of pre- Islamic Arabia. Indeed, the arid environment and tribal configuration of the society required that neighbors help each other, strangers or travelers be given food, and wealth be distributed evenly throughout the clan. The communities that settled along the trade routes of the Arabian Peninsula relied on merchants returning to their community to trade goods. One way to ensure this was to make the merchant feel welcome and become a temporary part of the household. Another way to guarantee their return would be ensuring the merchant survived the harsh climate of the desert, so

He had a Chinese couple travelling with him, and together they visited in excess of two hundred hotels and restaurants. Remarkably, only one of the businesses visited refused to serve the Chinese couple. LaPiere wrote to the owner of each business he had visited 6 month earlier, and asked whether or not they accommodate for Chinese guests. 92% of replies stated they do not accommodate for Chinese guests. Clearly, the owners’ feelings or attitude towards the Chinese guests is not consistent with their behaviour. Despite the possibility that it may have been a different person who responded to the attitude question in LaPiere’s (1934) study to staff of the business who greeted the Chinese guests six months earlier (Dillehay, 1973), the results of this study seems to support the idea that people do not behave based on their attitudes.