The Art of Hospitality - The Greeks and the Odyssey Essay

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.

The concept of guest hospitality is extremely important in ancient Greece. Hospitality, or Xenia, is so essential in Greek society that Zeus, in addition to being the king of the Gods, is also the God of travelers (Wikipedia). This created an obligation for the host to be hospitable to their guests, and conversely, the guests had their own responsibilities as well. If either the host or the guest was to break any rule set by Xenia, there would be severe penalties dealt by Zeus and also by society (Wikipedia). In The Odyssey, Xenia is a theme which is shown repeatedly throughout the book: Nestor and Menelaos take in Telemakhos warmly as a guest and Eumaios plays an excellent host to Odysseus, while Odysseus is disguised as a wandering

The Odyssey is an epic poem attributed to the now-famous Greek poet, Homer, written approximately in the early sixth century B.C.E. The poem shares the tale of the wily adventuring solider, Odysseus', return from the Trojan war to his wife and home in Ithaca. The poem details his misadventures, the efforts of his son, Telemachus, to find him, and revenge on his wife's suitors. While many themes run through this poem, the most prevalent is that of hospitality. The Host-Guest relationship is significant in the Odyssey as it acts as one of the main thematic devices used by Homer and examples of good hospitality versus bad hospitality and their results serve as the main plot elements throughout the tale.

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.

“The world is full of wonders, but nothing is more wonderful than man.” This quote shows that the Greeks valued themselves, but also their intellect in which they know that the world about them is great. The Greeks valued beauty, art, intellect, honor, and truth; the list is long. Some of these values are shown through the story of the Odyssey, which tells of the adventures of Odysseus and his family. In order to understand Greek values and how they are portrayed in Greek society, one must examine how some values are portrayed in the Odyssey: hospitality, intellect, and beauty.

Traditions and customs make a group of people different from others. For example many families have different traditions when it comes to holidays, like fireworks for the 4th of July or making turkey for thanksgiving. All these types of traditions are important in daily life. In The Odyssey by Homer, many examples of Greece customs and

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.

The crew sails to the land of the Cyclopes, and find food in Polyphemus’ cave; the men advise Odysseus to snatch some of the food and leave, but he decides to stay for a while longer. Polyphemus soon returns and makes a show of hospitality at first, but he soon turns impatient and hostile – ‘“Give me still more, frely, and tell me your name straightway now, so I can give you a guest present to make you happy.”’ (Homer, 9.355-356). He promises Odysseus him a lovely gift if he will tell him his name, but in reality he just wants his name so that he could curse him. He devours some of Odysseus’s men and imprisons Odysseus and the rest in his cave, but Odysseus blinds him with a spear and escapes. Compare Polyphemus’ interactions with the men and the principles of “good” xenia, and you would find the exact opposite of what would have been considered “adequate” hospitality; the Cyclops, instead of offering food and a place to rest like in the previous example of Menelaus’ treatment of Telemachus and his crew, becomes irritated with Odysseus and his men and even eats some of them then imprisons the rest. (Hinds,

In the epic, the way in which hosts receive strangers and offer hospitality demonstrates their Greek values. For example, when Odysseus arrives on the island of the Phaeacians, they immediately offer him hospitality as King Alcinous “rais[es] him up/… in a burnished chair, / displacing his own son, … /… the son he love[s] the most” (7: 200-204). Here, the Phaeacians are characterized as generous and kind

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

A prevalent subject in The Odyssey is hospitality, known as xenia in Greek. Xenia encompasses different rules for hosts to follow, and Odysseus encounters various kings and powerful characters that all follow these rules differently. Among the hosts were Polyphemos, Calypso, Circe, Alkinoos, and Eumaios, who show good and bad hospitality. An example of the bad hospitality is the cyclops Polyphemos, shown when he says, “You are a ninny...telling me, mind the gods! We Kyklopes care not a whistle for your thundering Zeus... I would not let you go for fear of Zeus...unless I had a whim to” (9.295-303). Since Polyphemos is indifferent toward the god that protects travelers, he does not feel guilty when treating Odysseus poorly and eating his guests.

In Homer’s, The Odyssey, Greek hospitality is demonstrated in the sections of the Cyclops. Expectations in Greek hospitality include, not only being graciously welcomed into the home of another, but also feasts, entertainment, shelter at times and bearings for their journey from which they came. Not only is this portrayed in the scenes with the Cyclops, but also in the beginning of the epic, where Telemachus warmly welcomes the suitors and goddess Athena into the home of Odysseus and his family. Ancient Greeks treated guests equivalent to their own. As common in Ancient Greece, there are consequences for disobeying or not following social conduct and culture. These inferred consequences are likely to include, misfortune, isolation or a curse. The reasons being that because most of Greek culture is derived from the gods, the power is present to determine punishment and the wellness of those who disobey forums. Because the Cyclops shows no signs of hospitality to Odysseus and his men, they have characteristics of being barbaric, brutish in nature and the overall damnation of being

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,

Hospitality is one of the most important and heroic facets of Greek culture that needs to be covered when examining the story line of the Odyssey. There are many settings within the Odyssey that contain both positive and negative connotations of hospitality, and it is important to explore both sides and see how they relate to each other.

The role of hospitality is seen in many examples throughout the Odyssey. However, it is not always the same in every example that Odysseus encounters. When Odysseus comes across the Cyclops Polyphemus, the hospitality he receives is totally outside the norm of civilization, which is what he is used to. Instead, because of his ego, Odysseus receives a barbaric welcome instead of the hospitable welcome that he is accustomed to.