The Morality Of Xenia In Homer's The Odyssey

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.

Everyone loves to receive gifts. For some it makes them feel special or important. In the Odyssey gift giving can be seen as sign of respect. Xenia, an important aspect to Homeric society, can be described as the guest-host relationship. It was of importance in Homeric society because it was something that could make or break the relationship you have with someone. Throughout the Odyssey xenia influences those who Odysseus comes into contact with impacting the plot of the story. Focusing on the theme of gifts and gift giving throughout the Odyssey I will support Odysseus assertion that gift giving was connected to respect with three specific examples.

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

(Homer.9.289-2910” This is one example of the brutality that Odysseus and his crew were also shown, rather than hospitality. The range of degrees of hospitality shown to the travelers is a testament to the number of people who ignored the law of Xenia.

Germany is allowing open borders to the refuges of Syria, an estimate of 800,000 people in 2015 alone, as an amazing display of hospitality, or as the Greeks call it, xenia. Xenia is an important feature in The Odyssey, an epic poem written by Homer in the 8th century B.C. Homer effectively uses xenia as a way to show that the gods need to be respected. He emphasizes the need for respect by showing what will happen if xenia is broken. If one breaks xenia, the gods will punish the offenders by striking them down or cursing them, as shown in the Cyclops and The Cattle of the Sun God.

Within The Odyssey the concept of morals is very important, both to the plot of the epic but also to the structure of the Ancient Greek society. When the suitors ask Telemachus to send his mother, Penelope, back to her father he replies with; “It is quite impossible for me to cast out, against her will, the mother who bore me and brought me up”. This illuminates the importance of family within the society, and in turn morals. Whilst Telemachus then goes on to comment upon the monetary cost sending Penelope away, it is important to remember that his first instinct was to keep her in Ithaca due to their mother-son relationship. Furthermore, the importance of morals within The Odyssey’s is illuminated with the concept of xenia. Hospitality was

In the Odyssey, Xenia is also shown to be one of the hallmarks of a civilised society, allowing us to judge the societies that Odysseus visits by their attitudes to xenia. For example, the Cyclopes are well informed about Xenia, yet disregard it because they have no fear of the God’s retribution. This tells us that the Cyclopes live in a formidable and amoral society. Even the Gods are shown to respect Xenia rules, for example in Book 5 when Calypso gives hospitality to Hermes. Good xenia is shown to have good repercussions for both the guest and the host: for example, Odysseus’ stay on the island of Calypso, where he is met with exceptional hospitality. Odysseus received this hospitality well and continued to please Calypso. Only at the end did he ever try to refuse her hospitality and leave, and even this caused no serious problems. Here we have an example of the guest-host relationship working well. Calypso is provided with a companion, even if it was not permanent, and Odysseus was provided with shelter, provisions, and protection for his men. In the end it proves to be a beneficial situation for them both.

Xenia is the ancient Greek concept of hospitality, the generosity shown to those who are far from home. Xenia is an important theme in the Odyssey – it is shown in the numerous characters, whether royal or monstrous, that Telemachus and Odysseus encounter, and could be shown as willingly given and wanted hospitality, unwanted/overwhelming, or unwillingly given; these encounters can also show lack of hospitality. This essay will discuss what xenia was to the ancient Greeks, and how this virtue was portrayed in the Odyssey.

Xenos; it plays a huge part in Greek culture. In ancient time times xenos was the custom to honour strangers. Throughout the epic, The Odyssey, Odysseus and his men use xenos even though their customs is not what everyone else uses. They take advantage of xenos by taking the Cyclopes food in book 9, accepted food from a sorceress in book 10, and kills the suitors who plundered his home in book 22.

Does Homer exhibit gender bias in the Odyssey?  Is the nature of woman as depicted in the Odyssey in any way revealing? Upon examining the text of the Odyssey for differential treatment on men and women, it becomes necessary to distinguish between three possible conclusions.  One, differences in treatment reflect the underlying Homeric thesis that  women are "different but equal in nature,"  Two, different treatment  of men and women in the text reflect a thesis that women are "different and unequal in nature" -- arguments about misogyny fall in here but a host of other interpretive possibilities are possible too. Three, the different treatment reflects simple ignorance. How much do we attribute what we discover to male authorship -- or

Offering a hot beverage, food, the safety of your home, or entertainment are all examples of presenting good xenia to guests. xenia is commonly used to portray hospitality or a guest/host relationship. xenia, is important in Ancient Greek society. Zeus is the God of travelers, in addition to being the king of the Gods. This forces for the host to feel obliged to treat their guests with much hospitality, and vice versa with guests, serving with high responsibility. Zeus would severely punish those who break the fine rules of xenia and hospitality. In the epic,“The Odyssey” by Homer, there are multiple examples of good and bad xenia. The group of 108 men who slouch around Penelope show poor xenia and are eventually stricken with their bitter death. Conversely, Eumaios presented great xenia when taking Odysseus in, even while he was disguised as a beggar. Xenia is a prevalent theme in the book and holds a central place in The Odyssey.

Xenia is the cornerstone of several aspects of the Odyssey. Indeed, the characters journey constantly to the homes of others and consistently experience hospitality. Due to the enormous amount of time it takes to travel to distant locations in this era, the homes of others become like their own, and society expects one do the same for those to travel so long to their home. Also, in an age before ours, where one can simply ascertain the net worth of others, the power of a house was exemplified by generosity and ability to provide for guests. Thus, in a way, xenia is showing off. Besides the persistent xenia that pervades the epic, the Odyssey provides examples of the extremes of being both a guest and host.

One of the sub-themes in travel within the narrative of The Odyssey that pertains to Odysseus strongly is the concept of xenia. Xenia is one of the prime examples of Greek culture because it shows how the Greeks valued religion in the sense that their gods could take on human form to test the hospitality of a certain house, so they were careful to entertain with good food and drink every person that came asking for lodgings. It also played an important part in the social circles of the Greeks because Greeks not only valued the hospitality of another’s house, but they also desired the guest-friendship gifts one might receive from invoking the rite of xenia. Odysseus travels to locations such as the Isle of Dawn, Isle of the Sirens, and the borders of Hades itself to flesh out the human experience in an allegorical manner within the travel-fiction mode. In this, the human struggles with temptations such as lust are showcased (although not necessarily overcome by the protagonist), as well as points where the human experiences with sorrow and longing are also shown when Odysseus longs to be back in Ithaca.

Xenia is a Greek concept with a broad of meaning and a rather interesting history behind it. Xenia can easily be defined as guest-host reciprocity but that would not be enough to tell its history, enunciate it’s meaning and warn of the retribution that comes along with breaching of Xenia. Xenia is an institution as important as any other in the culture of a community, is empowered by the Greek god, Zeus, the protector of travellers. Along with the respect of the god, Zeus and fear of angering him by turning away a traveller, comes some cautionary tales told by the Greeks. These are tales of punishment that may be received and the rewards that may be lost if the traveller that is turned away is a god or goddess in disguise. Xenia is established by exchange of both material and non-material services and goods such as food, shelter and protection. Breeching of Xenia has played a very important role in history and myths of the Greeks. One of the most important is the Trojan War, which was caused when Paris breached the Xenia in the house of Menelaus and abducted his wife Helen. Paris ignored the mutualistic respect that is supposed to be observed between parties involved and he stole from his host

The Odyssey, is an epic poem created by Homer before the written word. Because it is translated into many languages, the poem has thousands of different versions. One thing that always shines through is that most of the women are strong for the society of there time Homer was a feminist for his time by giving Penelope her clever mind, Circe her magical powers, and Calypso’s godly power. What is a feminist? As Maria Laurino says “Contemporary American feminism has primarily come to mean championing women’s autonomy and challenging the privileging of male over female.”