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The Theme Of Hospitality In The Odyssey

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ξενία (Xenía) “Hospitality” The Odyssey by Homer has many themes that are important throughout its books, although hospitality is one to not forget. “Hospitality is our motto!” is what Scott Humphrey, one of the Bar J Wranglers, said when he hired me to work at the Bar J Chuckwagon for the summer. The hospitality found in The Odyssey holds true to our everyday lives as it did to the Greeks around 800 B.C.E. The greeting to a guest is very similar, the feast is eaten, and the new found friend is sent on his merry way. The greeting to a newcomer is crucial. Ancient Greece was quite different 3,000 years ago, but the people’s values were the same. “Prince Telemachus… Mortified / that a guest might still be standing at the doors… / met her with winged words: ‘Greetings, stranger! / Here in our house you’ll find a royal welcome. / Have supper first, then tell us what you need’” (1, 6). Prince Telemachus is stunned that Athena, the goddess of wisdom, craft, and war, is outside his house and has gone unnoticed. No one wants a guest to feel unwelcome in his house or place of business. Scott Humphrey makes it a priority that every single person who walks through the Bar J Chuckwagon’s doors in the summer feels welcome, for it’s a family show! King Menelaus greets his guests, “the red-haired king Menelaus greeted both guests warmly. / ‘Help yourselves to food, and welcome! Once you’ve dined / we’ll ask you who you are’” (4, 51). King Menelaus is warm and friendly to his guests,
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