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,
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.
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
There are many examples of Hospitality in The Odyssey. Hospitality is to accommodate someone as they could be one of the Gods in disguise. Hospitality was very important in Greek society and was all for the Gods. Hospitality is shown to Odysseus as he travels to many islands. Without respecting hospitality, the gods will not be happy, and many have been killed.
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.
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,
Imagine walking up to a random house in 2017. You are tired, hungry, thirsty, and need new clothing. Now imagine ringing the doorbell, pleading with the owner of the house to help you out. Here is the crazy part… He gives you everything you ask for.
The guest/host friendship was an important aspect of social custom in the Bronze Age. Discuss its purpose in society and role in The Odyssey. Use at least 3 examples from the text illustrating when either it was being followed or it wasn’t.
The most important theme of the Odyssey is hospitality . Itś important to the odyssey because in the story and movie have hospitality . Some of the characters that show hospitality are Telemachus,Penelope and Zeus. The odyssey is about Ulysses fights to get home from the Trojan war,that lasted a decade.
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 Odyssey is a celebrated epic filled with many different themes, motifs, styles, and characters that could be examined in vast detail, but the theme of hospitality is a reoccurring one throughout the entire narrative. Homer writes about examples of both great hospitality and very inhospitable characters in his epic poem. Hospitality in The Odyssey creates definition of how individuals are either punished or rewarded by the gods.
During 1200 B.C., Greeks were very thoughtful and caring of strangers who came to the homes. Hospitality was taken very seriously, considering Greeks thought one day it could be a disguised god or goddess that comes down to them, knowing that they would want to take care of them very nicely so the god or goddess will be on the mortal’s side and protect them when needed. As seen when Athena came to Nestor’s son Pisistratus, he “ waved [waving] them on in welcome”, Pisistratus welcomes in the strangers not knowing one of them is a goddess(Athena), he then “sat them down at the feast/ poured some wine…lifting it towards Athena/and greeted the goddess now with an invitation” (3.38-47). Greeks welcomed strangers with open doors and made them feel welcomed.
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.
The hCG diet was designed nearly 50 years ago by a British physician whose belief that a hormone found in pregnant women would help people lose weight rapidly and reduce fat. This diet demands that a person’s caloric intake be no more than 500 calories a day along with a daily injection of hCG. hCG is also known as human chorionic gonadotropin. It is also available in pill form or drops.
The Odyssey is an epic about Ancient Greek culture written by Homer. This is one of the two major Greek poems. Odysseus is on a long journey back to Ithaca after the fall of Troy. The most valued life traits in an Ancient Greek culture is respect. Odysseus helps portray this by worshiping gods through the epic.