Guest Friendship By Homer s The Odyssey - 994 Words

Guest-Friendship In the epic The Odyssey, by Homer, the tale of Odysseus’s homecoming is told through a number of stories. Within these stories, it’s shown how important the idea of hospitality is in their culture, and how different people may act when guests come to their home. Xenia, or guest-friendship, is the belief in Ancient Greece that when a guest comes to your home, you should bring them inside and give them food and drink until they are satisfied, and then after that you may ask them who they are and where they come from. Throughout the story, this is how most of the hospitality scenes happen, until there is a violation of the ancient belief. When xenia is violated, the men were to be punished by the gods, which is why so many people continued this belief. The violation of xenia majorly affects the story, both with the loss of Odysseus’s crew by the island of Thrinacia and the murder of the suitors in Ithaca, and it shows how important the idea of xenia is to the people of Greece. The first major violation of xenia that is shown is the slaughter of the Sungod’s cattle. Odysseus warns his crew not to stop by the island for a night’s rest, but he is outvoted and they stay for the night. In the morning, there are too strong of winds for them to leave, and they end up being stranded on the island for many days and nights, until they eventually run out of food. Odysseus knows that they cannot kill the cattle on the island because they are his prized possessions. It isShow MoreRelatedFar Removed From Our Individualistic Society Today Is The1514 Words   |  7 Pagessociety today is the ancient Greece portrayed in The Odyssey, by Homer, where hospitality and good-will are a given in the lives of decent, moral people. As commanded by Zeus himself, those who wish the favor of the Gods must welcome foreign and domestic visitors with hospitality. The term developed to describe this concept is the Latin, xenia or guest-friendsh ip. In ancient Greek literature, forms of the word xenia (ÃŽ ¾ÃŽ µÃŽ ¯ÃŽ ½ÃŽ ¯ÃŽ ±), are fairly common: Homer s two books, for example, contain about one hundredRead MoreHomer’s Epic The Odyssey Essay645 Words   |  3 PagesA hero isn’t shaped by his strengths but by the values he possesses. Homer’s epic, The Odyssey, reveals the moral and ethical constitution of the ancient Greeks. Over time, certain cultures have grown to value a number of human characteristics. Those who acquire such values become respected heroes. After the fall of Troy, the protagonist of the epic, Odysseus, set sail for his home, Ithaca, where his faithful wife and son were waiting for him. Over the course of his journey, Odysseus faced some of