Essay On Xenia In The Odyssey

895 Words2 Pages

Many people today are nervous when they meet new people. For example, a student who walks into the cafeteria on the first of school immediately begins looking for familiar faces, and when they don’t find one, they often wish they could switch lunch periods. People don't like to get out of their comfort zones, but in Ancient Greek times, being a stranger was actually great. Xenia, also known as Greek, hospitality involved giving gifts, shelter, dinners and the like just because it was important to treat someone well in that society.Xenia can be understood through reading Homer’s The Odyssey. Even though the whole epic poem is not about xenia directly, it is clearly shown to be important in Greek society through multiple references to it in …show more content…

“Greeting, stranger! The prince said to the goddess. He took her spear and placed it on the rack. He called for servants to bring food and wine.” (Homer 9). This shows that being kind to your guest is an important key because when you treat your guest with constant respect you end up with good things happening to you just like Telemachus. He did this great thing for Athena and she granted him back his father after a long time. Another person who did this great thing is Eumaeus and how he treated a stranger to be Odysseus a bed to sit on and giving him food and wine. With Eumaeus doing that he able to be Odysseus's second man and from that Odysseus can trust him from what he has done. On the other side the Cyclops doesn't agree with the being kind to your guest and he pays for what he done by ending up getting poked in his eye and blinding …show more content…

He cried. May the gods bring riches on this house.”(Homer 28). This is a key component of xenia because it shows that not only the host has to show it but the guest as well. This also true that when Odysseus was in the cave with the cyclops he as a guest did everything he could to show how how Xenia was important to him not only as a host but as a guest as well. He showed that the host was pretty bad but decided to keep going with the fact that he need to be a real guest no matter the circumstances. On the other side of being kind as a guest the suitors show the opposite of that, in that they as a guest go into a Odysseus's home and decide to play with his servant, wanted to fight for the love of Penelope and destroy his

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