Showing hospitality is a way to commit oneself to the care of another while communicating a sympathetic concern for their wellbeing. In Homer’s, The Odyssey, King Alcinous shows unwavering willingness to help Odysseus by demonstrating compassion, unselfishness, and generosity. Upon arriving on the shore of Scheria, Odysseus is helped by Nausicaa, King Alcinous’ daughter. She offers guidance to her father’s house and advises him to direct a plea at Queen Arete, a wise queen who will know how to lead him home. Once Odysseus reaches the palace and sees the queen, he immediately wraps himself around her knees and pleads for help. Odysseus then falls to the ground as Echneneus, the old reverend, notions King Alcinous to show some hospitality to the stranger. …show more content…
King Alcinous is shown giving up his son’s seat for an unknown stranger, thus executing the laws of Xenia. This simple act of kindness tells readers that a guest-host relationship surpasses the importance of a father-son relationship in Ancient Greece. Readers also notice the syntactic contrast between the status of the guest, Odysseus, and the host, Alcinous. Homer depicts the king “poised in all majesty” helping one who is “seasoned”. This diction used to describe these individuals helps to provide readers with a deeper understanding of hospitality as an unconditional system to aid a guest. Despite King Alcinous’ dignity of manner, he unselfishly goes out his way to help battle-weary Odysseus. The king’s actions, to some extent, increase the status of Odysseus in line 201, as Alcinous raises him from the floor and places him on a polished chair. He gives Odysseus a sense of self-assurance and worthiness to make him feel even more welcomed in his house than
“Our life’s journey of self-discovery is not a straight-line rise from one level of consciousness to another. Instead, it is a series of steep climbs, and flat plateaus, then further climbs. Even though we all approach the journey from different directions, certain of the journey’s characteristics are common for all of us.” Author Stuart Wilde’s impression of journeys and their shared commonalities supports the claim that all journeys have a motive and an outcome. In the epic poem, The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus sets off to defeat Troy, leaving his wife and child behind. After accomplishing his goal, Odysseus faces many problems while trying to return him and his crew back home to Ithaca. Similar to Odysseus’s physical journey, the goal in
The Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou? both contain Homer’s initial implication of the common hospitality throughout ancient Greece. In the movie, one example of this being portrayed is nearing when Ulysses, Pete, and Delmar escape from prison. The men travel to Wash Hogwallop, Pete’s cousin, house to seek refuge. Wash welcomes them into his home immediately, thus showing Homer’s theme of hospitality. He gives them stew and proceeds to talk to Pete about other family members inside his home. One could say that Joel and Ethan Coen, the directors of the movie, purposely incorporate this scene for several reasons, but the main one is to reveal and incorporate the message from The Odyssey. By having Wash so readily take in his cousin, and his cousin’s friends, the two directors wave a red flag, drawing the viewers attention to this theme. This also shows how hospitable King Alcinous was towards Odysseus. Another example of hospitality throughout the movie is found through...
In the Odyssey the people of Ithaca are accustomed to hospitality. In Odysseus’s lengthy journey home he learns to maintain modesty. Odysseus’s family never give up on him throughout his entire 20 year journey, and they kept Ithaca for him when he came back. The Greek values of hospitality, humility, and loyalty are conveyed in The Odyssey.
As the cold hard sea churns, Odysseus and his men face gods and goddess eager to just get home alive at the best. In the book The Odyssey, by Homer, Odysseus, the main character, adventures the Mediterranean sea taking on numerous battles and facing gods that are inhuman. I’ll show how Odysseus and I are similar in two ways: self-restraint and determination.
Far removed from our individualistic society today is the ancient Greece portrayed in The Odyssey, by Homer, where hospitality and good will are the way of things. As decreed by Zeus himself, those who wish the favor of the Gods must welcome foreign and domestic with hospitality. A man was supposed to offer the best of his food, his home, and his knowledge before ever asking for his guest’s name or why he was there. There is a sense that those of high status are the main givers of hospitality, but they are not the only ones commanded to offer hospitality. Homer emphasizes hospitality from everyone during Telemachus’ and Odysseus’ journeys, using a man’s xenos, host/guest relationships, with his guest to infer his integrity and character. If a man isn’t pure, then he doesn’t show hospitality and Homer makes sure that man is put in his proper place through the vengeance of those he has wronged.
Humbly, he is “on the ground, in the ashes by the fire”(VII,190). He does not intrude into to their home and forcibly take gifts as he did on the Cyclops island. He accepts the care given to him from the Phaeacians and does not ask for more than he is given. Odysseus takes accountability of his actions when King Alcinous blames his daughter for bringing stranger into their home, Odysseus tells King Alcinous to not take “fault with a flawless daughter now, not for my sake, please”(VII,342-343). He is grateful for her help in giving him hospitality. After King Alcinous assures Odysseus he will get home, Odysseus prays,“May the king fulfill his promise one and all! Then his fame would ring through the fertile earth and never die”(VII,380-382). He is appreciative of the help so Odysseus calls to Zeus for good things for Alcinous. Not thinking of himself and wishing positive impacts on others is a sign of maturity.
In ancient Greece, hospitality was essential to the maintaining of some form of order. In a time where there was no central government and no central form of protection such as police forces, travelers relied on the good of others during their ventures. Without hospitality, traveling would have been far too dangerous in the ancient world. Shipwrecks happened often, storms could occur, pirates filled up power vacummus on the sea. Hospitality also intermingled with long-standing concepts of honor. Lavishing gifts onto visitors allowed the family name to be spread – individuals receiving guest gifts would spread the name of the gift-giver to those who came to their own homes. Nestor was a shining example of an excellent host. Odysseus’s son, Telemachus, visited Pylos to inquire about his missing father. Nestor sent his children to obtain a cow, another to cover its horns in hold, and sends another son to tell the women to prepare a large, glorious feast for their visitor. He refused to allow Telemachus to sleep on the ship, but rather offers him blankets, rugs, and a warm place to sleep within the palace. In the morning, he provides Telemachus transportation and his son as a guide to Sparta. Telemachus, though he refuses to return to Nestor’s home after they depart in fear that Nestor would keep him for days in Pylos, praises him for his
In book 19 of the epic poem The Odyssey, by Homer, his specific use of language and epic conventions help develop the plot and establish the characters. In the passage, Odysseus has entered his home for the first time since his return when he left almost twenty years ago. Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus tells his own story (slightly changed) to his wife, Penelope, but never reveals his true identity. After Penelope is deeply moved by the knowledge that her husband is still alive, she offers the stranger a place to sleep and new clothing. Odysseus kindly declines and instead requests a bath to soothe himself. Odysseus asks that his old maid, Eurycleia, wash him because all of the other maids are loyal to the suitors so they hate and abuse him.
“I often gave to vagabonds, whoever they might be, who came in need.” (Homer, 351) Hospitality was evident in Homer’s time period and eventually was seen as an institution in the Greek culture. A guest-host relationship, known as Xenia, takes place throughout The Odyssey whether it’s to gain relationships or to avoid punishments from the gods. It is a major theme and is apparent in every book of The Odyssey. Hospitable characters who use xenia are what keep this novel going. Xenia affects the plot in many ways and influences characters actions and choices throughout the novel.
Odysseus didn’t really value his crew members very much. He used them to scout places out and didn’t really care if they died. Odysseus was greedy to receive a guest gift from the cyclops, Polyphemus, the son of the god, Poseidon, even after they had taken some of the Polyphemus's goods. When Odysseus is telling the Phaeacians of his journey he tells them, “From the start my comrades pressed me, pleading hard, ‘Let’s make away with the cheeses, then come back—”(Homer 9.252-253). If Odysseus would have done what his crew members told him to do then none of the crew members would have died. Odysseus didn’t care that they were invaded the house of a Polyphemus, all he cared about was receiving housewarming gifts from him. He put his greed before the safety of his crewmembers which is a careless act.
Upon his return home after twenty years, Odysseus slaughters all the wooers of his wife, Penelope with the help of his son, Telemachus despite the pleas of mercy from some of them. He even murders all the servants and even the priest. I believe that the killings of many of the wooers, servants and priest were severe and brutal. While the killings of some of the wooers were justified, the slaughter of the other wooers, servants and priest were not justified in my mind. Odysseus could have definitely punished them in a less harsh manner.
Xenia, the ancient Greek concept of hospitality, was one of the foremost forces in Homer’s Iliad. The Achaeans respect it above nearly all else, and failure to adhere to its strict customs could lead to the forfeiture of countless souls.
Hospitality in the Iliad gives us an insight in ancient greece and was a major characteristic of their culture. In the Iliad there are many instances of the applications of hospitality in the lives of the people back then. We use the Iliad as a tool to look into their culture because this would have been passed down orally for generations as some of the only literature they had. SO their worldviews and values would be apparent in these precious tales.
Hospitality today is nothing like it was in Ancient Greece. Today, good hospitality is being friendly and respectful to a guest. In Ancient Greece, hospitality was something people had to do, or face the wrath of Zeus. Zeus’s law of hospitality is that any stranger that comes to your home, the host must be willing to feed, entertain, and maybe offer them a bath and anything else they might be in need of without question until those things had been given, and also give them a parting gift. The guest, in turn, would not be a burden in any way. In The Odyssey, most people follow the rules of hospitality, but there are others who do not. The Greek concept of xenia shows the serious priority the Greeks place on the laws of the gods.
In conclusion in the Odyssey the Greeks were very kind hosts. They save the best food and the best entertainment for their guests, and the bests gifts were offered to their guests. They wanted to please their guests and be the best host that they could be to open a good relationship with their guests. But as we seen in Trimalchio as a freedman Roman he was not a good host. As a host his intention was to show off his immersive wealth and to show his guest ignorance. From his décor to the dining room and the food he served, and his vulgarity he was showing off.