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Theme of friendship and love in the odyssey
Hospitality in the iliad and the odyssey
Hospitality in the iliad and the odyssey
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Recommended: Theme of friendship and love in the odyssey
The concept of guest friendship is an essential tool that promises safety in everyday ancient Greek life and the significance it carries is reflected in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. It is enforced not only by the mortals in traditional domestic settings, but also on the battlefield and by the gods themselves. The warriors in the Iliad and the Odyssey respect xenia more than they desire kleos. It is not merely the mortals who respect xenia and the implications it creates, but the Gods provide and honor the sanctity of guest courtesy in Greek culture as well. Zeus, ruler of the gods, is often known as Zeus Xenia, or the god of travelers. He protects Greek travelers and the mortals respect xenia in fear of Zeus’ wrath and not only to adhere …show more content…
In the encounter between Diomedes and Glaukos guest friendship is evoked, however this is typically a situation that occurs in a domestic setting where a traveler is welcomed into a home and honored as a guest. A battlefield is the antitheses to a home as a warriors life and death are in constant threat on a battlefield. However the bonds of guest friendship endure after the guest has left the house and xenia between families in passed down. The same protection and gurantee of safety at the hands of the guest-host is provided during war it is in times of peace. The bond that is initiated by the guest friendship is so strong that is overrides each warrior’s individual alliance to his army. Rather the alliance to each other as guest friends becomes more crucial. This reveals the power of guest friendship in ancient Greece as it is honored is all times and locations and remains a lasting force through …show more content…
Diomedes suggests he and and Glaukos exchange armor as a token of their guest friendship, however this suggestion benefits him and hinders Glaukos. Diomedes is shedding his bronze armor in favor of Glaukos’ gold armor, which is is valued ten times greater than armor made of bronze. (Iliad VI 236). This is not merely a gesture of good-will as the gods have to obstruct Glaukos’ better judgement in order for him to agree. Negative implications regarding xenia are revealed here as it it is revealed that while xenia is a dual transactions, the trades do not have to be equivalent. Although Diomdes does not fight Glaukos, he is utilizing xenia as a strategy to give himself an advantage over his opponent warrior. Athene also employs xenia as a deceptive tool. Similar to Diomedes changing his armor, she is changing her appearance and emplying a rouse in order to gain trust with Telemachos. She takes the form of Mentes, a guest friend of Telemachos’ father Odysseus. As a mortal Athene is able to gain the confidence of Telemachos, something she could not in her goddess form. Once more xenia is shown to be more powerful than the god’s, and a device the god’s themselves use when attempting to persuade mortals. While xenia is a sacred tradition that ensures safety and is based on
“What goes around comes around”,this great saying means that kindness is key. In the Odyssey by Homer, one important theme states how hospitality and kindness are always the best policy. Temptations and Obstacles represents a glimpse of allegory in life. Friendship is also a great thing in life because it's about support through tough and good times. Always feel generous with your kindness and support like Odysseus did on his journey.
Hospitality: Greek philoxenia; literally “love of strangers.” Homer might have had such a definition in mind when he introduced the theme of hospitality to his epic poem the Odyssey. A multitude of reasons for the prominent position this theme plays, both in the Odyssey and perhaps in Homer’s own society, are hinted at in the introductory books, often referred to as the Telemachy. Just two of these, namely the hunger for news and the belief in divinity, are illustrated by the words and actions of the hosts Telemakhos and Nestor.
For the Greeks, Homer's Odyssey was much more than just an entertaining tale of gods, monsters, and men, it served as a cultural paradigm from which every important role and relationship could be defined. This book, much more so than its counterpart The Iliad, gives an eclectic view of the Achean's peacetime civilization. Through Odyssey, we gain an understanding of what is proper or improper in relationships between father and son, god and mortal, servant and master, guest and host, and—importantly—man and woman. Women play a vital role in the movement of this narrative. Unlike in The Iliad, where they are chiefly prizes to be won, bereft of identity, the women of Odyssey are unique in their personality, intentions, and relationship towards men.
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.
And that is the brilliance of Homer. He takes The Odyssey told in his day as an oral tradition and turns it into a masterful book that has meaning even into today. Homer believes that we should all be kind to our fellow man. In ancient Greece, that means being hospitable to whoever steps into your domain. Anyone who will show hospitality: Telemachus, Nestor, Menelaus, and Alcinous, is revered as a good man worthy of respect and honor, but those that cannot or will not respect xenos are subject to the vengeance that they receive: Aegisthus, Polyphemus, the Laestrygonians, and Circes. Homer wants us all to be hospitable in our lives and he uses Telemachus’ and Odysseus’ journeys in The Odyssey to show us this.
Throughout the Odyssey, there are many relationships that represent love between two people. These relationships show loyalty, compassion, and the wanting to be near one another. Two of these kinds of relationships are between Odysseus and Telemakhos, and Odysseus and Penelope.
Home was a prevalent concept in Ancient Greece. Not only was there a goddess of the hearth and home, Hestia, but hospitality towards others was highly stressed. Home was regarded as a place to escape from chaos in the outside world. Homer and Euripides in The Odyssey and Medea, respectively, use the motif of home to show the difference in an individual’s public manner versus their personal, more natural manner. This difference is caused by the different levels of comfort individuals have in different settings. Specifically, the two works portray the difference through experience of the characters, mistrust developed towards others, and the maintenance of dual identities.
For hundreds of years, psychologists have attempted to understand why toddlers selfishly refuse to share. Recently, many experts in the field agree that toddlers are incapable of sharing because of their lack of integral brain development. From birth through early childhood, a child can only recognize his own wants and needs. Around the time a child begins kindergarten, he starts to development his understanding of abstract concepts, such as empathy, and sympathy. However, some believe that humans never rid themselves of that original selfishness. In essence, humans are born selfish and hopefully become compassionate later on. The idea of a natural tendency towards selfishness
“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.
The Trojan War veterans of The Odyssey succeeded in defeating their enemies on the battlefield. The end of combat did not mean relief from burdens for them. War is cruel, but in it these men see a glory they cannot find outside. Achilleus’ death in war is treated with ceremony and respect. Agamemnon, having survived that same war, dies a pitiful death and Klytaimestra “was so hard that her hands would not/ press shut [his] eyes and mouth though [he] was going to Hades” (XI, 425-426). Dying at home meant being denied even simple acts of dignity. Reflecting back on it Hades, Agamemnon characterizes the veteran’s struggles when he asks, “What pleasure was there for me when I had wound up the fighting?” (XXIV, 95).
People who are in need have always been around, and will also continue to be here; therefore, the means of hospitality should be spread. Throughout Greek culture, xenia has been a prominent method for those who are in need. Homer could obviously see the importance of hospitality since he put such emphasis on it in his work. This re-occurring theme has however, lost some of its relevance through time, but can still be shared through small acts of kindness. The Bible even says to “offer hospitality to one another without complaint” (1 Peter 4:9).
The gods are perhaps the most affected by hospitality in the odyssey, probably due to the fact that they are the reason people were so courteous. As we know, people believed that they needed to be hospitable,
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 greek is Xenia which was the guest to host friendship and obligations of the host and guest. The giving of gifts was usually done between guests and hosts. They really strived for a symbiotic give and take relationship in which the host does most of the leg work but a honorable and good guest would give so gift or reward in return. The only time when the host could really reject or throw out a guest was when a guest violated xenia terribly to the point where Zeus would give the order to seek justice for an act of such magnitude. For example when Paris is a guest in the King of Sparta Menelaus’ house as a guest and then steals his beautiful daughter from him and runs away. The theft of a princess is a major offense and would definitely deserve some repercussions it says many times in the Iliad of how the gods disapprove of this act.
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.