Essay On Hospitality In The Odyssey - 920 Words

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. Odysseus crashes into a random island with strangers and like a good host they take care of him. Nausicaa finds Odysseus by shore naked. She doesnt know the man, hears his story and offers to take care of him. For example, it says â€Å"But here’s an unlucky wanderer strayed our way and we must tend him well. Every stranger†¦show more content†¦Or if you’d rather, keep him here at the farmstead, tend to him here, and ill and up the clothes and full rations to keep the man in food;† (Odyssey Book 16). The intruders in Telemachus house is the suitors and he doesnt enjoy their stay but still is being a good host and letting them stay. In contemporary society if someone offers a person to stay in their home and doesnt like them they would probably kick them out. But in Greek hospitality they allow their guest to stay however long they want. Telemachus does not have much to take care of himself but if offering as much as he can to Odysseus who is a stranger. In American society if someone doesnt have much they wouldnt let no stranger in their home and would be self-centered and wouldnt offer anything. When having a guest over in someones home in contemporary society we do offer shelter and food and anything else needed just like the Greek but they are more extravagant towards their guests. When it was time to get rid of the suitors in Odysseus and his son Telemachus home they come up with a plan. Odysseus is pretending to be a beggar and everyones gives him food when he goes around except for Antinoos. When the beggar comes to ask Antinoos for food he gets very angry, the text says â€Å"Boiling over Antinoos gave him a scathing look and let fly, now you wont get out of the hall unsacred, I swear, not after such a filthy string of insult! With that he seized the stool and hurled it-- Square in the back itShow MoreRelatedHospitality in The Odyssey Essay479 Words   |  2 Pages Throughout Homers 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. 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