Etiquette In The Odyssey

In most cultures, guests are generally treated with respect from their hosts. There are customs that both the guest and host must follow. These customs fall under the category of house etiquette. We can see one such example of the house etiquette of Ancient Greek culture in Book 1 of Homer’s Odyssey, when Athena visits Odysseus’s palace and is greeted by his son, Telemakhos. Athena enters the room carrying her spear on her left hand and Telemakhos takes it to put on a rack, yet we are not told why Athena carries her spear on her left hand or why Telemakhos has to take it away. This is similar to how most people view rules of etiquette. They don’t know why they follow these rules, but they do so because that is what the rest of society tells them to do. But what is the purpose of etiquette and why do

we follow this code of polite, yet seemingly unnecessary behaviors in our daily lives? It turns out, that etiquette is just society’s hidden, yet not so hidden way of maintaining order and preventing violence.
The word etiquette, like many words we use, comes from the French. It originally meant “keep off the grass.” One of French king Louis XIV’s gardeners had become fed up with aristocrats constantly entering and trampling his garden, so he put up small signs, etiquets, to keep them out. In a way, these signs were boundaries, but the aristocrats continued to break these boundaries. So, the gardener took this problem to the king, who made it an official decree that aristocrats shall abide by the boundaries or by the “etiquette.” The word soon evolved to indicate where people should go and what to do during court sessions. Soon enough, the word evolved to what we now it as today. But, in a way, it still means “keep off the grass.” Etiquette keeps people in certain boundaries.
You may be asking yourself, how would setting boundaries on people maintain harmony and prevent violence. Well, going back to the French example, if a rule were never to be put in place by someone of high authority, such as the king, then the aristocrats would have continued to enter and trample the garden. This would surely lead to conflict, likely physical, between the gardener and the aristocrat. There would be violence, and the harmony or well-being of the garden would be destroyed. Therefore, etiquette was originally created to maintain harmony and prevent violence.
The rules of etiquette are not confined to preventing physical violence.

They can be used to prevent others from thinking poorly of you. However, if not followed, they can hurt or damage relationships and foster malicious thoughts. These thoughts don’t have to be extreme, but they still damage your appearance to others. Think about it. In modern society, we have train etiquette, but a good amount of people show no regard to this type of etiquette. When was the last time someone shoved their way into the train before you could get off? Their rudeness was them not following proper train etiquette, such as waiting for others to get off the train before you get on. Whoever’s morning commute was delayed due to this person’s lack of etiquette harbored feelings of resentment towards the person who did not let them get off the train. Similarly, there are other rules of etiquette, which if not followed, have consequences on people other than yourself, whether slight or extreme, and continuous disregard to etiquette will tarnish your reputation greatly. If there isn’t an apparent reason to following a rule, it is usually because the consequences of not doing so do not affect

you.