Hospitality In The Odyssey Essay

“The word ‘hospitality’ in the New Testament comes from two Greek words. The first word means ‘love’ and the second word means ‘strangers’. It is a word that means love of strangers.” This is a quote by Nancy Leigh Demoss who precisely defined the meaning of “hospitality” through its Greek origins. In The Odyssey written by a prominent poet Homer, hospitality is definitely an important part of the ancient Greek culture. Three obvious rules can be summed up using the passages of Telemachus, Eumaeus, Circe, and the Cyclops. The first rule is that every host must welcome every guest; no matter they are strangers or acquaintances, you must let them in and make them feel comfortable. In addition, the hosts and the guests should treat each other

kindly and tell each other the truth, not only for their own sake, but also for the gods looking upon them in the sky. Last but not least, when the code of hospitality was broken, the host must receive severe punishment from the guests. Furthermore, these three rules for hospitality contrast sharply from conventions in the modern American society.
First of all, the most significant rule of all conventions for hospitality is to welcome everyone in who knocks on your door for a visit. In Book 1, Athena travels to Ithaca to talk to Prince Telemachus about how to find his father, Odysseus, back because she predicted that Odysseus would soon return to his homeland and reunite with the family that he loved. “Daydreaming so as he sat among the suitors, he glimpsed Athena now and straight to the porch he went, mortified that a guest might still be standing at the doors. Pausing beside her there, he clasped her right hand and relieving her at once of her long bronze spear, met her with winged words: ‘Greetings, stranger! Here in our house you’ll find a royal welcome. Have supper first, then tell us what you need.” (Homer, ) From this quote, we can see that Telemachus usually treats his guests very well because he seemed to feel embarrassed when he saw Athena standing at the porch. He also relieved Athena’s long bronze spear to make the guest feel comfortable in his palace. Finally, he invited Athena for a supper first. Often when someone was at the host’s porch, the rule is that the host must make the guests feel pleasant staying there and offer the guest some kind of food first.
Furthermore, Telemachus did the followings. “He led the way and Pallas Athena followed. Once in the high-roofed hall, he took her lance and fixed it firm in a burnished rack against a sturdy pillar, there where row on row of spears, embattled Odysseus’ spears, stood stacked and waiting. Then he escorted her to a high, elaborate chair of honor, over it draped a cloth, and here he placed his guest with a stool to rest her feet.” (Homer, ) Telemachus did the best he could to make Athena feel better in his palace by relieving her possessions and offering her an “elaborate chair of honor”.
In modern American society, the hosts often try their best to make the guests cozy in their houses, but through different ways than the ancient Greeks. The guests usually relieve their own assets, except some cumbersome possessions. Hosts offer snacks and drinks if it is not mealtime, but definitely some food when the guests come. However, the largest difference is that in modern American society, hosts never welcome strangers into their house, but the ancient Greeks welcome everyone that reaches their porch kindly.
Second of all, the hosts and guests must treat each other nicely with sincere truth as a rule for hospitality for the ancient Greeks.

A great example will be when Odysseus finally reached his homeland Ithaca. First, Athena turned his appearance into an old man so that nobody knew his true identity. Then, he could plan to defeat the numerous amounts of suitors secretly. He met Eumaeus, Odysseus’s swineherd and friend. At first, Eumaeus welcomed Odysseus in the same way as Telemachus did and slaughtered two pigs as food for the guest. He also told Odysseus that his kind master was dead, and he felt miserable for his master’s death. However, Odysseus tried to give him a sense of hope by recounting his personal experience and ensuring Odysseus will come back one day. Eumaeus still didn’t believe in Odysseus’s opinion. “But one part’s off the mark, I know-you’ll never persuade me-what you say about Odysseus. A man in your condition, who are you, I ask you, to lie for no good reason?” (Homer, )Eumaeus thought that Odysseus, who appeared as an old and wary man, is lying to him for no good reason. His rule for hospitality is that the guest and host should tell each other the truth. If the guest lied, the host should not treat the guest kindly as

usual.
In modern American societies, people usually tell each other the truth because there is no good reason for lying. If a guest actually tells a lie, the host will usually not realize it until later. Then, they will meet again and talk about this issue. Or else, they might call each other to have a conversation.
Last but not least, when the host breaks the rules of hospitality, they will receive severe punishment from the guest.

For example, when Odysseus was describing his arduous journey to King Alcinous, he mentioned his story in Queen Circe’s house. After his first group of sailors entered Circe’s house, they all drank the poisonous potion and turned into pigs. “She opened her gleaming doors at once and stepped forth, inviting them all in, and in they went, all innocence. […] She ushered them in to sit on high-backed chairs, then she mixed them a potion-cheese, barley, and pale honey mulled in Pramnian wine-but into the brew she stirred her wicked drugs to wipe from their memories any thought of home. Once they’d drained the bowls she filled, suddenly she struck with her wand, drove them into her pigsties, all of them bristling into swine-with grunts, snouts-even their bodies, yes, and only the men’s minds stayed steadfast as before. “(Homer, ) As you can see from the quote, Circe was giving her guests poisoned potion, which is definitely not a nice way to treat her guests. Turning them into grunting pigs made the situation even worse. Circe broke the rules for hospitality, so Odysseus was going to take revenge on

her.
After Odysseus knew about this sad news, he and Hermes planned to defeat Circe by tricking her to vow the sacred oath and save his sailors. At first, he pretended to follow Circe’s orders by drinking the venomous mixture. However, Hermes used his power so that Odysseus wouldn’t be poisoned. He used his weapon to threaten Circe so that she could bring his sailors back and swear the oath. Afterwards, Circe would never hurt Odysseus and his sailors again. After Circe broke the rules for hospitality by treating her guests cruelly, she indeed received harsh punishments. That is why when you treat others nicely, the others will remember your help and treat you kindly as well. By contrast, if you treat others inhumanly, the others will revenge on you one day.
The same thing happened to the Cyclops; one of them called Polyphemus, Poseidon’s dear son. At first, he treated Odysseus and his sailors with some kind of hospitality, but later, he devoured two of Odysseus’s men and imprisoned those that are left alive. He intentionally broke the rules for hospitality to anger his guests. That is why at last, the people who survived designed a precise plan to defeat the Cyclops. Odysseus used the alias “Nobody” to blind Polyphemus’s eye cleverly. Although Polyphemus at last asked his father for help of defeating Odysseus and his group at the end of this conflict, he still realized that his mistake in treating his guests.
Cyclops are considered uncivilized because they are not humans or gods, but savage monsters. When they treat their guests, they would show their aggressive nature. Especially, devouring the guests is considered extremely disrespectful. This was why Odysseus and his sailors were so angry at the Cyclops’s actions and decided to avenge on him. In modern American society, the hosts are usually not that uncivilized, so they are unable to perform actions like Circe and the Cyclops did. However, when the guests feel offended by the hosts, they usually keep their opinions in their hearts and have a bad impression on the hosts.
Throughout all of those examples, we can see that hospitality plays an important role in the ancient Greek societies. Indeed, without specific rules for hospitality, it is very hard to sustain a society and reach its prosperity.