Social Hospitality In The Odyssey

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The Odyssey For an Epic poem to survive over two thousand years there has been great pains, delights and lessons within its threads. As with many I know partial information about how Greeks actually behaved. I was surprised and impressed with how every civilized Greek citizen openly welcomed and refreshed travelers. Even with this social hospitality being under one of Zeus commands, it is very admirable for the whole people to live it. One sees how wide spread this practice is by observing how king Menelaus of Sparta and Eumaeus received their guest. A significant detail about any hosting party is that they do not inquire as to who their guest is until they are fully refreshed. “Quick, unhitch their team. And bring them, / strangers, guests, …show more content…

The very first superb craftsmanship that I noticed early on was the masterful flowing, living words that propel the story always onward. A small, yet impactful example of this is in the simple way Athena’s eyes are described. “Athena, her eyes flashing bright, exulted, …Pallas Athena broke in sharply, her eyes afire-…The daughter of Zeus with flashing sea-gray eyes-” (Book 1, line 96; Book 3, line 261; Book 2, lines 476). I love how the descriptions are alive and surge with purpose and passion. The style of this poem is just the same as a instrumental masterpiece, every note binds with another building to crescendos and soft, delicate moments. It makes it more pleasing, stimulating to read, similar to a lazy river constantly flowing. The movement never becomes halted or choppy. Instead of saying her eyes are gray or annoyed; Homer and the translators used words that inspire the mind to vividly conjure up the image. An example of this can be seen when Athena first appears to Telemachus, and he is escorting her in his palace.
“He led the way and Pallas Athena followed. / Once in the high-roofed hall, he took her lance / and fixed in firm in a burnished rack against / a sturdy pillar, there where row on row of spears, / embattled Odysseus’ spears, stood stacked and waiting” (Book 1, lines

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