How is hospitality shown in the odyssey

Kirke shows hospitality in this instance, because she is in love with Odysseus. But since she is a goddess, she doesnt have to be fearful of the gods wrath except for Zeuss, and consequently doesnt usually show good hospitality unless she is ordered to do so by Zeus. Lastly, Eumaios shows good hospitality, even though he is poor and doesnt have much to give to Odysseus. What we can give is slight but well meant- all we dare, Eumaios saying this shows that he is a good man and will give as much as he possibly can to any stranger including Odysseus.

Also, Eumaios knows what it is like to be a beggar because when he was a boy, he was stranded on Ithaca and Odysseys family took him in as one of their own children and raised him. Without hospitality, Eumaios would still be a beggar, so that is why he shows hospitality to other people. In these contrasting ways, Odysseus was shown both good and bad hospitality through a variety of characters. It is easy to see that the rules of hospitality in the universe of The Odyssey are set at a high bar, and that it is expected that a man take in guests at his door.

It is interesting to note that a major abuse of hospitality prompted the entire Trojan War: Paris, as a guest of Menelaos, stole Menelaos wife Helen and fled back to Troy.

The lesson learned is always be kind, because you cannot be sure with whom you are dealing. Zeus was in charge of this relationship, and it was one of the ground rules of ancient society. Guests bring news and stories from the outside world; hosts provide food, shelter, and even money if need. And both sides give whatever gifts they can.

Why would anyone treat a total stranger like that? You're paying it forward: someday, you just might need someone to do the same. Because they violated the laws of hospitality, both Polyphemos and the suitors got what they deserved.

The Phaiakians' remarkable hospitality towards Odysseus was ultimately not worth all the trouble it caused. The people of Pylos welcome Telemachos without question, and as soon as he arrives. They do not ask his name or where comes from until they have fed and entertained him, further following the rules of hospitality.

They honor the law of Zeus and continue their festival to Poseidon. The people of Pylos are polite to their guests and treat them very well from the moment they greet them.

They wait until Telemachos has eaten to ask him his name and where he has come from. The people of Pylos are the perfect role models of xenia in The Odyssey because they follow all the rules of hospitality unreservedly. The Cyclops is The Cyclops, Polyphemos, shows how xenia can be not given at all, by the way that he treats Odysseus and his men. How one disregards the rules of hospitality, and does it knowingly, is how the suitors behaved. Throughout the Odyssey, Homer writes about many different instances of good hospitality, like the people of Pylos.

Homer also shows instances of bad hospitality, like how the suitors behave as guests and how Polyphemos treats his guests. No matter if it is a good or bad example of hospitality, the impression of how important xenia is to the Greeks is always present. Works Cited Homer. The Odyssey.

Richmond Lattimore. New York: Harper Perennial, Get Access. Powerful Essays. Odysseus: "So she spoke to them, and the rest gave voice, and called her and at once she opened the shining doors, and came out, and invited them in, and all in their innocence entered; only Eurylochos waited outside, for he suspected treachery. She brought them inside and seated them on chairs and benches, and mixed them a potion, with barley and cheese and pale honey added to Pramneian wine, but put into the mixture malignant drugs, to make them forgetful of their own country.

When she had given them this and they had drunk it down, next thing she struck them with her wand and drove them into her pig pens, and they took on the look of pigs, with the heads and voices and bristles of pigs, but the minds within them stayed as they had been before.

Circe isn't eating her guests, but she's doing the next worse thing: serving them poisoned food. We're not sure if it's actually in the rule book, but turning your guests into pigs is probably not going to win you the gods' favor.

Even if you are a sorceress. Eumaios: "You too, old man of many sorrows, since the spirit brought you here to me, do not try to please me nor spell me with lying words. It is not for that I will entertain and befriend you, but for fear of Zeus, the god of guests, and for my own pity. Warning: this is an analogy.

Menelaos: 'I would disapprove of another hospitable man who was excessive in friendship, as of one excessive in hate. In all things balance is better. Penelope: 'But come, handmaidens, give him a wash and spread a couch for him here, with bedding and coverlets and with shining blankets, so that he can keep warm as he waits for dawn of the golden throne, and early tomorrow you shall give him a bath, anoint him, so that he can sit in the hall beside Telemachos and expect to dine there; and it will be the worse for any of those men who inflicts heart-wasting annoyance on him; he will accomplish nothing here for all his terrible spite […].