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Conclusion...

  • Hospitality is a very important and widely recurring theme
  • Hosts who do not give good hospitality are usually punished: e.g. the Suitors and the Cyclops
  • Good hospitality shows that characters are moral, civilised and god-fearing (like Odysseus)
  • The theme of hospitality is strongly linked to the other key themes of homecoming, storytelling and trickery: without the hospitality of Circe, Calypso, Aeolus, Alcinous and Penelope, Odysseus would not have arrived home, and would not have been able to tell his story. Without trickery he could not have escaped the bad hospitality of Polyphemus and the Suitors

Circe

Examples of hospitality...

Book 10

  • Baucis and Philemon = encourages selflessness and piety
  • Procrustes = a warning
  • The abduction of Helen = one of the most famous myths
  • Diomedes and Glaukos

'Circe ushered the rest into her hall, gave them seats and chairs to sit on, and then prepared them a mixture of cheese, barley-meal, and yellow honey flavoured with Pramnian wine.' But then poisons them and turns them into pigs.

Odysseus threatens her, then sleeps with her, and then Circe bathes him, 'rubbed me with olive-oil, clothed me in a tunic and a splendid cloak, and seated me on a beautiful silver-studded chair with a foot-stool beneath.' Odysseus is fed, and they stay there for a whole year receiving her hospitality.

He leaves with gifts of sheep, goats and a 'favourable breeze.'

Diomedes & Glaukos

  • meet on the battlefield in Troy and start talking
  • realise that they are linked in guest friendship
  • decide to not fight and part friends to honour and continue their grandfathers' guest friendship

‘Godlike Oineus once entertained the excellent Bellerophontes in his house, and kept him for twenty days: and they also gave each other fine gifts of friendship… So now you have me as your loyal host in the heart of Argos, and I have you in Lycia… Let us keep away from each other’s spears… and let us exchange armour with each other, so the others too can see that we are proud to claim guest-friendship from our father’s time.’

Iliad Book 6

This is an unusual example of hospitality...

Themes of the poem...

Sufferings of Odysseus

Homecoming (nostos)

Trickery

Storytelling

Hospitality and guest-friendship (xenia)

Hospitality in 'The Odyssey'

Main aspects of hospitality...

Why is Hospitality so important in ancient Greek myth?

1. Welcoming into the house,

2. A seat,

3. Food and drink,

4. A bath,

5. Then questions and a recount of the visitor’s adventures.

6. Gifts before they leave.

Michael Nagler believes it is "the primary social institution providing cohesion in the archaic state system" (1996).

Why is hospitality important?

Polyphemus

  • the presence of good hospitality highlights which characters in the poem are moral, noble and civilised (e.g. the Phaeacians, Calypso, Menelaus, Penelope) 'agressive savages with no sense of right or wrong or hospitable and god-fearing people' Book 9
  • bad hospitality implies that the character is not morally equal to Odysseus and is not trustworthy (e.g. Polyphemus, Circe, the Suitors)
  • if the rituals of hospitality are carried out properly it shows the hosts are pious and respect Zeus, the patron of strangers
  • it is a way of gaining fame and glory - Odysseus's exploits are heard by many people, and the hosts hope to impress him enough that he will tell other people about their generosity.

Book 9

Nausicaa, Arete and Alcinous

Odysseus takes wine and food with him because he thinks he might meet someone 'uncivilised and unprincipled.'

'I wished to see the owner of the cave and had hopes of some friendly gifts from my host.'

Odysseus and his men start the hospitality rituals without their host- offerings to gods, eating and sitting down.

When Polyphemus arrives he immediately asks questions about who they are and where they're from.

Odysseus: 'Good sir, remember your duty to the gods; we are your suppliants, and Zeus is the champion of suppliants and guests.'

Polyphemus does not fear or respect the gods, and instead of offering hospitality, eats two of Odysseus' men.

Odysseus tricks the Cyclops by saying the wine is a gift before he blinds him.

Books 6-8

Nausicaa: 'since you have come to our country and our city here, you certainly shall not want for clothing or anything else that an unfortunate suppliant has the right to expect from those he meets.’

‘All strangers and beggars come under the protection of Zeus... So give him food and drink, girls, and bathe him in the river where there’s shelter from the wind.’

Odysseus supplicates the queen and gets a seat beside the king, a basin to wash his hands in, and food and drink. Alcinous decides to send the nobles home for the night so in the morning they can have a ‘fuller gathering of the elders to entertain our visitor here and to sacrifice to the gods.’

After Odysseus has finished his dinner Arete asks him: ‘Who are you? Where do you come from?’, and Odysseus tells some of his story.Alcinous promises to send Odysseus home, and Arete tells the maids to ‘put a bed in the portico and to furnish it with the finest purple rugs.’

Odysseus receives 13 cloaks, tunics and talents of gold.Alcinous says 'to any man with the slightest claim to common sense, a guest and suppliant is as close as a brother.'

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