Hospitality in the Odyssey

Hospitality in the Odyssey

Imagine the goddess Athena at your door how would you react? In this book the gods are always disguising themselves! In the “Odyssey” by Homer the “humans” treat every guest as if they were a family member or longtime friend. I believe the generous hospitality displayed in the odyssey was so common because the people of ancient Greece never knew which guest could be a god or a simple beggar.

There are many examples of hospitality in the odyssey. Often times if you showed up at someone's party or banquet and no one knew you, you would still be offered food, drink, clothes, and a place to sleep. An example of this is when Telemachus secretly set off to find Nestor with Athena (who was disguised at the time). Nestor’s son sees Telemachus and Athena in the crowd at his family’s banquet and even without asking about who they were, he invited them to sit next to him and his brothers. It was not until after Telemachus and Athena had, had their fill of food and gotten comfortable that they were asked who they were and where they came from. It was very common for guests to be fed before being asked to tell their story.

Zeus, king of the gods was also the patron god of guests, so to be rude to a guest was almost like disrespecting Zeus. Eumaios the swineherd told Odysseus when he first arrived in Ithaca "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." This shows that there was almost a slight fear of being punished by Zeus, if you treated an stranger badly.

The hospitality and generosity 2500 in ancient Greece was very different than what we consider to be hospitality today. Today if a stranger showed up at someone's door they would probably do one of two things: not answer the door, or answer the door and act hostile. Maybe we could learn a lesson or two from the ancient Grecian on how to be more courteous to people we don’t know.