The concept of “xenia”, described in Homer’s Odyssey as the guest-host

relationship played a dominant part in ancient Greece. According to what they believed,

the guest-host relationship was based on the idea that courtesy would be reciprocal from

host and guest. The different ways that Telemachos and Odysseus are treated throughout their journeys displays the positive and negative types of xenia.

The Odyssey begins 20 years after Odysseus has left Ithaca. Ten of those years he spent fighting in the Trojan War. The remaining years he attempts to go back home to Ithaca, but his journey becomes quite difficult since Poseidon becomes Odysseus persecutor, just as Athene is firmly established as his protector. In one of his numerous journeys Odysseus meets the Phaiakians who receive him with warm hospitality without having to ask for his name first. “This is not the better way, nor is it fitting that the stranger should

On the other hand Homer’s Odyssey also portrays the abuse of the guest-host relationship when it narrates the way the suitors took advantage of Telemachos hospitality. The suitors violated the law of xenia in a variety of ways, first of all they refuse to leave when told to do so, then they feasted on everything that was available in the house hold and lastly they planned to kill Telemachos the host, when he came back from his journey. “Go away from my palace and do your feasting elsewhere, eating up your own possessions, taking turns, household by household. But if you decide it is more profitable and better to go on, eating up one man’s livelihood, without payment, then spoil my house. I will cry to the gods everlasting in the hope that Zeus might somehow grant reversal of fortunes.” (Book II P.43 Lines 139-144)

sit on the ground beside the hearth, in the ashes…But come, raise the stranger up and seat him on a silver studded chair and tell your heralds to mix in mo

Some topics in this essay:
Homer’s Odyssey, Poseidon Odysseus, Odysseus Telemachos, Odysseus Instead, Trojan War, Telemachos Odysseus, P43 Lines, Greece According, P115 Lines, guest-host relationship, homer’s odyssey, Ithaca Ten, concept xenia, ancient greece, book iv, trojan war,