Hospitality And Xenia In Homer's The Odyssey

Battered, bruised, and weary from his endeavor through the merciless desert storm, the ragged traveler found his way to a foreign village. He collapsed upon the ground as life - sure enough - was slowly sucked away from his frail, timid body. Upon cue, the native villagers appeared one-by-one and rescued the traveler from the precipice of death and magnanimously clothed and bathed him. Unsparingly, they fed and treated him as royalty. Unconditionally, they asked for nothing in return. Such kindness to guests was a key feature of the ancient Greeks. In order to advance their island-scattered civilization, the ancient Greeks relied heavily on trade and journeys, and in consequence, one of their key beliefs was the concept of hospitality or xenia. As the ancient Greeks tended to embed such beliefs within their literature, Homer, an ancient
Xenia was a covenant, which meant that both parties had to abide by its rules. While the hosts were required to offer the best of their people (e.g. food, clothing, treasures), the guests had to respect the rules and affairs of their hosts as well as share their stories/reasons for traveling, which was viewed as a form of entertainment. Obedience of this covenant was most clearly shown in Book 4, where King Menelaus welcomed Telemachus into his land and offered him gifts (4.59-4.63). In exchange, Telemachus shared the happenings in his own land as well as his current journey. By these two cases, the conditions of the covenant were met. Accordingly, the “rewards” here were created by the nature of xenia itself. While Telemachus received the hospitality offered by Menelaus, Menelaus received the stories offered by Telemachus. Xenia was basically a trade of gifts, so it followed that - because gifts are “rewards” - both sides “rewarded” each other. Moreover, as long xenia was successfully executed, both sides would be inevitably rewarded in this