Xenia in Odyssey in Comparison with Todays Society - Essay Example

Xenia in Odyssey in Comparison with Today’s Society Xenia is a concept which has cultural implications is the Greek society. Xenia can be interpreted to mean hospitality. The people of Greek held more significance for hospitality because it was a cultural obligation in respect for their gods and society. This is because Zeus, the king of gods in Greece was a traveler who will walk for long distances without food and shelter and depended on the hospitality of the people along his way. This created a responsibility for the Greek people to be hospitable to other travelers as well as breaching of the rules governing xenia in Greek attracted punishment from Zeus. Xenia is a concept which has been applied in The Odyssey. Several instances depict the hospitality of the people to the travelers and strangers. They offer shelter, food, water, entertainment and also company. People were friendlier to others despite not knowing them at all. However, in the modern society, hospitality is a concept that is not upheld by many people. People are very busy to be hospitable and even when there is an opportunity to be hospitable, there arises the problem of trust. The society has changed very much with the coming of urbanization which increases the risks of being hospitable especially to a total stranger. Hospitality in Odyssey has been established as a key value by punishing those who do not uphold the concept of hospitality and rewarding those who are more hospitable to strangers. In The Odyssey Homer presents the theme of xenia by portraying the hospitable characters as good people and those who show no respect for hospitality as bad people. King Alcinous, Nestor and Menelaos are shaped as good people because they are good hosts which took in Telemakhos and cared for him by providing him with shelter and food and also their company (Homer 1228). On the other hand, Telemakhos was a good guest because he did not abuse the rules set about xenia (Homer 1236). Also, while Odysseus was travelling and wandering concealed as beggar, Eumaios took him in and was a very caring host despite Odysseus’s condition, he gave him a lot of food, shelter and protection. Homer has thus painted those hospitable people as good people. Nevertheless, there are guests who abuse the rules of xenia and are portrayed as bad people. The suitors who were guests in Odysseus’ palace are not portrayed as good quests (Homer 459).Although they were warmly welcomed to Odysseus’ palace; they abused the hospitality given to them by Penelope, wife of Odysseus. They were ill-mannered and misused the sheep and cattle in the palace and parted all the time. Furthermore, despite the fact that Odysseus had not returned, they refused to leave u till Penelope had chosen one of them. This shows that the quests were not respectful and courteous. They broke the rules of xenia by not respecting their host and also by being a burden to the household of Odysseus. Thus, hospitality determines the character of a person in Odysseus (Homer 39). Perception of xenia by the people in Odysseus and those in the modern society cannot intersect. As seen above, while xenia was used primarily to depict the character of a person, in the today’s society, it is not possible to know the character of a person by using the outward hospitality traits. Lack of trust and abuse of trust is something which is very prone in the modern society. As such, guests or hosts end up suffering as subsequence of their hospitality. Furthermore, with no rules to guide modern people on how to exercise xenia and the penalties for breach of the rules, cases of xenia especially to strangers will remain very rare. The Odysseus is a genre of travel literature which means that the people there had a lot of activities away from their own homes and involved travelling long distances. As they did not have any vehicles by then, this means that it took them a lot of time to get to their destinations. The travelers needed hospitality for several reasons. They needed to replenish their food and water, get protection and also rest. For instance, Odysseus travels through vast and dangerous environs which are dangerous for human beings and with no food and water. Thus, hospitality is a very relieving aspect which allows such travelers to rest and get the food and water required to continue with the journey (Homer 100).As travelers need the food, rest and shelter while on the journey, hospitality becomes an obligation to those in the areas and in turn it helps the people to acquire friendship with the traveler. Odyssey rewards those who show hospitality and rebukes those who violate the rules of xenia. For example, Eumaeus and the Phaeacian royalty are very generous and hospitable to Odyssey and thus they are rewarded. On the other hand, the suitors and Achaean soldiers are punished for abusing generosity and not observing the rules of xenia (Homer 307). The application of hospitality in the traveling concept is not much relevant in the modern world as people live in an era of advanced technology and civilization where travelling even to the longest distances is made very easy. As such, people can go places they wants to go without needing to put up somewhere along the way. In this case, the absence of hospitality can be associated with lack of need for provisions, protection and shelter, things which are not a necessity in the modern society while on travel. The methods used to travel in Homer’s time were very slow such as foot or boats and thus people spent much time of their travels as opposed to now. The means of traveling are very advanced and fast such as vehicles and planes which can carry one to very long distances over a very short time. Furthermore, there were no catering services and hotels where travelers could sleep and wake up to continue their journey. These days, people book their hotels online before traveling and even those who do not, they get easy access to them at their point of destination. This implies that the travelers will be in no need of hospitality or generosity of any host when they finally reach their destination or while in their way. Thus, hospitality will not hold much significance to modern day travelers. Hospitality was very significant and possible in The Odyssey not only because of the obligations of the people but also because of the ease with which people would dissect different communities with ease without risking their safety with the interacting communities. The distances travelled were long and covered days and even months. There were no boundaries where people were not allowed to pass or to establish diplomacy in order to be permitted. As such, many people were able to interact and friendships were formed between the people of various communities. Hospitality was therefore taken seriously as it ensured the safety of the people from a different community the same way their expectations of the other community would be. Hospitality was also much correlated with religion. The Greeks believed that hospitality was a sign of gratitude to God and thus, those who did not show gratitude were being disrespectful not only to their king, but also to God and they should be punished (Homer 308). Socially, popularity and fame came to those who demonstrated high levels of hospitality in their homes especially to strangers. Such people would through a party for their quests, slaughter cattle and sheep, offer entertainment, leisure, good company, warm beds and all sorts of comfort. This was done in order to show the other members of the community how wealthy they are to be able to support such occurrences (Homer 238). In the modern society, travelling to longer distances means crossing several borders. This involves getting permits to do so which reduces the chances of many people travelling to longer distances since the process is tedious. This in turn reduces the opportunities of such people ever needing the hospitality of people from other countries. As a result, establishing goodwill and friendship between members of different countries is very difficult as people are confined into their own countries. Furthermore, hospitality in the modern society gets one no fame at all unless one was very famous and hosts another famous person. Local hospitality sometimes may not even be appreciated by the neighbours and instead, they would rather get suspicious about the credibility and their safety while the stranger is around. While preparing the kind of hospitality that gives one fame in The Odyssey is very time consuming an involving, the modern society is made up of very busy people who will not through a party for a guest for three to four days because of a strangers. Thus, hospitality holds less significance in the modern society due to the social constructions of the modern times such as security, diplomacy, activity and technology. Although hospitality in the modern society is not as intense an overt as that of The Odyssey, it is imperative to mention that some people show hospitality as religious teachings of many religions requires one to be generous with their others. However, hospitality in The Odyssey was highly guarded by the gods, the king and the society and thus it held much significance than in the modern community. Works Cited Austin, Norman. “Name Magic in the ‘Odyssey’”. California Studies in Classical Antiquity. 1- 19. JSTOR. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. 1972. Print. Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. Notes and Introduction by Bernard Knox. New York: Penguin Classics, 1996. Print. Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Viking, 1996. Print. Finley, M.I. The World of Odysseus. New York: The Viking Press, 1954. Print. James, Heather, et al. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature, Volume 1.8th Edition. Norton, W. W. & Company Inc, 2005. Print. Murnagham, Sheila. Disguise and Recognition in The Odyssey. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987. Print. Thornton, Agathe. People and Themes in Homer’s Odyssey. London: Methuen & Co Ltd, 1970. Print. Read More