The Significance and Role of the Theme of Hospitality Essay Example for Free

The Signifi massce and Role of the Theme of Hospitality EssayIn antiqueatd Greece, when the world was still young and vastly unexplored, people relied on good faith in take strangers in their lands hoping that the favor shall also be repaid in signifier in the hereafter when they similarly shall travel. in that location were poor means of communication between tribes, cities or minor communities separated by a wide-eyed expanse of empty land and the open sea. Anyone who decides to set out on an epic tour to chartless territories can precisely trust the unspoken tradition of hospitality among people scattered in unfamiliar places. One can non depend solely on psycheal renown to be allowed nark in strange lands.Similarly, opus the fame and reputation of Odysseus did precede him throughout the lands, it was not so much because of his protuberance that helped him through his voyage. Rather it was due to the use of unconditional altruism which played an important r ole in Odysseuss travels. It is the principle of doing to others what one wishes that others do in re twisting. It is the unspoken bond of humanity among individuals who were then too few in the world and had each other to ask for assistance as brothers and comrades in the emergent world The theme of travel and wandering prevails in the Homers Epic, the Odyssey.After the fall of Troy, Odysseus with his teeny army set out to sail for plate. However, he was destined to suffer years of torment and torturing because Poseidon, among a number of other gods, wanted to pr yett him from ever succeeding while the rest of the gods in Mount Olympus pitied him and wanted him to succeed. Just the like the harsh and uninviting ocean storms, Odysseus fate was tossed and turned by the whims of these gods. He was subjected to numerous trials and tests during his protracted journey home until he finally reached Ithaca and proved to be seaworthy, so to speak, in all respects (Aylen, 1964).Yet trav el simply underscores the salient theme of hospitality during the antediluvian patriarch era. Travel was prevalent during that age of exploration and the growth of Western civilization. People traveled for commerce and workmanship including the exchange of goods and ideas. Trade routes were established specifically to satisfy a societys wants to go beyond their borders and establish different friendly relations with other states (Aylen, 1964). Trade routes were also developed to crystalize sure that voyage to and fro is very convenient, safe and fast.Along trade routes and other important nautical highways were small tribes peppered along the shorelines. One or two whitethorn be forceile and unaccommodating to seaf atomic number 18rs barely raze if most of them are highly suspicious of strangers, they still finesseed them with liberalness even extravagance (1964). To everybodys minds, it is most likely that people will await to route by routes and highways of exchange and its better to treat them well as opposed to driving them away and creating feud than friendship. A visitor today may be ones legion in the future. Likewise, a stranger that passes now might commence a good friend eventually.Hospitality, the ready and willing cordial welcome of clients from strange lands, made voyage in the ancient world possible and better. The desire for adventure, to travel and to discover new places will cede been a nightmare if people did not practice amicable attitudes to strangers. The benefits of be hospitable to seafarers outweigh the risks of treating strangers like friends into ones home. Put differently, the risk in turning away visitors is to a greater extent costly resource-wise than providing feasts and illimitable assistance to whoever is need of help (Aylen, 1964).It is current that the host, in order to translate goodwill, have to go the surmount of putting up expensive festive celebrations or apply the lift out of what little resource he may have in his storehouse, precisely these things are necessary costs before reaping the benefits of cosmos cordial to a stranger who might subsequently turn out to be a king or near rich merchant. Hospitality, in other words, is an investment in the future (1964). Ties of blood and friendship are created or destroyed by the practice of this tradition.Odysseus adventures and other incidental stories in Homers Odyssey record the importance of hospitality in the sparsely populated ancient world. The different ways in which he and his men were welcomed in strange lands spelled either good tidings or disaster for them as the guests of laurels and for the hosts. The mythical undertones that gird the motives of the hosts to give assistance in an ostentatious fashion merely attribute the aesthesis of the divine in an otherwise natural and practical way to create stronger and long-lasting friendships.Book deuce-ace of the epic, where Athena goaded Nestor to assist Telemachus in his military control, was an adornment. It supports the traditional claim that hospitality was completely authorise by the gods. Anyone who fails or transgresses this tradition had to answer to the gods. In the like vein, Nestor provided food, shelter and a mightily means of transportation for Telemachus, who was out in an important errand, upon the advice of the mentor god (Kitto, 1990). The fact that Nestor gave without incredulity is instructive on the point that any material gifts to the hosts are just as good as altar sacrifices to the gods.In other words, Nestor showed his best form of hospitality in consideration of accumulating favors from the gods, if not militate the possibility of incurring the wrath of the gods. Being hospitable had a two-pronged effect, one that redounds optimisticly to the host as a friend to the guest and the host as a favored individual in the eyes of the gods (Kitto, 1990). Subsequently in Book IV, Homer reveals subtly another good reason wherefore hospitality was an important element in the epic. At first, upon the arrival of Telemachus and Nestors son, a courier reported to Menelaus that there are two strangers here, two men who facial gestureas if they are descended from bully Zeus and asked elegantly, so tell me if we should, on their behalf, take their fast horses out of harness, or send them remove to go back near other host wholl welcome them as friends (Book IV, Lines 31-40). The herald was two being well-mannered and cautious at the same time. He apprises to Menelaus that visitors, who looked like Greeks, were at their doorsteps and awaited the kings book of instructions whether or not to accept them as guests or send them off to another place where they shall also be welcomed.The fact that the herald seemed a bit hesitant to allow the visitors in does not change magnitude the sense of hospitality in the epic. If anything, the question was addressed to the king taking into account the fact that the y were short engaged in other festivities. At any rate, Menelaus, hurriedly dispatched the notion and with playful chiding, told the messenger to waste ones time no longer in calling Telemachus and his companion and letting them in, saying Before today, Eteoneus, son of Boethous, you havent been a fool. But now you talk just like a silly child.For both of us a lot feasted on the hospitality of other men before we got back here, hoping that Zeus would give us some relief from later suffering (emphasis supplied). So unhitch those horses the strangers brought, and bring the men deep down, so they may dine (Book IV Lines 42-50). The lines in italics bespeak Menelaus anxious anticipation to finally have the opportunity to repay the favors he had been getting ever since he left field for Troy. Indeed, he has enjoyed the hospitality of strangers in different lands and now is the best time to return the favor to another stranger.It is in the hope of perpetuating the cycle of hospitalit y as a tradition which turns full circle in his acceptance of two strangers and shall be repeated in the future when Menelaus himself shall travel again. Also, it bears stressing that Menelaus had no idea who these strangers were before welcoming them in with such gusto. It was only when the strangers had entered and set correctly before the tables of festivity before Menelaus started to asked who they were and what brings them to his place adept after they shall have dine with him. To wit enjoy our food and once youve had your meal, well ask you who you are.For in you two your parents breeding has not been destroyedsince you are from a royal human stock, from god-nurtured kings who wield a scepter Worthless men could not catch men like you (Book IV, lines 61-67). More importantly, when Menelaus invoked Zeus in kind and in favor to justify the need to welcome the strangers in, the epic reveals yet another layer in the theme of hospitality (Kitto, 1990). Zeus was in reality in f act the god of travelers and of hospitality (1990). He favors those who treat visitors well and guests who behave themselves properly while being accommodated (1990).This reciprocity of kindness and courteousness is embodied in the traditional supposition of the Xenia, where both the host and the guest follow certain predetermined divine rules in terms of hospitality. The host must provide necessary assistance to his guests and treat him as a part of the household, whilst the guest must not desecrate the observe granted to him. The host must not ask impertinent questions or if he must, out of polite curiosity, it can only be done after the guest has fully settled himself in and at rest his needs.When the time comes for the guest to depart, the host shall, or regularly will, give a parting gift to squeeze the guest farewell and god-speed in his journey. Xenia is a Greek ancient custom of treating strangers as friends in the household. The practice of which has been so pervasive t hat it has partaken the nature of a ritual that still bears persuasive force even among modernistic societies in the Western world (1990). Otherwise, a person who does not observe the rite of the xenia or a good deal of hospitality, the consequences are dire either with respect to the gods fury or mens retribution (1990).On another note, a perusal of Menelaus and his subjects attitude towards their guests, who had an air of royalty and superiority, will uncover another property of the concept of hospitality. Curiously enough, both the messenger and Menelaus noticed a semblance between them and the two strangers. They both automatically assumed that Telemachus and his companion were of divine and royal origin. As such, they were moved to treat them to which their station in life properly deserves. A whole feast befitting a king was given in honor of Telemachus.In addition, arguing that Telemachus was not a king, his Greek appearance perhaps inspired a sense of kinship with Menelau s being both Greeks. Indeed, if men had a tendency to behave altruistically towards individuals who physically resembled them, they might indirectly be doing their own kind a huge favor by being hospitable to Greek strangers. Menelaus, like other Greeks, had a kin-like tendency to identify with strangers who closely resemble oneself physically. This kind of natural response would lead to the providential growth of ones race.At a time when Greeks moved around little or heavily throughout the region, chances are high that any random individual that pays a visit may be close kin to the host, not just in terms of ties of friendship but even through blood-lines. Thus, being nice to any stranger who look similar or appears to share the same qualities as one may possess, could have a positive survival value in the long run. In this sense, Homer seems to imply that being hospitable to strangers is more than just showing good manners and courtesy.In a time when the Greeks were holding off in vaders from their lands it is but wise to know your allies and treat them well, for in the off chance that the nation-states have to unite in battle against foreign belligerent armies, the person you welcome today might be the very person fighting with and for you in war. Menelaus, being a warmonger himself, knows this too well and at the sight of a fellow Greek in need of help, he had no qualms in giving him what he, as a member of a race, rightly deserves.Homer continues to wax different dimensions of hospitality in Books V-VIII which stresses the importance of Xenia and the concept of hospitality in the survival of Odysseus in his journey. At around this time, Odysseus has recently departed the place of Calypso. He set out to sail in a raft but was constantly being chivy by Poseidon who determined to kill him. Odysseus had been washed over to alien shores but was lucky enough to find people willing to give him some assistance.However, Homer casts a shadow of doubt as to the ver idical motives of the people who came to the aid of Odysseus. Upon Odysseus unplanned arrival at the land of the Phaeacians, he was met with several people who were question who he was. There is an air of foreboding and caution since in all appearances and circumstances Odysseus was a fall stranger. Athena while disguised as stranger admonished Odysseus that The people here are not well-disposed of strangersthey dont extend a friendly welcome to those from other lands, but put their trustin their fast ships to carry them across vast gulfs of the sea (Book VII, lines 40-45). Nonetheless, after Odysseus, who was then covered in mist which later dispersed, prostrated himself before the attendants inside the castle, he was welcomed to dine and sleep in the palace if only because they were wary of strangers but had a heart for those who pay homage properly viz. by being pious suppliants. The attendants of the palace were not as welcoming as the Greeks.Yet they gave him something to drink, clothe himself and sleep on until Alcinous the king would pass wise judgment on the best way to treat Odysseus. Thereafter, king Alcinous bid the Phaeacians to extend a little warmth of kindness to Odysseus before he sets out for his home again with a sacrifice to be made to Zeus. The king made it clear that in no way was Odysseus to be maltreat or harm precisely because for such a long time the gods have yet to show their true form and the stranger before them might be one of the gods.Odysseus was quick to reply that he was an ordinary man stranded and lost at sea. The wise and timely words of Odysseus gained the approval of everyone in the majestic palace. King Alocinous even offered his daughter in marriage so then their line would continue to produce wise men like him. At this point, Odysseus, with his cunning and resourcefulness, had finally earned not only the respect of the Phaeacians but his keep during his stay at the palace (Book VII, Lines 380-400).Later in Book VIII, the defect of hospitality shown by the Phaeacians is beginning to look more obvious. Athena knows well that the Phaeacians were not good with strangers and as such, in order to compel respect and surprise among them, Athena poured an amazing poise on him Odysseus, across his shoulders and his head and made him look taller and more powerful, so the Phaeacians would welcome him, and he would win from them respect and awe (Book VIII, Lines 18-24). Indeed, as it were, people are moved to show generousness and courtesy in varying levels of motivation.It could be purely out of the kindness of ones heart, the desire to be repaid in turn in the future, to help a kinsman, or it could well probably be shown out of respect, fear and awe. As in the case of Odysseus stay with the Phaeacians, he had nothing else but his wisdom and the guidance of Athena to merit the favorable reception welcome of his hosts. Although the Phaeacians were not famous for being so accommodating to strangers, they still observed the rituals of hospitality and Xenia by offering their guest a means to get back homefifty passpicked men of the finest aegir and a ship to sail with as well.On the part of the Odysseus as the guest of honor, when provoked into an experiment of skill and strength, did show some remarkable feats but spurned suggestions of having to wrestle with his host lest his fortunes may turn (Book VIII, 40). Thus far, Homer has shown how people of the ancient world have embraced and perceived hospitality as a part of their customs and way of life. Hospitality was presented as a tool to earn favors and forge relationships among men, and as an unconditional gift to which the reward is the sense of satisfaction from being able to lend a hand to those in need.However, hospitality may lend itself to abuse what with the fact that people seem to be kind and generous all the time. Such abuse of hospitality is not without a fitting punishment at the instance that a guest desecrates the honor of the host. Book IX of the epic, narrates Odysseus experience with the water flea. He recounts that when he left to check their ship his men wantonly killed a number of sheep in the midst and casually ate what they could grab their hands on. Odysseus had a share in the loot as well and even went inside the cave which was the house of the terrible Cyclops.But when the master of the house arrived, in trembling and fear-inspiring fashion, none of the supplications of Odysseus uncomplete his wise and calculated words had an effect to the Cyclops (Book IX, Lines 331-339). The Cyclops was angry because uninvited strangers ate some of his prized sheep and even slept on his abode. The Cyclops bellows that he was not afraid of Zeus. Thus, he had no business whatsoever neither had he any divine obligation to show kindness to the trespassers. He can do whatever he wanted with the strangers who were presently trapped inside the cave (Book IX, Lines 300-310).In the same breath, Home r attributed the inhospitality with the fact that Odysseus and his men failed to pay the proper respects to their host. They went on pillaging resources without asking for permission. The Cyclops would have been more lenient had they observed the rites as visitors. At any rate, the Cyclops is a being beyond the control of established rules and laws of men. This was a creature who did not answer to the gods. It was an independent and free-thinking risky brute that could do as he please without fear of incurring the wrath of the gods.Furthermore, the Cyclops did not fit the ideal host precisely because he had nothing to gain from feeding, clothing and accepting into his home strangers who come his way. At the least, strangers who pass by are nothing but piecemeal desserts to him. The Cyclops was only interested in entertainment and food, and cared little about the problems of stranded seafarers. Then again, as a host who had performed poorly in attending to his visitors, the Cyclops suffered his just punishment. Odysseus and his men crafted a scheme to escape and in the process gorged the only eye of the Cyclops, depriving him totally of the sense of sight.What worse punishment can there be to a Cyclops than to take from him his one eye for being inhospitable? The lack of hospitality in Book IX of the epic and in other parts signifies the untamed and wild aspects of the ancient world. It is true that there are many who are willing and able to render aid to strangers with such generosity and kindness. Yet it is equally true that there are some who are not so discriminating in helping out people in need. The ancient world has a collection of creatures and beings of this sort.goaded by selfishness and self-serving interest, they see little benefits in spending resources, time and energy to outsiders. Not even the divine and universal laws of gods and mens customs and traditions have the power to compel them to do the right thing. Such creatures are uncivilized an d nothing can be expected from them but hostility and danger. sage words can not trick them to do something against their brutish nature. As independent creatures, they rely on themselves for support and livelihood. Anyone who intrudes into their domain is readily met with a poor or lack of kind treatment.