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Dishonor In Relation To Greek Culture In Homer's The Odyssey

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Culture is presented everywhere in the world, whether it’s in the form of stories, clothing, food, and language. The Odyssey expresses this throughout the book using many different descriptions and imagery. Although there are incidences of dishonor in The Odyssey in relation to Greek Culture, The Odyssey gives insight into xenia, food, and beauty.
Hospitality is a big part of the culture. It is the relationship between the host and guest in the name of xenia. Greeks seem to be more hospitable because they had to rely on others for the needs of living in between their expeditions by boat and foot. When Odysseus and his crew traveled to the House of Death for the first time, Circe offered them a place to stay until morning. In her words, “Come, take some food and drink some wine, rest here the livelong …show more content…

Women are judged on their looks constantly and that is the only thing that matters about them. Although women in The Odyssey do many different things, beauty is is the one thing they are judged on the most whether it be by their husbands or a bunch of suitors who live in their home and eat their food. Penelope, Odysseus’ wife, is a good example of this. As she sits at home and waits for her husband to return after twenty years, she is harassed by suitors in her home. Athena “Queen of Tactics” believed that to get the suitors’ attentions, it would be best to make Penelope seem to be more desireable(Bk 16, 314). Athena completed the tasks of beauty to Penelope: “She made her taller, fuller in form to all men’s eyes, her skin whiter than ivory freshly carved, and now, Athena’s mission accomplished, off the bright one went as bare-armed maids came in from their own quarters, chattering all the way, and sleep released the queen”(Bk 18, 222-226). For the Greeks, the initial beauty is not on the inside like we are all told, it is always on the outside where none of their insecurities

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