Examples Of Xenia In The Odyssey

Xenia, in Ancient Greece, is defined as the idea of hospitality, a topic of much importance. In the epic poem, The Odyssey, Odysseus and his crew rely majorly on courtesy from those involved in the encounters. However, hospitality was not always delivered throughout his journey, a crime with the severity of being punished by the gods. Odysseus encountered two types of lacking hospitality, purposeful, such as on Polyphemus’ Island and the suitors upon Odysseus’ return, which often ended in violence, or trickery, like with the Lotus Eaters and Circe’s Island. Consequently, these encounters ended with revenge delivered in various forms. The first type of a lack in hospitality is the circumstances with which it is purposefully harmful. On

The Lotus Eaters meant no harm to Odysseus and his crew, however their successful attempt to entice the few crew members Odysseus sent from the ship to search the area into indulging the Lotus displays the ruse. This incident is not acceptable behavior towards guests, especially this particular group with an extremely prevalent goal: “They fell in, soon enough, with the Lotus Eaters,/ who showed no will to do us harm, only/ offering the sweet Lotus to our friends--/ but those who ate this honeyed plant, the Lotus,/ never cared to report, nor to return:/ they longed to stay forever, browsing on/ that native bloom, forgetful of their homeland,” (373). Though the Lotus Eaters seemed harmless, the tempting offers stretched forth decelerated the pace of the journey by feeding the crew the drug-like lotus, causing them to lose motivation to continue to Ithaca. Odysseus was forced to drag his lotus-addicted crew members back to his ship after they’d fallen for a facade. To conclude, though this encounter harmed neither the crew nor Odysseus, the attempt to hinder them from their goal of reaching Ithaca lacked hospitality due to the masquerade of the Lotus