The Significance of the Host/Guest Relationship in The Odyssey Essay

The Odyssey is an epic poesy attributed to the now-famous Greek poet, Homer, written approximately in the early sixth atomic number 6 B.C.E. The poem shares the tale of the wily adventuring solider, Odysseus, return from the Trojan war to his wife and home in Ithaca. The poem details his misadventures, the efforts of his son, Telemachus, to find him, and revenge on his wifes suitors. While many themes run through this poem, the most prevalent is that of cordial reception. The phalanx- thickening kinship is significant in the Odyssey as it acts as one of the main thematic devices used by Homer and examples of good cordial reception versus bad hospitality and their results serve as the main plot elements throughout the tale.The Host/Guest kindred, also known as the Guest-Friendship relationship was a complex relationship based on a series of ambiguous hospitality laws. Guest-friend...is the face rendition of the Greek xenos ...The same Greek word meant stranger, foreigner, and sometimes host, a confusion symbolic of the ambivalence which characterized all dealings with the stranger in the archaic world. The system itself involved a few rituals. The host was not to ask the identity of the guest until after they have eaten, bathed, rested and/or received gifts of monetary value. The gifts varied depending on the seeming status of the guest. abase class guests received only food, while higher classes received anything from jewels, to weapons to livestock. The Host/Guest relationship is one of the main virtues of the Homeric Greeks. It served as the alternate to marriage in forging bonds between rulers and there could have been no more dramatic test of its value in holding the meshing of relationships together than just such a cr... ... of either guest, nor host, the system of hospitality served as stability and protection in a time of suspicion and danger.BibliographyBeer, Josh, PhD. Lecture Epic, Carleton University Classics 2009, September 24th 2003.Beer, Josh, PhD. Lecture The Odyssey, Carleton University Classics 2009, October 29th 2003.Beer, Josh, PhD. Lecture The Odyssey, Carleton University Classics 2009, November fifth 2003.Finley, M. I. The World of Odysseus. Revised. Middlesex Penguin Books Ltd., 1967.Homer. The Odyssey. Walter Shewring, translator. New York Oxford University Press, 1980.Lang, Andrew. The World of Homer. London Longmans, Green, and Co., 1910.Seymour, Thomas Day. Life in the Homeric Age. New York Biblo and Tannen, 1963.Stagakis, George. Studies in the Homeric Society Wiesbaden Franz Steiner Verlag GMBH., 1975.