The Guest Host Relationship in Homer's Odyssey

This essay is about Xenia (guest host relationship) in The Odyssey. To make this essay more understandable it should be explained what Xenia is and what it meant to the ancient Greeks. The roads in ancient Greece were treacherous. One could be best by bandits or wild animals at any point of one’s journey. Traveling by sea was even more dangerous. It therefore was more than mere bad manners for a host not to treat his guest properly. It was customary for a host to offer his guest food and drink, a bath, clean clothes, and bedding for at least one night (sometimes a host would also give his guest gifts on his departure). Only thereafter can the host ask his guest who he is and where he is from. Zeus was considered as being the protector of guests and it was believed that anyone who broke the sacred contract of Xenia was insulting Zeus and that there was sure to be terrible consciousness for them, because of their actions. In this essay, I will explore some of the hosts in the Odyssey (namely Polyphemus, Calypso, and Nausicaa) and elaborate on whether they were bad or good hosts and why Homer chose to depict them as he did.

 

Polyphemus is the perfect example of an absolutely terrible host in The Odyssey. The cyclops would not concede to the laws of Xenia, because he considers himself as being above the gods and therefore above the laws of Xenia: “To come so far, and importune me with a god’s fear, or observed love! We Cyclops care not for your goat-fed Jove, nor other bless’d ones; we are better far. To Jove I bid open war.” Hom.od 9.381-386. Not only does Polyphemus not give Odysseus and his men what he should according to the rules of Xenia, he also goes even further down the road of being a terrible host by trapping Odysseus and his men in his cave and eating six them. Homer goes to extreme lengths to depict Polyphemus as being brutal and uncivilized: “He answered nothing, but rush’d in, and took two of my fellows up from earth, and strook their brains against it. Like two whelps they flew about his shoulders, and did all embrue the blushed earth. No mountain lion tore two lambs so sternly, lapp’d up all their gore gush’d from there torn-up bodies, limby limb (trembling with life yet) ravish’d into him both flesh and marrow-stuffed bones he eat, and even th’ uncleans’d entrails made his meat.” Hom.od 9.398-407. “Polyphemus eats his victims raw, not cooked on a spit. In almost all other versions of the folk-tale, the giant shepherd cooks his victims over a fire on a metal spit” (Schein, 1970:74). The fact that Polyphemus does not cook his victims makes him seem more primitive and brutish. Although he does have firewood at his disposal he does not use it took it to cook his meal he merely uses it for warmth. This shows the audience the Cyclops’s lack of intuition and resourcefulness and makes him seem even more primitive. This causes the audience to lose their sympathy with Polyphemus. Odysseus’s men suggested that they should ransack Polyphemus’s cave when they found it, but Odysseus proposed that they rather should wait for the cave's owner to arrive and rely on him to give them some of his belongings as Xenia demands he should. Odysseus resembles the perfect guest and Polyphemus therefore has no right to treat Odysseus and his followers in the way he does. Odysseus is forced to concoct a plan which involves blinding the Cyclops to escape from the cave. If Polyphemus had merely conceded to the laws of Xenia he would never have lost his eye.

 

Calypso might not have been as terrible a host as Polyphemus, but she is an example of someone who follows the Xenia code but for her own benefit. Although Calypso gives Odysseus everything Xenia demands her to give to him she still does not give Odysseus what he wants and truly needs: She does not allow him to leave here island and return home to his home island Ithaca. She had ulterior motives, to being a good host. She desired Odysseus and kept him on her island as her lover. This might not be the only reason why she obeyed the laws of Xenia. Another reason might have been because she was afraid of the vengeance Zeus might inflict on her if she did not obey these laws. We can see this at the start of book 5 when Hermes tells her that Zeus commands her to let Odysseus go: “To strive with Jove’s will, or make it vain – no not if all the gods should strain their pow’rs against it – let he will be law.” Hom.od 5.185-187. More of Calypso's characteristics as a host is revealed through the distrust Odysseus shows distrust towards her when Calypso tells him that she would allow him to leave his island: “O goddess, thy intents prefer some other project than my parting hence, coming things of too high consequence from my performance, that myself should build a ship of power, my home-assays to shield against the great sea of such of such dread to pass; which not the best-built ships that ever was will pass exulting, when such winds as Jove can thunder up their r=trims and tackling prove. But could I build one, I would ne’er abroad, thy will oppos’d – nor, won, without thy word giv’v in the great oath of the gods to me, not to beguile me in the las degree.“ Hom.od 5.225-237. In ancient Greece, Xenia was used as a way of creating bonds between family. The fact that Odysseus shows distrust towards Calypso proves that she has not succeeded as a host even though she had followed all the rules of Xenia. She found a loophole in the laws of Xenia: The laws state that she should keep her guest for a minimum of one night, but no law says that says how long the guest should stay. Calypso used this to her advantage and prevented Odysseus from leaving her island.

 

Naursicaa is an example of the perfect host in the Odyssey. She provides Odysseus with everything she can at the time of their meeting. She gives him clothes, food something to drink, and a bath. She has given him everything Xenia demands her to give to him save from a place to sleep and a gift, but both these things are not within her power in this given time. She then goes a step further by offering Odysseus advice on how to supplicate her parents. Odysseus takes this advice without question and follows it to the letter. He is not at all suspicious of her having ulterior motives like he is with Calypso. “No person - absolutely no person at all – in the entire Odyssey finds the hero at such a low ebb in his fortunes and in such a state of leisurelessness.” (Riddehough,1955:53): Even though Odysseus appears to Nausicaa in such a terrible state she still doesn’t shy away from him, but instead offers him all the help she can. Any other person might have taken advantage of his vulnerability or have stayed away from him because of it. When Odysseus appears from the pile of leaves all Nausicaa’s maids flee from him. Only Nausicaa remains steady and fast in his presence. This is a clear indication of her bravery above others. Nausicaa stands firm and is determent to help the stranger in any way she can. She also encourages her maids to come back so they can aid Odysseus and treat him Odysseus in the proper manner. Unlike Polyphemus and Calypso Nausicaa was not thinking of what she might gain out of this situation. She helped Odysseus although he appeared to her completely naked and without any worldly goods. She had absolutely nothing to gain through helping him. She helped him entirely out of goodwill.

 

Upon looking back at this essay one would notice bad things tend to happen to those hosts who treat their guests badly and good things tend to come to those who treat their guests in a good manner. To the ancient Greeks there therefore would have been a lesson in Homer's Odyssey. Homer uses the Odyssey to emphasize the importance of Xenia to the ancient Greeks. Homer's Odyssey was and is something a lot more than a mere story about a man and his return home. It is an intricate work of art which surpasses many of our modern texts. The Odyssey is a true relic that reminds us that the ancients were nowhere near as simple as modern people preserve them to have been.

Reference List

Schein, S.L. 1970. Odysseus and Polyphemus in the Odyssey. :73-83

Brown, C.S. 1966. Odysseus and Polyphemus_ The Name and the Curse. 18(3): 193-202

Riddehough, G.B. 1955 The Nausicaa episode in the Odyssey. 32(6): 53-55

Chapmen, G. 1616. The Odyssey Homer. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited.

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