The Role Of Travel Over Hosting In Homer's Odyssey

In Homer’s novel, the Odyssey, many people travel, the name of the book itself means “journey”. In ancient Greece, a person famed for their intelligence, wealth or strength, was a hero. These were qualities people gained through slaying monsters or conquering foreign lands. However, to become a hero, one must travel and give up being a host which was another major value to the Greeks. People became heroes and gained wealth through travel in the Odyssey, showing that ancient Greeks valued journeying over staying home and being a host.

One important character who values travel over hosting is Athena, goddess of wisdom. Athena calls Telemachus to travel and tells him to, “Fit out a ship with twenty oars, the best in sight, sail in quest for your long-lost father” (1.322-323). When Athena tells Telemachus to sail away, she puts his journey above his duties of being a host to the suitors. Later on, Athena also tells Telemachus, “You must not cling to your boyhood any longer” (1.341). By saying this, Athena tells Telemachus to go and become a man and make his name in the world through his travels. If the goddess of wisdom values travel over hosting, how can those same values not reflect on the Greeks.

Telemachus

During his many travels, Odysseus visited the Phaeacians and when the time came he introduced himself, “I am Odysseus, son of Lartes, known to the world for every kind of craft- my fame has reached the skies” (9.21-22). Being known across the world for courage or cleverness marks a hero, bearing those marks, Odysseus is a hero. Before he introduces himself though, Odysseus asks the bard Demodocus to “Sing of the wooden horse… the cunning trap that good Odysseus brought one day to the heights of Troy” (8.53-54). If Odysseus had stayed at home, he would not have fought at Troy and then would not have become a hero; if travel was the best way to become a hero, the Greeks likely valued it