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The Code Of Hospitality In Homer's Odyssey

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Hospitality is something the ancient Greeks thought highly of. They treated all their guests with honor and respect. Greeks treated their guests like this because this stranger could be a god in disguise. They believed that if one were to follow the hospitality code, you shall be rewarded. If you were to disregard the hospitality code, you will be punished. That is why you must be kind to every stranger, family member or friend that enters your home. Those who choose to disregard this will be punished in a terrible manner. In Homer's epic poem the Odyssey, Polyphemus, Calypso, and the suitors break the code of hospitality and are punished for their terrible actions towards their guest or host. Odysseus first arrives on Calypso's island. Calypso …show more content…

As he ventures on he ends up on the island of the Cyclops. Him and his men make the decision to enter the Cyclops's cave. Once they enter they find the Cyclops's delicious cheese. Odysseus and his men begin to devour the cheese. This is wrong, they are eating someone's special food without permission. The Cyclops then enters and asks Odysseus, who he is and why he is here. He tells the Cyclops his ship has been wrecked and his men are hurt. Polyphemus shows no care for the situation. He viewed Odysseus and his men as intruders. To show them how angry he is, Polyphemus does this “Then he dismembered them and maid his meal/ gasping and crunching like a mountain lion everything: innards, flesh and marrow bones” (9.195-198). The Cyclops savagely murdered Odysseus’s men. After he is done, Odysseus and his men make a plan to leave. There plan is to get the Cyclops drunk and stab his eye out, so he cannot see and they can escape. Once they got him drunk on the floor, Odysseus and his men drive a piece of tree into Polyphemus's eye. The Cyclops was screaming in pain. He eventually becomes calm and falls back to sleep. Morning comes and Polyphemus moves the stone slab that barricades the only escape. As he lets his cattle out to roam, Odysseus and the men slip out. Polyphemus does not notice due to his blindness. The men are almost free they have found their ship and are sailing away. Until Odysseus opens his big mouth and

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They begin by checking out the island to see if there is any danger, but they are caught. Odysseus then has to lie about the ship saying it had been destroyed. Then after his friends meet a terrible fate, he tells Polyphemus, the giant, his name is Nohbdy. After he stabs the cyclops in the eye, this leads him to say that nobody hurt him. After this Odysseus makes his escape, and is almost caught as they leave, so Odysseus taunts them, telling them his name and story.

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When a person goes through a trial, he or she faces a challenge and their characters are revealed through their actions as they try to overcome it. In the movie, The Odyssey, the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, leaves his queen Penelope on the island and goes off to battle in the Trojan War. Victorious after fighting in ten years of war, Odysseus announces that he conquered Troy alone, without the help of the gods. His hubris angers Poseidon, the god of the sea, who decides to punish him by making his return to Ithaca nearly impossible. This punishment brings forth many trials for Odysseus and his wife, Penelope.

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Odysseus’ greed and desire to be treated as king causes Polyphemus to become enraged and hold his guests hostage. Polyphemus also began to devour his guests two-by-two and put Odysseus in danger, at his own fault. In seeing his greed, the reader can determine that Odysseus does not care for his men but only himself and his well being. In the execution of his plan to blind the cyclops, Odysseus launched the burning olive branch into Polyphemus’ eye as hard as he possibly could. After he lugged the branch in his eye, Odysseus proceeded to twist the branch and completely burn and destroy the cyclops’ eye ([374-380]).

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As they keep going forward they come across the home of one of the cyclops named Polyphemus. Polyphemus asks why he and his men are here and how many more there are. Odysseus makes a smart move just in case of an emergency and says “Our ship was broken up on the rocks, I replied, thinking quickly. “We are the only survivors.” He says this just in case something goes wrong the cyclops would think that Odyyseus has nowhere

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On the Cyclopes' island, he was interested in meeting the owner of the cave who had such fine cheeses. However, his men only want to steal the cheese and leave hastily because there was an uneasiness about the cave. Nevertheless, he fixes upon staying and not soon after, the cyclops Polyphemus returns. He and his men are now in peril because of Odysseus' recklessness. The consequence of his decision is that shortly after Polyphemus devours most of his men but this bolsters him to conjure a plan to escape.

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When they made to Cyclopes’ land, Odysseus wants to find out if the men on the land believe “…wild savages with no sense of right or wrong or hospitable folk who fear the gods (l70 line).” Odysseus and his men enter one of the Cyclopes cave without his permission. Odysseus and his men ate all the Cyclopes food, drank his wine and took some the Cyclopes stock. Odysseus wanted to leave but he

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Hospitality and kindness played a major role in Greek society and this is clear throughout Homer’s writing. In his epic, The Odyssey, Homer creates two groups, those who are kind and hospitable, and those who are not. Those who are hospitable are respected and thought highly off, while those who violate the laws of kindness eventually end up punished. During his long and treacherous journey back home to Ithica, Odysseus experiences many forms of hospitality. Some of these shows of hospitality are need and generous, while others are not.

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An example is when Juliet kills herself after seeing that Romeo has killed himself. “What’s here? A cup, closed in my true love’s hand? Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end.—O churl, drunk all, and left no friendly drop To help me after? I will kiss thy lips.

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The concept of hospitality is clearly evident in society to this day. From the royal treatment of kings and queens to the warm welcomes shown by families, the Greek culture was no exception to this idea. As demonstrated in The Odyssey, a sense of respect was presented not only towards the Greek gods but also to the mortals themselves. Characters such as Odysseus rely on the hospitality of others for food, shelter, guidance and protection. Without it, many characters wouldn't have survived as they were often stranded in distant lands.

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