The Odyssey, Hospitality

In Homer’s the Odyssey, the theme of hospitality continues to arise at every step of our hero’s journey. In the story we can see that the Ithacans highly respect the virtue of hospitality. In the first book we are confronted with this idea when we are told that Odysseus’s home is being bombarded by unwanted suitors looking to take over his kingdom. Penelope and Telemachus (Odysseus’s wife and son), unable to drive them away, have no choice but to be hospitable and let the suitors stay.

While away at sea Odysseus and his crew are shown an impressive amount of hospitality from the Phaeacians, to Aeolus, to Calypso. However, almost everyone who shows our hero any type of hospitality ends up worse off because of it. The Phaeacians, who are the most generous to Odysseus, end up being killed as punishment for their hospitality toward Odysseus in book 13:

Alas! The prophecies my father used to make so long ago have come to pass. He’d say Poseidon would get angry with us, because we conduct all men in safety. He claimed that one day, as a splendid ship of the Phaeacians was returning home, after a convoy on the misty seas, Poseidon would strike her and then throw up a huge mountain range around our city. That’s what the old man said. And now all this is taking place. But come, let all of you attend to what I say. You must now stop escorting mortal men when any man comes to our city. And let’s sacrifice twelve choice bulls as offerings to Poseidon, so he’ll take pity and not ring our city with a lofty mountain range.

Despite the fact the Greek gods are supposed to believe in its virtue and respect it, Zeus puts his feelings towards being hospitable aside because Poseidon is angry at Odysseus for blinding his son (an action that was provoked due to the fact that his son, Polyphemus, would not upholds the Ithaca’s long-standing tradition of hospitable conduct and goes so far as to mock it). Calypso takes in Odysseus after being shipwrecked, cares for him and falls in love with him. In return for opening her home and her heart she is forced to give up her beloved Odysseus to appease the will of Zeus in book 5. And while at first Aeolus shows Odysseus hospitality by providing him with a bag of winds to return home, when he returns after having lost the bag, Aeolus is convinced he has been cursed by the gods and refuses to give him anymore help. This can be viewed as his saving grace as nothing bad seems to come to him after turning him away.

So if hospitality is seen as such an important virtue in Ithaca’s society, why does homer bring upon an ill fate to almost everyone who displays it? Is this Homer’s critique of the overly welcoming and trusting Greeks? Or does he do this to demonstrate how cunning Odysseus is and how good he is at getting his way even at the cost of others? Regardless of what you believe Homer’s stance is on the subject, do you believe that we should welcome thy neighborhood or turn our backs in distrust and in the name of self-preservation?