Tasmia chowdhury

English 2800

There are two constant conflict that urges us to live in the society’s rule which are civilized and savage. The drive to live by our own rules and do what might seem right is attitude of civilized. On the other hand our savage part comes out of our selfish needs and harm other for our own benefit. In Odyssey by homer the main character Odyssey faces a lot of challenges by civilized and savage people on his way to home. We also see the important of hospitality in ancient Greek, throughout his journey he received different types of hospitality from each of the place he visited. Great hospitality from land of Phaeacians was completely different that hospitality from Lotus eater, Cyclopes, Circe and Aiolia which shows the boundary between civilized and savage. The presence of good hospitality make different between savage and civilized people because it highlights which character is moral and civilized. On the other hand bad hospitality implies that the characteristic is not moral and more likely savage, so through hospitality boundary between civilized and savage can be found.

When Odysseus and his crew were trapped in Polyphemus’s cave, they became at the same time both his guest and his dinner. When  Odysseus told him they were Greeks and blown off by wind on their way to home from troy and ask him for gift and selter since it was a tradition that time and respect the gods .the Cyclopes answered him , “You dump , stranger ,or from far away, If you ask me to fear the gods. Cyclopes don’t care about Zeus or aegis or the blessed gods since we are much stronger. I wouldn’t spare you or your men out of the fear of Zeus.”(Book 9-270) Instead of welcoming them he behaved badly with them and show his arrogant attitude saying he doesn’t fear god, even made some of them his dinner. Even though Odysseus wasn’t so kind or polite with Cyclopes at the end but if Cyclopes would show them hospitality then Odysseus wouldn’t make him blind too. Cyclopes was killing them and Odysseus tried to protect himself and his crew from being his dinner by hitting his eyes.at the end of their journey in cyclops’s land Odysseus  said, “so , Cyclopes, it turns out it wasn’t a coward, whose who you murdered and ate in you cave ,you savage. But you got yours in the end.”(Book 9-475). The god fearless Cyclopes got his eye blind by odysseys as a punishment of being savage to them.

Odysseus reached the place of Alcinous and told queen Arete about his story and ask them to help him to get his home, that’s when we the perfect screen of hospitality. They helped him with food and cloths and did everything to entertain him. The king Alcinous said, “This Stranger has come to my house …he ask for passage home and ask us to set a firm time for departure. Let us speed him on his way, as we have always done”. Here we see the hospitality ritual of that country how the welcome and entertain all the stranger and that was their culture. As we can see, this was not a random , but a well-managed gathering and arranged all kind of entertainments order to show their gratitude and appreciation. The Phaeacian respect the will of Zeus, who is the god of stranger, and help the Stranger like Odyssey. They made Odysseus feel as homely as possible before sending him home.

The Phaeacian’s way of life is just the opposite of Cyclopes. The Phaeacians live in a life where everything works together as structured whole. They have lawful society, hospitality culture which is something that the Cyclopes as a whole lack. The most important institute of Phaeacian civilization is their assembly. The men not only come together in assembly to discuss the law or order, but they also participate in each other’s pleasure, celebrated the feast with food, drink, game and dancing. However they weren’t busy only pleasuring themselves like the Cyclopes who made his dinner by killing his guest. Homer described how Phaeacians was indulge in “ pears and pomegranates, apple tree with glossy fruit, sweet figs and olives” they cultivates food and eat those .On the other hand The Cyclopes are so primitive that they even lack the firming and cultivation. “the Cyclopes, a fierce, lawless people…never lift a hand to plant or plough but just leave everything to the immoral gods”. Unlike the Cyclops who walls themselves inside their own caverns and has no interest in their neighbor’s affairs, the civilized Phaeacians are so proud to come out to revel in each other’s company. The actively encourage the art of story telling and conversation. Moreover the Phaeacians are also god fearing people who are kind to the strangers along their way, this attribute separates them from savage, arrogant attitude that the Cyclopes has to the strangers.