Hospitality in 'The Odyssey of Homer' - A verse translation by Allen Mandelbaum

A guest in need enters a house, interrupting the host and his company during a feast. The guest believed to be a god or a beggar, either way is welcomed to feast and stay in the host's lavish house. Hospitality is an important reoccurring theme in the novel, The Odyssey by Robert Fitzgerald. Hospitality was seen as an important obligation in Ancient Greece, serving as a means of communication and often as a test for …

…an acceptable answer when a host is disrespectful to the conduct expected. Hospitality sometimes overwhelming, when neither wanted nor desired, is however a significant theme in The Odyssey. Through hospitality guest and host are able to trade tales, the reader learning a great deal through the important communication between a guest and host. The reoccurrence of hospitality portrays societies fear of the gods, however also emphasizes one of the only moral conducts in Ancient Greece.