The Odyssey: Books 1-8

The Odyssey, while being a bit of a lengthy read, is also a very confusing one to me. While confused on the very first chapter, there were a few instances worth mentioning. Prior to reading the text, our class had been taught about the recurring themes in this text, the three being: Nostos, Kleos, and Xenia, also known as the journey home, glory, and hospitality. From the very first book, we see that xenia, hospitality, is very important in the story. Zeus, the god of all gods, made it law that guests are to be ‘pampered’ in a sense, fed and bathed during their time being there- even before introductions or messages are given. An instance of this can be seen with Odysseus’ son Telemakhos, where he invites Athena to a bath and to get rest in his home before she has to set sail again- keep in mind that this is upon first meeting her. As stated before, this is law for them. In our society, not many are like this, especially because it is not law. We can be kind enough to welcome a stranger into our home (though very few of us do- for good reason), but it is pretty much unheard of to offer a place to bathe and sleep for the night. We as people tend to be filled with mistrust towards others, but this does not seem to be the case here. Perhaps Zeus made this law to enforce kindness upon one another. Promoting kindness can prevent wars, and in general boost others’ attitudes and make people want to return the kindness. Seeing that they may have still been recovering from the Trojan war, kindness could be one step closer to total forgiveness and recovery.