Order and Disorder: Aspects of Homeric Hospitality

Abstract

Homeric hospitality is a total social phenomenon in which interactions with the 'other' are regulated to maintain social order and to confer mutual benefits on guest and host alike. The theatre of social interactions in Homeric society is the oikos. The underpinning principles of paradigmatic hospitality are respect by guest and host for the role of the other and willing co-operation in fulfilling these roles. The principles reflect divine impetus, which is expressed in themis, and the social necessity of dealing with the ambiguity of the stranger. Transgressions of hospitality are of concern to the gods, notably Zeus Xeinios, because such disrespect represents a threat to order which has a cosmic dimension. Hence, transgressors incur divine displeasure, and corrective action is needed. In the Odyssey this falls to Odysseus: he kills the Suitors in an act of personal revenge, in which he becomes an instrument of divine punishment. I explore the Homeric meta theme of the restoration of order through hospitality which plays out as the key driver of complicating action and as a thematic and structural anchor in the Odyssey, my primary focus. Hospitality colours in the background to the Iliad, but it comes to the fore on occasion, notably in Priam's visit to Achilles. The restoration of order in the Odyssey is observed at a societal level through Odysseus' nostos. Key findings are the identification of the podalic motif of disrespect and the significance of the seer Theoklymenos in his own right as a refugee. Order is restored in the Iliad at an individual level through the resolution of Achilles' wrath, in which the transformation of ransom into hospitality is crowned by Achilles' repurposing part of the ransom for Hektor's body into a xeineion for Priam. This study offers new insights into the Homeric epics and makes an ancient-world contribution to the expanding multi-disciplinary field of hospitality studies. Show more