Discuss the importance of hospitality as a theme in the Odyssey

The first 200 words of this essay...

Discuss the importance of hospitality as a theme in the Odyssey

In the Odyssey there are many examples of how hospitality is shown, in many different ways, some good and some not so pleasing. In this essay I will hopefully cover all these points and explain all of these in detail. Greeks believed that any person who turns up at your door should feed, clothe and bathe them without even needing to know there name assuming they are in need of help. This is called reciprocal hospitality; this means that you look after the person who turns up at your door in need, so that when you are in need the person whose door you turn up at will accept you in the same way. This is what Homer the "writer" of this book is trying to portray; a Greece a few hundred years back where everyone was friendly and great adventures happened with great heroes like Odysseus. In this way Homer used a lot of hospitality to persuade people to return to the way things were back in the day of heroes and adventure.

The first instance of hospitality we find is when Odysseus washes