The perfect following of the rules of supplication and xenia are shown in Book 6 of Homer’s Odyssey. Odysseus has washed up on the shores of Phaeacia, naked and barely alive, he stumbles upon the daughter of king Alcinous, Nausicaa, who has bravely stood up to him and had not ran away like the other girls with her. At this point ‘Odysseus considered whether he should throw his arm around the beautiful girl’s knees and beg for help, or just keep his distance and beg her with all courtesy to give him clothing and direct him to the city.’ Through Odysseus’ thoughts we learn that in order to supplicate you must throw your arms around the persons legs and beg for help. This is the polite and civilized gesture. Through Odysseus’ actions we also learn that you must consider the person and their feelings before you jump into actions ‘he decided that the lady might take offence if he embraced her knees it would be better to keep his distance and courteously plead his case.’ We know Odysseus to be a thoughtful and courteous character at times and so the assumption can be made that he did the correct thing when he did not hug the young girl’s knees. From this we learn that similarly to xenia the rules of supplication are very flexible. As a person might do in modern times, when begging for something, a man in ancient Greek times would have to speak very courteously to the person that they are asking help from, this is the general polite rule and has applied throughout the ages for obvious reasons. We learn that they did this in ancient times when we look at Odysseus’ speech to Nausicaa ‘“princess I am at your knees. Are you some goddess or a mortal woman? If you are one of the gods who live in the wide heaven, it is of Artemis . . . that your beauty, grace and stature most remind of. But if you’re one of us mortals then thrice-blessed indeed are your father and lady mother . . . pity me princess. You are the first person I have met after all I have been through . . . Do direct me to the town and give me some rags to put around myself, if only the cloth wrappings you have brought when you came here. And may the gods grant your heart’s desire”’ Odysseus is a very clever man and so he knows how to use his words in order to supplicate properly. As we can see from his speech that supplication involves a lot of compliments and brownnosing the person you want help from. We can tell that Odysseus’ speech was very good in terms of supplication because even Nausicaa was impressed with it ‘” your manners show that you are not a bad man or a fool”’. After hearing Odysseus out Nausicaa proceeds to carry out the proper rules of xenia “this man is an unfortunate wanderer who has strayed here, and we must look after him . . . give him food and drink, girls, and bathe him in the river where there is shelter from the wind.” We can tell that through the proper use of the rules of supplication Odysseus has received what he was after and more. We learn from this example that if both the supplicant and suplicantee (inventing a term here) are civilized and know the proper rules of supplication and xenia then the process of supplication will be successful. This was one of the important lessons that can be leant from Homer’s Odyssey and it has hopefully taught many people the proper manners of supplication and xenia so that when they are in trouble and need help they will come across another person who knows the rules and so will be able to help them.
In homer’s Odyssey we do not only come cross the correct use of supplication and xenia but also the complete disregard for the rules, this usually comes from the ‘barbaric’ characters and so teaches the lesson that all civilized people follow the rules of supplication and xenia and those who don’t are uncivilized and most probably savage. A very good example of this comes from book 9 of homer’s Odyssey when Odysseus and his men have an encounter with the Cyclops. Weary from travels Odysseus and his men take shelter in Cyclops’ cave. When the Cyclops sees them he cries “strangers . . . who are you? Where do you come from over the watery ways? Is yours a trading venture; or are you cruising the main on chance, like roving pirates, who risk their lives to ruin other people?” Straight away the monster begins to disobey the rules of xenia and question his guests upon noticing them. In a desperate attempt to get the Cyclops to follow the proper rules of xenia and be nice to his guests Odysseus starts encouraging him to follow the rules of xenia warns him that if you disobey the rules then you are disobeying Zeus which can lead to a lot of trouble “we find ourselves suppliants at your knees, in the hope that you may give us hospitality… Zeus is the champion of suppliants and guests… guests are sacred to him, and he goes alongside them” the fear of disobeying Zeus would have made any sane man consider his actions twice but the ‘cruel brute’ ‘cares nothing for Zeus with his aegis’. The Cyclops completely goes against all rules of xenia and is extremely rude to his guests and then even eats some of them, this is obviously not hospitable behavior. Because of this he then suffers a terrible fate of having his only eye poked with a burning hot stick leaving him completely blind. This teaches the readers of the Odyssey that if you do not follow the correct rules of xenia then you will be punished for it later.
A further example of not following the rules of supplication and xenia can be seen in book 12. Odysseus warns his men not to set foot on the Island of the Sun as ‘the deadliest peril lurks there’ but after compromising with his men Odysseus agrees to spend the night on the island but he makes his men swear not to touch the cattle that lives on the island. As Zeus sent a storm towards Odysseus and his crew they were forced to stay on the island for longer. After their food supplies ran out Odysseus went ‘inland to pray to the gods in hope that one of them might show [him] a way of escape’ he walked and ‘found a place that was sheltered from the wind, washed [his] hands, made [his] supplications to the whole company of gods on Olympus.’ We can tell that Odysseus had followed the rules of supplication to the gods carefully and properly unlike his crew who behind his back has been disobeying him. When Odysseus was away the crew decided to take their chances and kill some of Hyperion’s cattle, in a desperate attempt to stop their own deaths they decided to make libations to the gods and ask them for forgiveness of this sin. But they did not follow the rules of libation and therefore supplication properly, they did not use barley in the ceremony but instead ‘some fresh leaves they stripped from a tall oak-tree’ they also had no wine so ‘they made libations with water’. When reading for omens the meat began to crawl and bad things began to happen, this meant obvious trouble but nevertheless the men continues feasting on the cattle of the god for six days unlike Odysseus who did not touch the meat. It is arguable that because Odysseus followed the proper rules of supplication, and his men didn’t, that he managed to survive the shipwreck that followed while all his crewmates died. Although other good factors about Odysseus’s personality helped him survive it is clear that following the rules of supplication meant that he was more favorable amongst the gods.
From reading the Odyssey we learn the correct rules of xenia and supplication and how to correctly apply them. We are also taught how useful the knowledge of supplication and xenia may be in a tricky situation. A further important lesson that is taught from the Odyssey is that disobeying the rules of supplication and xenia can get you into quite a lot of trouble.
