The Odyssey of Homer is considered one of the world's most famous epic poems. An epic is a lengthy narrative poem that is centered on a heroic figure who express the values of a culture or civilization. These values in Greek society are hospitality and home, which can also be said to be major themes in this epic. The Odyssey of Homer is revolved around the protagonist Odysseus's homecoming. Throughout Odysseus's adventure home he encounters variations of hospitality that affect his homecoming by making it both pleasurable and difficult.
The main plot of The Odyssey is to get to get the main character, Odysseus, back home to Ithaka. At the beginning of the epic he is stuck on Kalypso’s island with no way of getting off. Homer gives the first …show more content…
In this situation, Telemachos has a number of unwelcome suitors staying in his home. The suitors are there for Penelope, Odysseus's wife, to win her hand in marriage. Odysseus has been gone for so long the suitors think that she should marry one of them because they do not believe he is going to come back. In the era of Homer women did not have a lot of rights or a lot of power in the household, they were expected to be married and since Odysseus was gone Penelope was left without a husband. However, Penelope does not plan on marrying any of the suitors because she believes Odysseus is still alive and is waiting for his return. The suitors in this situation are clearly unwanted and have overstayed their welcome, nonetheless Telemachos stays hospitable to them. He shows hospitality in various situations throughout the epic such as housing, feeding, and entertaining them. The first time Telemachos shows hospitality is when Athene comes to his home disguised as an old man. The moment Telemachos spots Athene he is immediately …show more content…
It is mostly the characters who are considered monsters who do not show hospitality, those monsters being Kalypso, Polyphemos, Cerci, the Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis. Kalypso was previously mentioned as being hospitable, however it is not hospitable to make guests stay against their will, which is what she did to Odysseus. She is the only exception to both succeed and fail at hospitality. Polyphemos, the Cyclops, is the second inhospitable monster introduced in the epic. In this situation Odysseus and his men sail to the land of Cyclopes and end up in a cave because they decide to gather food from it. When the owner of the cave, Polyphemos, returns he eats his guests rather than welcome them. He kills and eats Odysseus's men in the utmost brutal way possible when he "caught up two together and slapped them, like killing puppies,/against the ground, and the brains ran all over the floor, soaking/the ground" (9.289-291). Polyphemos is brutal, arrogant and has no respect for hospitality. Circe is another monster that lacks hospitality. Although she is not eating her guests like Polyphemos, she is doing what would be considered as the next worse thing; she serves her guests poisoned food then turns them into pigs. Circe puts on a show of being hospitable by inviting Odysseus' men in and feeding them, however poisoning their food shows a
The main plot of The Odyssey is to get to get the main character, Odysseus, back home to Ithaka. At the beginning of the epic he is stuck on Kalypso’s island with no way of getting off. Homer gives the first …show more content…
In this situation, Telemachos has a number of unwelcome suitors staying in his home. The suitors are there for Penelope, Odysseus's wife, to win her hand in marriage. Odysseus has been gone for so long the suitors think that she should marry one of them because they do not believe he is going to come back. In the era of Homer women did not have a lot of rights or a lot of power in the household, they were expected to be married and since Odysseus was gone Penelope was left without a husband. However, Penelope does not plan on marrying any of the suitors because she believes Odysseus is still alive and is waiting for his return. The suitors in this situation are clearly unwanted and have overstayed their welcome, nonetheless Telemachos stays hospitable to them. He shows hospitality in various situations throughout the epic such as housing, feeding, and entertaining them. The first time Telemachos shows hospitality is when Athene comes to his home disguised as an old man. The moment Telemachos spots Athene he is immediately …show more content…
It is mostly the characters who are considered monsters who do not show hospitality, those monsters being Kalypso, Polyphemos, Cerci, the Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis. Kalypso was previously mentioned as being hospitable, however it is not hospitable to make guests stay against their will, which is what she did to Odysseus. She is the only exception to both succeed and fail at hospitality. Polyphemos, the Cyclops, is the second inhospitable monster introduced in the epic. In this situation Odysseus and his men sail to the land of Cyclopes and end up in a cave because they decide to gather food from it. When the owner of the cave, Polyphemos, returns he eats his guests rather than welcome them. He kills and eats Odysseus's men in the utmost brutal way possible when he "caught up two together and slapped them, like killing puppies,/against the ground, and the brains ran all over the floor, soaking/the ground" (9.289-291). Polyphemos is brutal, arrogant and has no respect for hospitality. Circe is another monster that lacks hospitality. Although she is not eating her guests like Polyphemos, she is doing what would be considered as the next worse thing; she serves her guests poisoned food then turns them into pigs. Circe puts on a show of being hospitable by inviting Odysseus' men in and feeding them, however poisoning their food shows a