Xenos and the Hiketes (Suppliant)

Xenos and the Hiketes (Suppliant) in homer's Greece

The importance of the laws of hospitality in the ancient world differed a great deal of what today's reader might understand when considering the concept. The Homeric writings were estimated to have been created at around eight hundred BC. Homer's Greece was a place where the laws of hospitality were bearing a high degree of importance, being part of a larger frame of reciprocity. Gill, Postlethwaite and Seaford are considering that "the rule of reciprocity, that one gives of one's own accord, with the expectation that a suitable return will follow, was a powerful regulator of social behaviour at every stage of Greece's history" (Gill et alii, 51).

The first sign of guest friendship is shown in the Odyssey in Book 1. Athene, Zeus' daughter leaves the heights of Olympos for Ithaka, Ulysses home land. Her goal is to encourage him to take the fate of his family and father's kingdom into his own hands and get involved into the safe return of his father. The way Telemachos, Ulysses son welcomes her into his parents' house reminds one of the way guests were described as being received in the Old Testament. There is no sign of hospitality that is spared by Telemachos who goes to a great deal of effort to make Athene feel welcome. First of all, the author informs the reader about the only way considered right when receiving the visit of a stranger: "he saw Athene and went straight to the forecourt, the heart withing him scandalized that a guest should still be standing at the doors" (Odyssey, I, 115-120). As a guest, Telemachos was under the obligation to act according to the laws of hospitality and failure in doing so would have made him unsuitable as a citizen of Ithaka and a member of the ruling family. He is very well aware of his duties as a host and son of the king of Ithaka and does not hesitate to welcome his guest the proper way: "and he led her and seated her in a chair, with a cloth to sit on, the chair splendid and elaborate. For her feet there was a footstool. For himself he drew a painted bench next her, apart from the others, the suitors, for fear the guest, made uneasy by the uproar, might loose his appetite there, among overbearing people, and so he might also ask him about his absent father" (Odyssey, I, 130-135).

The author presents the signs of hospitality in detail, letting the reader know that there were actually at least two reasons for Telemachos' behavior. First, he was acting as the law of hospitality was requiring him to and second, he was expecting something in return. Athene was possibly bearing news about his beloved father and Telemachos was lavishing her with the finest in the house. Gill, Pestlethwaite and Seaford are mentioning Marshall Sahlin's three degrees of reciprocity: "the altruistic giving of 'generalized reciprocity', giving without obligation to return; 'balanced reciprocity', or quid pro quo; and 'negative reciprocity', taking without returning" (Gill et alii, 51). In the case of Telemachos receiving Athene, there seems to be the second case of "balanced reciprocity" involved. This case is the most often case met in the life of the ancient world and it is only the result of different social arrangements and relationships. Just as ancient as well as modern Jews were able to keep their ethnic identity throughout history because they always strictly abode by the sacred laws of hospitality, the ancient world, generally, was functioning because of such rules of reciprocity. Travelling and thus trading, a major characteristic of civilization, was enabled by this law resulted from reciprocity, which was the gust-friendship. Psychology explains that there is no such thing as a human action that is not expected to bring something in return. There are theories that are claiming that even what might appear the most altruistic action is actually followed by a good feeling of having done something good, righteous, etc.

A moral or material reward is supposed to be always involved in the way human being act and the ancient civilized world was more than bound to the laws of reciprocity in order to maintain a good functioning of its society. Classical Greece was the best example for how the propriety of guest-friendship worked and why it was so important to keep it working under any circumstances.

Another aspect of gust-friendship that is presented the reader in the first Book of the Odyssey is that of "negative reciprocity," the "taking without giving." As Telemachos explains the disguised Athene, the suitors to his mother's hand are acting as if there were a complete anarchy reining there. They are only taking and not giving anything in return. While the laws of hospitality are asking the hosts to present them with everything they own in order for the guests to feel comfortable, the lack of response from Telemachos' mother only increases the disorder in the house. The gusts are behaving as if they were entitled to take anything as they pleased and the situation is increasingly distressing for all the inhabitants of the house as well as for the whole population of Ithaka: but come now, tell me this and give me an accurate answer. What feast is this, what gathering? How does it concern you? A festival or a wedding? Surely, no communal dinner. How insolently they seem to swagger about in their feasting all through the house.; a serious man who came in among them could well be scandalized, seeing much disgraceful behaviour (Odyssey, I, 225-230). The lack of news from Ulysses and his wife's undecided way of acting towards to suitors who are guests at her house are throwing the house into disorder. The head of the house is missing and no one knows if he is still alive, thus the circumstances are ambiguous and lead to discomfort for those who are bound by the laws of hospitality to humor their guests indefinitely. His family cannot take the proper action because they do not know if they can morn and perform the proper rituals accompanying the loss of their king, father or husband and go on with their lives or act in his name because he is still alive and will return home at some point: "But now ingloriously the stormwinds have caught and carried him away, out of sight, out of knowledge, and he left pain and lamentation to me" (Odyssey, I, 240-245).

The laws of hospitality and the propriety of guest friendship manifested themselves in many ways. Book two reveals Telemachos' efforts to explain the assembly of suitors that he was in no position to drive his mother away from his father's house and return her to her father, his grandfather. It seems that as far as the host rights went in classical Greece, the only real hosts were the head of the house, the husband and his official male inheritor.

The next manifestation of guest friendship is presented in Book III. Telemachos, accompanied by a disguised Athene, leaves Ithaka with a crew of faithful men. Their first stop is at the city of Neleus, Pylos. Up their arrival, they witness the people from the city gathered to offer sacrifice to "the dark-haired Earthshaker" (Odyssey, III, 5-6). The propriety of guest friendship asks the hosts to invite Telemachos and Athene to join them in their prayers and offering and then to join them at the table. The two strangers are the first to pray upon Poseidon, Athene being given the honor to start. Only after the rituals have been performed and the strangers have been offered food, would the hosts ask them about thereabouts and the goals of their journey.

Nestor, the man who has reigned over three generations, as the reader is told, thus being almost an immortal, tells them the story of their return after the battle of Troy. Nestor offers Telemachos and his companions all the support he is able to, giving him advise and even material support in his quest of finding the truth about his father: "But go to him now, with your ship and your companions, or if you wish to go by land, here are horses and chariot, and here are my own sons at your own service, who will be your own escorts into shining Lakedaimon, the home of fair-haired Menelaos. You yourself must entreat him to speak the whole truth to you. He will not tell you any falsehood; he is too thoughtful" (Odyssey, III, 320-330).

The cities, poleis, of Greece were often at war with each other, but they were also able to unite for the same cause that benefitted them all. They needed to form ties and bond and alliances, even on a short-term basis, in order to achieve their goals, either in times of peace or war. Migration was quite ordinary in classical Greece and strangers happened to be very often in need for shelter and food. In addition to the diplomatic relationships established between the Greek poleis, in the frame of the political arena, there were also the alliances made between persons, usually high raking members of the ruling classes: "there was a fine-meshed network of personal relationships between prominent persons in the different cities based on 'guest friendship' (xenia): two friends (xenoi) from different poleis could promise to house and help each other when they were in the polis of wither of them" (Hansen, 127). This was the case of Telemachos receiving in Pylos. After he had exposed his intensions and the goals of his trip, Nestor offered him his advice and material support as a manifestation of the friendship and reciprocal aid the leaders of different Greek cities often used to give each other as a result of reciprocity.