Hospitality

Hospitality is a major theme throughout The Odyssesy. While there are two sides to hospitality, the good host but also the good guest, it is a concept that runs much deeper than the host/ guest dialect. There are many examples of hospitality, shown in both positive and negative light, throughout the poem. The first example is from Odysseus's son, Telemachus. He is the king's son and coming of age, on a journey to find information about his father in order to feel a connection with him. He witnesses and begins to understand both the value and ambiguousness of hospitality. He is taken in by many people, but it also holds him back at times.

Another example of hospitality in the epic poem is the suitor's who spend 20 years residing in the home of Odysseus and Penelope. They are horrible house guests, making a mess of their abode. While they were chasing after someone who already had a spouse and loving relationship, the question still stands of whether their greater offense was that they were suiting someone else's wife or that they were atrocious house guests.

This is a question that still stands today. People have house guests all the time and occasionally they do not know how to act themselves in a respectful manner. For example, a friend of mine from Norway was in the United States for a few weeks while I was on a cruise this summer. My family graciously let her stay in our house even though I was out of town, and she never cleaned her mess. After showering, she would place her hair clumps from the drain not into the trash can but on the shower rod. It was disgusting and she simply did not understand how to act as a social and pleasant house guest. If people do not learn this as they grow up it is difficult for them to adapt it later in life. Hospitality is something that must be learned and practiced from a young age.

Week One

Homer's The Odyssey portrays women as somewhat cunning and deceitful characters. They are often able to obtain what they desire through their sexuality, enchantment, and trickery. This is exemplified in almost every female character encountered throughout books one through six. From the very beginning, we see Athena taking forms other than her own self in order to make people see her in a way which they are likely to listen to and obey. Penelope, whose husband Odysseus has been gone for seven years, tricks her suitors whom she does not want to marry into believing that she will choose one of them when she finishes her tapestry, but unravels it every night so that time will never come. Calypso, the goddess who seduces Odysseus is able to use her sexuality and spellbinding voice to keep him there as long as she does, it is not without the help of Hermes, a god, that he is able to resist her and leave. Helen, who was born of Zeuss but raised by humans, is the most beautiful woman in the world and uses her beauty to get her way. For example, when Menelaus is about to kill her she drops her robe and he consequently drops his sword. Helen is essentially the reason why there even was the Trojan War. The women of the poem are viewed as cunning, powerful, and generally more deceptive than the men.

There are many questions surrounding why these women are portrayed as so strong. It is possible that while they lived in a male dominated society the men did not understand their mysterious ability to draw them in and hold their attention. The men felt powerless over the beauty and mind games of the women. The gray area which the men did not understand frightened them. For example, weaving was something that only the women knew how to do and taught one another. It was a symbol of their intimidating power and control. The women's ability to manipulate and influence the men was something greatly feared and even ruined lives. The men understood that beautiful women could harm them, but often times felt helpless.