Xenia

"Jupiter and Mercurius in the house of Philemon and Baucis" by Peter Paul Rubens: Zeus and Mercury, testing a village's practice of hospitality, were received only by Baucis and Philemon, who were rewarded while their neighbors were punished.

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Xenia (Greek: ξενία, xenía) is the Greek concept of hospitality, or generosity and courtesy shown to those who are far from home. It is often translated as "guest-friendship" (or "ritualized friendship") because the rituals of hospitality created and expressed a reciprocal relationship between guest and host.

The Greek god Zeus sometimes referred to as Zeus Xenios, meaning he was god of, among other things, travelers. This created a particular religious obligation to be hospitable to travelers, but guests also had responsibilities, beyond reciprocating hospitality.

Overview

Xenia consists of from guest to host, and the parting gift (xenion, ξεινήιον) from host to guest. The host must be hospitable to the guest and provide them with food and drink and a bath, if required. It is not polite to ask questions until the guest has stated their needs. The guest must be courteous to their host and not be a burden. The parting gift is to show the host's honor at receiving the guest. This was especially important in the ancient times when people thought gods mingled amongst them. If you had played host to a deity (a concept known as theoxenia) and performed poorly, you would incur the wrath of a god.

The policy of xenia also includes the protection of travelling bards. They would receive hospitality in the form of a place to sleep, food, and often an assortment of gifts in turn for entertainment and news from other parts of the ancient world. The safety of these bards was believed to have been secured by the aegis-wielding Zeus, and any violation of xenia would put the violator at the mercy of either Zeus or any lower god that he saw fit to enforce the unwritten code.

In the Iliad

The Trojan war described in the Iliad of Homer actually resulted from a violation of xenia. Paris was a guest of Menelaus but seriously transgressed the bounds of xenia by abducting his host's wife, Helen. Therefore the Achaeans were required by duty to Zeus to avenge this transgression, which as a violation of xenia was an insult to Zeus's authority.

In the Odyssey

Xenia is an important theme in Homer's Odyssey. Every household in the epic is seen alongside xenia. Odysseus's house is inhabited by suitors with demands beyond the bounds of xenia. Menelaus and Nestor's houses are seen when Telemachus visits. There are a number of other households observed in the epic, including those of Circe, Calypso, and the Phaeacians. The Phaeacians, and in particular Nausicaa, were famed for their immaculate application of xenia, as the princess and her maids offered to bathe Odysseus and then led him to the palace to be fed and entertained, however Polyphemus showed lack of Xenia and refused to honour the traveller's requests, instead eating some of Odysseus' men. It should be noted, however, that because Odysseus was indirectly responsible for Poseidon's sinking one of their ships, the Phaeacians resolved to be less trusting of subsequent travelers.

See also

• Xenos (Greek)
• Xenia, Ohio

References

• Some of this material comes from lectures by Dr. Elizabeth Vandiver, recorded and distributed by The Teaching Company.