Xenia and Odysseus' Homecoming

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the elaborate ancient customs of hospitality, "xenia", established in the society of Odysseus' time. It maintains that these customs are crucial to understanding the methods by which the marginalized individual was reintegrated into the center. These social codes provided a means by which an individual could construct his social identity and define the interrelationship between the culture's participants. The paper takes a look at how Odysseus' voyage brings him into contact with alien cultural practices that he must navigate through in order to return home, entailing no small understanding of the functions of both society and the ways of the gods. The paper concludes that, as the foundational structure of Greek society, Odysseus' reestablishment of his position in the family yields a confirmation of the individual's identity and functions in parallel with the ritual of "xenia" as a symbol of identification within the community.

From the Paper:

"Upon his return to Ithaca, Odysseus faces a complicated social situation that requires he bring to bear all the knowledge of social customs he has learned throughout his long and varied voyage. Warned against the treachery of women by Agamemnon's tale in book eleven, and having to somehow overcome a house full of suitors for his wife's hand who would gladly see him dead, it is the ritual principles of hospitality that provide the means to reclaim his place in society. "Xenia functions as a unifying principle by virtue of its capacity to as a ritual both to incorporate Odysseus into his household and simultaneously to continue his estrangement from it." Through this concept Odysseus is able to disguise himself and reenter his familial space to witness the situation and decide what actions will be necessary to reestablish himself there, thus avoiding Agamemnon's fate and the threat of the suitors."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fitzgerald (New York: Vintage Classics, 1990).
• Katz, Marylin A., Penelope's Renown. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1991).
• Levy, Harry L., "The Odyssean Suitors and the Host-Guest Relationship," Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 94 (1963): pp. 145-153.
• Olmsted, Wendy, "On the Margins of Otherness: Metamorphosis and Identity in Homer, Ovid, Sidney, and Milton," New Literary History, Vol. 27, #2, Spring 1996: pp. 167-184.
• Thalmann, William G., The Odyssey: An Epic of Return. (New York: Twayne, 1992).

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