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jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
reading comments on themes in “The Odyssey”:
“Hospitality and Divine Justice
Hospitality, or xenia, is treated almost as a sacred law overseen by Zeus, requiring hosts to welcome and care for strangers regardless of their identity. Those who honor this code, like the Phaeacians and the sorceress Circe, are rewarded and aid Odysseus’s journey, while violators are punished—Odysseus blinds the Cyclops Polyphemus for refusing hospitality, and the suitors are slaughtered for abusing Penelope’s household. This theme reflects the ancient Greek belief that how one treats guests reveals one’s fundamental morality.”