Xenia In Homer's Odyssey

The ancient Greek code of hospitality xenia influenced the epic in various ways. The Phaeacians welcome Odysseus under this code. “’In accordance with our [Phaeacian] custom, let us make the immediate arrangements to escort him [Odysseus]’” (95). They followed with their custom and later saw him back to Ithaca. This influences the end of the epic greatly without the Phaeacians generous interpretation of xenia Odysseus would never have reached home and taken revenge on the suitors. Xenia was shown again when Telemachus welcomed Athene into his when she wore the guise of Mentes he fed her and asked about his father. She told him to go inquire about Odysseus’s fate. He does this and learns of no accounts of his father’s death so he was more apt
to believe Odysseus when he returned home. This allows the fight with the suitors to happen more quickly since no time was pent quarreling over Odysseus’s true identity. Finally there is the Suitor’s abuse of xenia. They take advantage of Odysseus’s absence and Telemachus’ youth to ravage Odysseus’s home. They also ignored warnings that are given to them to stop their abuse of the hospitality they were given. “Pallas Athene had fuddled the Suitor’s wits to such effect that they greeted Telemachus’ reply with peal after peal of uncontrollable laughter. But before long their laughing faces took on a strained and alien look. Blood was splattered on the food they ate. Their eyes filled with tears, their hearts with forebodings of grief”(275). They abused their privileges as guests and ignored the warnings given to them. This justified their deaths at the hands of Odysseus. Xenia played a great role in The Odyssey it influenced many events and the epic would no have been able to progress as it did without it.

Odysseus is very religious and this influences many events in the Odyssey.
The goddess Circe gave Odysseus a path to follow. He follows it without deviation this shows his trust in Circe as a goddess because he doesn’t try to do anything different like setting out on his own he also takes her advice about Charybdis and Scylla. Odysseus faces Scylla just like Circe suggested he trusts in the goddess because of this he gets to Ogygia and lives. He also shows trust in a goddess when he takes Leucothoe the White Goddess’s advice to “’Take off those clothes, leave your raft for the winds to play with, and swim for your life to the Phaeacian coast, where deliverance awaits you”’ (71). Odysseus ultimately takes this advice after some consideration and his life is not only saved but he gets an escort back to Ithaca from the Phaeacians. Lastly when Odysseus and his crew land on the island where the Sun God’s cows live he does not eat any of the cattle even after they were killed and the damage was done “’For six days my men feasted on the pick of the Sun’s cattle they had rounded up”’ (167). Odysseus alone from his crew is spared death. His devotion to his religion again saves his life and influences the events of the epic. Odysseus’s religiousness influences many plot events in the course of the
epic.