The Homeric ideal of hospitality is very much a central figure of the Odyssey. Hospitality is a lost art in our modern individualistic society. While we think we are being hospitable if we lay some crackers and cheese out for guests or make sure we have clean sheets on the bed, we find a much more colorful sense of hospitality in the Homeric epics. When Telemachos visits Menelaus and Nestor, he is greeted warmly, given rich gifts and fed with succulent food – and all of this is before anyone even asks his name or his business. When Odysseus is stranded naked on Phaiacia, he is treated to clothes, a warm fire and a meal. Again no one even knows who he is when this takes place. Even Eumaios, the swineherd, knows it is his duty to be hospitable. When Odysseus, disguised as a old beggar, shows up at Eumaios’ home he feeds him, bringing in “the best of the pigs” (Hom. Od. xiv.414) and giving Odysseus the best portion of the feast “in honor” (xiv.437).
By obvious contrast we see the lack of hospitality in the cave of Polyphemus and the behavior of the suitors. Polyphemus locks his visitors in the cave and devours them one by one even after Odysseus has pleaded with him to be hospitable and “give us guest presence or otherwise / some gift of grace, for such is the right of strangers” (ix.267-268). Polyphemus declares he has no concern for the traditions of the gods or men. In like manner, the suitors treat Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, badly and shun him at the hearth rather than making him comfortable.
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