1 00:00:04,094 --> 00:00:10,001 We've crossed the threshold with Odysseus. He's making his way through this 2 00:00:10,001 --> 00:00:14,090 extraordinarily wealthy palace. He gets over close to Arete and Alcinous, 3 00:00:14,090 --> 00:00:19,033 the queen and the king. The fog lifts her around him and he makes 4 00:00:19,033 --> 00:00:21,080 his lunge. And grabs the queen's knees. 5 00:00:21,080 --> 00:00:24,095 That seems kind of strange. This is bizarre behavior. 6 00:00:25,013 --> 00:00:29,061 Why is that someone just walks up to someone else and grabs hold of their 7 00:00:29,061 --> 00:00:32,070 knees? Well, he's engaging in a Greek custom that 8 00:00:32,070 --> 00:00:35,027 gives him instant status. As a guest friend. 9 00:00:35,027 --> 00:00:39,092 To grab hold of someone's need makes you their suppliant and they then owe you 10 00:00:39,092 --> 00:00:44,098 guest friendship and then they owe you the kind of hospitality that is required of 11 00:00:44,098 --> 00:00:49,016 great Greek person to give to someone who's one of those guest friends. 12 00:00:49,016 --> 00:00:53,068 Now to become a guest friend is a good thing and it entitles you all kind of 13 00:00:53,068 --> 00:00:57,027 stuff of the, of your hosts, if your hosts of good hosts. 14 00:00:57,027 --> 00:01:01,004 If your hosts of bad hosts you never know what you're going to get. 15 00:01:01,021 --> 00:01:05,010 But good hosts demonstrate how good they are by their hospitality. 16 00:01:05,010 --> 00:01:09,478 This hospitality is not just any kind. It's a special, overwhelming kind of 17 00:01:09,478 --> 00:01:12,966 hospitality. In Greek, they gave it a special word. 18 00:01:12,966 --> 00:01:16,203 It's called, xenia, there written in the Greek characters. 19 00:01:16,203 --> 00:01:20,984 If you wanna try to pronounce it's, zenia is just fine, as if it starts with a Z. 20 00:01:20,984 --> 00:01:25,436 Or even to get a little bit fancier, you can pronounce it with a. 21 00:01:25,436 --> 00:01:28,441 Ks sound at the beginning. Xenia. 22 00:01:28,441 --> 00:01:31,696 Think of taxi without the ta at the beginning. 23 00:01:31,696 --> 00:01:35,531 Xenia. And this gives you it, it, it labels a 24 00:01:35,531 --> 00:01:38,752 custom of extraordinary, overwhelming hospitality. 25 00:01:38,752 --> 00:01:43,967 If a person washes up on someone else's shore, that, the, the, other person whose 26 00:01:43,967 --> 00:01:48,867 shore is being washed up on. Owes that, that guest who was a stranger 27 00:01:48,867 --> 00:01:52,013 to their household overwhelming hospitality. 28 00:01:52,013 --> 00:01:57,989 Now, the hospitality is the not just, you know, giving the person a drink of water, 29 00:01:57,989 --> 00:02:02,015 patting them on the back, and sending them on their way. 30 00:02:02,015 --> 00:02:07,725 It is something that is a, a sacred right. It's an important central component of, 31 00:02:07,725 --> 00:02:13,464 of, of aristocratic Greek behavior. Visitors are thought to come from Zeus, we 32 00:02:13,464 --> 00:02:17,491 hear in book seven. Suppliant's rights are sacred, we hear. 33 00:02:17,491 --> 00:02:20,377 The prominent Phoenician in book seven, page. 34 00:02:20,377 --> 00:02:24,764 Pages 184 and -five sets down and lays down the whole law, saying, we got to 35 00:02:24,764 --> 00:02:28,303 watch out for this, yes. We got to be really nice to these, to 36 00:02:28,303 --> 00:02:31,308 these guests because that's a sacred duty of ours. 37 00:02:31,308 --> 00:02:35,744 The need to be hospitable is also mentioned by Nausicaa to her maidens on 38 00:02:35,744 --> 00:02:40,244 page 175 in the Fagles translation. She's saying, come on, we got to be nice 39 00:02:40,244 --> 00:02:43,932 to this person. We got to make sure that we give some 40 00:02:43,932 --> 00:02:47,352 hospitality here, food and whatever we can because it's necessary. 41 00:02:47,352 --> 00:02:51,025 These strangers come from Zeus. Zeus oversees this whole region. 42 00:02:51,025 --> 00:02:55,319 It's a further marker of just how important it is. 43 00:02:55,319 --> 00:03:03,218 Now, the hospitality, is thought to answer to a scale, where. 44 00:03:03,218 --> 00:03:07,002 Always, more is better. The more lavish. 45 00:03:07,002 --> 00:03:12,258 The more extravagant you can offer. Gifts you can offer your stranger the more 46 00:03:12,258 --> 00:03:16,475 you're practicing xenia. And also at the same time conversely the 47 00:03:16,475 --> 00:03:21,580 more you demonstrate yourself to be one of the great people that's capable of giving 48 00:03:21,580 --> 00:03:25,765 all kinds of great stuff to someone else. So it's performative as well. 49 00:03:25,765 --> 00:03:30,123 You demonstrate your own status by your ability to give lavish gifts. 50 00:03:30,123 --> 00:03:35,485 So you might start with food and a chance to, for the person to wash themselves. 51 00:03:35,485 --> 00:03:40,406 Then there'll be new clothes and a bed, and why don't you stay with us and we'll 52 00:03:40,406 --> 00:03:44,561 hold a massive feast for you. We'll slaughter many dozens of expensive 53 00:03:44,561 --> 00:03:46,802 animals. We'll hold games in your honor. 54 00:03:46,802 --> 00:03:51,520 We'll invite people from all around our community, come in the tens and hundreds 55 00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:56,060 to join us in celebrating you, a stranger, whoever you are, and take a 100 golden 56 00:03:56,060 --> 00:04:00,601 tripods if you like and why don't you marry my daughter and come and inherit my 57 00:04:00,601 --> 00:04:03,731 kingdom? These are all things that you're supposed 58 00:04:03,731 --> 00:04:08,323 to do on the scale of xenia. You just offer overwhelming stuff to the 59 00:04:08,323 --> 00:04:12,737 person, to the point where it's almost embarrassing, too much is better than 60 00:04:12,737 --> 00:04:16,718 enough. And the more you do the better person you 61 00:04:16,718 --> 00:04:19,913 are. So, all of this is happening, while, at 62 00:04:19,913 --> 00:04:24,251 the same time, we don't get anything back from a stranger. 63 00:04:24,251 --> 00:04:27,459 Notice what Odysseus' obligations are, zero. 64 00:04:27,459 --> 00:04:32,519 He's just there to be willingly entertained, fed, taken care of, 65 00:04:32,519 --> 00:04:36,788 flattered, cajoled. Just to be the center of attention. 66 00:04:36,788 --> 00:04:40,661 That's all Odysseus has to do is go along with it. 67 00:04:40,661 --> 00:04:45,814 He's under no obligation at all. In fact it's so extreme, his lack of 68 00:04:45,814 --> 00:04:50,194 obligation, that they don't even bother to ask him his name. 69 00:04:50,194 --> 00:04:53,898 They don't even know who he is up through book eight. 70 00:04:53,898 --> 00:05:00,139 Only at the close of book eight does King Alcinous think it's now appropriate, after 71 00:05:00,139 --> 00:05:05,442 the extraordinary hospitality has been lavished on the guest, does he at this 72 00:05:05,442 --> 00:05:09,679 point think it's appropriate even to ask our stranger's name. 73 00:05:09,679 --> 00:05:14,504 Now, so, what is it about xenia? Why this kind of hospitality? 74 00:05:14,504 --> 00:05:18,498 It's probably answerable best by a single word. 75 00:05:18,498 --> 00:05:21,189 Trade. Remember that Mediterranean Sea we looked 76 00:05:21,189 --> 00:05:25,016 at, at the beginning of the class and talking about it as a corrupting sea 77 00:05:25,016 --> 00:05:27,608 bringing all kinds of ancient cultures together? 78 00:05:27,608 --> 00:05:32,146 Well, it's true that in cultures that are going to benefit from mutual trade with 79 00:05:32,146 --> 00:05:36,788 one another, having a cultural plank in your cultural platform that says that you 80 00:05:36,788 --> 00:05:41,528 ought to treat strangers really well. That helps grease the wheels of trade for 81 00:05:41,528 --> 00:05:45,697 all the cultures involved. And the Greeks surely benefited from this 82 00:05:45,697 --> 00:05:50,728 and the demonstration of overwhelming hospitality was at the same time a way to 83 00:05:50,728 --> 00:05:54,769 ensure that people thought that your shores will be friendly ones. 84 00:05:54,769 --> 00:05:57,809 And will look at you kindly as trading partners. 85 00:05:57,809 --> 00:06:02,104 Extremely, extremely valuable, thing for people to, to do. 86 00:06:02,104 --> 00:06:07,594 So we've seen Odysseus now already put his wits to use in regaining his powers of 87 00:06:07,594 --> 00:06:11,337 speech and persuasion. He got himself his pair of clothes. 88 00:06:11,337 --> 00:06:16,203 He's now worked himself into a center of what is going to be a very powerful 89 00:06:16,203 --> 00:06:20,564 society that's helpful for him. He gets hold of the knees which now has 90 00:06:20,564 --> 00:06:26,099 earned him instant suppliant status from these people that are clearly capable of 91 00:06:26,099 --> 00:06:31,539 giving him all, everything that he needs. And now we're going to watch him piece 92 00:06:31,539 --> 00:06:36,781 together in the rest of book seven and eight the kinds of things that he needs 93 00:06:36,781 --> 00:06:42,251 next, which is food, a safe secure place to recover, a chance to rest, a chance to 94 00:06:42,251 --> 00:06:46,868 recharge himself and then eventually also a conveyance home. 95 00:06:46,868 --> 00:06:52,724 The Phaeacians are gonna be Odysseus' link, not only back into human society and 96 00:06:52,724 --> 00:06:58,427 to giving him the chance to rebuild himself or there are also going to be his 97 00:06:58,427 --> 00:07:00,033 link back to Ithaca.