The example used shows how the suitors responded to the hospitality given to them at the house of Odysseus. In response to the suitor’s lengthy stay, Telemakhos states, "...if your hearts are capable of shame, leave my great hall, and take your dinner elsewhere, consume your own stores...If you choose to slaughter one man's livestock and pay nothing, this is rapine... I beg Zeus you shall get what you deserve: a slaughter here, and nothing paid for it!" (Book II, 147-154). The suitors ignore what is said to them continuing to eat and drink, at the cost of Telemakhos and Penelope’s …show more content…
It enables the person(s) to rest and relax from their journeys. During that time, beggars or travelers often knocked on a stranger’s door in hopes of procuring a place to stay. It was thought that the gods would punish those who broke or strayed from the code of hospitality. Those who followed the code and adhered to it, were thus rewarded. Opposite of those views of the characters in the Odyssey and of Ancient Greece, today, hospitality is thought of as entertaining friends and hosting parties. To them, hospitality meant offering all you had if only to feed and house a complete stranger. All in all, the main idea with this theme and for hospitality as a whole, is that you never know whom it is you are coming into contact with. So to be courteous, generous and kind to those people and not expect anything in return is what an individual should strive for. It's as the saying goes "Do unto others, as you would have others do unto