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Do the Phaeacians violate xenia in Homer's Odyssey?
After the Phaeacians help Odysseus home, Poseidon, who is angry at Odysseus, becomes enraged and turns the Phaeacian ship into stone. Poseidon then “covers the island with a mountain.”
This makes sense in isolation, but not when you consider the Odyssey as a story about xenia. Homer's Odyssey repeatedly rewards and punishes its characters for good and bad xenia (guest-host hospitality):
1. Cyclops: bad xenia, punished
2. Suitors: bad xenia, punished
3. Paris (Illiad): bad xenia, punished
4. Telemachus: good xenia, rewarded
5. Calypso: good/forced xenia, (at least not punished)
6. Nestor: good xenia, presumably rewarded
But the Phaeacians, good xenia, destroyed! There's a reference that Poseidon has told the Phaeacians to stop indiscriminately letting shipwrecked voyagers home. But Homer seems like a big advocate of good xenia, so I'm wondering how the Phaeacians violate xenia?
#entertainment
After the Phaeacians help Odysseus home, Poseidon, who is angry at Odysseus, becomes enraged and turns the Phaeacian ship into stone. Poseidon then “covers the island with a mountain.”
This makes sense in isolation, but not when you consider the Odyssey as a story about xenia. Homer's Odyssey repeatedly rewards and punishes its characters for good and bad xenia (guest-host hospitality):
1. Cyclops: bad xenia, punished
2. Suitors: bad xenia, punished
3. Paris (Illiad): bad xenia, punished
4. Telemachus: good xenia, rewarded
5. Calypso: good/forced xenia, (at least not punished)
6. Nestor: good xenia, presumably rewarded
But the Phaeacians, good xenia, destroyed! There's a reference that Poseidon has told the Phaeacians to stop indiscriminately letting shipwrecked voyagers home. But Homer seems like a big advocate of good xenia, so I'm wondering how the Phaeacians violate xenia?
#entertainment
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