Sacred Hospitality: Difference between revisions

 

 

''Menelaus was very angry and said, "Eteoneus, son of Boethous, you never used to be a fool, but now you talk like a simpleton. Take their horses out, of course, and show the strangers in that they may have supper; you and I have stayed often enough at other people's houses before we got back here, where [[Home, Sweet Home|heaven grant that we may rest in peace henceforward]]."''|'''[[The Odyssey]]'''}}

 

* Then in ''[[Odyssey|The Odyssey]]'' of [[Homer]], the biggest part of the reasons the suitors are to be hated is because they have broken xenia. It is also the only reason Penelope didn't just kick them out or turn them away to begin with.

* ''[[Kingdom of Heaven]]'' dramatizes a real-life example. After Raynald slaughters a passive Muslim caravan, Saladin swears revenge. When he eventually captures Raynald and Guy, King of Jerusalem, he offers the latter water to quench his thirst. He eagerly drinks it, and then passes the cup to Raynald, who also drinks it. Guy was being treated as a guest of Saladin, but Raynald was not, so Raynald was not allowed to drink any of the water under Saladin's rules.

'''Saladin:''' ''[Brings out his sword and slashes Raynald's throat]'' }}

* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', hospitality is such a central part of Westerosi morality that people will trust even their most deadly enemies to hold by it. This makes it all the more shocking when {{spoiler|the Freys betray and murder King Robb, then [[Due to the Dead|horrifically desecrate his corpse]], at the Red Wedding. The Boltons helped too, but it happened within the Freys' own castle, during a wedding no less. Even their new allies regard them as debased for this. 'I'd sooner drink a pint of piss than take the word of any Frey!'}} This also counts for oaths of loyalty, especially to royal families; Jaime Lannister is universally despised for turning on his king, despite the fact that Aerys was dangerously psychotic and {{spoiler|attempting to burn the capital city to the ground at the time.}} More generally, kinslayers and betrayers of oaths or hospitality are placed at the bottom of the local Sorting Algorithm of Evil.

* In [[Stephen Hunt]]'s ''The Court of the Air'', the commodore welcomes Molly to the hospitality of their house.

* In [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Hobbit (novel)|The Hobbit]]'', when the dwarves first show up, Bilbo is afraid that he doesn't have enough food, because he knows his duty: if there's not enough to go around, it's the host who must go short. At the end, after he has left the dwarves -- both sides having assured each other that hospitality will be extended in the future -- he gives the elf king a gift, because he had eaten his food while skulking about his halls.

"If ever you are passing my way," said Bilbo, "don't wait to knock! Tea is at four; but any of you are welcome at any time!"'' }}

* In [[Charles Dickens]]' ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'', Scrooge refuses his nephew's hospitality in the opening, and accepts it at the end.

* As pictured above, in ''[[The Ring of the Nibelung|Die Walkuere]]'', Hunding finds his wife sheltering a man he's been pursuing, and, presumably having learned from the mistakes in Mythology above, lets him stay freely before trying to kill him in the morning. Siegmund betrays Hunding's hospitality by running off with Hunding's wife (Siegmund's long-lost sister). The gods are cool with the incest, but the goddess Fricka demands that Wotan punish Siegmund for his poor guest-behavior with death.

* In [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Macbeth]]'', Macbeth worries about killing Duncan while he was a guest in Macbeth's castle.

Not bear the knife myself. }}

 

* During the Crusades, it was not unusual for the Crusaders and the Arabs to sit down to meals together, in observance of [[Sacred Hospitality]]. The legend goes that Saladin was ''very'' demanding that his people observe these rules, such that one of his most trusted men attacked Saladin's guests, Saladin himself killed him and apologized profusely for the offense.

* Anthropologists can trace this tradition back to gift economies, where people with a surplus had to give their neighbors, otherwise resentment and jealousy would rip apart the pre-cash society. So it worked out like this:

''Later that day'': "Hey, that pile of baskets is looking great." And so on... }}