Xenia: Odysseus' Blessing and Curse

In Homer’s “Odyssey,” Book 7, Odysseus, who has at this point lost all his men and washes up alone on the Scherian beach, has through his wit and bearing, and with the goddess Athena’s help, been accepted into the royal Phaeacian court.  Here, he throws himself at the mercy of Queen Arete, and then settles himself in the ashes.  An elder at court reminds everyone of their duty under Zeus, Xenia–guest-friendship– and they honor Odysseus the wanderer.  In fact, they offer their beautiful daughter to Odysseus in marriage.  We discuss Xenia, this all-important custom in the ancient Greek world that allowed for people to trade and travel, and which was used and abused in so many ways in Homer’s epic poem.   00:00 Xenia (Hospitality & Guest-Friendship) 01:30 Book 7 Summary 20:02 Poseidon’s Wrath for Odysseus Falls on His Hosts 29:19 The Lost Paradise of Mythology (Utopia) 33:03 Royal Cousin Marriage Among the Phaeacians 38:13 The Humanity of Odysseus 44:43 The Man Who Rejected Godhood 52:16 Achilles’ Regret 54:27 Odysseus Learns from Achilles’ Regret 56:55 The Culture Wars and Our Divine & Emanant Nature 1:01:28 Why Odysseus and Penelope Suffer  1:07:50 Xenia (Ancient Greek Guest-Friendship) 1:18:05 Giants are Precivilizational Primordials 1:19:40 What is Natural? 1:23:11 The Phaeacians and the Fear of the Stranger 1:31:06 The Gut Feeling   Thank you for watching!  Please see below for more Open-Minded content:   The full video episode: https://youtu.be/0b5yLnBz7e4   The Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vqfEOVgfclRgZNXO4boyP3T   The Episode Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBXC0eYK6zoc   The Odyssey’s translations we used: https://a.co/d/04Ud8j0d https://a.co/d/0dd7Svhh   For more in this podcast, please go to: Podbean: https://benomtad.podbean.com Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863 YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ X: https://x.com/Benomtad Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/benomtad   About our guest: Ian Reclusado offers guidance services for those interested in facing and befriending their inner monsters:  https://thekindknife.substack.com/p/guidance-services   I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.   Thumbnail Painting: Odysseus before Alcinous, King of the Phaeacians Malmström 1853 (Wikimedia Commons, Swedish National Museum)