Hospitality is a vital theme in ancient Roman and Greek societies and even obvious in the writings of The Aeneid and The Odyssey, because social status appears to determine how well a person could accommodate his guests at their home. Only the poor or uncivilized could not accommodate guests. The richest and most prestigious in The Aeneid and The Odyssey gave the best food and service to their guests. Giving good hospitality was the best thing ancient Greeks and Romans could do to please the gods. Gods being the ?faith-holder? for human beings in these epics greatly influence way characters act and the way characters are treated. One instance of the role of hospitality in The Odyssey came in book six when Nausicaa found Odysseus on the shores. Even though Odysseus appeared intimidating and horrible, Nausicaa felt obligated to help. Her status as a princess is unknown to Odysseus from the start.
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Aeneas tells Dido the misfortunes of the Trojan ci...
Venus and Juno provoke Dido's love for Aeneas. Pai...Why might you ask about the status? Greek gods tend to pick on the wealth people because it is believe that the wealth people owe the gods for giving them the wealth they have. From epic to epic, we don?t see the gods bullying on the poor because they feel a sense of pity for them. There is no need for them to pick on the poor with the situation they are in already.
A second instance of hospitality at work came in The Aeneid when Dido welcomed Aeneas to her palace. Even though it was Dido first meeting with Aeneas, she felt a fondness for him. Aeneas knows that Dido is the queen of Carthage before even meeting her. Again, we see the gods helping the less fortunate. In this case, it was Aeneas who almost suffers death from Juno but also gets essential information from his...