Hospitality

"Listen to me you suitors, who persist in abusing the hospitality of this house because its owner has been long absent, and without other pretext than that you want to marry me;

These mares were the death of him in the end, for when he went to the house of Zeus’ son, mighty Herakles, who performed such prodigies of valor, Herakles to his shame killed him, though he was his guest, for he feared not heaven's vengeance, nor yet respected his own table which he had set before Iphitos, but killed him in spite of everything, and kept the mares himself.

Tomorrow morning I shall invite a still larger number of aldermen, and will give a sacrificial banquet in honor of our guest;

"I invoke Viśvakarman and also Tvaṣṭṛ — I wish to perform the hospitality;

Then, having entered the fire-hall, sipped water, and dried himself, for the purpose of performing the rites of hospitality, he invoked Viśvakarman.

Free from fatigue and distress, provided with excellent food and excellent lodgings, all of us — including even the servants — have slept in great comfort.

And Homer too makes this plain;

for see how wild and harsh are the parts of the island toward the open sea.

And indeed, considering the saying of Euripides — whether in truth their relations toward strangers are so straitened that they can neither receive anyone nor help one in need — I nowhere find hospitality to be such;

Chorus:

Chorus:

Admetus:

Odysseus:

Strangers, they say, supply the daintiest meat.

Are they hospitable and reverent towards strangers?

It is for this reason that I bid you all to refrain from maligning Demaratus, seeing that he is a stranger and a friend.

That of the seer Megistias was inscribed by Simonides son of Leoprepes because of his tie of guest-friendship with the man.

I believe this of him because of all that he has already said and by what is the truth, namely, that if one citizen prospers, another citizen is jealous of him and shows his enmity by silence, and no one, (except if he has attained the height of excellence;

so he left his own country and came to Thebes and was suppliant to the shield-carrying men of Cadmus.

Then he came to Creon and long-robed Eniocha, who received him kindly and gave him all fitting things, as is due to suppliants, and honored him in their hearts even more.

Great Oeneus once entertained Bellerophon for twenty days, and the two exchanged presents.

With these words they sprang from their chariots, grasped one another's hands, and plighted friendship.

Henceforth, however, I must be your host in middle Argos, and you mine in Lycia, if I should ever go to that district [ dêmos];

And Philip, who was my father’s guest-friend, was summoned and appeared, but took to flight in alarm at the magnitude of the danger;

It is right also that you keep in mind both Satyrus and my father, who have always esteemed you above all the other Greeks and frequently in past times, when there was a scarcity of grain and they were sending away empty the ships of other merchants, granted to you the right of export;

Perhaps, men of the jury, he will present witnesses to you who will testify that I also denied, in the presence of the agents of Satyrus, that I possessed any money except that which I surrendered to them, and that he himself was laying claim to my money on my own confession that I owed him three hundred drachmas, and also that I had allowed Hippoladas, my guest and friend, to borrow from him.

And he shall give alms.

By his worship, one attains heaven.

He shall not keep an *atithi* in his house without having fed him.

And I accept your friendship.

Agesilaus, I make you my guest-friend.

And immediately he gave his javelin—it was a beautiful one—to Agesilaus.