The Guest Host Relationship in The Odyssey

In the American culture today, there are certain guidelines to which we must conform when we are a guest in someone's home. If we are invited to a friend's house for dinner, it is customary to find out what we are expected to bring. This is just common knowledge. During the time of the Ancient Greeks, similar guidelines were in place that delineated the relationship between guest and host. According to a commentary by Russell …

…the importance of the guest-host relationship in Ancient Greece. When the guest treated the host with respect and dignity, and the host freely provided the guest with food and shelter, the guest and/or host were blessed with good fortune. However, there were also many people that violated this relationship, such as the Polyphemos, the suitors, and even Odysseus. They were responsible for their own actions and had to pay the penalty of those actions.