Essay on Greek n Roman mythology and the relation between
hospitality and the mythologies
Every society has certain rules, expectations and customs that comprise what we call culture and an
effective way of reinforcing these cultural ideas is through the religion of that culture. Who were being
entertained expected to be provided with food, a comfortable place to sit, charming company and
acceptance into the day's activities. Since the traveller would not usually be wandering out of his home
into the dangers of the world, it was assumed he was on some sort of mission. The host then is expected
to be able to provide some sort of assistance, as seen by the line "you shall tell us what your need is."
In Ovid's moralizing fable (Metamorphoses VIII), which stands on the periphery of Greek mythology and
Roman mythology, Baucis and Philemon were an old married couple in the region of Tyana, which Ovid
places in Phrygia, and the only ones in their town to welcome disguised gods Zeus and Hermes (in Roman
mythology, Jupiter and Mercury respectively), thus embodying the pious exercise of hospitality, the
ritualized guest-friendship termed xenia, or theoxenia when a god was involved.
The story is such that, Zeus and Hermes came disguised as ordinary peasants, and began asking the
people of the town for a place to sleep that night. They were rejected by all before they came to Baucis
and Philemon's simple rustic cottage. Though the couple were poor, their generosity far surpassed that of
their rich neighbours, at whose homes the gods found "all the doors bolted and no word of kindness
given, so wicked were the people of that land."
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