Patrick Comerford
The news from Greece in newspapers in these islands and on television is often about aspects of life that have (usually devastating) impacts on tourists, especially in places that headline writers like to label ‘tourist islands’.
The Irish Times gave much space in recent daysk to reports and feature on the thousands of Irish students taking part in post-exams holiday on the Greek island of Zakynthos that has become one of the most popular destinations from Niamh Brownes for this ‘rite of passage’.
It discussed how the island is ‘buzzing with Irish teenagers enjoying blistering heat, booze cruises and beach parties’, many of them staying on the Laganas strip. For many of them, the island’s natural beauty, crystal-clear waters and turtle sanctuary are all mere ‘incidental attractions’.
By the end of the week, The Irish Times had turned its attention the widespread fires on the island of Crete that are threatening forests, olive groves and resorts, and on other fires near Athens and its suburbs, whisked up by gale-force winds.
I suppose it was only to be expected that there the reports from Athens gave details of the difficulties at Athens International Airport and the ports, while the reports from Ierapetra gave details of the evacuation of tourists who took shelter at an indoor stadium, were transferred to hotels in the north of the island, and ‘an exodus of about 5,000 holidaymakers.’
This emphasis on tourism is not neglecting the economic crisis that faces Crete: tourism is a key income earner, but Crete is so much more than ‘the popular tourist island’ it is labelled as in so many reports.
Greeks pride themselves on their innate hospitality and the genuine hospitality they offer tourists is a matter of cultural pride and honour that goes beyond the profits gained or income earned in any part of the tourism and hospitality sector.
The concept of φῐλοξενῐ́ᾱ (philoxenia) in Greek runs so deeply in the collective psyche in Greece that it is almost impossible to translate its depth and scope. It is so much more than shaking your hand and putting on a smile. It is so important, that I thought I would look at this word yet again, although it was one of the early words I looked at in this series. And it has new and renewed relevance and urgency when we think of how ICE and Homeland Security are responding to strangers and foreigners in the dystopian world of Trump’s regime in the US.
That complimentary after-drink is more than a polite ‘thank you’. Waiting for your bill a little longer than in other countries is a way of being reminded that you are a guest first, and only a customer second. And guests find they have the potential and offer of becoming friends, and friendship sometimes even leads to a form of kinship, a welcome inside the fringes of the family circle.
The fires in Crete in recent days I have been heartbreaking, because I know they are heartbreaking for many people who showed me philoxenia and made me feel more welcome than a guest normally feels. I have stayed there so often over the past 40 years, that I know people in Crete understand why I see their island as a sort of second home. And, yes, I have even been to Ierapetra, seen the house where Napoleon may have had a welcome of sorts before he invaded Egypt, and I have seen those places that were burning in the fires last week.
I have been to Zakynthos too, though that was almost quarter of a century ago, and back in 2002 it did not have the party reputation it has among school-leavers today. But I still remember that the hotel where I stayed in Tsilivi, and its name: Filoxenia.
The tradition of philoxenia goes beyond welcome and hospitality and dates back beyond antiquity. Homer frequently describes the Greek virtues of hospitality that are deeply embedded in religious, social and political values.
True hospitality in classical Greece was regarded as a sacred responsibility watched over by Zeus Xenios and the gods of Olympus. To behave inhospitably was a severe transgression, while true hospitality entailed duties and responsibilities for hosts and guests alike.
Ancient hospitality was a sacred duty almost akin to a religious sacrifice. Any stranger who rang the bell could be a god in disguise, there to test the mortal homeowner’s hospitality. Zeus, as Zeus Xenios, was the divine embodiment of hospitality, and Hestia, goddess of the hearth and household order, was also linked to the custom, while Hermes, the herald and messenger of Zeus, assisted in overseeing hospitality and protecting travellers.
In Classical Greece, city-states selected citizens to serve as hosts for foreign ambassadors who relied on hospitality. A good proxenos needed diplomatic skills, and then, as now, both parties exchanged gifts. A guest was welcomed with food, drink and shelter, with the host and the guest exchanging gifts and sharing stories as sign of potential or continuing friendship. The best food, wine and seats were offered in line with a guest’s high social status.
At least 18 scenes of hospitality are found in Homer’s works, including four in the Iliad, 12 in the Odyssey and two in the Homeric Hymns.
In the Iliad, diplomatic hospitality is shown when Agamemnon sends an embassy to the disgruntled Achilles. The ambassadors, Odysseus, Ajax and Phoenix, are received in grand style and offer lavish gifts to Achilles, including ‘… seven tripods, that the fire hath not touched, and ten talents of gold and twenty gleaming cauldrons, and twelve strong horses … seven women skilled in goodly handiwork, women of Lesbos … and … the daughter of Briseus …’
Appropriate hospitality gifts also included finely crafted banquet equipment, such as the drinking cup and krater or mixing jar presented to Telemachus by King Menelaus in Sparta.
The Trojan War was the Greeks’ reaction to a blatant violation of xenia, when Paris, leaving Sparta, stole his host’s wife.
The Odyssey recounts the tireless search for hospitality by Odysseus on his homeward journey and also examines the nature of xenia. The hospitality recounted in the Odyssey ranges from the generosity shown to Odysseus by Nausicaa, daughter of Alcinous, King of the Phaeacians, or by the swineherd Eumaeus, to the amoral suitors’ final scene in which all the conventions of hospitality are inverted. The cruel giant Polyphemus, instead of feasting his guests, makes them the feast and offers Odysseus the gift of eating him last. The insolent suitor Ctesippus similarly mocks
The ill deeds of both the Cyclops and the suitors epitomise inhospitality and are later memorialised through Euripides’ artful terms xenodaites, one who devours guests, and xenoktonos, slaying guests and strangers.
In his play Medea, Euripides shows that in the 5th century BCE a host and guest would exchange a distinctive token that could be redeemed whenever hospitality might again be desired or that could be passed on to the next generation. It finds resonances in the Roman exchange known as sacramentum, which gives us the word sacrament. I must think a more again about the concept of the sacrament of hospitality or philoxenia.
Plato’s Laws record how four types of foreign visitors should be received by Athenians, depending on their purpose, position and social status.
In Roman times, Ovid tells the tale of Philemon and Baucis, an elderly couple who welcome Zeus or Jupiter and Hermes or Mercury into their humble home. They go to great lengths to offer their unknown visitors hospitality, and become a shining example of hospitality, so that they are spared from a sinkhole that swallows their area, and their house becomes a temple.
Often in ancient myth and literature, the rich and greedy declined to offer a proper welcome, while the poor but generous threw open their door to what is later revealed to be a deity. These values are shared in the Bible too and hospitality is central to understanding Biblical ethics.
A passage that is particularly relevant today, in the light of events in Trump’s dystopian America, tells us: ‘When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt’ (Leviticus 19: 33-34). In the epistles, we are told: ‘Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it’ (Hebrews 13: 1-2). The author uses the phrase τῆς φιλοξενίας μὴ ἐπιλανθάνεσθε.
The ancient Greek value of φῐλοξενῐ́ᾱ (phĭloxenĭ́ā), true and genuine hospitality, is still alive today, deep in the heart of every Greek. There is more to philoxenia than mere hospitality. For Greeks, it is about sharing their lives with others, inviting new-made acquaintances into the home to share a meal, offering food and drink, so that they become friends and may even become part of the family.
None of this is done for selfish reasons, or for self-gratification. Greeks genuinely want to share their culture, their customs and their homes with foreigners.
And that’s just who Greeks are.
Previous word: Τὰ Βιβλία (Ta Biblia), The Bible
Series to be continue
Previous words in this series:
1, Neologism, Νεολογισμός.
2, Welcoming the stranger, Φιλοξενία.
3, Bread, Ψωμί.
4, Wine, Οίνος and Κρασί.
5, Yogurt, Γιαούρτι.
6, Orthodoxy, Ορθοδοξία.
7, Sea, Θᾰ́λᾰσσᾰ.
8,Theology, Θεολογία.
9, Icon, Εἰκών.
10, Philosophy, Φιλοσοφία.
11, Chaos, Χάος.
12, Liturgy, Λειτουργία.
13, Greeks, Ἕλληνες or Ρωμαίοι.
14, Mañana, Αύριο.
15, Europe, Εὐρώπη.
16, Architecture, Αρχιτεκτονική.
17, The missing words.
18, Theatre, θέατρον, and Drama, Δρᾶμα.
19, Pharmacy, Φᾰρμᾰκείᾱ.
20, Rhapsody, Ραψῳδός.
21, Holocaust, Ολοκαύτωμα.
22, Hygiene, Υγιεινή.
23, Laconic, Λακωνικός.
24, Telephone, Τηλέφωνο.
25, Asthma, Ασθμα.
26, Synagogue, Συναγωγή.
27, Diaspora, Διασπορά.
28, School, Σχολείο.
29, Muse, Μούσα.
30, Monastery, Μοναστήρι.
31, Olympian, Ολύμπιος.
32, Hypocrite, Υποκριτής.
33, Genocide, Γενοκτονία.
34, Cinema, Κινημα.
35, autopsy and biopsy
36, Exodus, ἔξοδος
37, Bishop, ἐπίσκοπος
38, Socratic, Σωκρατικὸς
39, Odyssey, Ὀδύσσεια
40, Practice, πρᾶξις
41, Idiotic, Ιδιωτικός
42, Pentecost, Πεντηκοστή
43, Apostrophe, ἀποστροφή
44, catastrophe, καταστροφή
45, democracy, δημοκρατία
46, ‘Αρχή, beginning, Τέλος, end
47, ‘Αποκάλυψις, Apocalypse
48, ‘Απόκρυφα, Apocrypha
49, Ἠλεκτρον (Elektron), electric
50, Metamorphosis, Μεταμόρφωσις
51, Bimah, βῆμα
52, ἰχθύς (ichthýs) and ψάρι (psari), fish.
53, Τὰ Βιβλία (Ta Biblia), The Bible
54, Φῐλοξενῐ́ᾱ (Philoxenia), true hospitality
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