Xenos & Xenia in C.J.Cherryh's Foreigner series

this is really really basic, from Wikipedia. jotting it now because I want to discuss Foreigner re this concept later.

xenia (Greek) zen-ee-ah

Xenia (Greek ?e??a, xenía) is the Greek concept of hospitality and guest-host relations.

now that is from Wikipedia...

I am currently listening to

Iliad of Homer & Odyssey of Homer (Set)
(24 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture)
Course No. 3000
Taught by Elizabeth Vandiver
Whitman College
Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin

which states (and I'm going with this definition, personally):

Xenia is usually translated "guest-host relationship." It is a reciprocal relationship between two xenoi—a word which means guest, host, stranger, friend, and foreigner. It is not based on friendship, but rather on obligation.

and it's interesting that when xenoi means friend, it does not infer affection or emotion, but more something rather like not-an-enemy...

re the Foreigner series? well, the atevi and humans are in a rather guest-host relationship there, aren't they? ;)

and our ever-eloquent and beguiling Bren is not unlike the masterful orator Odysseus, --> --> --> --> "Peer of Zeus in Counsel", while I'm at it... (but don't worry, I'm not going to start saying that Tatiseigi is Poseidon and Deana Hanks is Circe or anything! lol)

----

so if the greek Xenia (first vowel is schwah, so, zuh-NEE-ah) is a kind of guest-host relationship, and Xenos (zen-long O-s) means, guest, host, friend, stranger, and foreigner... well if you are a traveller and show up at a strange place for the night, you are a xenos. you are a stranger, a foreigner. but the person who lives in the house you stop at is also a xenos. he is a host. once you cross his threshold, you are a guest. and both of you are now friends; NOT in any kind of affectionate or fond way, not that at all. you are friends in the way that you are obligated to behave yourselves in proper manner as becomes guests and hosts and therefore are not enemies.

the host has an obligation to give the guest a meal and a bath and a bed for the night, and cannot even ask who they are until these basic needs are met. also, a guest has an obligation to the host; if the guest can, he is to give the host a gift. at the very least, the guest (or any of his relatives) is to provide the host (or any of his relatives) a place to stay if ever their roles are reversed. and the host also provides gifts to the guest when he leaves, including transportation and sustenance if necessary. very importantly, Xenia is reciprocal, generation after generation. once you enter into a guest-host relationship with someone, that relationship applies to all your relatives and descendants and all their relatives and descendants--- the benefits of Xenia are all the better reason to honor the code.

now, you could break the code of Xenia (see how Mr. Paris of Troy ran off with the wife of his host!), but if you do, then you've angered Zeus (and all the kin of the other side) and you are going to catch hell. or lightning bolts. or both. in short, there are consequences.

in the Odyssey, we see Penelope's suitors breaking (and spitting on) the codes of xenia, over and over this is stressed, and this is a justification given for Odysseus slaughtering them in the end. proper observance of xenia is shown by the Phaiakians (Nausicaa) towards Odysseus, by Nestor and by Menelaus to Telemachos. etc.

in Cherryh's Foreigner... humans show up, and with some would say reasonable excuse drop in on the atevi without so much as a "how do you do". however, this is not unlike the greek traveller who just appears on your doorstep and says "put me up for the night" with no explanation. the greek host is not all that upset by this behavior, and the atevi, while very puzzled, don't seem too alarmed either. the atevi agree to let the humans stay and even help them out a bit. that's pretty darn good xenia. you know if someone landed on our planet they'd end up at Abu Ghraib.

then the humans upset the balance, they go too far. part of it was a misunderstanding on the humans' part of what was expected of them. some of it was just wanton disregard (their use of machines to build and change the land). whatever the reason, it was a violation of xenia from the atevi point of view.

there ensued a war because of this violation of xenia.

it was resolved in the end by, very very generally speaking, humans vowing to be better xenoi. the humans got their own little place so as to avoid getting on their host's nerves (god knows we overstayed our initial welcome), and the humans promised to give gifts of technology etc not only to bring both societies to the same technological level and thus reduce tensions that way but also to honor the reciprocal relationship between guest and host.

thoughts?