Philoxenia
(hospitality)
Hey you guys!!! Reading history always makes us understand the full meaning of some words, and since this website is about hospitality and since I’m Greek myself, it only seems appropriate to share with you the ancient Greek concept of hospitality…hope you’ ll find it interesting.
Enjoy!
Ok, lets begin…Philoxenia has an ancient Greek etymology, meaning “love for strangers”, eagerness to show hospitality!
It’s the generosity and courtesy shown to those who are far from home and/or associates of the person bestowing guest-friendship. The rituals of hospitality created and expressed a reciprocal relationship between guest and host expressed in both material benefits (such as the giving of gifts at a party) as well as non-material ones (such as protection, shelter, favours, or certain normative rights).
In summary, Xenia consists of two basic rules:
- The respect from host to guest. The host must be hospitable to the guest and provide him/her with food, drink, bath and gifts when they leave. It is not polite to ask questions until the guest has finished the meal provided to them.
- The respect from guest to host. The guest must be courteous to the host and not be a burden. The guest should also provide a gift if they have one
Xenia was considered to be particularly important in ancient times when people thought gods mingled among them. If one had poorly played host to a stranger, there was the risk of incurring the wrath of a god disguised as the stranger. While this particular origin of the practices of guest-friendship are centralized around the divine, however, it would become common practice among the Greeks to incorporate xenia into their customs and manners for very much all of ancient Greek history. Indeed, while originating from mythical traditions, xenia would very much become a standard practice throughout much (if not, all) of Greece as customarily proper in the affair of men interacting with men as well as men interacting with the Gods.
Jupiter and Mercurius in the House of Philemon and Baucis (1630–33) by the workshop of Rubens: Zeus and Hermes, testing a village’s practice of hospitality, were received only by Baucis and Philemon, who were rewarded while their neighbours were punished.
The Greek god Zeus is sometimes called Zeus Xenios in his role as a protector of guests. He thus embodied the religious obligation to be hospitable to travellers. Theoxeny or theoxenia is a theme in Greek mythology in which human beings demonstrate their virtue or piety by extending hospitality to a humble stranger (xenos), who turns out to be a disguised deity (theos) with the capacity to bestow rewards. These stories caution mortals that any guest should be treated as if potentially a disguised divinity and help establish the idea of xenia as a fundamental Greek custom.[1] The term theoxenia also covered entertaining among the gods themselves, a popular subject in classical art, which was revived at the Renaissance in works depicting a Feast of the Gods.
You see guys…for us Greeks, Philoxenia(hospitality),was always a big deal due to our ancient history, you can even say that the concept of hospitality is in our DNA. But by being in this website, you are probably one of us, even if you’re not Greek. So open your home and your heart, and do what you do best…host!…and give yourself and your loved ones, the time of your life!
Source Wikipedia