Custom and Convention
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7.The rites of hospitality and guest-friendship
7a.Ritual reception of the stranger
See also: Hospitality 2a
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 11–12Telemachus greets the stranger with hospitality, feeding him before asking his needs, amid the wooers' feasting.read · scan
- p. 12–13Detailed rites of hospitality: seating the guest, water for hands, food and wine, and song as the crown of the feast.read · scan
- p. 13Host questions guest about city, parents and voyage, an old friend of the house.read · scan
- p. 15–17Host offers a guest-gift as heirloom; guest promises return gift.read · scan
- p. 33–34Hospitality customs: welcome of strangers, seating, feast, and precedence of the cup given to the elder guest.read · scan
- p. 41Nestor insists on hospitality, refusing to let Odysseus' son sleep on a ship's deck while he lives.read · scan
- p. 43Hospitality: Nestor houses Telemachus, mixes wine, and assigns him a bed beneath the gallery.read · scan
- p. 46–47Menelaus rebukes Eteoneus for hesitating and insists strangers be received hospitably and fed before questioning, recalling his own reception by others.read · scan
- p. 47–48Guests are bathed, anointed, seated and fed before being asked their names; ritual hospitality to strangers.read · scan
- p. 52–53Helen has beds spread for the guests in the vestibule as hosts do.read · scan
- p. 69–70Calypso offers hospitality to the stranger god, spreading a table before asking his errand.read · scan
- p. 97–98Hospitality: promise of an escort home, and beds prepared for the guest.read · scan
- p. 104–105He refuses to contest his host Laodamas: it is worthless to challenge one who entertains you kindly.read · scan
- p. 108–109Alcinous and the princes give the guest gifts, and Euryalus makes amends for his rude words, following hospitality's forms.read · scan
- p. 109–110Hospitality proceeds: gifts, bath, feast and a chalice for remembrance; Odysseus accepts the reconciliation graciously.read · scan
- p. 110–111Hospitality customs: bathing, clothing and feasting the stranger, and giving the singer the choice portion of meat.read · scan
- p. 139Handmaids perform elaborate hospitality of bath, anointing, table and food.read · scan
- p. 201Rules of guest-friendship: hosts speed the parting guest, give parting gifts, and a guest remembers kindness all his life.read · scan
- p. 202–203Host gives splendid guest-gifts and prays for the guest's return, following the custom of hospitality.read · scan
- p. 203–204Ritual of hospitality: gifts, washing, meal, drink-offering and farewell greeting, with Telemachus grateful for loving-kindness.read · scan
- p. 205Nestor's hospitality is so insistent that Telemachus must slip away to avoid offending the old man.read · scan
- p. 208Eumaeus keeps the stranger, promising Telemachus will give him clothing and send him on his way.read · scan
- p. 236–237Hospitality to strangers and beggars; Telemachus feeds the disguised Odysseus, and shame is thought unfit for a needy man.read · scan
- p. 237–238Eumaeus says only skilled men (prophet, healer, shipwright, minstrel) are invited as guests; Antinous resents beggars who devour the household's living.read · scan
- p. 246–247The wooers set the beggars' fight as sport with prizes; Telemachus speaks as host guaranteeing fair play.read · scan
- p. 259–260Odysseus recalls his hospitality to wanderers and defends the manner of beggars; Penelope offers the stranger a seat and asks his origin.read · scan
- p. 261Odysseus gives guest-gifts and lavish hospitality to a stranger; the confusion of tongues in Crete shows peoples' differences.read · scan
- p. 265The duties of hospitality: washing, bedding and feeding a guest, and punishing those who vex him.read · scan
- p. 326Hospitality to strangers: rich guest-gifts described as the due of guests.read · scan
- p. 329–330Orderly seating at the feast and ceremonious greetings with hand-clasping.read · scan
Aeschylus, The Libation-BearersVol. 8
- p. 103–104Hospitality to strangers: bath, bed and welcome offered to travelers; bond of guest and host.read · scan
- p. 105–106Guest-right and hospitality; Clytemnestra orders the strangers received as befits the house, while Orestes stresses the bond of host and guest.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of CiceroVol. 9
- p. 170Hospitality and etiquette in entertaining Caesar and his staff, with ranks fed according to station, and literary talk, no politics.read · scan
Tacitus, GermanyVol. 33
- p. 104Boundless hospitality to any guest, with free giving and asking and no claim of merit.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 990–991Rules of hospitality and decorum at the prophet's house, with note on Arab tent customs and visitors.read · scan
BeowulfVol. 49
- p. 14Formal courtesy of arrival: shields set down, herald questions strangers, and Wulfgar announces them to the king.read · scan
- p. 15Ritual greeting and the rule that battle-shields wait outside during parley.read · scan
- p. 53The hall-thane tends the guest by courtly custom of old warrior-wanderers.read · scan
The Destruction of Dá Derga's HostelVol. 49
- p. 213–214Guests seat themselves by tabu and non-tabu, and Da Derga offers hospitable welcome.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 5Court etiquette of hospitality: gifts, kissing the ground, three days' entertainment of the envoy, ceremonial reception with honors.read · scan
- p. 59Guests must obey the rule not to speak of what doesn't concern them; hospitality to mendicants.read · scan
- p. 60Hospitality to strangers and the house condition to ask no questions.read · scan
- p. 333The sea-family are enraged that they have eaten without meeting their host, since the bond of bread and salt must be established.read · scan
- p. 438Hospitality: Ali Baba presses the guest to sup, accommodating his refusal of salt, honoring the host's duty.read · scan
Traditional BalladsVol. 40
- p. 131–133Courtesy and hospitality: Robin and Little John kneel, welcome the knight and feast him; custom says a yeoman should not pay for a knight.read · scan
- p. 140–142The knight comes in plain clothes and kneels for hospitality; the porter welcomes him courteously.read · scan
Amerigo Vespucci, Amerigo Vespucci's Account of His First VoyageVol. 43
- p. 28Describes the natives' ceremonies, dances, songs, hospitality and honoring of strangers, customs strange to the Europeans.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 137Customary greetings of strangers, and the winning of a foreign people's favour through gentle speech.read · scan
William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35
- p. 277–278Table silence among the wise, and hospitality to guests in country versus townread · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33
- p. 322Describes ritual of anointing and blowing gold powder on feasting guests.read · scan
- p. 347–348Describes native hospitality, hammock beds, strong pepper wine and drinking customs of the caciques at feasts.read · scan
- p. 369Natives greet the party on a feast day, drunk, offering drink and provisions in hospitality.read · scan
Francis Pretty, Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round the WorldVol. 33
- p. 214–215Ritual orations, song and dance mark the reception and homage.read · scan
Francis Bacon, The New AtlantisVol. 3
- p. 148–149Custom of the land requires strangers to stay indoors three days; officers' gestures of command.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of MacbethVol. 46
- p. 357Lady Macbeth reminds him a feast needs ceremony and welcome, else it is bare.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 180Adam and Eve prepare hospitality to honor the heavenly stranger; Eve's frugal storing.read · scan
- p. 180Hospitality: Eve prepares choice fruits, Adam greets the angel with reverence, contrasting his natural state with princely pomp.read · scan
Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to ConquerVol. 18
- p. 220–221Concern over fashionable dress and hospitable ceremony.read · scan
- p. 222–223Comic clash over hospitality and guests' presumption in ordering the host's household.read · scan
Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26
- p. 397–398Stauffacher contrasts olden Switzerland's mild rule and hospitality with present wrongs.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 92–93Lombard peasants courteously offer food to any visitor at a meal, even a glutton just risen from table.read · scan
- p. 478–479Hospitable sharing of the table, with the place of honor given to the curate.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 29–30Ungracious, dirty innkeepers and lack of comforts; contrasts with English cottages and hospitality customs.read · scan
- p. 48–49Local hospitality customs and reactions to a stranger's habits like washing and shaving, and ignorance of the wider world.read · scan
- p. 51Etiquette of approaching a stranger's house and hospitality; similar manners at the Cape, with Spaniard and Dutch differences.read · scan
- p. 119Universal provincial hospitality forbids payment; the lieutenant's high sense of hospitality means a traveller is fed freely.read · scan
- p. 153Courtesy of poor hosts, and Gauchos refusing to eat tired cattle, slaughtering a fresh beast nightly.read · scan
- p. 297Darwin notes the lack of pride of a respectable woman riding barefoot and the shaming hospitality of sharing food.read · scan
- p. 298Hospitality of Don Pedro and local exaggerations about the lake's sea-breeze.read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23
- p. 114–116The steward declines payment but accepts a present, saying 'Dios se lo pague'; a custom of hospitality.read · scan
- p. 118Hospitality: gift of a handkerchief brings favor and fruit; the hirer feigns ignorance about the missing horses with 'Quien sabe?'read · scan
7b.Hospitality and suppliants as sacred custom
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 83–84Odysseus wonders whether the people are unjust or hospitable and godfearing.read · scan
- p. 86Hospitality to strangers and suppliants as a sacred custom; the Phaeacians kindly entreat him.read · scan
- p. 92–94Ritual of supplication: clasping the queen's knees, sitting in the ashes, and the hush that follows.read · scan
- p. 94Echeneus rebukes the breach of proper hospitality; the stranger is raised from the ashes, seated, washed and fed.read · scan
- p. 99–100Alcinous upholds the custom of hospitality and convoy: no visitor lingers in sorrow without help on his way; feast and sacrifice follow.read · scan
- p. 112–113Alcinous invokes hospitality: the stranger and suppliant stand in a brother's place, and guests are asked their name and land.read · scan
- p. 118–119Odysseus plans to test whether the Cyclopes are wild and unjust or hospitable and god-fearing.read · scan
- p. 120–121Odysseus waits in the cave expecting a stranger's due of gifts; the giant instead interrogates them as possible sea-robbers.read · scan
- p. 121–122Odysseus claims a stranger's due of gifts and protection of suppliants, a convention the Cyclops rejects.read · scan
- p. 206–207Suppliant fugitive is received aboard and promised welcome, honouring duties to strangers and exiles.read · scan
- p. 327Hospitality is due to the man who begins kindness; mourning and burial rites are proper.read · scan
Herodotus, An Account of EgyptVol. 33
- p. 54The right of asylum at the temple of Heracles has continued unchanged from the beginning.read · scan
Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13
- p. 243–245Latinus says Latians keep Saturn's hospitable customs, goodness by will not force.read · scan
The Destruction of Dá Derga's HostelVol. 49
- p. 214–215Conaire's tabu against receiving a lone woman after sunset conflicts with the duty of hospitality; he yields.read · scan
- p. 240–241Da Derga's hospitality: doors never shut but to the wind and his cauldron ever boiling for the men of Erin.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 369–370Strange Moorish attire and courteous hospitality to strangers at the inn are noted; dress marks the newcomers' origin.read · scan
- p. 370Courtesies owed to strangers bind the ladies to offer hospitality to the foreign woman.read · scan
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