The Virtue of Hospitality

(Mount Olympus, where I and the other Gods live)




My Mortal Readers,

Today I have decided that I will talk about another very important topic. Today I wish to talk about hospitality, and it’s importance.

As a goddess, it is not often that I am really offered hospitality. I live on Mount Olympus and you mortals really never think about offering a god a place to stay. I’ve always imagined what it would be like to be mortal, and to get to live in a home with other regular people. To be a traveller and after a long journey be taken in by a kind family, how wonderful that would be. However because of who I am, it would never happen. My farther would never allow me to live freely with other humans. But, that is no matter. There are rare opportunities that when in disguise, I am able to live with other people.

There have been times that when disguised as a mere human, I have been invited in by kind people. In fact, before even Odysseus was alive, before the Trojan war began, I was invited in by a kind family. I was in fact conducting a test, seeing how kind humans really were. I had walked into the small down on the shores of southern Greece, walking on the street, attempting to looking as poor as possible. Literally the first house I came by, though it was not big nor was it grand, the people inside opened the door and eagerly took me in. They offered me food and shelter and allowed me to stay the night. These poor people, who had barely enough food for themselves, took me in without a second thought.

This is when I developed my love for the human race. It was because of the pure idea of hospitality that I fell in love with the mortals of the earth. Therefore I feel that in helping mortals, I should use hospitality to not only comfort people, but to teach them good values. That is why when Odysseus needed to flee from Calypso, I knew that I could use hospitality to help him. I knew that if I wanted to get him off the island as soon as possible, he would need a place to stay. I thanked the gods for the virtue of hospitality, because I was able to lessen Odysseus’ pain.

See, this is the thing about hospitality. It shows all, including my stubborn father, that humans are good people. That they can open their hearts, show emotion for others, and truly care about their fellow humans. This if anything must show the other Gods that humans really are complex, good people. The Phalacians didn’t need to bring in Odysseus, nor did they receive any gain from it. They didn’t know that I would look down upon them in favor. They did it because they knew it was the right thing, not because they got something out of it.

But like all virtues, hospitality can have a dark side. I seem to find that everything humans or gods to can have negative connotations, and can be used for evil. The immature goddess Calypso, who is barely a goddess at all, used hospitality not as a way to show care for other humans but to deceive them. She offered her hospitality to Odysseus, and tricked him into staying on her island. She didn’t do this for the betterment of him, but for her own personal gain. She loved Odysseus, and the longer he stayed the better for her. The only reason he ever found his way off the island in the first place was because of me. Calypso contorted this beautiful virtue into evil, and we must be weary of those who will do the same in the future.

- Pallas Athena