Do begin your meal. After you've dined we shall inquire who you may be " (Homer, 42), this quote could not anymore exemplify the importance of the custom of being hospitable. It almost comes off as a common courtesy, let me feed you before you tell me who are you and potentially kill me. A unique system these Greeks had, all due to their beliefs in the gods watching them from Mount Olympus. .
Our main character Odysseus has suffered nothing but the cruelest of travels; we listen to his journey and hear of his sorrows and triumphs. Having majority of the gods favoring Odysseus except for one, we unravel why these dismal fabrications have had to be endured by the great Odysseus. To be disliked by any god is of great misfortune in Greek mythology, we learn that those who are not favored do not reap any reward. Zeus, Gatherer of the Clouds tells us the reason as to whom and why Odysseus has been on this ceaseless journey, "It is Poseidon, Sustainer of the Earth, who is so implacable towards him on account of the Cyclops, godlike Polyphemus, the most powerful of the Cyclopes, whom Odysseus blinded. His mother was the Nymph Thoosa, daughter of Phorcys, Lord of the Salt Sea Waves; and it was Poseidon who gave her this child when he slept with her in her cavern hollowed by the sea. That is why, ever since Polyphemus was blinded, Poseidon the Earth-shaker has kept Odysseus in exile, though he stops short of killing him " (Homer, 5), we learn of the intentional "long suffering " that Poseidon has in store for our main character, which raises questions for those who aid in his salvation. For Odysseus to reach his homeland of Ithaca, he needs to travel not just land, but sea, and Poseidon makes that all the more difficult by throwing disasters in Odysseus' path. The other gods have plans for Odysseus' safe return, their sympathy for him continuously growing thanks to Pallas Athena. .
Odysseus' luck had taken a turn, with the gods on his side he awoke in a land called Scherie, it was there that he found faith not far from reach.
