g. Host bids the visitor welcome.
h. Host takes the visitor's spear.
i. Host leads the visitor in .
VIII. Seat.
IX. Feast.
a. Preparation.
b. Consumption.
c. Conclusion.
X. After-dinner drink.
XI. Identification.
a. Host questions the visitor.
b. Visitor reveals his identity.
XII. Exchange of information.
XIII. Entertainment.
XIV. Visitor pronounces a blessing on the host.
XV. Visitor shares in a libation of sacrifice.
XVI. Visitor asks to be allowed to sleep.
XVII. Bed.
XVIII. Bath.
XIX. Host detains the visitor.
XX. Guest-gifts.
XXI. Departure meal.
XXII. Departure libation.
XXIII. Farewell blessing.
XXIV. Departure omen and interpretation.
XXV. Escort to visitor's next destination.
(Source: Reece, 6-7).
In fact, Steve Reece notes that Homer's Odyssey contains twelve elaborate hospitality scenes and the Iliad has four (5). Speaking of hospitality, Agathe Thornton says this "social institution is one of the most important themes- (38). To appreciate more fully the aesthetics of this body of literature, one needs to be familiar with the code of hospitality woven into the fabric of these stories. Reece has pointed out that the code of hospitality, particularly in Homeric literature, follows a pattern which includes "arrival, reception, seating, feasting, identification, bedding down, bathing, gift giving, and departure, all composed in highly formulaic diction and arranged in a relatively fixed order" (5). Reece is quick to say that not every element is found in every story dealing with hospitality, but "the sequence into which these elements fall seems to underlie every scene" (8). .
Since it is useful to the reader to see how this pattern of hospitality operates in these stories, an examination of a scene from Homer's Iliad follows. The first element is the arrival of a visitor, and Reece points out that the function of the visitor's arrival is to announce a hospitality scene (13). In the Iliad, this element consists of the visit of Odysseus, Phoenix, and Ajax to Achilles" camp to persuade him to return to the battle waged against the Trojans.
