Hospitality

Hospitality. It’s a very important thing in a variety of human civilizations. Whether for simply being a good person, or perhaps because of the risks involved in not being hospitable. I mean, Mynogan and I joke about it quite often with our closing tale at nearly all of our shows. You had best be generous to strangers you meet on the road or those who come to your home — for who knows? They could be good in disguise, and why take a chance after all?

Hospitality is something that has been with humanity since our very beginnings — as much as some people would like to admit otherwise — humans are social creatures. It is in our very nature to help our neighbors. Whether that is caring for a hurt or sick stranger, or sharing our meals with fellow travelers, the point behind it stands, be kind to one another, because, in the end we are in this together. Ideas of individualism and self-reliance are all well and good, but when it comes down to it from our earliest tales, humans are helping one another, and when they do good things come of them. Perhaps more telling though, when people are not hospitable, bad things happen to them in many a tale. Depending on the given mythology, and your views on that given religion, mythology, etc this could turn into a chicken and the egg debate. Was hospitality so important to early humans that we created stories that explain that you should do this or else you are bad and bad things will happen to you? Or were the stories teachings that helped spread the idea. I’m more in favor of the practice of creating the myth than the myth creating the practice, but that given chicken or the egg debate is not one I’m going to get into, probably ever. 

However, I mentioned that I would be going into views on hospitality in some different cultures. I’m going to start with an old standard of The Skald’s Circle, the Norse. The Norse’s view of the principle of reciprocity shows one aspect of the idea of hospitality, that being do good by your neighbor — or else. Then we’ll be moving onto the Greek principle of Xenia. This principle goes more into the idea of being hospitable because it is the right thing to do, and also it is the desire of the gods for people to be hospitable. Finally, we’ll be discussing hospitality in Hinduism and their concept of Atithi Devo Bhava. This is somewhat of a middle ground of the other two, the idea being, be kind to strangers, there’s a chance they could be a god. Obviously, it is a bit more in-depth than that, but the literal translation is “the guest is god”. While there are very clearly more examples in various mythologies, these three offer a nice spread of views. 

Beginning with the Norse, there are plenty of representatives of hospitality being an important aspect of Norse life. However, we’re going to start with the very basics, the Hávamál. Stanzas 1-4 begin with very straightforward messages, something that is not necessarily common within the depths of the Hávamál. The first two are warnings to wanderers, to always be wary of those who mean you harm, for there could always be a foe in the waiting. However, stanzas 3-4 are notes of wisdom for hosts. When a guest comes to your home seeking warmth, show them to the fire and warm clothes. When a guest comes seeking refreshment, it should be given to them. I went looking through a few translations of the Hávamál for this, but I harkened back to my preferred translation by Jackson Crawford (I highly recommend this for people looking for a straightforward translation. Lee Hollander’s translation is also fantastic, if a bit prettier of a translation.)

You can see this point shown in a variety of the Norse tales as well when someone is welcomed into a home, they are fed and taken care of. In the situations that this doesn’t happen, it’s normally a sign that the host is not a good person. What makes the Norse principle of reciprocity, and therefore hospitality, fascinating though is that it is full of a variety of nuances. When we get down to the basics, it comes down to: do good to me, and I will repay you the favor. Do poorly onto me, and either I or my family or friends will repay the favor. This can be seen rather often when the dwarves kill the giants in the Mead of Poetry, their son comes by and pays them the favor, and the dwarves in essence pay weregild, in the form the mead. (weregild meaning the price for someone’s life). Almost the entirety of the Sagas, Icelandic and otherwise, can be viewed as the principle of reciprocity taken to wild proportions. Hospitality in Norse myth really is more of a this for that point of view. It gets fascinating when you look into the actual aspects of the gift-giving as well. An overly generous gift can be just as much of an insult as an overly miserly gift. The reason being, if you give someone a gift that you know full and well that they will never be able to repay, you are intentionally trying to put them in your debt. You can see this happen a few times in the Icelandic saga, as well as the Heimskringla. In the book that I have touted before as an amazing resource, Lady with the Mead Cup, this idea of reciprocal gift-giving is further touched upon. I could go on, but that would take up quite a bit of this article. The Norse idea of hospitality, as I’ve been able to parse, do good, because it is right, but also do good deeds so they can return back to you. Build your own group of loyal companions essential. Good deed reinforces good deed and makes the community stronger. Bad deed reinforces bad deed and weakens the community. 

The Greek concept of hospitality is a markedly different. The idea of Xenia is; be hospitable because it is right and expected of you. Hospitality is granted to all travelers, no matter their origin, because it was the right thing to do in Greek culture. The gods go so far as to demand hospitality. One of Zeus’s names was Zeus Xenia, as he was the patron of hospitality.  The best explanation of the Greek idea of hospitality can be found in the tale of Baucis and Philemon, which you can find here. Xenia was a tradition of extending hospitality to all travelers, which in a world before modern conveniences, traveling was something that was a bit more an undertaking. In a world with bandits on the road, and without hotels or other such things, one had to rely on the good will of their fellow man. In the Odyssey, Odysseus commonly stops at people’s homes and relies on their hospitality. 

“Come, friend, and give me something; for you seem to be no lowly man among the Greeks, but their most noble lord-indeed a chief.  So you should offer more than others can-I’d make you famous then in endless lands.  I, too, was once a man of means; my house was rich; I often gave to vagabonds, whoever they might be, who came in need” (Homer, p. 351).

The concept of Greek Xenia is very far removed from the hospitality that is seen in other cultures. A guest seeking shelter was generally given it, refusing it was seen as breaking the laws of hospitality set by the gods. It’s almost hard to comprehend this level of general hospitality and goodwill because of how foreign it seems to our modern mindsets. Commonly when Odysseus went to a home and sought out shelter, the people would take him in and they gladly welcome him in, but they would ask for Odysseus to pray for their happiness to the gods. The idea that the gods will punish those who are not hospitable can be seen in Baucis and Philemon. This begs the question, is the hospitality of Xenia something that was genuine, or was it enforced through fear of divine vengeance? Well, it’s possible, however, I wouldn’t be so willing to sell the ancient Greeks short. It’s very possible that their hospitality was something that was done out of genuine kindness, but I suppose we’ll never know. 

Of course, there are limits to everything. First off, hospitality is given with the idea that something should be given in return, whether it is a gift, or as in the quote above, the sharing of tales of the host’s greatness. (It’s important to note this isn’t the concept of equal exchange like the Norse principle of reciprocity.) Second, the hospitality has its limits. As seen in the Odyssey with the suitors trying to win the hand of Penelope, when Telemachus tells them to leave and they refuse, eventually by not respecting the hospitality set by Penelope they meet their graves. Be a grateful guest, and don’t overstay your welcome is essentially the rule that Xenia sticks to. 

So, we’ve covered two different European philosophies of hospitality, the very practical Norse principle of reciprocity, and the generous Greek idea of Xenia. Next, we’re going to be leaving Europe to look at an Indian perspective. This one is a bit more unique, and as I mentioned before, it has to do with the principle of Atithi Devo Bhava, or “the guest is god”. 

Unlike the other two practices that we mentioned, this practice is ancient but is also still practiced today. With that in mind, please note that this is my interpretation from reading some myths and some scholarly articles. If I have made a mistake here please feel free to correct me, I will not take offense at it. With that out of the way, the Hindu beliefs in hospitality take it a step further than the Greeks did, and they did so in a very unique way. Rather than merely making hospitality an important aspect of the culture or have it be merely reinforced through religious scripture, hospitality itself became a part of the worship. There are references to hospitality not only in important texts like the Tirukkural (specifically verses 81 through 90 which exclusively cover hospitality) and there are also myths that discuss the importance of hospitality. The story of Krishna and Sudama is the myth that stood out as a great example of Atithi Devo Bhava

In the story of Krishna and Sudama, Sudama is a Brahmin and Krishna hailed from a much higher status family. This difference didn’t stop their friendship though. Sometime later in his life, Sudama and his family were nearly starving and were suffering. Sudama’s wife reminded him of his friendship with Krishna and recommended he go speak with him. Sudama did and upon seeing him, Krishna greeted his old friend warmly and treated him as well as he would a noble guest. Treat every guest warmly and generously, regardless of station. This is an important aspect that your see commonly in many hospitality stories, you must treat all guests kindly and generously regardless of how they may appear, because not only is it the kind thing to do, but also as the translation of Atithi Devo Bhava says, the guest is god. To go further into this idea, here is a translated piece of the Shikshavalli, “be one for whom the Mother is God, be one for whom the Father is God, be one for whom the Teacher is God, be one for whom the guest is God.” Treat the guest as well as you would a god because this harkens back to the idea that the divine self in the guest is the same as the divine self in the host. 

The writings in the Tirukkural go further in the aspects of hospitality. It goes so far as to say that the whole reason for having a large estate is so that one can be a generous host. To turn away guests is one of the more grievous things that one can do, according to the Tirukkural. The idea hosting being a form of worship also has it’s own specific form of prayer, for lack of a better words, in the form of the Panchopchara Puja. There are steps to this practice that while I’m going to list them out, for fear of misinterpreting I’ll also attach a link here, so you can look at the steps yourself. Here is a short list though:

1. Fragrance (Dhupa) – When receiving guests the rooms must have a nice fragrance. As this is the first thing that guests will notice. Good smells will welcome the guest in.
2. Lamp (Dipa) – This was mainly prior to the spread of electricity, but a lamp must be lit, so the guest and host can clearly see one another’s body language and expression. This prevents a gap between guest and host.
3. Eatables (Naivedya) – Fruits and sweets made of milk are offered to guests.
4. Rice (Akshata) – A tilak (a symbol of being undivided) often made of a vermilion paste, is put on the forehead and rice grains are placed on it. 
5. Flower Offering (Pushpa) – When departing, a guest is given a flower to give them sweet memories of the visit.

There are obviously nuanced details to this as there are for any religious ceremony. The mere existence of this ceremony however shows the importance of hospitality in Indian culture. Hospitality isn’t merely an important cultural practice, it is an important spiritual practice as well. That is what I felt separated the Indian idea of hospitality from other examples, both contemporary and historical.

So, we have looked at hospitality as a way of practical community building, hospitality as a cultural responsibility, and hospitality as a spiritual responsibility. All of these views can likely be traced back to the different beliefs of the individual cultures, and they paint interesting views of the cultures. I found this to be a fascinating thing to research, and it’s something that I may go back to research further. Of course, there are many different cultures around the world that likely have their own views of hospitality, whether it’s the idea of the Good Samaritan or the idea of bread and salt. If you know of an interesting hospitality tradition I would greatly appreciate it if you shared in the comments on our Facebook page, we are always happy to learn about other cultures. 

I hope you enjoyed this article, I’ll be back next month with another article on a wildly different topic most likely. As always, if you have a topic that you’d like me to research, please reach out, I’m always happy to take requests. With that, stay safe and healthy everyone.

~Casimir

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