The Guest Host Relationship in The Odyssey

In the American culture today, there are certain guidelines to which we must conform when we are a guest in someone's home. If we are invited to a friend's house for dinner, it is customary to find out what we are expected to bring. This is just common knowledge.
During the time of the Ancient Greeks, similar guidelines were in place that delineated the relationship between guest and host. According to a commentary by Russell Murphy, this was a time in which "One [was] required to be welcoming to strangers or else be thought of as a godless outlaw" (The Odyssey: A Commentary, page 1).
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