Part 1: Key Ideas

Xenia means the relationship between host and guest. It involved welcoming strangers, offering food and shelter, giving gifts, and showing mutual respect. Xenia was connected to Zeus Xenios, protector of guests. A host who abused a guest, or a guest who abused a host’s hospitality, could be seen as violating a sacred social code.

Nostos means the journey home, especially the return of a warrior after the Trojan War. In The Odyssey, Odysseus’ nostos is both a physical journey to Ithaca and a struggle to reclaim his family, household, status and identity.

1. Which action best demonstrates xenia?

Refusing to help a traveller

Welcoming a stranger before asking questions

Taking a guest’s possessions by force

Ignoring the rules of the household

2. What is the main meaning of nostos?

A contest for athletic glory

A journey home and restoration of one’s place

A religious sacrifice

A battle between rival families

3. Select two behaviours that are part of good xenia.

Providing food and shelter

Stealing from the host

Offering a gift or safe departure

Threatening the guest

4. Why is xenia important to the plot of The Odyssey?

It shows how characters follow or break expected social rules.

It explains how ships are built.

It replaces the theme of war.

It proves that all strangers are dangerous.

Part 2: Evidence from the Epic

Use specific episodes to explain how Homer presents xenia and nostos. Name the character or episode in each answer.

5. The Cyclops Polyphemus refuses to respect the rules of xenia and harms Odysseus’ men. Explain two ways his behaviour breaks the guest-host code.

6. Give one example of a character who shows good hospitality. What does this reveal about the values of the society in the poem?

7. How do the suitors in Ithaca abuse xenia while staying in Odysseus’ household? Include one specific detail.

8. Choose one stage of Odysseus’ nostos. Explain how it makes his return to Ithaca more difficult or changes him.

Part 3: Analysis

9. Compare the treatment of Odysseus by the Phaeacians with the treatment of Odysseus’ men by Polyphemus. What contrast does Homer create?

10. “Odysseus’ nostos is not complete when he reaches Ithaca.” Do you agree? Explain your view using evidence about his household, identity and relationships.