(Entertaining guests in camp/showing hospitality)
The nature of how guest are treated and entertained throughout the Greek culture, never experiences a change in the Iliad. Guest are thought to be treasured, and “wine and dined” with your most valuable possessions. Hospitality, the way guest are treated, is the most established formality of Greek culture along with worshipping mythological Gods. Three important entertaining/hospitality practices expressed in the Iliad are the presence and drinking of wine, large elaborate feasts, and offering sacrifices to the Gods. Wine was an essential aspect of all meals, gatherings, and ceremonials, in Greek culture. It was the most common beverage pertaining to their society. Citizens …show more content…
These dinners are usually initiated after the arrival of guests to someone’s home, quarters, or lodgings. A host then starts the preparing for the feast, incorporating servant labor as well. Slaughtering of animals must be performed before the foods can be cooked for the guests. Following the preparation of the meat, it is laid over a fire, to be directly cooked. While the guests wait, wine is presented to them, to warm their stomachs prior to the actual main course. Light conversation is also expressed in their beginning moments, to lighten the mood depending on the topic at hand. Once the food is ready to be eaten, quality platters, plates, and baskets are laid out to decorate the table of feasting. The hosts’ finest tableware is used when guest are present. Meat is then placed on platters, in an intricate manner, as to display fine cooking. Elegant baskets are filled with bread, and placed around the table in a decorative manner. In the Iliad, Achilles’ best friend Patroclus, is responsible for the preparing the table area. “He laid [the] [meat] on platters and set out bread/ In exquisite baskets…”(Iliad, Book IX: 220-221). Before the guests and hosts are allowed to eat, the sacrifices must first be thrown into the fire to appease the Gods. At the closing of this practice, the guests and hosts eat until they are full. Along with the food, wine is always in the vicinity, to help wash down food