Wednesday, June 27, 2018
God of Strangers
Homer, Odyssey 9.266-271 (Odysseus to Polyphemus; tr. A.T. Murray, rev. George E. Dimock):
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But we on our part, thus visiting you, have come as suppliants to your knees, in the hope that you will give us entertainment, or in some other manner be generous to us, as is the due of strangers. Do not deny us, good sir, but reverence the gods; we are your suppliants; and Zeus is the avenger of suppliants and strangers—Zeus, the strangers' god—who walks in the footsteps of reverend strangers.
ἡμεῖς δ᾿ αὖτε κιχανόμενοι τὰ σὰ γοῦνα
ἱκόμεθ᾿, εἴ τι πόροις ξεινήιον ἠὲ καὶ ἄλλως
δοίης δωτίνην, ἥ τε ξείνων θέμις ἐστίν.
ἀλλ᾿ αἰδεῖο, φέριστε, θεούς· ἱκέται δέ τοί εἰμεν,
Ζεὺς δ᾿ ἐπιτιμήτωρ ἱκετάων τε ξείνων τε, 270
ξείνιος, ὃς ξείνοισιν ἅμ᾿ αἰδοίοισιν ὀπηδεῖ.
