So much of American culture is based off of old Greek ideals. The fundamental value that America is based on, democracy, came from the Greeks. Some philosophies did not carry over throughout the years though. One being xenia. Xenia is the ancient Greek idea of hospitality. This idea of treating visitors with the highest honors was something the Greeks took very seriously. In fact, it was preached about in their own religion. Greeks told stories about what happened to people that did not treat random visitors with respect and honor. The Peter Paul Rubens painting above depicts the story Philemon and Baucis. In this story, Zeus and Mercury disguised themselves as mortals and traveled to a village to test their hospitality. They wandered in town, begging for a place to stay. All of the villagers turned them down until they came across Baucis and Philemon. The two gods decided to reward the couple by telling them to leave town, because Zeus was going to destroy the rest of the village. What happened to that courtesy and respect? In modern times, if a stranger appears at our doorstep we immediately think that something is not right, or that they are doing something dangerous. My question is why has time changed our point of view on strangers and hospitality?
As civilization advances, so does the speed at which people receive information. Nowadays, within minutes of something happening it can be read about, listened to, or watched online. Sadly though, stories that are spread more quickly are generally bad ones. Those stories get spread because of the fear that it causes people to feel. Spreading of information has caused people to be more weary of the world around them, because they now know what kind of awful things occur everyday. Fear of strangers is why xenia and other means of hospitality have faded throughout the years. People now fear what is out in the world and do not want to bring in someone they do not know into their house because of it.
What other values have died out over time and what caused the change?
I really like this blog, by the way. But anyway...
ReplyDeleteI think our idea of hospitality has changed because of the world around us and what our "idea" of strangers out on the street are. No, they are not all necessarily "bad guys" but not everyone on the street is the nicest person either. Society with a mix of the economy lead people to do bad things such as steal and murder. We hear about these stories every day and it makes us afraid to be nice to strangers in fear of what they might do to us. The news and newspapers make us think that everyone who we don't know is like this but in reality, it is not true. In our American culture, we are taught to stay away from "stranger danger" and to avoid them at all costs. We would never let a poorly dressed stranger in our home in fear of they might break something, hurt someone or steal something. Many other values have died out over time as well such as chivalry.
Two values that have stopped since the era of the Greeks are polytheism and bigamy. Polytheism, which is the worship of multiple gods, died down after the Judeo-Christian worldview caught on. When these religions became popular, people started practicing monotheism by worshiping only one god. The sacrifice of animals is very uncommon in modern times, as the interpretation of who God is and what he expects from us has changed much over time. I think that most people no longer have multiple wives because women started to be treated as equals more and more in the past centuries. Men stopped treating them as possessions, and women’s rights have progressively gotten better. Women were not able to vote in the past, but now, they are generally seen as the equals of men.
ReplyDeleteI know for sure that chivalry has pretty much died out from the Middle Ages. Well, not completely, because even in the modern world we practice such actions such as opening doors for ladies, and allowing ladies to go first. However, chivalry in the Middle Ages also applied to battles, and most war tactics were fighting during the day, and resting during the night. However, nowadays we use stealth, spies, and other underhanded tactics to win our own battles.
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