Xenia (Greek: ξενία, xenía) is the Greekword for "foreign" or "strange"/"stranger", or of foreign origin. The concept of hospitality, or generosity and courtesy shown to those who are far from home is "philoxenia". The word "philos" meaning "friend" and the word "xenia" meaning "stranger", thus "friend of the stranger". It is often translated as "guest-friendship" (or "ritualized friendship") because the rituals of hospitality created and expressed a reciprocal relationship between guest and host.
The Greek god Zeus sometimes referred to as Zeus Xenios, meaning he was god of, among other things, travelers. This created a particular religious obligation to be hospitable to travelers, but guests also had responsibilities, beyond reciprocating hospitality.
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Philoxenia consists of three basic rules:
Philoxenia was considered to be particularly important in the ancient times when people thought gods mingled amongst them. If you had played host to a deity (a concept known as theoxenia) and performed poorly, you would incur the wrath of a god. It is thought that the Greek practice of theoxenia may have been the antecedent of the Roman rite of Lectisternium, or the draping of couches.
The policy of Philoxenia also includes the protection of travelling bards. They would receive hospitality in the form of a place to sleep, food, and often an assortment of gifts in turn for entertainment and news from other parts of the ancient world. The safety of these bards was believed to have been secured by the aegis-wielding Zeus, and any violation of Philoxenia would put the violator at the mercy of either Zeus or any lower god that he saw fit to enforce the unwritten code.
The Trojan war described in the Iliad of Homer actually resulted from a violation of philoxenia. Paris, from the house of Priam of Troy, was a guest of Menelaus, king of Mycenaean Sparta, but seriously transgressed the bounds of philoxenia by abducting his host's wife, Helen. Therefore the Achaeans were required by duty to Zeus to avenge this transgression, which as a violation of philoxenia was an insult to Zeus's authority.
Diomedes and Glaucus meet in battle and before attacking, the former asks the lineage of the latter. Glaucus tells his lineage, upon which Diomedes realizes their guest-friendship. They trade armor.
Xenia is an important theme in Homer's The Odyssey. Every household in the epic is seen alongside xenia. Odysseus's house is inhabited by suitors with demands beyond the bounds of xenia. Menelaus and Nestor's houses are seen when Telemachus visits. There are many other households observed in the epic, including those of Circe, Calypso, and the Phaeacians. The Phaeacians, and in particular Nausicaa, were famed for their immaculate application of xenia, as the princess and her maids offered to bathe Odysseus and then led him to the palace to be fed and entertained; however, Polyphemus showed lack of Xenia and refused to honor the traveller's requests, instead eating some of Odysseus' men. It should be noted, however, that because Odysseus was indirectly responsible for Poseidon's sinking one of their ships, the Phaeacians resolved to be less trusting of subsequent travelers. Book 3 Lines 70-80 also show xenia shown to Odysseus' son, Telemachus. As well as this, whenever Homer describes the details of 'xenia' he uses the same formula every time, for example the maid pouring wine into the gold cups, etc.