ABSTRACT
In order to resist being eaten by the Cyclops or utterly absorbed into Circe’s magical household, Odysseus tests and revises traditional rites of guest-friendship. Sometimes Odysseus ignores or reverses the protocols of hospitality, recalibrating forms to come up with new ideas. In this sense, the Odyssey does not view cultural practice as static only. Boundaries and limits are essential to culture, but travel also entails transformations and new modes of behaviour. My essay analyses Odysseus’s interventions in the characteristic patterns of the Cyclops’s and Circe’s treatment of the xenos, the stranger and guest, to establish Poseidon as an enemy and enlist Circe’s help for his journey.
