Odyssey 3.34 · Book 3, lines 34–35
The whole company welcomes them
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οἱ δʼ ὡς οὖν ξείνους ἴδον, ἁθρόοι ἦλθον ἅπαντες, χερσίν τʼ ἠσπάζοντο καὶ ἑδριάασθαι ἄνωγον.
And when they saw the strangers, they all came together in a throng, and greeted them by the hand, and bade them be seated.
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The setting
The Pylians, in the middle of their sacrifice, catch sight of the two newcomers on the beach.
A note on this passage
Two lines of pure guest-welcome. The moment the Pylians see strangers, the whole company moves toward them as one, takes their hands, and offers a place at the feast. No one asks who they are first. The reception is immediate and total.
This is xenia working exactly as it should, and the speed is the point. In a world without inns or police, a stranger might be anyone — a beggar, a raider, a god in disguise — and the code answers the risk by honoring first and questioning later. The reader has just left a hall where guests are abused; here the reflex of hospitality is intact, and one of these strangers really is a god.
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Odyssey 3.34 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/3.34/