Odyssey 7.159 · Book 7, lines 159–161
Not seemly, that a guest sit in the ashes
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Echeneus — Ἀλκίνοʼ, οὐ μέν τοι τόδε κάλλιον, οὐδὲ ἔοικε, ξεῖνον μὲν χαμαὶ ἧσθαι ἐπʼ ἐσχάρῃ ἐν κονίῃσιν, οἵδε δὲ σὸν μῦθον ποτιδέγμενοι ἰσχανόωνται.
Alcinous, this is not, I tell you, the fairer thing, nor is it seemly, that the stranger sit on the ground at the hearth in the ashes, while these men await your word and hold back.
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The setting
Echeneus, the eldest Phaeacian counsellor, addresses King Alcinous while the stranger still sits in the ashes.
A note on this passage
Echeneus speaks plainly to the king: this will not do. It is neither the finer course nor seemly that a guest should sit on the ground at the hearth in the ashes while the whole company holds back, waiting on Alcinous to act. The rebuke is wrapped in deference, but it is a rebuke.
Under the courtesy runs the law of xenia. A stranger at the hearth is owed a seat, food, and honour before anything else; to leave him in the dust is to leave a sacred debt unpaid. Echeneus is not offering an opinion but reminding a king of an obligation everyone in the hall already feels.
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