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And by a prudent flight and cunning save A life which valour could not, from the grave. A better buckler I can soon regain, But who can get another life again? Archilochus

Sunday, July 28, 2024

Xenia - Against Xenophobia, An Assembly Theory of Civilizational "Intelligence"

Contrast and Compare - Xenia is THE prerequisite for BOTH Reason AND Rationality

When xenia is lost, it is time to leave (with no regrets)

On Xenia (from Wikipedia):
Xenia consists of two basic rules:
1) The respect from hosts to guests. Hosts must be hospitable to guests and provide them with a bath, food, drink, gifts, and safe escort to their next destination. It is considered rude to ask guests questions, or even to ask who they are, before they have finished the meal provided to them.

2) The respect from guests to hosts. Guests must be courteous to their hosts and not be a threat or burden. Guests are expected to provide stories and news from the outside world. Most importantly, guests are expected to reciprocate if their hosts ever call upon them in their homes.[5]
Xenia was considered to be particularly important in ancient times when people thought that gods mingled among them; if one had poorly played host to a stranger, there was the risk of incurring the wrath of a god disguised as the stranger. Notable among them is the Greek god Zeus, who is sometimes called Zeus Xenios in his role as a protector of strangers. This normalized theoxeny or theoxenia, wherein human beings demonstrate their virtue by extending hospitality to a humble stranger (xenos), who turns out to be a disguised deity (theos).[5]

These stories caution mortals that any guest should be treated as if potentially a disguised divinity, due to both a deity's capacity to instill punishment or grant reward for their behavior, who highly valued generosity and welcoming attitudes towards strangers,
A renaissance painting displaying traditional exchanges of gifts between gods. This represents the material and social exchanges involved with Xenia.

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