Last month, a robber with a gun in Washington DC threatened a group dining on their patio. One of the hosts suggested that the robber join them for a glass of wine instead of robbing their house and/or killing them. The robber took a sip and then things got very strange. From the Associated Press:
The robber, with his hood down, took another sip and a bite of Camembert cheese. He put the gun in his sweatpants…
"I think I may have come to the wrong house," he said before apologizing. "Can I get a hug?"
UPDATE: Over at Orange Crate Art, Michael Leddy, professor of English, puts the story above in literary context:
I'm hoping that any of my Homer-reading students who come across this news item pause to think on the ancient Greek practice of ξενία (xenía), hospitality. The Iliad ends with an extraordinary moment of xenía, when Achilles as host treats Hector's father Priam with respect and compassion. The two share a meal before Priam departs with Hector's returned corpse. The Odyssey is a running display of xenía and its opposite: virtually every scenario in the poem hinges upon the practice or abuse of hospitality. And hospitality isn't limited to better homes and palaces: the swineherd Eumaeus acquits himself as a perfect host by offering Odysseus that best that he has: food, shelter, and a cloak to stay warm (almost literally the shirt off his back). Link
