DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4098#0569
HOSPITALITY. 519
observable on the rocks of most of the Attic mountains, par-
ticularly on Parnes and Aigaleos, over which were the principal
passes into Boeotia; but the mode of conveyance seems not to
have been more expeditious than at present; for according to Pro-
copius,1 a day's journey was reckoned two hundred and ten stadia.
The ancient hospitalit}', which the Greeks considered as so sacred
and inviolable, is still partially preserved. When the traveller makes
a second tour through the country, he can hardly do any thing
more offensive to the person, by whom he was entertained in his
first journey, than by not again having recourse to the kindness
of his former host.
Travelling would indeed be impracticable in Greece, if it were
not facilitated by this noble sentiment; for the Protogeroi are not
found in all parts of the country, and the miserable Khans or Kara-
vanserais, are generally constructed only in towns or on highways.
Travelling, in the greater part of Greece, seems to have been an-
ciently at least as difficult as it is at the present day : and that
circumstance gave rise to the laws of hospitality.
This reciprocal hospitality became hereditary in families ; and
the friendship which was thus contracted, was not less binding than
the ties of affinity, or of blood. Those between whom a regard had
been cemented by the intercourse of hospitality, were provided
with some particular mark, which, being handed down from father
to son, established a friendship and alliance between the families,
for several generations. This mark was the <rvp$o\ov %evtxov of the
Greeks, and the tessera hospitalis of the Latins, The crvpfioXov was some-
times an astragal,2 probably of lead, which, being cut in halves,3
1 De Bello Vandal, b. 1. c. 1. p. 177. Paris edit. See also Dion. Chrysostom. Orat. G.
2 The astragal was a bone of the vertebra of the hinder feet of cloven-footed animals. Plin.
Nat. Hist. b. 11. c. 45 and 46.
3 Jacobi Nicolai Loensis Miscell. Epiphill. b. 4. c. 19. Samuelis Petiti Miscell.
b. 2. C. I. Note on V. 6IS. Euripid. Medea, Bevoic te TTEfnrEiv ov/ufio\', 01 tyaaovm a ev.
observable on the rocks of most of the Attic mountains, par-
ticularly on Parnes and Aigaleos, over which were the principal
passes into Boeotia; but the mode of conveyance seems not to
have been more expeditious than at present; for according to Pro-
copius,1 a day's journey was reckoned two hundred and ten stadia.
The ancient hospitalit}', which the Greeks considered as so sacred
and inviolable, is still partially preserved. When the traveller makes
a second tour through the country, he can hardly do any thing
more offensive to the person, by whom he was entertained in his
first journey, than by not again having recourse to the kindness
of his former host.
Travelling would indeed be impracticable in Greece, if it were
not facilitated by this noble sentiment; for the Protogeroi are not
found in all parts of the country, and the miserable Khans or Kara-
vanserais, are generally constructed only in towns or on highways.
Travelling, in the greater part of Greece, seems to have been an-
ciently at least as difficult as it is at the present day : and that
circumstance gave rise to the laws of hospitality.
This reciprocal hospitality became hereditary in families ; and
the friendship which was thus contracted, was not less binding than
the ties of affinity, or of blood. Those between whom a regard had
been cemented by the intercourse of hospitality, were provided
with some particular mark, which, being handed down from father
to son, established a friendship and alliance between the families,
for several generations. This mark was the <rvp$o\ov %evtxov of the
Greeks, and the tessera hospitalis of the Latins, The crvpfioXov was some-
times an astragal,2 probably of lead, which, being cut in halves,3
1 De Bello Vandal, b. 1. c. 1. p. 177. Paris edit. See also Dion. Chrysostom. Orat. G.
2 The astragal was a bone of the vertebra of the hinder feet of cloven-footed animals. Plin.
Nat. Hist. b. 11. c. 45 and 46.
3 Jacobi Nicolai Loensis Miscell. Epiphill. b. 4. c. 19. Samuelis Petiti Miscell.
b. 2. C. I. Note on V. 6IS. Euripid. Medea, Bevoic te TTEfnrEiv ov/ufio\', 01 tyaaovm a ev.