‘I look at the role of the ξεινήιον (guest-gift) in creating the ritualized alliance between elite hero-warriors in Homeric epics known as guest-friendship. I shall discuss two case studies of guest-gift exchange in the Odyssey.

‘For Homerists, our “field” is the texts of the imaginary and imagined stylized societies of the epics – albeit societies that incorporate elements of traditional knowledge and practice from the “real” world. Although we cannot conduct physical field research into Homeric society, we can use some anthropological concepts and terminology to use Homer to explain Homer.’

Fiona Sweet Formiatti began her Ph.D. in March 2014. She holds an M.Phil. (ANU, 2013) for her thesis entitled ‘Homeric Apostrophe of Character’.