Fame: In Christian theology humility is a virtue.  Fame is either irrelevant (to salvation) or an obstacle related to original sin (putting your "self" before God).  On the other hand, fame has some relationship to good works, stewardship, & perhaps being helpful to your neighbor.  It is somewhat surprising to find that Dante doesn't find a room or trench in hell occupied by the proud.  In the section dealing with "painted people" (hypocrites), Dante suggests something that would have been familiar to Homer, viz., that fame works as an instrument to distinguish genuine accomplishment from pretension, hypocrisy, & illusion.  Virgil admonishes Dante:
24.46     Now you must free yourself from sloth . . .
             for, sitting on down
             or lying under covers, no one comes to fame,

             without which whoever consumes his life
             leaves such vestige of himself on earth
             as smoke in air or foam on water.

Here is how fame works in Homer. Warriors & other men of accomplishment gossip with each other, trading life stories.  In the section of the ODY that we study in this unit (books 9-12), Alkinoos, having hosted OD & agreed to help reach home, asks only for OD's story:
9.596     tell me
             the sea ways that you wandered, & the shores
             you touched; the cities, & the men therein

After hearing someone's life story, we take an attitude towards that person.  He has gained our respect or our contempt, or perhaps just our indifference.  Occasionally we envy someone of great talent & accomplishment, wishing that we were as fortunate or blessed; perhaps even wishing that we could trade lives.  Such feelings implicitly recognize that I envy the person that I perceive as superior to me.  OD has listened to innumerable such stories & never found a person with whom he would trade places.  Consequently, OD must be content with his life.  Is blissfully happy all the time.  You know that he is not.  However, OD must feel that he has gotten everything out of life that it is possible to get, because he cannot find anyone who has gotten more.
     This negative definition of "the good life" identified through fame is related to Socrates' status as the wisest human being.  Initially Socrates believes that the Oracle of Delphi was mistaken about this, feeling that:
p.946      I know that I have o wisdom, small or great. . .  . I reflected that if I
              could only find a man wiser than myself, then I might go to the god
              with a refutation (Apology).

In his search, Socrates finds again & again that the people he quizzes about various virtues think that they possess  absolute truth, but they invariably end up confused & flustered, blaming Socrates for destroying their illusions:
p. 946    although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful &
             good, I am better off than he is,--for he knows nothing, & thinks that he knows;
             I neither know nor think that I know.  In this latter particular, then, I seem to have
             slightly the advantage of him.

Paradoxically, Socrates' wisdom is negatively defined as the absence of pretension & the willingness to rationally analyze every belief.  Somewhat similarly, OD's "perfect" life remains troubled.  Like Sisyphos (11.668), & like every human being, OD must struggle every day that he lives, for that is what life is: a struggle.  The point is that OD conducts this struggle best, being:
13.369    Of all men now alive
              . . . the best in plots & story telling

OD is the prototype of Socrates, both being entirely devoted to analytic thinking, to Athena.

Teiresias: Kirke tells OD that he must go to Hades in order to solicit the advice of Teiresias about what life means & how to get home (i.e., how to get through life successfully).  The question is why does Teiresias possess the answers?  Who was he?  Perhaps you remember him from reading Sophocles.  Teiresias (also spelled Tiresias) appears in both Oedipus Rex & Antigone (both in our text).  In both plays, Teiresias is wiser than the tragic heroes whose tragedies are evident in their arrogance.  Oedipus solved the riddle of the Sphinx & Creon settled a civil war.  Both kings believe that they know more than anyone else.  Look up Tiresias in your Dictionary.  You will find that a good deal of Teiresias' vaunted knowledge comes from his unique experience of having been both a man & a woman.  Hera blinds Teiresias for having blabbed the secret that if sexual pleasure was constituted of 10 parts, women possess 9 parts & men only 1 part.  Homer simply says that:
10.533    blind Teiresias of Thebes [is] forever
              charged with reason even among the dead;
              to him alone, of all the flitting ghosts,
              Persephone has given a mind undarkened

Teiresias' name means "the weariness of rowing," which is a Greek euphemism for life itself. What does life feel like?  It feels like the weariness of rowing that never seems to end.  To ask Teiresias about life is concomitant to asking him "what is the meaning of suffering"; why are we fated to suffer?  The man who has also been a woman should be uniquely qualified to know the answer.  So what is the answer?  Read p. 407 closely & explain to us in the Chat session how Teiresias answers this most fundamental human question.

Hospitality:  This concept is simple.

• Human beings exist only by the hospitality of the gods (&/or fate).  Humans are obligated to be gracious & grateful guests (not to eat Helios' cattle, e.g.), & to imitate the gods by extending hospitality to others (who may occasionally be Olympians in disguise intent on testing how hospitable an individual may be).
• To some extent hospitality works on the basis of  a refinement & reversal of brute power.  Here is the situation.  A man appears at my door.  If I am frightened enough, I lock the door & perhaps pretend I am not at home.  If I open the door & extend hospitality, it illustrates that I feel powerful enough not to fall victim to this stranger.  Obviously, there is a psychological pressure on the guest to play the expect part & be grateful rather than competitive or violent.
• Hospitality is the first form of law that is required for the polis to exist & to prosper.  Citizens must be hospitable to each other.  More explicit laws will be drafted, but they all require the pervasive attitude of hospitable good will in order to accomplish their end, viz., that the city prospers.
• Looking ahead towards the end of the ODY, notice that hospitality is different from family (blood) relationships.  At the end of the ODY, Homer suggests that the fundamental relationship in the polis is by virtue of dedication or commitment, symbolized in the vow of marriage, which is essentially identical to the vow of allegiance taken by citizens.  Who is a citizen of Athens; who offers adoration to Athena?  This is not a matter of blood.  Someone may say, "I am a 5th generation Athenian.  My ancestor's came over on the Mayflower" (to mix nations).  This is not an acceptable understanding of citizenship, which requires the act of hospitality extended towards your neighbors & neighborhood.  The graffiti artist, the guy who casually litters the neighborhood or vandalizes public property violates the ethic of hospitality.  Above all he demonstrates ingratitude for the privilege of  living in the polis.  The appropriate punishment is to ostracize him.  Conversely, the requirement for citizenship is demonstrated hospitality.

Helios Rising from the Sea (notice the fishes)

Click on the next section: Explication above.