HOSPITALITY, ITS SIGNS AND SYMBOLS IN THE ANCIENT TRADITION

The article is devoted to the study of hospitality as an important cultural and social institution in the ancient world. No other society, except for the ancient Greek one, has offered such an extensive and universal system of rules and mechanisms for maintaining good neighborly relations. Since the times of the Mycenaean culture, hospitality was a way not only to meet the basic needs of travelers, but also a way to form the political map of the ancient world. The oldest written evidence of hospitality is the information from the Iliad and the Odyssey, however, in other works of ancient historians, especially in descriptions of the Greco-Persian wars or the Peloponnesian War, we can find how the duties of proxenia of the families of key historical figures could influence the balance of power. An important and almost elusive aspect for us remains the transformation of the meaning of the term “xenos” from “traveler” to “enemy”. Given the moderate number of written sources, historians do not have a sufficient amount of material evidence about the signs of hospitality. Its symbols at different times were certain objects that, even after generations, were demonstrated to confirm the private duty of hospitality. It should also be emphasized that hospitality was a practice of elites, although there was also state hospitality aimed at improving the conditions of trade and tourism. The legal principles of state care in this direction are best illustrated in Plato's "Laws". The danger that foreigners could pose in terms of introducing new, unusual polis orders was manifested, first of all, in control by the prytaneis or agoranomos. In fact, the restriction of the rights of visitors could result in the so-called "hostile hospitality" (which was peculiarly transformed and restored in war conditions) and in the institution of meteces in Athens. In Roman times, the visualization of hospitality and the deepening of private alliances, changes in the relationships of statesmen, the imperial family, and the alliances of cities and provinces were developed through the gesture of handshakes. The main and most effective means of communication in this case were coins. The handshake also became a form of signs of hospitality, known as tessera hospitalis.