What can you infer about ancient Greek culture from its literature?

From the literature of ancient Greece, such as the Odyssey, we can infer several things about Greek culture.

1. First, the ancient Greeks value hospitality highly. Odysseus must rely on hospitality as he travels home from Troy to Ithaca, and he is granted it by all civilized peoples with whom he interacts. Without the assistance of others, he would likely never make it home.

2. Second, they prize loyalty. Penelope remains loyal to Odysseus...

From the literature of ancient Greece, such as the Odyssey, we can infer several things about Greek culture.

1. First, the ancient Greeks value hospitality highly. Odysseus must rely on hospitality as he travels home from Troy to Ithaca, and he is granted it by all civilized peoples with whom he interacts. Without the assistance of others, he would likely never make it home.

2. Second, they prize loyalty. Penelope remains loyal to Odysseus throughout the entirety of his twenty-year absence from home. Although she is pressured by the suitors to marry one of them, and though it has been so long without any news of her husband, she remains steadfast in her commitment to him, and she is held up as a model of good female behavior.

3. Third, they value filial piety. In other words, children are supposed to respect, even revere, their parents. Telemachus is held up as a positive example as he risks his own life to go in search of his father, deceiving the greedy suitors and receiving help from a goddess. Further, Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, avenged his father by killing his mother and her lover (because they murdered Agamemnon), and he is also revered as a good son.