Book 1 titled “The Boy and the Goddess” contained events that showed the reader how Odysseus can portray many different values including intelligence and strength. After his siege on troy, Odysseus and all of the other Greeks where supposed to head home back to Ithaca. Odysseus on the other hand decided to remain in troy because he felt that going back home was a trap. Back in Ithaca Athena was very upset to hear the news about how Odysseus was not coming home with the rest of the Greeks. She states to the Greeks, “Great Father, if the blessed gods at last will let Odysseus return back home, then hurry, we must send our messenger, Hermes the giant-slayer” (Wilson 105). Athena is visibly and verbally disappointed about his decision to not come home and seams to pray to the gods to help him find his way home back to Ithaca. Little did Athena know, Odysseus’s decision to stay in Troy was very intelligent of him. Later on in book 1, the Suitors came to Odysseus’s home in Ithaca looking for him and where not pleased to hear that he was not there. They decided to make themselves at home and ask for entertainment and food from the people living in Odysseus’s house. They then end up trashing his house and raiding it of almost everything that Odysseus kept in the house. Telemachus decided to try and convince them he was never coming home by saying, “We have no hope. He will not come back home. If someone says so, we do not believe it” (Wilson 110). This action by Telemachus only upset the Suitors more and lead to them trashing the house to the point where is was almost completely destroyed. Odysseus’s choice to not come home is ultimately the cause for this but it also was the right decision, showing how he used his strength and intelligence to hold back on coming home to Ithaca.

Odysseus had a very big impact in Book 1 even with the fact that he wasn’t present in Ithaca where a lot of the trouble was happening. The whole idea of hospitality was displayed in this first book as something that can cause conflict and confusion. Odysseus was across the Mediterranean sea trying to avoid the Suitors while they were raiding his home, showing how even with his absents he can have an impact on others. His home was destroyed because of his absents and he will now not come home for a while. This confused the people that live in his home and gave them the feeling that he may never come back home. Odysseus’s traits of intelligent and strength can be seen through the image of hospitality in this book by how he made the smart choice to not go home which affect all of his loved ones and his entire house back in Ithaca.

In conclusion, Odysseus has a heavy impact on the idea of hospitality in this first chapter by the way he uses his many traits to help himself not have to deal with the Suitors back in Ithaca.