Paul. Really enjoyed the piece,mate. Much 'food' for thought.

Xenia or ''Guest-friendship''as you well know is the hospitality, generosity, and courtesy shown to strangers who are in need of food and shelter as they travel far from home. It is formulaic and reciprocal, with specific responsibilities expected from both the stranger (the xenos) and the host (the xenodokos). The foundation of civilised conduct. When broken it MUST be punished.

Hence the Trojan War and the brutal slaying of Hector, death of Paris , the burning down and utter obliteration of Troy, the Trojan women sold into slavery and Astyyanax murdered ('The Women of Troy') and the return of Helen to Menalaus.

Yet this punishment of Troy is surely far far worse than any breaking of any civilised code of conduct--what we would today call war crimes--no matter how deeply essential xenia was to the development of social order and civilisation.

But even Euripides play was written to question such acts that had occurred during the capture of Melos by the Athenians during the Peloponnesian War. Your question regarding Achilles and Priam having broken bread together and indulged in the rules of xenia and why the war doesnt stop is a really good question. But Troy must be made an example of. And it must fall. Zeus is not yet satisfied. His wrath akin to that of God in the Old Testament. And again quite similar to the wrath of Achilles. Unrelenting and almost unstoppable.

The Odyssey is full of xenia and anti-xenia: the house of Odysseus and Penelope packed with suitors enjoying the food and wine without the Lord being there, the Cyclops eating the crew of Odysseus, but shown in all its glory by the acts of Eumaeus the swineherd who provides all he has to help Odysseus when he finally lands upon Ithaca after ten long years. A simple pig farmer with very little. How perfect.

''It’s wrong, my friend, to send any stranger packing

even one who arrives in worse shape than you.

Every stranger and beggar comes from Zeus…''

(The Odyssey, 303)