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comes from afar is probably an alien, and they can be dangerous. Their gods are also dangerously alien. And on top of that, their gods travel with them, as Schelling claims about astral religions. (Kierkegaard 2001. Notes 37/38, SKS 19. 11.) This is not by accident. The gods are as present to the Greeks under the mystical influence of Greek mythology as our neighbors are to us, that is to say and it is important to emphasize this: the Greeks did not believe in the gods as a Christian or Muslim believe, but they knew that the gods were among them. They lived together. Sometimes they even fooled around with them. The story continues and this is less well known that the girl’s father, King Alcinous, heaps gifts on Odysseus even though the latter is a suspicious alien (although the alien is always suspicious, in fact the two are synonymous). In return, the guest tells the adventurous story of his travels. The hospitality is unmatched, and the king commissions a wonderful ship for the use of the ocean traveler, so that he may return comfortably to Ithaca. Poseidon, however, punishes the Phaeacians. Why? Because they were so fair to the alien. This, then, does not pay. The king draws his conclusions in kind, and perhaps this is the first “don’t be welcoming to strangers” that we find in history: Oh no—my father’s prophecy years ago ... it all comes home to me with a vengeance now! He’d say Poseidon was vexed with us because we escorted all mankind and never came to grief. He said that one day, as a well-built ship of ours sailed home on the misty sea from sucha convoy, the god would crush it, yes, and pile a huge mountain round about our port. So the old king foretold. Now, look, it all comes true! Hurry, friends, do as I say, let us all comply: stop our convoys home for every castaway chancing on our city! As for Poseidon, sacrifice twelve bulls to the god at once— the pick of the herds. Perhaps hell pity us, pile no looming mountain ridge around our port.” (Homer 1999. Book XIII.)
