what’s extra fun is that in that era, hospitality was an incredibly serious duty of homeowners: they had to take in a traveler, and couldn’t kick him out until he himself had transgressed against them in a really obvious, inarguable way. like, there are legends of gods traveling incognito and cursing people who were inhospitable to them, who turned them away or who didn’t whole-heartedly treat them as honored guests. at the least you were a huge dick for turning away a traveler, and at worst that traveler was a god who turned your whole household into trees or pigs or something. there’s even some funny stories about hosts doing their best to accommodate guests that are being increasingly ridiculous in ways that don’t quite break the social contract, but are really weird and inconvenient.

the bottom line is that you just can’t kick a guest out once you’ve welcomed him until he’s incontrovertibly wronged you, and by announcing that he’s a liar and a trickster, odysseus is saying: if i wrong you, you’re gonna have a hell of a time proving it.

so basically odysseus is telling his hapless hosts and fellow guests: i’m not trapped in here with you. you’re trapped in here with me.