they tell themselves, say, that an eternity of torment is an entirely condign penalty for even the smallest imaginable sin, the most trivial peccadillo, the pettiest lapse of plain morality, because the gravity of any transgression must be measured by the dignity of the one whom it has wronged, and God necessarily possesses infinite dignity;
In Greek mythology, nothing set off a god's wrath more quickly or fully than offending the god's honor. A Greek god will set aside even moral standards that he himself has championed, if the honor of the gods is at stake.
In the "Odyssey", Zeus is often declared to be the protector of travelers, strangers, and beggars; people everywhere host strangers in the belief that this honors Zeus' own designs. The Phaeacians in particular are outstanding examples of this ethic of hospitality -- but by helping Odysseus, they offend the pride of Poseidon, who promptly goes to Zeus and demands satisfaction. Zeus allows Poseidon to destroy the Phaeacian island and to warn them never again to host strangers.
In his introduction to Robert Fagles' translation of the "Odyssey," Bernard Knox writes:
"the Phaeacians will never again give sea passage to men who come to their city. This is the end of the great Phaeacian tradition of hospitality and help for the stranger and wayfarer. This action of Zeus casts a disturbing light on the relation between human ideals and divine conduct. If there is one stable moral criterion in the world of the Odyssey, it is the care taken by the powerful and well-to-do of strangers, wanderers and beggars. This code of hospitality is the one universally recognized morality. And its divine enforcer, so all mortals believe, is Zeus himself, Zeus xeinios, protector of stranger and suppliant.
"Of all the many hosts measured by this moral standard, the Phaeacians stand out as the most generous, not only in their regal entertainment of Odysseus but also in their speedy conveyance of the hero to his own home, a service they provide for all wayfarers who reach their shore. And now they are punished by the gods for precisely this reason, since their magnanimity has made Poseidon feel that his honor —the touchy sensitivity to public opinion that in Achilles brought ten thousand woes on the Achaeans, and drove Ajax to suicide and fueled his sullenness in the underworld —has been dealt an intolerable blow. The offenders must be punished, even if their punishment displays utter indifference to the only code of moral conduct that obtains in the insecure world of the Odyssey. Faced with Poseidon’s rage against the Phaeacians, Zeus the protector of strangers enthusiastically joins his powerful brother in his denunciation."
