Hospitalis

The guardian or protector of the law of hospitality. The title of dii hospitalis is applied to a distinct class of gods, though their names are not mentioned.1 The great protector of hospitality is Jupiter, at Rome called Jupiter Hospitalis and by the Greeks Zeus Xenius (Ζεὺς ξένιος).2

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References

Notes

  1. Tacitus. Annales xv, 52; Livy. The History of Rome xxxix, 51; Ovid. Metamorphoses v, 45.
  2. Servius on Virgil's Aeneid i, 140; Cicero. Letters to his brother Quintus ii, 12; Homer. Odyssey xiv, 389.

Source

  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.