Polis = city, city state. [Root of politics, policy, etc.]
Oikos = household; great estate (including master, wife, children, free retainers, slaves, peasants, day laborers). [Root of economy.]
Xenia = laws of hospitality
Xenos = stranger; host; guest. [Root of xenophobia.]
Hiketeia = ritual of supplication, in which a stranger abases himself before a potential host or protector
Polytropos = “of many turns”; well-traveled; well-versed.
Polymetis = of much cunning; crafty, tricky
Polytlas = much-suffering; a survivor
Basileus = king. In the world of the Odyssey, basileus does not refer to a centralized political office, but rather to the head of the biggest household (oikos) in the region.
Agora = Assembly; market; marketplace; place of public meeting
Thesmos = that which is laid down and established; a law, ordinance
Philotês = friendship. Unlike our modern definition of friendship, in the ancient world, philotes refers to the relations that an individual has with members of his group who are bound to one another by reciprocal duties and obligations. In its earliest known form, philotês expresses the obligations a member of a community has toward a xenos (stranger/guest).This is the behavior expected of a host toward his guest, or the head of the household toward its members, particularly his wife. Such relationships readily extend beyond their institutional basis in hospitality or marriage to bonds of friendship, affection, and love, but these emotions are not essential to the bonds of philotês.
geras = gift of
honor; any privilege or prerogative bestowed on kings or nobles. It is translated
as "rights" in Book VII, where Odysseus refers to the "rights
the people have given" to their king, Alkinoos (VII.150). Elsewhere, it
is translated as "prize": the slave woman Eurymedousa is given to
King Alkinoos "as a prize" after a successful raid (VII.10). Unlike
xeinia (guest gifts), which involves a gift from host to guest that binds the
two households in a relationship of reciprocal obligation, geras usually refers
to the prize or privilege granted to a leader by his men (after success in war)
or by his people in recognition of his leadership. At the end of Book IX, for
example, Odysseus will receive the sacrified ram from Polyphemos' stolen flock
as his geras or reward.