ging a city. And when dissensions had broken out among the Greeks,
it is this quality which Odysseus points out in a famous passage: "Evil
is the rule of the many; let one be the ruler, one the chief" (to which
the popular verse about the scepter was added later on). Odysseus does
not lecture on the form of government, but demands obedience to the
general in chief.

Considering that the Greeks before Troy appear only in the character of
an army, the proceedings of the agora are sufficiently democratic. In
referring to presents, that is the division of the spoils, Achilles
always leaves the division, not to Agamemnon or some other basileus, but
to the "sons of the Achaeans," the people. The attributes, descendant of
Zeus, bred by Zeus, do not prove anything, because every gens is
descended from some god--the gens of the leader of the tribe from a
"prominent" god, in this case Zeus. Even those who are without personal
freedom, as the swineherd Eumaeos and others, are "divine" (dioi or
theioi), even in the Odyssey, which belongs to a much later period than
the Iliad. In the same Odyssey, the name of "heros" is given to the
herald Mulios as well as to the blind bard Demodokos. In short, the word
"basileia," with which the Greek writers designate the so-called
monarchy of Homer (because the military leadership is its distinguishing
mark, by the side of which the council and the agora are existing),
means simply--military democracy (Marx).

The basileus had also sacerdotal and judiciary functions beside those of
a military leader. The judiciary functions are not clearly defined, but
the functions of priesthood are due to his position of chief
representative of the tribe or of the league of tribes. There is never
any mention of civil, administrative functions. But it seems that he
was ex-officio a member of the council. The translation of basileus by
king is etymologically quite correct, because king (Kuning) is derived
from Kuni, Kuenne, and signifies chief of a gens. But the modern meaning
of the word king in no way designates the functions of the Grecian
basileus. Thucydides expressly refers to the old basileia as patrike,
that is "derived from the gens," and states that it had well defined
functions. And Aristotle says that the basileia of heroic times was a
leadership of free men and that the basileus was a military chief, a
judge and a high priest. Hence the basileus had no governmental power in
a modern sense.[24]

I