of
Grecian society.

In the Heroic age Greece was already divided into a number of
independent states, each governed by its own king. The authority of
the king was not limited by any laws; his power resembled that of the
patriarchs in the Old Testament; and for the exercise of it he was
responsible only to Zeus, and not to his people. But though the king
was not restrained in the exercise of his power by any positive laws,
his authority was practically limited by the BOULE; or council of
chiefs, and the Agora, or general assembly of freemen. These two
bodies, of little account in the Heroic age, became in the Republican
age the sole depositories of political power.

The Greeks in the Heroic age were divided into the three classes of
nobles, common freemen, and slaves. The nobles were raised far above
the rest of the community in honour, power, and wealth. They were
distinguished by their warlike prowess, their large estates, and their
numerous slaves. The condition of the general mass of freemen is
rarely mentioned. They possessed portions of land as their own
property, which they cultivated themselves; but there was another class
of poor freemen, called Thetes, who had no land of their own, and who
worked for hire on the estates of others. Slavery was not so prevalent
in the Heroic age as at a later time, and appears in a less odious
aspect. The nobles alone possessed slaves, and they treated them with
a degree of kindness which frequently secured for the masters their
affectionate attachment.

Society was marked by simplicity of manners. The kings and nobles did
not consider it derogatory to their dignity to acquire skill in the
manual arts. Ulysses is represented as building his own bed-chamber
and constructing his own raft, and he boasts of being an excellent
mower and ploughman. Like Esau, who made savoury meat for his father
Isaac, the Heroic chiefs prepared their own meals and prided themselves
on their skill in cookery. Kings and private persons partook of the
same food, which was of the simplest kind. Beef, mutton, and goat's
flesh were the ordinary meats, and cheese, flour, and sometimes fruits,
also formed part of the banquet; wine was drunk diluted with water, and
the entertainments were never disgraced by intemperance, like those of
our northern ancestors. The enjoyment of the banquet was heightened by
the song and the dance, and the chiefs took more delight in the lays of
the minstrel than