fitful motion, uttering thin, gibbering cries, like the voice of a
bat, and before they can obtain strength to converse with a visitor
from the other world, they have to be fortified by a draught of fresh
blood. The subject is summed up by Achilles, when Odysseus felicitates
him on the honour which he enjoys, even in Hades: "Tell me not of
comfort in death," he says: "I had rather be the thrall of the poorest
wight that ever tilled a thankless soil for bread, than rule as king
over all the shades of the departed."

III

Homeric society is essentially aristocratic. At its head stands the
king, who may be a great potentate, like Agamemnon, ruling over a wide
extent of territory, or a petty prince, like Odysseus, who exercises a
sort of patriarchal authority within the limits of a small island. The
person of the king is sacred, and his office is hereditary. He bears
the title of _Diogenes_, "Jove-born," and is under the especial
protection of the supreme ruler of Olympus. He is leader in war, chief
judge, president of the council of elders, and representative of the
state at the public sacrifices. The symbol of his office is the
sceptre, which in some cases is handed down as an heirloom from father
to son.

Next to the king stand the elders, a title which has no reference to
age, but merely denotes those of noble birth and breeding. The elders
form a senate, or deliberative body, before which all questions of
public importance are laid by the king. Their decisions are afterwards
communicated to the general assembly of the people, who signify their
approval or dissent by tumultuous cries, but have no power of altering
or reversing the measures proposed by the nobles. Thus we have already