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