Stories from the Odyssey | Page 2

the other hand, religion has become more spiritual.
Olympus is no longer the mountain of that name, but a vague term, like
our "heaven," denoting a place remote from all earthly cares and
passions, a far-off abode in the stainless ether, where the gods dwell in
everlasting peace, and from which they occasionally descend, to give
an eye to the righteous and unrighteous deeds of men.
In his conception of the state of the soul after death Homer is very
interesting. His Hades, or place of departed spirits, is a dim, shadowy
region beyond the setting of the sun, where, after life's trials are over,
the souls of men keep up a faint and feeble being. It is highly
significant that the word which in Homer means "self" has also the
meaning of "body"--showing how intimately the sense of personal
identity was associated with the condition of bodily existence. The
disembodied spirit is compared to a shadow, a dream, or a waft of
smoke. "Alas!" cries Achilles, after a visit from the ghost of Patroclus,
"I perceive that even in the halls of Hades there is a spirit and a
phantom, but understanding none at all"; for the mental condition of
these cold, uncomfortable ghosts is as feeble as their bodily form is
shadowy and unsubstantial. They hover about with a 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 the three main elements of political life: king, lords, and
commons--though the position of the last is at present almost entirely
passive.
IV
The morality of the Homeric age is such as we may expect to find
among a people which has only partially emerged from barbarism.
Crimes of violence are very common, and a familiar figure in the
society of this period is that of the fugitive, who "has slain a man," and
is flying from the vengeance of his family. Patroclus, when a mere boy,
kills his youthful playmate in a quarrel over a game of
knucklebones--an incident which may be seen illustrated in one of the
statues in the British Museum. One of the typical scenes of Hellenic
life depicted on the shield of Achilles is a trial for homicide; and such
cases were of so frequent occurrence that they afford materials for a
simile in the last book of the Iliad.
Where life is held so cheap, opinion is not likely to be very strict in
matters of property. And we find accordingly a general acquiescence in
"the good old rule, the ancient plan, that they may take who have the
power, and they may keep who can." Cattle-lifting is as common as it
formerly was on the Scottish border. The bold buccaneer is a character
as familiar as in the good old days when Drake and Raleigh singed the
Spanish king's beard, with this important difference, that the buccaneer
of ancient Greece plundered Greek and barbarian with fine impartiality.
A common question addressed to persons newly arrived from the sea is,
"Are you a merchant, a traveller, or a pirate?" And this curious query

implies