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ΠΡΩΤΟΛΟΓΙΑ IN HOMER

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2017

F.S. Naiden
F.S. Naiden*
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
*
naiden@email.unc.edu
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Extract

A generation ago Moses Finley said that the councils and the assemblies in the Homeric poems were not genuine deliberative bodies but looser, less productive gatherings. Finley and others regarded these bodies as transitional, so that regular councils and assemblies appear only later, in systems like those identified with Lycurgus and Solon. In recent years scholars have returned to an older view that Homeric deliberative bodies were well enough organized to make decisions, even if leaders or dissenters could undermine these decisions. Differences between councils, on the one hand, and assemblies, on the other, have not been prominent in this scholarship. The noteworthy exception is Fabian Schulz's 2011 dissertation on parallels between Homeric councils and the Spartan Gerousia, in which he draws several comparisons between βουλαί and ἀγοραί.

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Research Article
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The Classical Quarterly , Volume 67 , Issue 2 , December 2017 , pp. 339 - 352
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Copyright © The Classical Association 2017 

ἔνθα βουλαὶ γερόντων

καὶ νέων ἀνδρῶν ἀριστεύοισιν αἰχμαί

(Pind. fr. 199 S.-M.)

A generation ago Moses Finley said that the councils and the assemblies in the Homeric poems were not genuine deliberative bodies but looser, less productive gatherings.Footnote 1 Finley and others regarded these bodies as transitional, so that regular councils and assemblies appear only later, in systems like those identified with Lycurgus and Solon.Footnote 2 In recent years scholars have returned to an older view that Homeric deliberative bodies were well enough organized to make decisions, even if leaders or dissenters could undermine these decisions.Footnote 3 Differences between councils, on the one hand, and assemblies, on the other, have not been prominent in this scholarship.Footnote 4 The noteworthy exception is Fabian Schulz's 2011 dissertation on parallels between Homeric councils and the Spartan Gerousia, in which he draws several comparisons between βουλαί and ἀγοραί.Footnote 5

Nevertheless, scholars have acknowledged that Homer's councils have a distinctive order of speakers.Footnote 6 This paper will set forth this speaking procedure, termed πρωτολογία, which gives precedence to the eldest speaker.Footnote 7 It differs diametrically from the assembly procedure of passing the sceptre. The two procedures form a discordant pair, and Homer manipulates and explores the relation between them.

This paper is a foray into a narrow but neglected topic, not a study of the much-debated sociological or cultural realities either inside or outside the world of the two epic poems.Footnote 8 At the same time this paper is not a lexical study of Homeric councillors, especially of the controversial term βασιλεύς.Footnote 9 Whatever the terms used, an Iliadic council occurs when Agamemnon or Priam summons advisers or guests, or takes some comparable initiative. In the Odyssey a council occurs when Alcinous does the summoning.Footnote 10 Once the king issues his summons, what happens next?

I

Homeric councils adhere to several customs illustrated by Nestor's role among the Achaeans: the eldest replies first to the king; the oldest councillor or the king dissolves the council; and the other councillors speak mostly in order of age. Often councillors eat, and they seldom move about. With these customs comes a typical result: the eldest speaker speaks influentially. He does not always speak wisely.Footnote 11

Of the three customs, the first is well known: in Achaean councils, Nestor speaks first in reply to Agamemnon. This custom applies to both council meetings and feasts that councillors attend but not to other gatherings attended by councillors. The reason for calling this practice a custom and not a privilege belonging to Nestor is that Echeneus has a similar privilege at feasts in the Odyssey.

The first council in the Iliad meets in Book 2 beside Nestor's ships. After Agamemnon summons the councillors and speaks, Homer continues,

ἤτοι ὅ γ’ ὣς εἰπὼν κατ’ ἄρ’ ἕζετο, τοῖσι δ’ ἀνέστη
Νέστωρ, ὅς ῥα Πύλοιο ἄναξ ἦν ἠμαθόεντος,
So [Agamemnon] spoke and sat down. From among them arose
Nestor, who was the lord of sandy Pylos.Footnote 12

This is a formal council, marked by the word βουλή.Footnote 13 An informal council occurs in Book 14, when Agamemnon encounters several councillors on the beach and enters into a discussion with them, but Nestor is again the first to reply. The expression used to introduce Nestor marks the start of a four-way exchange among Agamemnon and three councillors, Nestor, Odysseus and Diomedes: ‘Then the Gerenian horseman Nestor answered him.’ (Diomedes is introduced in much the same way, as is Agamemnon himself.Footnote 14 )

If Agamemnon does not speak first, Nestor does, a switch occurring in the Doloneia. Agamemnon has summoned the councillors, and when they start to talk Nestor takes the lead: ‘They sat down there and spoke to one another. The Gerenian horseman Nestor was first to make a statement.’Footnote 15

These are the only explicit βουλαί in the Iliad, but councillors also do business at three feasts given by Agamemnon. On all these occasions, Homer rounds off the feast by saying that the diners are satisfied, and then proceeds to the after-dinner speaking by introducing Nestor, usually with these lines:

τοῖς ὁ γέρων πάμπρωτος ὑφαίνειν ἤρχετο μῆτιν
Νέστωρ, οὗ καὶ πρόσθεν ἀρίστη φαίνετο βουλή·
First the old man began to weave counsels for them
—Nestor, whose advice had also seemed best earlier.Footnote 16

Whether or not these feasts are given for fewer persons than attend councils, as Françoise Ruzé has suggested, the first speaker is the same.Footnote 17

Finally, at the end of Book 9, ‘the sons of the Achaeans’ who listen to Odysseus report on the visit to Achilles are, as Homer says, ‘all the kings’, and so this gathering ranks as a council, too. It is unique in that Homer does not say who called the meeting or how it started. Perhaps the council never adjourned earlier in the book, and this gathering continues the earlier one. In any case, Agamemnon speaks first, but Nestor does not speak next. Instead, Odysseus does.Footnote 18

Homer says nothing about the first speaker in any Trojan council, but a proposed meeting in Book 22 resembles Achaean practice.Footnote 19 Here Hector imagines a scenario in which the Trojans will pay compensation to the Greeks. Hector will insure the payment by extracting a γερούσιον ὅρκον, or oath sworn by the councillors.Footnote 20 Presumably, Priam would call the meeting, Hector would propose taking the oath and then the councillors would respond, starting with the oldest. This councillor might be Antenor. He is one of two elders too old to fight, accompanies Priam back to Troy, a Nestor-like privilege (3.312), and is called δημογέρων.Footnote 21

Unlike the Iliad, the Odyssey supplies little information about councils. On Ithaca councillors meet, but Homer does not say who speaks first.Footnote 22 However, he does say that an elderly councillor speaks first at two feasts. On the first occasion, on Scheria in Book 7, Odysseus has just arrived in the middle of the meal and supplicates the queen before he supplicates the king, a surprising turn of events. The king is dumbfounded, and there is an awkward moment of silence before Echeneus takes the initiative:

ὀψὲ δὲ δὴ μετέειπε γέρων ἥρως Ἐχένηος,
ὃς δὴ Φαιήκων ἀνδρῶν προγενέστερος ἦεν
καὶ μύθοισι κέκαστο, παλαιά τε πολλά τε εἰδώς·
At length the old hero Echeneus spoke.
He was older than the other Phaeacian men
and skilled in speaking, and he knew much old lore.Footnote 23

Acting as master of ceremonies, Echeneus tells the king how to receive his guest. On the second occasion, in Book 11, the queen proposes giving gifts to Odysseus, and Echeneus speaks first in reply to her.Footnote 24

This custom concerning the order of speakers does not cover gatherings of councillors where one important feature, initiative on the part of the king, is lacking. Such a gathering occurs in Iliad 23, when the councillors urge Achilles to purify himself. The councillors bring about the meeting and Achilles is the only individual speaker that Homer reports. The other councillors speak collectively.Footnote 25

The second custom, which concerns the dissolution of councils, has no exceptions. Once speaking is concluded, either the oldest speaker or the king dissolves the council by leading the councillors out of the meeting or by performing some comparable task. Depending on whether lines 2.76–83 are regarded as genuine, Nestor or Agamemnon leads out the councillors in Book 2, and Agamemnon leads them out in Book 14.Footnote 26 In Book 9 Nestor calls for the heralds who will go to Achilles, this being the last act reported at the feast. At the end of the feast in Book 2 Nestor suggests that Agamemnon dispatch heralds, and the king does so.Footnote 27

Sometimes Homer names several speakers, and then he tends to list them in order of age. In Iliad 2, admittedly, Nestor is the only speaker, as he is at two feasts, but in Book 14 the speakers are Agamemnon, Nestor, Agamemnon again, Odysseus, Agamemnon a third time and Diomedes. This order suggests that Agamemnon, or, to describe him in procedural terms, the convener, may speak repeatedly, but that the others speak in order of age, Nestor being older than Odysseus, and Odysseus being older than Diomedes.Footnote 28

The council in the Doloneia presents a different list: Nestor, Diomedes and then Odysseus. Homer explains the reason why Odysseus, who ought to speak second, speaks third. After Nestor finishes, Homer says

ὣς ἔφαθ', οἳ δ' ἄρα πάντες ἀκὴν ἐγένοντο σιωπῇ.
τοῖσι δὲ καὶ μετέειπε βοὴν ἀγαθὸς Διομήδης·
They all were struck dumb.
Then Diomedes, good at the war cry, addressed them.Footnote 29

No elderly man has chosen to speak, so Diomedes, a young man, fills a gap.Footnote 30 This exception to speaking in order of age is not unique. After an awkward pause in the council at the end of Book 9 Diomedes speaks up in the same way. When other awkward pauses occur during assemblies in Books 7 and 9, he does it again.Footnote 31 Taking advantage of awkward pauses is his forte; no other person in Homer does it four times.Footnote 32 The tendency for the old to speak ahead of the young is not strong enough to withstand these moments of confusion or delay.

Absent such an opportunity, Diomedes falls back into the place dictated for him by his youth, as happens in Book 14 and also on another, similar occasion, a feast hosted by Agamemnon late in Book 2. Here Agamemnon invites six chiefs, beginning with Nestor.Footnote 33 Second comes Idomeneus, who is μεσαιπóλιος, ‘half-grey’, the only such person in Homer. (Only Priam, Laertes and the old slave, Dolius, are grey.Footnote 34 ) Third come the ‘two Ajaxes’, Telamonian Ajax and either Ajax the son of Oileus or Ajax the son of Teucer.Footnote 35 If the second Ajax is the son of Oileus, Telamonian Ajax should be regarded as coming first for two reasons. One reason is obvious: he is ‘Great’ Ajax, or merely ‘Ajax’, whereas the other is ‘Lesser’ or receives some other epithet.Footnote 36 The second reason emerges from incidental remarks made in Books 23 and 15: Ajax ‘the Lesser’ is ‘scarcely older’ than Antilochus, who happens to be the youngest of all Achaean heroes.Footnote 37 If the second Ajax is Teucer, Telamonian Ajax should be regarded as coming first for similar reasons. First, Homer compares him and Teucer to mother and child.Footnote 38 Second, he is older both because Poseidon addresses Teucer as one of a group of κοῦροι, ‘youths’, and because Teucer's mother became the concubine of Telamon after Telamon had married Periboea and begotten Ajax.Footnote 39

Fifth comes Diomedes, said to be as young as Antilochus, and thus younger than Ajax ‘the Lesser’.Footnote 40

Then comes a lapse, for Odysseus is invited last, and Menelaus attends uninvited. Agamemnon's affection or concern for these two heroes may explain why he leaves them aside. As the T scholia say, Agamemnon regards Odysseus as a particular friend.Footnote 41 During the assembly meeting in Book 2 Odysseus rescued him from the blunder committed by suggesting that the Achaeans go home. In council meetings Odysseus speaks only once, in Book 14, when he criticizes Agamemnon, but the king takes it in good part.Footnote 42 Nestor says that he and Odysseus always agreed in council.Footnote 43 Odysseus saves his strongest oratory for other occasions, including not just the assembly in Book 2 but also the embassy to Achilles. When the ambassadors arrive at Achilles’ hut, he speaks first, although Phoenix, the oldest, is to lead the way.Footnote 44

Odysseus is a favourite of Agamemnon's, exempt from the protocol that affects the other invitees. So is Menelaus but for a different reason, which is that he is the king's brother. Rather than brook criticism from him, as he does from Odysseus, Agamemnon stage-manages him. At the start of the poem, when Chryses addresses ‘the two Atreidae’, Agamemnon replies on his brother's behalf.Footnote 45 In Book 6 he convinces Menelaus to kill a suppliant who otherwise would have been spared.Footnote 46 Before the feast Agamemnon takes him for granted, and so Menelaus comes αὐτόματος.Footnote 47

An echo of this high-handedness appears in the Doloneia but in regard to a list of heroes who wish to volunteer for the spy mission. Homer presents this list after saying that Nestor and Diomedes speak first and second. In order, the heroes volunteering are the two Ajaxes, Meriones, Antilochus, Menelaus and Odysseus. The first part of this list runs from older to younger. Meriones belongs to the same group of younger fighters in Book 13 as Teucer does.Footnote 48 He belongs after Ajax ‘the Greater’, if not after Teucer or Ajax the son of Oileus. Antilochus, the youngest of all, comes fourth. Then two older men, Menelaus and Odysseus, bring up the rear, just as they do in Book 2. They are reprising the roles Agamemnon assigned to them at the feast the day before. Odysseus is again being set aside but this time by the narrator. Menelaus is being stage-managed, lest he volunteer for a mission Agamemnon thinks too dangerous for him.Footnote 49

To resume: although the custom of giving priority to the elderly appears in various situations, it is vulnerable to awkward pauses and personal factors.Footnote 50 The role of Diomedes during awkward pauses points to another factor in heroic relations, military power. On the one hand, Agamemnon and the two oldest councillors, Nestor and Idomeneus, have 270 ships among them. Only one younger councillor, Diomedes, has a comparable number (80), and so it is easier for him to speak up. Other younger men have far fewer ships.Footnote 51 On the other hand, the younger men have more prowess. Diomedes has both ships and prowess.

The feast in Book 2 points to the tendency for councillors to dine when they meet.Footnote 52 They sit or recline, and hosts or slaves bring them food after a sacrifice.Footnote 53 When possible, they gather in a familiar place, Agamemnon's or Nestor's hut.Footnote 54 Thanks to these customs, Nestor and other elders mostly address a settled, well-disposed, comfortable audience.

These circumstances suggest that the elderly speaker would wield some influence, and both Nestor and Echeneus do. Of the six times that Nestor speaks at councils or feasts, he makes a unanimously accepted proposal twice—to build the wall and placate Achilles—and on two other occasions he makes proposals that are accepted without any report of unanimity—to hold a council and to spy on the Trojans.Footnote 55 In another case he accepts a proposal made by the king, and the councillors all obey.Footnote 56 Save in Book 14 no one disagrees with Nestor; half the time no one adds anything.Footnote 57 At feasts Nestor's position is especially strong: once he speaks ahead of Agamemnon, and twice he alone speaks.Footnote 58 No matter the circumstances, he usually has the last word.Footnote 59 On Scheria the king and queen take the advice of Echeneus.

And Nestor is often right, especially about placating Achilles, even if the means recommended, gifts, prove inadequate and the embassy proves fruitless. In Book 14 he is arguably wrong in making the observation that wounded men cannot fight, for the councillors decide to fight in spite of their wounds.Footnote 60 Nestor is decidedly wrong only in Book 2, when he endorses Agamemnon's plan to test the Greeks.Footnote 61 Echeneus is right, too, and so are the Trojan elders, who give good advice about keeping the Trojan army near the walls. Had Hector listened to them, he might have survived.Footnote 62

Yet Homer's favouritism comes with reservations and paradoxes. Aside from the irrepressible Diomedes, Agamemnon cannot deal with that outstanding contradiction in terms, the very young ‘elder’ Achilles. Solidarity among the γέροντες is an imperfect social fiction.Footnote 63 Πρωτολογία and related customs form part of this fiction. They do not constitute inviolable laws.

II

Marcel Detienne and others have seen the assembly as a source of democracy; similarly, they have seen the assembly as a place of competition.Footnote 64 The assembly is also a very different venue. Speaking procedures differ, Nestor plays a small role, and leadership falls to younger men. These contrasts emerge especially from the five assemblies in Books 1, 2, 7, 9 and 19, all described as ἀγοραί, and from two similar gatherings.Footnote 65

Unlike councils, assemblies establish the order of speakers by passing the sceptre. Generations of scholars have wondered whether this procedure is always followed, and about the complications attending the sceptre of Agamemnon in Book 2.Footnote 66 For our purposes, it is enough to note that, although one of these complications is that Agamemnon carries his sceptre into the council in Book 2, no sceptre is ever mentioned in the course of a council meeting. Sceptre-passing has several features that contrast with council practice. First, there is no custom that the oldest speaks first. Second, the king or the eldest does not dissolve the meeting. Instead, the last speaker does, regardless of who he is. (The term for ‘dissolve’, λύειν, is used of two assemblies but not of any council.Footnote 67 ) Third, the order of speakers is random.

The privilege of speaking first belongs to the person convening the assembly. In Book 1, this is Achilles; in Book 2, Agamemnon; in Book 9, the privilege again belongs to Agamemnon; and in Book 19, to Achilles (in the other assembly, in Book 7, Homer does not say who summoned the gathering).Footnote 68 The privilege of speaking first in reply is also given to several persons. In Book 1, Calchas replies; in Book 2, Thersites does; in Books 7 and 9, Diomedes; and in Book 19, Agamemnon.Footnote 69 As for the power to dissolve, it belongs to Nestor in Book 9, and in Book 2 it belongs to Agamemnon following Nestor's lead. It switches to Agamemnon and Achilles in Book 1, Agamemnon in Book 7 and Achilles in Book 19.Footnote 70

An obvious pattern runs through these lists: Agamemnon and Achilles are contending for power. If Agamemnon's position was secure, he might be even more prominent. Royal dominance might be normal.Footnote 71 Yet even in this hypothetical situation assemblies would be less restrictive than councils. Men like Calchas and Thersites do not attend councils, and it is Nestor who dominates councils, not a young man like Diomedes. In assemblies, Nestor does not play a structural role as convener, lead speaker or closing speaker. His seniority does him no good, for he speaks fourth in Book 1 and in Book 2 and third in Book 9.Footnote 72

Trojan assemblies fundamentally resemble those of the Achaeans. The mass of warriors attends, and the leading warrior, Hector, plays the most important part. Yet subtle differences divide Trojan assemblies from Achaean ones. Trojan assemblies mostly gather spontaneously and mostly do not end when an elderly speaker or a king decides.Footnote 73 They are free-form, and so they are even further removed from council meetings than are the assemblies of the Achaeans. Trojan assemblies are also fewer, shorter and less important than their Achaean counterparts. They make decisions such as whether to continue the war or attack the enemy, but they do not bear witness to a struggle for power like that between Agamemnon and Achilles.Footnote 74

As for assemblies in the Odyssey, the only one on Scheria is merely the occasion for a royal announcement, and two meetings of the suitors fall well short of meetings of the dēmos.Footnote 75 In Book 24 an assembly meets and deliberates, but Homer does not say how it starts.Footnote 76

Assemblies almost never follow meals, as councils sometimes do, and they are also less settled occasions in another, subtler way.Footnote 77 Although assembly members commonly sit, as councillors do, they go into the middle of the gathering to speak.Footnote 78 Only Agamemnon fails to comply with this protocol—and he fails only once.Footnote 79

Just as the customs differ from those in the council, so does the distribution of influence. First speakers do not dominate, and neither do elderly speakers. Agamemnon is an ineffectual first speaker in Books 2 and 9; in Book 1 Achilles speaks first and dominates the debate but loses on the main issue, the disposition of booty. The effective speakers are those who speak last, plus Odysseus in Book 2. Antenor speaks to no effect in the Trojan assembly in Book 7.Footnote 80 Polydamas speaks to no effect in Book 18.Footnote 81 In the Odyssey the complicated case of Book 2 deserves separate treatment, but in Book 24 the elderly Halitherses cannot unite the assembly behind him.Footnote 82

As with customs and influence, so with results. Unlike councils, assemblies and other general gatherings are sometimes disorderly, a quality traceable through Nestor. At the start of Iliad 1 he does not speak, Agamemnon shouts down a priest, and a plague ensues; later in the same book Nestor does speak and mentions his seniority, but, although Agamemnon answers him, Achilles does not.Footnote 83 Achilles and Agamemnon nearly come to blows, and Achilles hurls down the sceptre in disgust. Although the assembly in Book 2 ends well, it begins badly, for Thersites has defied Agamemnon and the assembly has nearly broken up. In contrast, the deliberations in Books 7, 9 and especially 19 are orderly; the action in 19 in some ways corrects the action in Book 1.Footnote 84 Yet, in Book 9 Nestor must again use his seniority to justify himself.Footnote 85 In Book 19 Odysseus contradicts Achilles on the issues of gifts and food.Footnote 86 Unlike councils, assemblies sometimes end with men walking out, or trying to. Sometimes they start with men crying.Footnote 87

In the remaining assemblies, among Trojans or on Ithaca, there is disorder among the Trojans in Book 7, and on Ithaca the families of the suitors decide to fight without any prospect for victory. Book 7 happens to feature the Trojan Nestor, Antenor.Footnote 88 He speaks first and uses moral commonplaces. The epitome of reckless youth, Paris, rebukes him, and then Priam backs his son, making the mistake that will keep the war going.Footnote 89 Antenor will be rewarded for being the Nestor of the losing side but only later, when the Achaeans sack Troy and spare his home and family.Footnote 90

For Nestor the difference between the council and the assembly even involves a difference in speaking formulae. When he speaks in council or at a feast, the line or lines that describe his speaking usually contain a form of the verb ἄρχειν. The line or lines also usually feature the object nouns μῦθος or μῆτις.Footnote 91 These combinations of words might well be used of others, but in these venues they are reserved for Nestor.Footnote 92 (In the Odyssey these combinations are used twice of speakers who are not participating in meetings of deliberative bodies.Footnote 93 ) Homer allots the word μῦθος to a speaking formula for just one other person, Nestor's Odyssean counterpart, Echeneus.Footnote 94 Remarkably the word μῆτις never appears in other speaking formulae, even for Odysseus in the Odyssey.Footnote 95

In the assembly, Nestor lacks this oratorical armature. Twice his formula is merely,

Νέστωρ δ' Ἀργείοισιν ἀνίστατο καὶ μετέειπεν·
Nestor stood forth among the Argives and spoke.

This formula closely resembles one used of Menelaus.Footnote 96 On other occasions, his formula is the following:

ὅ σφιν ἐὺ φρονέων ἀγορήσατο καὶ μετέειπεν·
With good intentions he came forward and said …

Nestor shares this formula with Calchas, Thoas, Polydamas and Priam.Footnote 97 Both of these formulae are unprepossessing.

Or rather, they are unprepossessing when used by themselves. On two occasions when Nestor speaks at feasts, in Book 7 and in Book 9, the second of these formulae appears along with the conciliar formula, yielding the following:

τοῖς ὁ γέρων πάμπρωτος ὑφαίνειν ἤρχετο μῆτιν
Νέστωρ, οὗ καὶ πρόσθεν ἀρίστη φαίνετο βουλή·
ὅ σφιν ἐϋφρονέων ἀγορήσατο καὶ μετέειπεν·
The old man was the very first to begin to weave counsel for them,
Nestor, whose advice had seemed best before also.
With good intentions he came forward and said …Footnote 98

In the assembly, in other words, Nestor receives only the last of these lines, the same as some other speakers, but at feasts he receives all three. The feast is the place of linguistic abundance, the assembly the place of want.Footnote 99 Assemblies are longer and more complicated than councils, but in this one sense they are not as plenteous.

In the Iliad the differences between the council and the assembly affect Nestor more than anyone else, even Agamemnon. In the Odyssey, where few council meetings occur, there would seem to be no place for a comparable victim of alternating protocols, yet in the assembly in Book 2 Odyssean elders struggle to assert themselves against the young.

Although this meeting is an assembly of the dēmos, it has several elements of a council. The γέροντες sit together, as shown by how Telemachus reaches his seat: ‘He sat in his father's seat, and the elders gave way to him.’Footnote 100 In Iliadic assemblies the γέροντες may have sat together, too, but Homer never says so. Here he insists on this detail.Footnote 101 Another element is that one of the elders, Aegyptius, presides, perhaps substituting for Odysseus.Footnote 102 The third is that the individuals said to be present are almost all identified as γέροντες or kings in one sense or another. Halitherses and Mentor are γέροντες.Footnote 103 Telemachus says that Antinous and Eurymachus are kings, and Leocritus may be too.Footnote 104 Telemachus is a βασιλεύς in the sense of ‘prince’.

The order of speakers reflects both these elements and the assembly setting. The aged Aegyptius speaks first, calling the meeting to order. After he asks who called the meeting, Telemachus answers, and thus asserts the right to speak next while admitting that in the past his father was the one who called meetings.Footnote 105 When Telemachus finishes, a moment of silence ensues.Footnote 106 If the oldest men have the right to speak next, as they would in a council, they do not assert it, yielding to young Antinous, a leading suitor.Footnote 107 Like Diomedes in the Iliad, he fills a silence when no one else is able or willing to speak.Footnote 108 Telemachus then replies, starting a quarrel similar to that in Iliad 1.Footnote 109 Zeus now sends an omen that Halitherses, a bird-interpreter, explains.Footnote 110

By age, the order of speakers has been:

  • Eldest (Aegyptius)

  • Younger (Telemachus, but allied with the eldest)

  • Younger (Antinous)

  • Elder (Halitherses)

If the old are to prevail, the assembly should do as Halitherses recommends. Instead, the assembly resists, in the person of another young speaker, Eurymachus, who is the suitors’ second-in-command.Footnote 111

When Telemachus replies to him, just as he replied to Antinous, the pattern of complaint and riposte extends itself, as it does when another elder, Mentor, rises to speak in Telemachus’ favour, the same as Halitherses.Footnote 112 The order so far is:

  • Eldest (Aegyptius)

  • Younger (Telemachus)

  • Younger (Antinous)

  • Elder (Halitherses)

  • Younger (Eurymachus)

  • Younger (Telemachus)

  • Elder (Mentor)

The split between generations has deepened.Footnote 113 The two sides are not even acknowledging one another. The three elders all use the same opening words, ‘Ithacans, listen to what it is I say’. They never address individual speakers. The younger men always address individuals.Footnote 114 One side speaks authoritatively, whereas the other speaks agonistically.

The assembly now has another, better chance to resolve this conflict, for Telemachus has changed his request.Footnote 115 Yet, even as the suitors pretend to approve, they berate the elderly. Leocritus, the next speaker, rebukes Mentor, who has criticized the suitors for dining at Odysseus’ house and who has even pointed out that the community could attack them: ‘Mentor, you are impertinent and crazy. What do you mean when you urge us to stop?’Footnote 116 As the last speaker, Leocritus ‘dissolves’ the assembly, the word used of Agamemnon and Achilles in the Iliad.Footnote 117

In the course of this raucous assembly, Antinous, Eurymachus and Leocritus wrong the house of Odysseus, but they also insult the elderly speakers. Leocritus insults Mentor, who has the honour of being impersonated by a god more often than anyone else.Footnote 118 So, when the inevitable punishment comes, it takes a form that shows that Homer has not forgotten this insult. The suitors die in the same order as that in which they spoke: first Antinous, then Eurymachus and then, after the deaths of some others, Leocritus. He is the thirteenth and last suitor to be named and then killed, just as he was the third and last to speak.Footnote 119 Others die after him but are not named, and, as soon as he dies, Athena raises her aegis, signalling a rout.Footnote 120

The meeting in Odyssey 2 marks a collision between two protocols, one in which the old speak first, and another in which age gives no advantage; one in which the old are often right, and another in which the young are. Of all the young men who speak, only Telemachus sides with the elders. The rest do as Diomedes and Achilles sometimes did, and defy the elders. Their conduct is reprehensible, but their resistance is predictable.

To avoid this collision, the Ithacans might—if there were a king or a regent—let their leader convene the elders and the assembly separately. Later Greek history would suggest that he convene the council, make a proposal and then submit it to the assembly, the procedure known as προβούλευσις. Yet, this sequence occurs only twice in Homer, in Iliad Books 2 and 4, whereas later in Book 2 Homer reverses the order, putting the assembly meeting first and the council second, as he also does in Book 9. If the two poems do little to anticipate προβούλευσις, they do less to promote it, for in Book 2 the council's endorsement of Agamemnon's plan nearly leads to the abandonment of the war.Footnote 121

In his study of elders in Madagascar, Maurice Bloch addressed the question of intergenerational conflict in early or primitive societies, and drew a conclusion applicable to Homeric speaking privileges. Formalities make dissent more difficult but at a price, which is to tempt the young to defy them.Footnote 122 Bloch does not mention Homer, but the poet's dialectic of seniority and formality followed by youthful rebellion points to the same danger. To make rebellion less tempting, the formalities should not be too severe. Or to use the language of another anthropologist, Roy Rappaport, the ‘ritualistic’ aspects of council meetings should not be so pronounced that the political value of these meetings diminishes.Footnote 123

Homer's characters and his listeners cannot have thought that restrictive council protocol was especially sacred. The gods do not follow it when gathering on Olympus. They sit but rise when Zeus enters.Footnote 124 Zeus does not always speak first, and the gatherings are often better termed conversations.Footnote 125

In this spirit, perhaps, the Classical Greeks preserved only a modest degree of πρωτολογία. In Athens those over 50 might speak first in the Assembly, and councillors had to be 30. In Sparta only those over 60 served in the Gerousia.Footnote 126 Neither city gave the elderly speaker the bundle of privileges enjoyed by Nestor, Echeneus and perhaps Antenor. Πρωτολογία had a post-Homeric life but grew weaker with age.Footnote 127

References

1 For a survey of older scholarship on this question, see Hammer, D., The Iliad as Politics (Oklahoma City, 2002)Google Scholar, ch. 1, especially 20–6, where he surveys anthropological interpretations of Homer that minimize the role of deliberative bodies, most famously Μ. Finley, The World of Odysseus (New York, 1979 2), 34 Google Scholar.

2 E.g. Carlier, P., ‘ Basileus in the Homeric poems’, in Deger-Jalkotzy, S. and Lemos, I. (edd.), Ancient Greece from the Mycenaean Palaces to the Age of Homer (Edinburgh, 2006), 101–9Google Scholar. An earlier treatment emphasizing continuity: Scully, S., ‘The polis in Homer: a definition and interpretation’, Ramus 10 (1981), 1–34 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For other writing in the same vein, see the survey in Raaflaub, K., ‘Homeric society’, in Morris, I. and Powell, B. (edd.), A New Companion to Homer (Leiden, 1997), 624–49Google Scholar, at 645–8.

3 Decisions sometimes undermined by Agamemnon: W. Allan and Cairns, D., ‘Conflict and community in the Iliad ’, in Fischer, N. and van Wees, H. (edd.), Competition in the Ancient World (Swansea, 2011), 113–46Google Scholar, at 115–17. Decisions modified by persistent dissent: Barker, E., Entering the Agon: Dissent and Authority in Homer, Historiography, and Tragedy (Oxford, 2009), 40–89 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 The most recent treatment of these differences: Elmer, D., The Poetics of Consent (Baltimore, 2013), 113–25Google Scholar, with no distinction between Nestor and other elders, or between the roles that γέροντες play in the two deliberative bodies. Raaflaub (n. 2), 634 stresses competition among the councillors and thus assimilates the council to the assembly.

5 Schulz, F., Die homerischen Räte und die spartanische Gerusie (Düsseldorf, 2011), 35–70 Google Scholar, but speaking of age only briefly at 62.

6 See Richardson, B., Old Age Among the Greeks (Baltimore, 1933), 17 Google Scholar, 35; Calhoun, G., ‘Polity and society (i) The Homeric picture’, in Wace, A. and Stubbings, F. (edd.), A Companion to Homer (London, 1962), 431–52Google Scholar, at 451; Ruzé, F., Délibération et pouvoir dans la cité grecque de Nestor à Socrate (Paris, 1997), 52CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kapparis, K., ‘The law on the age of speakers in the Athenian assembly’, RhM 141 (1998), 255–9Google Scholar, at 258. See especially Raaflaub (n. 2), 643, referring to ‘a recognizable hierarchy of speaking’, though he does not elaborate. Similarly, Schulz (n. 5), 48 speaks of a ‘privilegierter Teil’ of speakers in councils, and Osborne, R., ‘Homer's society’, in Fowler, R. (ed.), A Cambridge Companion to Homer (Cambridge, 2004), 206–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 212 speaks of unspecified ‘conventional rules’.

7 Lib. Arg. D. 24, where the term is used to describe the order of speakers in joint suits at Attic law; Eust. Od. 1.78 ed. Stallbaum uses the word in the same sense.

8 A starting point for sociological realities: Geschnitzer, F., ‘ BASILEUS. Ein terminologischer Beitrag zur Frühgeschichte des Königtums bei den Griechen’, in Festschrift für L.C. Franz (Innsburck, 1965), 99–112 Google Scholar, at 101–5. Examples of the more recent interest in cultural realities: Haubold, J., Homer's People (Cambridge, 2000), 62–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Naiden, F., ‘Gods, kings, and lawgivers’, in Hagedorn, A. and Kratz, R. (edd.), Law and Religion in the Eastern Mediterranean (Oxford, 2013), 79–104 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, both on ‘shepherds of the people’.

9 Examples of a βασιλεύς as a ‘king’ are numerous, but for ‘leader of a community’ see Finley (n. 1), 83–4 and Geschnitzer (n. 8), 101–5. In the context of a council meeting, the term γέρων is practically synonymous with βασιλεύς, as noted by C. Ulf, Die homerische Gesellschaft. Materialen zur analytischen Beschreibung und historischen Lokalisierung (Vestigia 43) (Munich, 1990), 78–9Google Scholar.

10 Agamemnon's summons or instructions: Il. 2.53–4, 9.89–90, 10.194–5. A tacit summons: 7.313, after the Achaeans bring Ajax to Agamemnon's hut. Priam's presumed summons: 22.119, although Hector will evidently share responsibility. Alcinous: Od. 6.54–5.

11 Except for Schulz (n. 5), no schematic treatment of councils exists; treatments of assemblies begin with Arendt, W., Typische Scenen bei Homer (Berlin, 1933), 116–21Google Scholar. Noticing both deliberative bodies but only in Iliad 9: Lohmann, D., Die Komposition der Reden in der Ilias (Berlin, 1970), 214–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Il. 2.76–7.

13 Il. 2.53, 2.55.

14 Il. 14.52. Diomedes: 14.109. Agamemnon: 14.64, 14.103, 14.134. Odysseus’ formula (14.83) is discussed below.

15 Summoning: Il. 10.195. The cited lines: 10.202–3.

16 Il. 7.324–5 = 9.93–5. The third occasion: Il. 4.433.

17 Ruzé (n. 6), 66–8.

18 Il. 9.679–713.

19 At Il. 3.146–9 eight councillors meet, or at least gather in one place, but no individual speaks.

20 Il. 22.114–21.

21 Il. 3.148. Il. 10.299–331 seems to be a Trojan council but is a meeting of warriors (10.336). For Antenor's speaking first at a Trojan assembly, 7.347–53, see below.

22 Od. 21.21.

23 Od. 7.155–7. For the resemblance between the Scherian council and Greek councils, see Bannert, H., ‘Versammlungsscenen bei Homer’, in Bremer, J., de Jong, I. and Kalff, J. (edd.), Homer: Beyond Oral Poetry (Amsterdam, 1989), 15–30 Google Scholar, at 24 but without comment on the possible order of speakers.

24 Od. 11.342–3.

25 Il. 23.39–41.

26 Nestor if the lines are regarded as spurious, as they were by Aristarchus, who thought that Agamemnon should have this right, as W. Leaf, The Iliad of Homer (London, 1900), ad loc. also thought; otherwise Agamemnon; Agamemnon at Il. 14.134.

27 Il. 9.170; 2.441–2. The council in the Doloneia is not formally concluded, but the last reported act is the arming of the heroes at the suggestion of Odysseus (Il. 10.254). In Book 7, there is no information whatever (344). At the end of Book 9, however, Diomedes speaks last (9.710–13).

28 Il. 14.112.

29 Il. 10.218–19.

30 Diomedes as young as Antilochus: Il. 9.57–8. Antilochus, in turn, as the youngest of all the Achaean heroes: Il. 15.569.

31 Il. 7.398–9, 9.29–31.

32 Twice: Menelaus (Il. 3.95–6, 7.92–4, neither occasion being a meeting).

33 Il. 2.402–8.

34 Idomeneus: Il. 13.361. Laertes and Dolius: Od. 24.499.

35 Ajax ‘the Lesser’ or Teucer: an ambiguity noted by Wackernagel apud Kirk, G.S., The Iliad: A Commentary Volume 1: Books 1–4 (Cambridge, 1985)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ad 2.404.

36 Merely ‘Ajax’ vs ‘Lesser’ : Il. 2.557 vs 2.528.

37 Il. 23.789, 15.569.

38 Il. 8.271–2.

39 Il. 13.91–5. Periboea or Eriboea first: Apollod. 3.12.6. Concubine Theaneira or Hesione: Apollod. 2.6.4, Diod. Sic. 4.32.

40 Il. 9.57–8.

41 Ad Il. 2.405–9. So also Eust. ad loc.

42 The critical attitude: Il. 14.83, with Holoka, J., ‘Looking darkly (ὑπόδρα ἰδών): reflections on status and decorum in Homer’, TAPhA 113 (1983), 1–17 Google Scholar.

43 Od. 3.127. Or, as the T scholia put it, Nestor, the best council-speaker, comes at the beginning, and Odysseus, the best assembly-speaker, comes at the end.

44 Il. 9.168–9.

45 Il. 1.16.

46 Il. 6.53–65.

47 Kirk (n. 35), ad 2.404–9 follows the T scholia in holding that age determines the order only of Nestor and Idomeneus, and that Ajax ‘the Greater’ and Diomedes are mentioned for their martial qualities. Kirk makes no remark on the other members of the list, except Odysseus. Latacz, J., Homers Ilias Gesamtkommentar (Munich, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ad 2.404–9 says ‘der Reihenfolge’ after Idomeneus ‘dürfte versifikatorisch bedingt’, perhaps referring to the weak caesuras in all these lines. La Roche, J., Homers Ilias, Gesang I-IV (Berlin, 1870)Google Scholar, ad 2.408 says that Menelaus ranks too high to need an invitation.

48 Il. 13.91–5.

49 A different view: Hainsworth, B., The Iliad: A Commentary Volume III: Books 9–12 (Cambridge, 1993)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ad 10.219–32, saying that here, as at 7.162–8, the most eager volunteer first.

50 Various but not all. When heroes volunteer to fight Hector (Il. 7.162–8), the order is not even partly determined by age: Agamemnon, Diomedes, two Ajaxes, Idomeneus, Meriones, Eurypylus, Thoas, Odysseus.

51 Agamemnon 100, Nestor 90, Idomeneus 80, Achilles 50, Ajax 12; the middle-aged Odysseus also 12.

52 Eating on three occasions: Il. 7.313–44, 9.89–178 and the feast at 2.404–40. No eating: 2.53–86, 10.202–53, 14.27–134.

53 Agamemnon having them sit down: Il. 2.53. Sitting down of their own accord: 10.202. For sacrificial meals, see Od. 3.37–40, 4.51–6, both mentioning chairs or fleeces for the guests, and then hosts or servants putting food on a table. Il. 9.89–91 and Od. 7.174–6 do not mention furniture or fleeces but otherwise are the same.

54 Royal hut: Il. 7.313, 9.90. Nestor's hut by his ships: 2.53.

55 Il. 7.339–44; 9.112–13, 9.121–34; 2.437–40; 10.204–32.

56 Il. 2.79–86.

57 Only additional statements: Il. 9.115–61, 10.218–53, and the disagreement at 14.64–132. So also Schulz (n. 5), 52.

58 Nestor ahead of Agamemnon: Il. 9.96–113 vs 9.115–61. Nestor alone: Il. 2.432–40, 7.327–46.

59 Nestor's last word: Il. 2.84; 2.440; 7.343; 9.172. Diomedes has the last word at 14.132, as noted by Ruzé (n. 6), 58, and at 9.709. Odysseus’ last word: 10.253.

60 Il. 14.63 vs 14.128, 14.133.

61 A negative general view of Nestor's initiatives: Kirk (n. 35), ad 7.327–43 and ad 10.204–10.

62 Il. 15.721–5.

63 So also P. Roussel, Étude sur le principe de l'ancienneté dans le monde hellénique du Ve siècle av. J.-C. à l’époque romaine (Mémoires de l'institut national de France 43.2) (Paris, 1941), ch. 1; more briefly Ruzé (n. 6), 64–5; and Ulf (n. 9), 82–3. No such tension among the Trojans, all of whose councillors are truly old: Sale, W., ‘The government of Troy: politics in the Iliad ’, GRBS 35 (1994), 5–102 Google Scholar, at 61.

64 Detienne, M., ‘En Grèce archaïque: géometrie, politique, et société’, Annales ESC 20 (1965), 425–41Google Scholar. Support for the idea, and some background: Cartledge, P., ‘Writing the history of archaic Greek political thought’, in Fisher, N. and van Wees, H. (edd.), Archaic Greece: New Approaches and New Evidence (London, 1998), 379–401 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 384–6.

65 Il. 1.54–305, 2.95–398, 7.381–412, 9.9–79, 19.40–276. Similar: 1.12–34, 9.669–712. Cf. Arendt (n. 11), Table 9.

66 For brief treatment of the topic, see Ruzé (n. 6), 48–52, referring to Combellack, F., ‘Sceptres and speakers in Homer’, CJ 43 (1948), 209–17Google Scholar, reporting the analysts’ doubts, which he shared, at 216 n. 5. Agamemnon's sceptre: Il. 2.45–6.

67 Il. 1.305, 19.276.

68 Achilles: Il. 1.54, 1.59. Agamemnon: 2.73–5, 2.110. Agamemnon: 9.9–10, 9.17. Achilles: 19.45–6, 19.56. No information: 7.382–3.

69 Il. 1.74; 2.225; 7.400 and 9.32; 19.78. For a different view, see Calhoun (n. 6), 437, saying that ‘[w]hen on occasion the folk are called together …. [t]he first to speak is usually the eldest of the gerontes or the king’. Calhoun perhaps believed Agamemnon when he says at 2.73 that it is θέμις for him to summon an assembly. It was not θέμις for Agamemnon alone. So also Hainsworth (n. 49), ad 9.9–78, saying that Achilles’ summoning the assembly in Book 19 is a ‘departure’ from convention.

70 Nestor: Il. 9.79; Nestor in tandem with Agamemnon, who endorses him: 2.362–3, 2.370. Agamemnon and Achilles: 1.304–5. Agamemnon: 7.405–12, followed by dispersal at 7.419–20. Achilles: 19.276. A similar summary: Schulz (n. 5), 37–8, 57–8.

71 The distinction between what is or may be normative and what is reported: Elmer (n. 4), 67–71, who applies this distinction to awkward pauses ([n. 4], 28–9) but not to the assembly protocol.

72 A different view: C. Ulf, ‘Homerische Strukturen: Status, Wirtschaft, Politik’, in A. Rengakos and B. Zimmermann (edd.), Homer Handbuch: Leben, Werk, Wirkung (Stuttgart, 2011), 257–78, at 270, holding that those called βασιλεύς speak first.

73 Trojan: Il. 7.345–80, beginning spontaneously and ending on Priam's say-so; 7.414–18, beginning spontaneously and ending with the return of the herald Iris; 18.246–313, beginning spontaneously and ending on Hector's say-so. Called and brought to a close by Hector: 8.489–544.

74 Thus Mackie, H., Talking Trojan: Speech and Community in the Iliad (Lanham, MD, 1996), 23Google Scholar.

75 Od. 8.5–45; 16.342–408, 20.240–6.

76 Il. 24.420–66.

77 The one assembly that does follow a meal: Od. 3.137–40, condemned by Nestor, the narrator.

78 Od. 2.37.

79 Il. 19.77, with Kirk (n. 35), ad loc.

80 Il. 7.347–53.

81 Il. 18.254–83.

82 Od. 2.157; 24.463–4. Perhaps only a minority follow Halitherses, as at Heubeck, A., A Commentary on Homer's Odyssey , vol. 3 (Oxford, 1992)Google Scholar, ad loc., preceded by Stanford, W., Homer Odyssey I-XII (Bristol, 1996 2)Google Scholar and von der Mühll, U., Homeri Odyssea (Basil, 1963)Google Scholar, ad loc.

83 Il. 1.286 vs 1.293–303.

84 Lohmann (n. 11), 173–4.

85 Il. 9.56–7.

86 Il. 19.155–74.

87 Il. 9.14; 19.41; Od. 2.24.

88 Il. 3.148–52.

89 Il. 7.348–53 (Antenor), 7.355–64 (Paris) and 7.368–78 (Priam).

90 Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. 5.103.

91 Both ἄρχειν and μῦθος or μῆτις at Il. 2.433, 7.324, 9.93; ἄρχειν alone at 10.203.

92 Similarly, they are reserved for Athena and Poseidon in gatherings of the Olympians. Athena: Il. 5.420. Poseidon: 7.445, 21.287.

93 Both ἄρχειν and μῦθος: Od. 1.367 (Telemachus), 15.166 (Pisistratus).

94 Od. 7.157.

95 Homer is less chary with ἄρχειν, used of several assembly-speakers and of the god Hephaestus: Aegyptius (Od. 2.15), Telemachus (22.461), Eurymachus (16.345, 18.349, 20.359), Hephaestus (Il. 1.571). Another view of these combinations of words: Martin, R.E., The Language of Heroes: Speech and Performance in the Iliad (Ithaca, NY, 1989), 37 Google Scholar.

96 Il. 7.123; similar is 10.233. Menelaus: 7.94. Nestor's formula is also somewhat similar to a formula used of Achilles (1.58, 19.55).

97 Il. 1.253 and 2.283. Calchas: 1.73. Thoas: 15.285. Polydamas: 18.253, after another formula containing ἄρχειν (249). Priam: 7.367.

98 Il. 7.324–6 = 9.93–5.

99 For the common speaking formulas, see Parry, M., ‘Whole formulaic verses in Greek and South-Slavic heroic song’, TAPhA 64 (1933), 179–97Google Scholar, esp. 183–8 =  The Making of Homeric Verse (Oxford, 1971), 376–91Google Scholar. Parry does not notice the ἄρχειν formulas peculiar to Nestor, nor does the most recent study of speaking formulas, Riggsby, A., ‘Homeric speech introductions and the theory of Homeric composition’, TAPhA 122 (1992), 99–115 Google Scholar, except in passing at 108.

100 Od. 2.16.

101 They do on the shield of Achilles (Il. 18.503–5). At Il. 19.50 Odysseus and Diomedes sit together, but no other γέροντες are said to sit with them.

102 Od. 2.15, 2.25.

103 Aegyptius: Od. 2.39–40. Halitherses: 2.157. Mentor: 2.226, unless this is Laertes, as in Stanford (n. 82), ad loc.

104 Eurymachus and Antinous: Od. 1.394–5, where Telemachus is speaking to Antinous as he refers to numerous kings on Ithaca.

105 Od. 2.28, 2.41, the verb being ἀγείρειν.

106 Od. 2.82–3.

107 Od. 2.84–128.

108 See Od. 4.629, 16.358–63, where he again takes the lead. However, Eurymachus takes the lead at 16.342–51 and again at 18.349–50, 20.358–9.

109 Od. 2.129–45.

110 Od. 2.46–76.

111 Od. 2.177–207.

112 Telemachus: Od. 2.208–23. Mentor: 2.224–41.

113 Other views of the structure of the scene, both with less emphasis on conflict: Osborne (n. 6), 212 and Bannert (n. 23), 22–3.

114 Od. 2.25, 161, 229 vs 2.40, 85, 130, 178, 209, 243. S. West in Heubeck, A., West, S. and Hainsworth, J.B., A Commentary on Homer's Odyssey Volume I Introduction and Books I-VIII (Oxford, 1990)Google Scholar, ad 1.25 notices the first three passages in this list.

115 Od. 2.212–13.

116 Od. 2.243–5.

117 Od. 2.257. Cf. Apollon. Lex. Hom. 17.20, λῦσαν, saying that Leocritus had no power to dissolve the assembly. Yet, several who do not convene assemblies dismiss them; see nn. 71–2 above.

118 Four occasions in all: Od. 2.399–401, 4.653–5, 22.205–6, 24.546–8.

119 Antinous slain by Odysseus (Od. 22.15–16), Eurymachus by same (22.81–3), Amphinomus by Telemachus (22.89–93); then a group, Demoptolemus by Odysseus, Euryades by Telemachus, Elatus by Eumaeus, and Peisander by Philoetius (22.266–70); then a second group, Eurymedon by Odysseus, Amphimedon by Telemachus, Polybus by Eumaeus (22.283–4) and Ctesippus by Philoetius (22.285–6); and lastly, Damastorides by Odysseus (22.292–3) and Leocritus by Telemachus (22.294–6). In the two groups, the order of Odysseus, Telemachus, Eumaeus and Philoetius is determined by status, which puts the two βασιλεῖς first, and by age, which puts Odysseus ahead of Telemachus and Eumaeus ahead of Philoetius. Similarly, Eumaeus and Philoetius dispatch Melanthius, whereas Odysseus and Telemachus busy themselves with the suitors (24.170–99).

120 The aegis: Od. 22.297–9.

121 So also Schulz (n. 5), 46–7.

122 Bloch, M., ‘Symbols, song, dance, and features of articulation: is religion an extreme form of traditional authority?’, Archives Européennes de Sociologie 15 (1974), 55–81 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 64, though Bloch distinguishes between resistance and ‘revolution’, a term inappropriate to Homer.

123 Rappaport, R., Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity (Cambridge, 1999), 34 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

124 Il. 1.533–5.

125 Il. 5.18–31, 7.442–64.  Later literature felt free to turn them into jurors: Dem. 23.66, Eur. Or. 1650–2. Homer speaks of all the gods—and thus of an assembly—only at Il. 20.4–5.

126 Assembly: Kapparis (n. 6). Councillors: Xen. Mem. 1.2.35. The ἐφέται were also required to be 50: Suda, Phot. s.v. ἐφέται.

127 See Kapparis (n. 6); and two broader treatments, Sealey, R., ‘ Probouleusis and the sovereign assembly’, ClAnt 2 (1969), 247–69Google Scholar, and Timmer, J., Altersgrenzen politischer Partizipation in antiken Gesellschaften (Berlin, 2008), 28–67 Google Scholar. I thank William Race and the anonymous reader at CQ for their criticisms, and I most especially thank John Morgan, who brought πρωτολογία to my attention some years ago and has frequently written to me about it.