[156] _The Iliad_, book i., Bryant’s translation.
Squint-eyed, with one lame foot, and on his back A lump, and shoulders curving towards the chest,
dares to insult this chief—this king as he is represented by most modern writers, and to his face taunt him with his injustice towards Achilles. To Agamemnon he says:
Of what dost thou complain; what wouldst thou more, Atrides? In thy tents are heaps of gold; Thy tents are full of chosen damsels, given To thee before all others, by the Greeks, Whene’er we take a city. Dost thou yet Hanker for gold, brought by some Trojan knight, A ransom for his son, whom I shall lead— I, or some other Greek—a captive bound? Or dost thou wish, for thy more idle hours, Some maiden, whom thou mayst detain apart? Ill it beseems a prince like thee to lead The sons of Greece, for such a cause as this, Into new perils. O ye coward race! Ye abject Greeklings, Greeks no longer, haste Homeward with all the fleet, and let us leave This man at Troy to win his trophies here, That he may learn whether the aid we give Avails him aught or not, since he insults Achilles, a far braver man than he.[157]
It is true Ulysses smote Thersites as he upbraided him for this insult to Agamemnon. It is plain, however, that the chastisement was of a private nature. It seems not to have been a crime openly to berate their chief. Indeed the position of “shepherd of the people” was not one of such dignity that any warrior among the hosts might not with impunity freely speak his mind concerning him, or to his face confront him with improper behaviour. When Agamemnon compared unfavourably the valour of Diomed with that of his father, Tydeus, Sthenelus, the honoured son of Capaneus, hesitated not to remind the chief of his folly, and to his face upbraid him. “Atrides, speak not falsely when thou knowest the truth so well.”[158]
Regarding the office of king, Mr. Morgan says:
Modern writers, almost without exception, translate _basileus_ by the term _king_, and _basileia_ by the term _kingdom_, without qualification, and as exact equivalents. I wish to call attention to this office of _basileus_, as it existed in the Grecian tribes, and to question the correctness of this interpretation. There is no similarity whatever between the _basileia_ of the ancient Athenians and the modern kingdom or monarchy.... Constitutional monarchy is a modern development, and essentially different from the _basileia_ of the Greeks. The _basileia_ was neither an absolute nor a constitutional monarchy; neither was it a tyranny nor a despotism. The question then is, what was it?