[97] Iliad, vii. 126, Πηλεὺς—Ἐσθλὸς Μυρμιδόνων βουληφόρος ἠδ᾽ ἀγορήτης.
[98] Considerable stress seems to be laid on the necessity that the people in the agora should sit down (Iliad, ii. 96): a standing agora is a symptom of tumult or terror (Iliad, xviii, 246); an evening agora, to which men come elevated by wine, is also the forerunner of mischief (Odyss. iii. 138).
Such evidences of regular formalities observed in the agora are not without interest.
[99] Iliad, ii. 100.—
... εἴποτ᾽ ἀϋτῆς
Σχοίατ᾽, ἀκούσειαν δὲ διοτρεφέων βασιλήων.
Nitzsch (ad Odyss. ii. 14) controverts this restriction of individual manifestation to the chiefs: the view of O. Müller (Hist. Dorians, b. iii. c. 3) appears to me more correct: such was also the opinion of Aristotle—φησὶ τοίνυν Ἀριστοτέλης ὅτι ὁ μὲν δῆμος μόνου τοῦ ἀκοῦσαι κύριος ἦν, οἱ δὲ ἡγεμόνες καὶ τοῦ πρᾶξαι (Schol. Iliad, ix. 17): compare the same statement in his Nikomachean Ethics, iii. 5.
[100] See Iliad, ix. 635; Odyss. xi. 419.
[101] Odyss. ii. 25-40.
[102] Odyss. ii. 43, 77, 145.—