And Telemachus will testify of this, thine own dear son, that
not by mine own will or desire did I resort to thy house to
sing to the wooers after their feasts; but being so many and
stronger than I, they led me by constraint.
There are three forms of polity intended to attain justice and good laws,—Royalty, Aristocracy, and Democracy. To these are opposed three which end in injustice and lawlessness,—Tyranny, Oligarchy, and Mob Rule. Homer does not seem ignorant of these. Throughout his whole poem he names kingly rule and praises it; for example (I. ii. 196):—
For fierce his anger, and the Lord of counsel, Jove,
From whom proceeds all honor, loves him well.
And what sort of a man a king must be, he plainly reveals (O. ii. 236):—
Be kind and gentle with all his heart.
And (O. iv. 690):—
One that wrought no iniquity toward any man, nor spake aught
unrighteous in the township, as is the wont of divine kings.
And severally where he enumerates five kings of the Boeotians, and among the Phaeacians (O. viii. 390):—
Behold there are twelve glorious princes who rule among this
people and bear sway, and I myself am the thirteenth.
The image of democracy he shows clearly on the shield, in which he makes two cities. The one he says is ruled democratically, since they have no leader, yet all by their own will conduct themselves according to the laws; then, too, he introduces a trial proceeding. And he exhibits a democracy when he says (O. xvi. 425):—