Complete Works of Plutarch Part 64

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 s.h.i.+eld, 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):--

In fear of the people, for they were exceedingly wroth against him, because he had followed with Topheon sea-robbers and harried the Thesprotians, who were at peace with us.

A man ruling with violence and contrary to the laws he does not call a tyrant, for the name is of more recent date. But his nature he exhibits in his deeds (O. vxiii. 85):--

And send thee to the mainland to Echetus the king, the maimer of all mankind, who will cut off thy nose and ears with the pitiless steel.

And he shows Aegisthus tyrannical, who killed Agamemnon and lorded over Mycenae. And when he was killed he says he would have had no sepulchre if Menelaus had been there. For this was the custom with tyrants (O.

iii. 258):--

Then even in his death would they not have heaped the piled earth over him, but dogs and fowls of the air would have devoured him as he lay on the plain far from the town: so dread was the deed he contrived.

Oligarchy he seems to show in the ambition of the suitors, about whom he says (O. i. 247):--

As many as lord it in rocky Ithaca.

He describes the mob rule in the Trojan government in which all are accomplices of Alexander and all are involved in misfortunes. Priam accuses his sons of being the cause (I. xxiv. 253):--

Haste, worthless sons, my scandal and my shame!

And also another Trojan, Antimachus (I. xi. 124):--

'Twas he who chief Seduc'd by Paris' gold and splendid gifts Advis'd the rest.i.tution to refuse Of Helen to her lord.

It is esteemed just among men to distribute to each according to his worth. This principle concerns especially reverencing the G.o.ds, and honoring parents and relations. Piety toward the G.o.ds he teaches in many pa.s.sages, introducing the heroes sacrificing, praying, offering gifts to the G.o.ds, and celebrating them in hymns, and as a reward for their piety they receive from the G.o.ds.

Honor to parents he shows especially, in the character of Telemachus, and in his praise of Orestes (O. i. 298):---

Or hast thou not heard what renown the goodly Orestes got among all men in that he slew the slayer of his father?

For parents to be cared for in their old age by their children is just by nature and a debt of retribution; this he showed in one pa.s.sage where he says (I. xvii. 302):--

Not destin'd he his parents to repay their early care.

The good will and good faith of brothers to one another he shows in Agamemnon and Menelaus, of friends in Achilles and Patroclus, prudence and wifely love in Penelope, the longing of a man for his wife in Odysseus.

How we should act toward our country he showed especially in these words (I. xii. 243):--

The best of omens is our country's cause.

And how citizens should share a common friends.h.i.+p (I. ix. 63):--

Outcast from kindred, law, and hearth is he Whose soul delights in fierce, internal strife.

That truthfulness is honorable and the contrary to be avoided (I. ix.

312):--

Him as the gates of h.e.l.l my soul abhors Where outward speech his secret thought belies.

And (O. xviii. 168):--

Who speak friendly with their lips, but imagine evil in the latter end.

Households are chiefly well ordered when the wife does not make a fuss over the undeclared plans of her husband nor without his counsel undertakes to do any thing. Both he shows in the person of Hera; the former he attributes to Zeus as speaker (I. i. 545):--

Expect not Juno, all my mind to know.

And the latter Hera herself speaks (I. xiv. 310):--

Lest it displease thee, if, to thee unknown, I sought the Ocean's deeply flowing stream,

There is a custom among all people for those who go to a war or who are in danger to send some message to their families. Our poet was familiar with this custom. For Andromache, bewailing Hector, says (I. xxiv.

743):--

For not to me was giv'n to clasp the hand extended from thy dying bed, Nor words of wisdom catch, which night and day, With tears, I might have treasur'd in my heart.

Penelope recalls the commands of Odysseus when he set forth (O. xviii.

265):--

Wherefore I know not if the G.o.ds will suffer me to return, or whether I shall be cut off there in Troy; so do thou have a care for all these things. Be mindful of my father and my mother in the halls, even as thou art or yet more than now, while I am far away. But when thou see'st thy son a bearded man, marry whom thou wilt and leave thine own house.

He knew also the custom of having stewards (O. ii. 226):--

He it was to whom Odysseus, as he departed in the fleet, had given the charge over all his house that it should obey the old man, and that he should keep all things safe.

Grief at the death in one's household he thinks should not be unmeasured; for this is unworthy, nor does he allow it altogether to be repressed; for apathy is impossible for mankind, whence he says the following (I. xxiv. 48):--

He mourns and weeps, but time his grief allays, For fate to man a patient mind hath given.

Other places he says (I. xix. 228):--

Behooves us bury out of sight our dead Steeling our hearts and weeping but a day.

He also knew the customs used now at funerals, in other pa.s.sages and in the following (I. xvi. 456):--

There shall his brethren and his friends perform His fun'ral rites, and mound and column raise The fitting tribute to the mighty dead

And as Andromache says (before) the naked and prostrate body of Hector (I. xxii. 509):--

But now on thee, beside the beaked s.h.i.+ps Far from thy parents, when the rav'ning dogs Have had their fill, the wriggling worms shall feed In thee all naked; while within thy house Lies store of raiment, rich and rare, the work Of women's hands: these I will burn with fire Not for thy need--thou ne'er shalt wear them more But for thine honor in the sight of Troy.

So, too, Penelope prepares the shroud (O. ii. 99):--