At this point a few general conclusions may be drawn concerning the rise of tyranny in Greece. First, it is difficult to distinguish “tyrants” from “kings” in any objective way; in fact, the two groups of rulers have much in common. The “tyrants” succeeded aristocratic regimes which had become increasingly unpopular. These regimes had themselves arisen when overmighty aristocrats had successfully challenged the authority of the kings who had ruled even earlier. Did the tyrants - who played on the aristocrats’ unpopularity - present their own regimes as the return to an ancestral form of rule which, in hindsight, had begun to look ever better to the subjects of the Bacchiads, the Penthilidae, the Geomori, and so on? This view is not consensus opinion, but it does accord with the evidence which has survived. There is, moreover, one literary depiction of an aristocratic regime in Greek epic, the episodes involving the suitors on Ithaca in the Odyssey. The suitors, as has often been pointed out, are irresponsible, oppressive, and abusive (albeit young) aristocrats who have effectively usurped the government of Ithaca. In response, their subjects do nothing so much as to yearn for the return of the rightful king - e. g., the swineherd Eumaeus who “prayed to all the gods that wise Odysseus might return to his home” (Od. XX 238-239) - and that the suitors may all receive their just deserts. In the words of the old and tired woman who is still up at dawn grinding grain for the suitors to eat:
Father Zeus, who rule over gods and men, . . .
Fulfill now even for wretched me this wish which I shall speak:
May the suitors this day for the very last time take their fine repast in Odysseus ’ halls. . .
May they sup their last!
(Od. XX 112-119)
World History
