The word politics comes from the Greek word for city: polis. When Aristotle claimed, "Man is a political animal," he meant that humans were naturally intended to live in cities. With the fall of the Bronze Age, the Aegean urban and palatial centers disappeared, and, as a result, one could argue that there were no politics during this phase of Greek history.
This is not to say that there was utter anarchy (an = non-, arkhos = leader). It appears, rather, that for a while the Greeks reverted back to the system of chiefdoms postulated for the Middle Helladic period (see above). Once again, there was no formal bureaucracy, but leadership was based on charisma and personal power. In this unstable period, a good part of that personal power was probably military in nature, and authority went to that individual best capable of protecting a village, clan, or region. Of course, not all areas of Greece were equally damaged by the end of the Bronze Age, the island of Euboia being an excellent example (see chapter 4). Here, the continued wealth present in the graves, and especially in the large-scale Heroon of Lefkandi, suggests that a king and queen in control of economic goods and prestige items still ruled the local population.
Such holdovers were rare, though. As mentioned above, the person of the wanax almost entirely disappeared during the Dark Age, as, it would appear, did the lawagetas, leaving the local basileis at the top of the political ladder. Except for the unique Anax Agamemnon, the basileis are the military/political leaders we encounter in the works of Homer and Hesiod, which are as close as we might come to a written account of the Dark Age. These epics—the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer, and the Works and Days and Theogony by Hesiod—are an amalgam of several different periods of Greek history, extending back into the Bronze Age but recording aspects of even Archaic society as well. Thus, Homer recalled the boar's tusk helmet in use in the Mycenaean period (see chapter 9) but also referred to the synoecism of Rhodes (see below). Therefore, one cannot rely too heavily on his works for information on any specific period of Greek history. By contrast, Hesiod seems to have written about his own here-and-now, providing a somewhat clearer picture of Greek society in the eighth century b. c.e.
Both poets show a society dominated by basileis, each in command of a small territory. From what we can gather from the epics, kingship ran in the
Family, kings were military leaders, and kings were responsible for justice and proper religious observances in their kingdoms. The idea that kingship was hereditary is evident in the Homeric epics, where son succeeds father into kingship, such as Odysseus and Telemachus, and Agamemnon and Orestes. Of course, these being epics, such transitions are seldom entirely smooth. Furthermore, the role of the queen appears to have been significant in this period, and transmission of power seems to involve her at least as much as the king. For example, in the Iliad, we discover that Menelaus, Helen of Sparta's husband, is king of Sparta through his marriage to Helen, even though she has at least two living brothers. It appears that although patrilineal descent was the ideal form of passing along kingship, other forces were at play.
The fact that kings were military leaders is most evident in Homer, where warfare is a dominant theme, especially in the Iliad. This ideology comes across most strongly in a conversation (Book 12, 310-321) between the two warriors Glaukos and Sarpedon:
Glaukos, why indeed are we two most honored, with a seat of honor and meats and full cups in Lykia, all beholding us as gods?
And we dwell on great land holdings on the banks of the Xanthos, fair in orchards and wheat-bearing fields.
Now it is necessary for us two to stand among the foremost of the Lykians And face the raging battle,
So that someone of the thorax-clad Lykians might say:
"Not inglorious are our kings, ruling
Over Lykia, they eat fat sheep
And excellent honeyed wine. But their strength
Is good, when they fight among the first of the Lykians.”
The idea that kings were, ideally, responsible for justice and proper religious observations comes across in both Homer and Hesiod. In Books 6-8 of the Odyssey, Homer portrays a "perfect” society, the Greek ideal, in the Phaiakians who live on the island of Skheria. These people are ruled by no fewer than thirteen kings, the heads of whom are Alkinoos and his wife Arete. When Odysseus is washed ashore on this island, it is Alkinoos's responsibility to see that the hero is treated according to the dictates of the gods, an example of Greek xenia or hospitality (see chapter 6). Alkinoos's concern for divine piety and xenia, as well as the diffuse nature of royal authority on Skheria, is evident in the king's reception of the yet-unnamed Odysseus in Book 7, 186-196:
Listen, leaders and rulers of the Phaiakians, to what I say and the heart in my breast bids me.
Now having dined go home and rest;
Come dawn, having summoned more elders,
We shall entertain our guest-friend and to the gods
We shall offer fine sacrifices; and then towards his homecoming
We shall turn our minds, so that our friend, without labor and sorrow might return to his fatherland by our conveyance, rejoicing greatly, even if it is quite far away.
Nor, in the meanwhile, should he suffer hardship before he sets foot on his own land.
Hesiod takes a more blatant approach to kings, for both good and evil. When sweet-talking the kings who are judging his performance of the Theogony (ll. 79-90), Hesiod waxes on kingship with a honeyed tongue:
And Kalliope; she is superior to them all. for she accompanies reverend kings.
Whomever of the god-reared kings the daughters of Zeus
Will honor and see at birth,
On his tongue they pour sweet dew,
Words flow from his mouth like honey
And all the people look to him to settle cases
With straight justice. And he steadfastly
Speaking with wisdom resolves great strife.
For in this respect kings are wise, because
When the people are in a quarrel in the meeting-place,
Easily he ends vengeful deeds
With mild, encouraging words.
When having legal difficulties with his brother, however, Hesiod takes a harsher view of the kings, lashing out at them in his Works and Days (ll. 35-40):
But here now let us resolve the quarrel through straight judgments, which are best, coming from Zeus.
For already we have divided up the inheritance, but seizing it you carried off more, greatly honoring [bribing] the gift-swallowing kings, who are eager to judge a case such as this.
Fools!
The kings Hesiod discusses in his epics were probably the heads of various local, dynastic families, the aristocracies that ruled in the newly emerging city-states until the age of the tyrants.
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