In the Odyssey, on the other hand, religion has become more spiritual.  Olympus is no longer the mountain of that name, but a vague term, like our “heaven,” denoting a place remote from all earthly cares and passions, a far-off abode in the stainless ether, where the gods dwell in everlasting peace, and from which they occasionally descend, to give an eye to the righteous and unrighteous deeds of men.

In his conception of the state of the soul after death Homer is very interesting.  His Hades, or place of departed spirits, is a dim, shadowy region beyond the setting of the sun, where, after life’s trials are over, the souls of men keep up a faint and feeble being.  It is highly significant that the word which in Homer means “self” has also the meaning of “body”—­showing how intimately the sense of personal identity was associated with the condition of bodily existence.  The disembodied spirit is compared to a shadow, a dream, or a waft of smoke.  “Alas!” cries Achilles, after a visit from the ghost of Patroclus, “I perceive that even in the halls of Hades there is a spirit and a phantom, but understanding none at all”; for the mental condition of these cold, uncomfortable ghosts is as feeble as their bodily form is shadowy and unsubstantial.  They hover about with a fitful motion, uttering thin, gibbering cries, like the voice of a bat, and before they can obtain strength to converse with a visitor from the other world, they have to be fortified by a draught of fresh blood.  The subject is summed up by Achilles, when Odysseus felicitates him on the honour which he enjoys, even in Hades:  “Tell me not of comfort in death,” he says:  “I had rather be the thrall of the poorest wight that ever tilled a thankless soil for bread, than rule as king over all the shades of the departed.”

III

Homeric society is essentially aristocratic.  At its head stands the king, who may be a great potentate, like Agamemnon, ruling over a wide extent of territory, or a petty prince, like Odysseus, who exercises a sort of patriarchal authority within the limits of a small island.  The person of the king is sacred, and his office is hereditary.  He bears the title of Diogenes, “Jove-born,” and is under the especial protection of the supreme ruler of Olympus.  He is leader in war, chief judge, president of the council of elders, and representative of the state at the public sacrifices.  The symbol of his office is the sceptre, which in some cases is handed down as an heirloom from father to son.

Next to the king stand the elders, a title which has no reference to age, but merely denotes those of noble birth and breeding.  The elders form a senate, or deliberative body, before which all questions of public importance are laid by the king.  Their decisions are afterwards communicated to the general assembly of the people, who signify their approval or dissent by tumultuous cries, but have no power of altering or reversing the measures proposed by the nobles.  Thus we have already the three main elements of political life:  king, lords, and commons—­though the position of the last is at present almost entirely passive.