On the Homeric use of the word Hjowj. 83 but first a special meeting of chiefs aiding the general with their counsel, and then a full meeting of the whole host, to hear the result and receive communications. The ayoprj in the first book has more the appearance of a deliberative assembly : we may perceive however that they are summoned to try if there is any one in the whole army who has had intelligence either by revelation or dream '^ In the Odyssey too, those who are called to the ayoprj in Ithaca, are termed {jpcoe^'^K '^ Alitherses and '^ ^gyptius, who speak there, are called heroes. But in the Odyssey I think I discover a rather more aristocratical character in the ay oprj. It is evidently deliberative ; yet its principal business seems to be to receive intelligeiice. Thus iEgyp- tius, after saying that there has been no ayopri since the departure of Odysseus, goes on : vvv C€ Ti^ WO riyGipe'-i Tiva y^petw Toaov ik€l f]€ pecov avcpoov^ rj oi irpoyeveaTepoL eicnv ; r}e TLv ayyeXifjv GTpaTov cKAvev ep-^ojueuoLo^ r]v ^ YjiULLv aa<pa etVot, ore Trporepo^ ye ttvOolto ; rf€ TL CYjixiov aXko 7n(pavaK€TaL rjo ayopevei ; il. 28. Telemachus says that they are of the same rank, or at any rate comprehend some of the same rank^ as the suitors ; for he calls the suitors Tijov avopoov (piXoL v^e^^ o evOahe y eialv apicTTOi, ii. 51. The suitors are opposed by Mentor, in the assembly, aXAw ^Yjixoy^^ still a part of the assembly. Telemachus asks this assembly to supply him with a ship and crew '^. In the Phaeacian city, Odysseus admires avTtov rjpwcov ayopa^ Kai re/^ea /xa/CjOa, Od. vii. 44, as if the assembly and the bulwarks belonged to the heroes peculiarly. Echeneus, a Phaeacian yepwv^ who feasts with king Alci- nous, is called hero ^^. If it be true, that the ripwe^ and the assemblies in Ithaca are more select than those in the Iliad, there would in reality 70 II. I. 62. "^i Od. I. 272. 72 Od. II. 157. See also Od. xxiv. 451. 73 Od. II. 15. 74 0(i. II. 239. "' Od. ii. 212, 7^^ Od. VII. 155. Od. XI. 342.
