Note 563 — Chapter XVII · GOVERNMENT IN THE HEROIC AGE.

This passage offers at least a partial explanation of the phenomenon which we have been discussing. If royal rank is traced both on the male and female sides the kingly class will inevitably be numerous. Such may have been the case among the Angli also at one time. But it is not unlikely that at least in the remoter parts of Greece each 'city' or small district may have retained a royal family of its own, like the communities visited by Wulfstan (cf. p. 376, note). We may refer to such a passage as Il. IX 395 f., if ἀριστήων here means dependent princes.