Note 585 — Chapter XVII · GOVERNMENT IN THE HEROIC AGE.

This is true even of Sparta. We may quote Herodotus' account (VII 104) of Demaratos' speech to Xerxes: ἐλεύθεροι γὰρ ἐόντες (sc. οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι) οὐ πάντα ἐλεύθεροί εἰσι· ἔπεστι γάρ σφι δεσπότης νόμος, τὸν ὑποδειμαίνουσι πολλῷ ἔτι μᾶλλον ἢ οἱ σοὶ σέ. It is the recognition of this impersonal force—not of course any sense of universal right, but the 'law' of the community—which perhaps most clearly distinguishes post-heroic and pre-heroic society from that of the Heroic Age. The existence of such a force—operating, under religious sanction (cf. p. 366), as a restraint upon the king's freedom of action—is implied by Tacitus, Germ. 7, 11. But it is a strange misunderstanding which has led several scholars to compare the former of these passages with Beow. 73, where the limitations stated are those of Hrothgar's generosity, not of his power.