The Role of the Priest in Homer

Abstract

In this short work we mention the different roles played by the priest and by the king in the religious and political fields. At the time of Homer these two figures were distinct, but, not infrequently, were in violent opposition, as we read in the first canto of Iliad. In ancient times, however, the religious duties, along with political ones, were concentrated in the hand of one man, as we deduce from passages of Homeric poems, from hints to the places of Hesiod and from vestige of the ancient East world. In the course of time, however, the King is interested, exclusively, in politics and the priest in religion, so that, with the passing time, they become two separate entities, each in its specific role. But often the priest, strong of his influence on the masses and on the same king, centralizing the powers in his person, passes his limits, and to reach one’s aims, invokes the curse and the revenge of the gods on his antagonist, until to humiliate him in front of his subjects.