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[109] κήρυκες. It would seem that a distinction must be made between “κήρυκες οἳ δημιοεργοὶ ἔασιν” Od.19. 135 and the private “κήρυκες” attached to the retinue of kings and chieftains. Talthybius, the “κῆρυξ” of Agamemnon ( Il.1. 321), became the eponymous founder of a herald-caste; “εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ ἀπόγονοι Ταλθυβίου, Ταλθυβιάδαι καλεόμενοι, τοῖσι αἱ κηρυκηίαι αἱ ἐκ Σπάρτης πᾶσαι γέρας δέδονται” ( Hdt.7. 134). The “κήρυκες” were of noble or even royal blood; their epithets are “ἀγαυοί” ( Il.3. 268) or “θεῖοι” (4. 192). Their duties were,—the summoning of assemblies ( Il.2. 50, etc.), treating with enemies ( Il.7. 274), preparing for sacrifices ( Od.20. 276), waiting at sacrificial banquets, to which duty the private “κήρυκες” (as here and inf. 143, etc.) must have added that of general attendance at feasts where their masters were present. Gladstone (Hom. Stud. 3. 69) remarks that they are ‘the only executive officers that are found in Homer.’ Thus the office of the private “κῆρυξ” approached that of the “θεράπων”, cp. Od.18. 423“κῆρυξ Δουλιχιεὺς, θεράπων δ᾽ ἦν Ἀμφινόμοιο”. See Buchholz, Hom. Realien. vol. ii, p. 1, §§ 12-14. The περάποντες were at least freeborn, often of noble descent, and they stood in the relation to the chieftains of squires to knights in more modern days. Patroclus is “θεράπων” to Achilles ( Il.16. 244), Meriones to Idomeneus ( Il.23. 113). In the Odyssey their duties are naturally more closely connected with household life, and resemble those of pages.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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