What It Is
Agamemnon's scepter is the staff of authority that the poem passes from hand to hand, from the oath to the blow, from the assembly to the tribunal. In Book II the poet tells its story, from Hephaestus to Zeus, to Hermes, to Pelops, to Atreus, to Thyestes, and finally to Agamemnon, who inherited it from his father. It is the sign that the king speaks in the name of Zeus, and the function the poem gives it is that of speech: in the assembly, whoever holds the scepter has the right to speak. For that reason it passes into the hands of someone who is not king: Achilles speaks with it in his hand and throws it to the ground in Book I, Odysseus takes it from the king to stop the flight in Book II, and in the games of Book XXIII the herald puts it in the hand of Menelaus and orders the Achaeans to be silent before he speaks.
Where It Appears
The scepter enters the poem through the quarrel. In Book I, after Athena stops him from drawing his sword, Achilles insults Agamemnon, swears that the Greeks will miss him when they fall under Hector's hands, and throws the scepter to the ground. In this book the staff appears without history: it is the object by which one swears, what judges hold when they decide by the law of Zeus.
ἦ ποτʼ Ἀχιλλῆος ποθὴ ἵξεται υἷας Ἀχαιῶν / σύμπαντας·(1.240-241), one day the longing for Achilles will reach all the sons of the Achaeans, every one of them.
In Book II, the scepter gains a name, an owner, and a genealogy. Agamemnon takes it before summoning the assembly, and it is with it in his hand that he proposes the flight. When the army rushes to the ships, Odysseus takes the king's scepter and goes along the ranks: to the nobles he speaks with gentle words, to a common man who shouts he strikes with the scepter, and he beats Thersites until a bloody welt rises.
οὐκ ἀγαθὸν πολυκοιρανίη· εἷς κοίρανος ἔστω, / εἷς βασιλεύς, ᾧ δῶκε Κρόνου πάϊς ἀγκυλομήτεω / σκῆπτρόν τʼ ἠδὲ θέμιστας, ἵνά σφισι βουλεύῃσι.(2.204-206), the rule of many is not good; let there be one leader, one king, to whom the son of Cronus, of crooked counsels, has given the scepter and the laws, so that he may deliberate for them.
σκήπτρῳ δὲ μετάφρενον ἠδὲ καὶ ὤμω / πλῆξεν· ὃ δʼ ἰδνώθη, θαλερὸν δέ οἱ ἔκπεσε δάκρυ· / σμῶδιξ δʼ αἱματόεσσα μεταφρένου ἐξυπανέστη(2.265-267), and he struck his back and shoulders with the scepter; he doubled over, and a bright tear fell from him; and a bloody welt rose up on his back.
In Book VII, the heralds Talthybius and Idaeus place the scepters between Hector and Ajax to interrupt the duel, and at the truce for the dead, Agamemnon raises the scepter to the gods and calls on Zeus as witness of the oaths.
In Book IX, the scepter returns in the question of what the king has that is his own. When Agamemnon proposes fleeing, Diomedes is the first to answer:
σοὶ δὲ διάνδιχα δῶκε Κρόνου πάϊς ἀγκυλομήτεω· / σκήπτρῳ μέν τοι δῶκε τετιμῆσθαι περὶ πάντων, / ἀλκὴν δʼ οὔ τοι δῶκεν, ὅ τε κράτος ἐστὶ μέγιστον.(9.37-39), To you the son of Cronus, of crooked counsels, gave in two parts: with the scepter he gave you to be honored above all, but he did not give you courage, which is the greatest power.
In Book XVIII, the scepter appears twice on Achilles's shield, in the hands of the elders who judge the price of a dead man, with the heralds' scepters, and in that of the king who watches the harvest in silence, and a third time outside it, in the scepter on which Hephaestus himself leans as he comes limping out to receive Thetis.
σκῆπτρα δὲ κηρύκων ἐν χέρσʼ ἔχον ἠεροφώνων· / τοῖσιν ἔπειτʼ ἤϊσσον, ἀμοιβηδὶς δὲ δίκαζον. / κεῖτο δʼ ἄρʼ ἐν μέσσοισι δύω χρυσοῖο τάλαντα, / τῷ δόμεν ὃς μετὰ τοῖσι δίκην ἰθύντατα εἴποι(18.505-508), and they held in their hands the scepters of the clear-voiced heralds; with them they then rose and gave judgment, one after the other. And in the midst lay two talents of gold, to be given to whoever among them declared the most upright judgment.
What It Means
The scepter says that authority comes from above and separates from the one who exercises it. Odysseus defends it as a doctrine of the office, not of the person: the king is one because Zeus gave him the scepter and the laws, and the rule of many is not good. Diomedes states the other side: the scepter gives honor, it does not give courage. The two speak of the same staff, and neither denies what the other affirms. Nestor, in the same Book IX, gives the scepter a use and not a virtue: he and the laws were placed in the king's hands so that he might deliberate.
The gesture of Achilles in Book I can be read in two ways. By swearing by the symbol of authority and throwing it to the ground, he recognizes the law and refuses the man who carries it. But the staff that judges hold by the law of Zeus also makes Zeus himself the guarantor of the oath, and what follows fits with this: Zeus assents to Thetis's request in the same book and promises, in Book XV, not to stop until Achilles's wish is fulfilled.
The scepter changes its effect according to the hand that holds it. In Agamemnon's, it is the guarantee of command; in Odysseus's, it is the instrument that drives the crowd away from the ships, returns it to the assembly, and silences Thersites; in the heralds', it is the barrier that stops the duel; in the hands of the elders on the shield, it is the sign of who may judge. When honor and courage separate, in Book IX, it is Diomedes who points out the separation, and the scepter stays on the side of honor.
Relationships
- Standard themes: Honor and Reputation, War, Fate and Free Will.
- Characters: Agamemnon, Achilles, Odysseus, Diomedes, Nestor, Menelaus, Zeus.
- Neighboring symbols: the shield of Achilles, on which the scepter appears in the tribunal and in the king's harvest, and the scale of Zeus, the other object that the poem associates with Zeus.