In his Theogony, Hesiod addresses a question of paramount importance to philosophers in the ancient world: What constitutes a good king? Hesiod’s contemporary, Homer, explores similar themes in his Iliad and Odyssey. Their literary successors—including Plato, Aristotle, and later, Roman thinkers like Virgil and Seneca the Younger—will heavily reference Homer and Hesiod in their arguments.

Hesiod defines a good king in the prologue of the Theogony:

The people

All look to him as he arbitrates settlements

With judgments straight. He speaks out in sure tones

And soon puts an end even to bitter disputes.

A sound-minded ruler, when someone is wronged,

Sets things to rights in the public assembly,

Conciliating bother sides with ease.

He comes to the meeting place propitiated as a god,

Treated with respect, preeminent in the crowd (Lines 85-93).

This is the ideal ruler in Hesiod’s eyes: A man who embodies the qualities of Zeus, the primary model of kingship as lord of heaven and earth. But kings were not always just and wise arbiters. One of the main narrative arcs of the Theogony details how each generation improved on the model of kingship, culminating in the ascension of Zeus and the establishment of a just and orderly society.

In the Theogony, the universe’s earliest kings are defined by their comfort with violence towards their subjects.