Power and Violence

The ancient Greeks rarely fail us when we turn to them in a receptive but cautious spirit for conceptual clarity, and their treatment of the abstraction “power” and terms related to it is relevant and suggestive. In Greek, a root contained in several words associated with political power has two meanings. The verb archein means both “to rule” and “to start”; the noun arché means both “sovereignty” and “beginning.” J. L. Myres, in his analysis of Greek political ideas, suggests:It is now clear that in compounds the prefix arkhé (as in our words “architect” and “archbishop”) describes not merely the first or chief man of a company or organization, but the initiatory function of him who “starts” the others to work, and originates the design which they are to complete. And this appeal to Greek practical life confirms the view that what is essential in the notion of arkhé is just this initiatory “push” or “drive” with which the gifted man imposes his will-and-pleasure on the rest.