As an example of the relationship between court poets and their patrons, Pausanias here at 1.2.2 refers to a Homeric passage at O.03.267–271. The generic aoidos ‘singer’, as represented by the anonymous figure who is mentioned there, has the power to supervise the deeds of men and women by way of praising what is good and blaming what is bad. The aoidos that Agamemnon left behind to supervise Clytemnestra cannot be neutralized by way of removal from the scene. The aoidos does not need to see bad deeds in order to tell about them, since he can hear about them from the Muses.