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It's a known fact that Sinestro was a Green Lantern before he defected and created his own Yellow Lantern Corps.
If Sinestro had this inherent ability to feed off peoples' fear (as proven by how he ruled his home planet) then why did the ring choose him to weild the power of the Green Lanterns?
Simply put, he also had great willpower, and was willing to use power to vanquish evil. Also, even though he instills fear, he is quite fearless himself.
Sinestro is a very good character to show that the ends don't justify the means - aside from his war against the Corps, he does want the Universe to be orderly and without evil. But he believes that the way to achieve this is to instill fear in people's hearts.
Batman has similarly worn both green and yellow rings. People with great willpower can also be horrible monsters (as Bats could be if he let himself).
Sinestro wasn't always a totalitarian dictator - his is the story of a man who fell from grace due to his own tragic flaw: hubris. Essentially, his story would fit nicely on the stage at Athens, and the Greeks would have recognized it easily.
