Fates alone can do such things, and that we have no control over' them. Herakles. Then, even when I killed the lion or the hydra, was it the Fates that performed those actions through me? Zeus. Most certainly. Herakles. And now, if anyone be insolent to me, by plundering my temple, or overturning my statue; unless it may have been long ago decreed by the Fates, I am not to knock him on the head? Zeus. Certainly not. Herakles. Then just hear me, Zeus, speak my mind freely, for, as the comic poet 2 says, "I am rough and ready, calling a spade a spade.' If such is the state of our affairs, I will bid a long farewell to your dignities here in heaven, and your sacrificial steam, and bloody victims; and I will. go down to the infernal regions, where even the ghosts of the monsters I killed will be afraid of me with my bow, stripped and naked though I should be. 4 Zeus. Excellent! the hostile witness is found at home, as they say. By your suggestions to Damis you save him, at all events, trouble.-But who is this coming towards us in all haste, this blacksmith, this graceful, this well-formed gentleman, he who is so old-fashioned in the style of wearing his hair? 5 Nay, rather, he must be your brother, Hermes, he of the market-place, who stands by the Painted Stoa. At all events, he is besmeared from top to toe with 1 6 "Akvpoι (Jacobitz). "Aμopo (another reading) seems to be a play on the preceding Μοῖραι. 2 Aristophanes, according to the commentators, who quotes the proverb in one of his lost comedies. Cf. Πῶς δεῖ Ιστ. Συγ. 41. 3 Τὴν σκάφην, σκάφην. Lit., a tub a tub." 4 Οἴκοθεν ὁ μάρτυς. "The witness comes from home." "Save me from my friends." Wieland translates: "da haben wir einen Zeugen unsrer eigenen familie gegen uns !" 5 ̔Ο ἀρχαῖος τὴν ἀνάδεσιν τῆς κόμης. Lit. “ Old-fashioned in the manner of fastening up his hair." Thucydides informs us that the old Athenian beaux almost up to the time of his writing (circa B.C. 410), bound up their hair in a knot with golden cicadas-χρυσῶν τεττίγων ἐνέρσει κρωβόλον ἀναδούμενοι τῶν ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ τριχῶν, i. 6. Cf. Aristophanes, Nɛp. 971. For the bronze Hermes Agoraios ("Hermes of the Market") at the Stoa Pakile see Pausanias, IIɛpinynois "ATT. Hermagoras, the newcomer, is this Hermes merely disguised in terrestrial form; whence the paternal salutation of Zeus. pitch, by having impressions taken off him every day by the statuaries.-Why, my child, have you come here at such a racing speed? Do you, I wonder, bring any news from Earth? Hermagoras. Exceeding important news, Zeus, and requiring serious attention. Zeus. Say at once, if some new revolt has broken out without our knowledge. Hermagoras. Just now my breast and back in pitchy clay By copper-working men was plaster'd o'er: Around my body swung right ludicrous A breastplate, framed by imitative art— All as mere moulding for a copper-seal. Then saw I crowds approaching: 'mid them two Pallid, high-brawling, fisticuffers keen With quibbling logic. Damis one was called, The other Zeus. Stop, most excellent Hermagoras, your manufacture of iambics-for I am aware whom you mean. But tell me this, whether the clash of battle has long begun between them. Hermagoras. Not yet: they were still skirmishing, engaging one another with light artillery, and vituperating one another somewhere or other at safe distance. 2 Zeus. What further, then, remains for us to do, Gods, than to stoop down and listen to them? So let the Hours remove the bars and chains at once, and, dispelling the 1 "So eben hatten unsre Bildergiesser 3 Mich unter Händen; sie bepichten mich An Brust und Rücken, und ein lächerlicher Panzer, Mit nachgeahmter Kunst mir um den Leib Gegossen, drückte meine ganze Form Wie ein in Wachs gedrucktes Siegel ab: Auf einmal seh' ich Volk zusammenlaufen, und Lucian, according to his custom, parodies some verses from one of the numberless lost tragedies of Euripides, or of some other Greek dramatist. 2 See 'IKαроμέVITTоç, 25, where the father of Gods and men, preparing to listen to the prayers of mortals, seats himself on a golden throne, or seat, placed at a number of trap-doors (Oúpides) at which he listens. 3 See Περὶ θυσίων, 8. • . clouds, let them throw wide the gates of Heaven. (Starting back in alarm) Herakles! What a multitude have met together to hear the philosophic disputation! But this Timokles does not altogether please me-he is all of a tremble and confused; that man will ruin everything today. It is plain, at all events, he will never be able to raise himself even to the level of Damis. However, what is most in our power,1 let us pray for him. "92 "In silence, to ourselves, indeed, lest Damis chance to hear us." (The scene changes from Heaven to the Stoa Pokile at Athens.) Timokles. What do you say, you robber of templesthat the Gods don't exist, nor exercise any providential care over men? Damis. No, but you, first of all, answer me, by what reasoning were you persuaded that they do exist? Timokles. Certainly I shall not: rather do you, abominable villain, reply to me. Damis. No, indeed; you, rather, make answer to me. Zeus (looking up from his trap-door). Our friend so far exhibits his wrath in much better and more euphonious fashion. Bravo, Timokles! pour out upon him all the vials of your vituperative powers, for in that lies your sistrength; since, in other respects, he will shut you up, and make you as dumb as a fish. Timokles. No, by Athena! no, I will not answer you first. Damis. Then, pray, put your questions, Timokles, for you have conquered me by that oath: but without bad language, if you please.3 Timokles. You say well. Tell me then, accursed villain, do you not believe the Gods exercise providence ? Damis. By no means. Timokles. What do you say? Do all these things, pray, go on without providential interference? 1 Jacobitz, without MS. authority, apparently, has duvaróv in place οι δυνατώτατον. 2 Σιγῇ, εφ' ἡμείων, ἵνα μὴ Δάμις γε πύθηται, a parody of Il. vii. 195. 3 Lucian, probably, had in mind, in this altercation, the famous scene in the Νεφέλαι of Aristophanes, between Δικάιος and "Αδικος Λόγος (879, 929-934), and in the Ιππεῖς between Δῆμος and Κλέων and the Sausage-Seller. Damis. Yes. Timokles. And is the care of the Universe not placed under the superintendence of any God at all, then? Damis. No. Timokles. And are all things borne along at random, by irrational impulse? Damis. Yes. Timokles (to the audience). And so you good people endure to hear this, and you will not stone the impious sinner? Damis. Why do you incite the people against me, Timokles; or, who are you, to be angry on behalf of the Gods, and that when they themselves are not angry? At all events, they have taken no very severe measure against me, though they have heard me this long time, supposing they do hear. Timokles. Yes, Damis, they hear, they do hear, and will punish you sooner or later, hereafter. Damis. And when could they have leisure to look after me, seeing they have, as you say, so much business on their hands, in administering the affairs of the universe, infinite in number? So that they have not even yet punished you for the perjuries you are constantly committing, and the rest of your crimes, on which I am silent, that I may not be myself compelled to use_ vituperative language, contrary to our agreement. Yet I do not see what other greater proof of their providence they could produce than by making a miserable end of a miserable man like you. But they are, evidently, away from home, beyond the Ocean, perhaps, "with the blameless Ethiopians." At least, it was their custom constantly to go to them to dinner; sometimes, too, at their own invitation. Timokles. What can I say to such shameless ribaldry? Damis. That particular thing which I have for some time been longing to hear from you, Timokles-how you were persuaded to think that the Gods exercise providential care. 1 Timokles. Well, the ordinary arrangement of all Nature, Ζεὺς γὰρ ἐπ' Ωκεανόν μετ ̓ ἀμύμονας, Αἴθιοπῆας Χθιζὸς ἔβη μετὰ δαῖτα· Θεοὶ δ ̓ ἂμα πάντες ἕποντο, as his divine mother informs the complaining Achilleus, 'IX. i. 423. in the first place, persuaded me the Sun always holding the same course, and the Moon in the same way; and the revolving Seasons, and the growing vegetation, and the birth of animated beings, and these same animals furnished with so beautiful a mechanism, so as to feed themselves, and to be capable of reflection, and of movement, and of walking, and of doing carpentry, and making shoes, and the rest-do not these things appear to you to be the actions of rational provision? Damis. You are, I take it, begging the very thing in question,' for it is not yet proved whether each of these things is effected by rational provision. But that the order of Nature is such as you say I could readily affirm myself. It is not, however, a necessary conclusion, to be persuaded forthwith that it comes about by any intelligent contrivance for it is possible that, having begun fortuitously, the universe is now kept together similarly and after a like fashion. But you call their orderly arrangement necessity. Next, you will get into a rage, I suppose, should one not follow you in your enumeration and eulogy of all things that happen, of whatever sort; and in your belief that they are a proof of the intelligent ordering of each one of them by providential design: so that, according to the comic poet : "Too wretched this: another plea produce." 2 Timokles. I don't believe there is need of any further demonstration upon this matter. All the same, however, I will ask, and answer me then, do you think Homer to be a most excellent poet ? Damis. Of course. Timokles. I believed him, then, when he declares the providence of the Gods. Damis. Well, admirable Sir, all persons will concede to you that Homer was a good poet, but not that, of such matters, either he or any other poet is a trustworthy witness. For they care not for truth, I imagine, but for enchanting their hearers, and, therefore, they charm them by their verses and 1 Αὔτο που τὸ ζητούμενον ξυναρπάζεις. “ You are running off with the thing in question." 2 From which one of the vast number of poets of the New Comedy who have perished this verse is taken, or parodied, is unknown. |