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 With quibbling logic. Damis one was called, 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. Zeus. What further, then, remains for us to do, Gods, than to stoop down and listen to them? 2 So let the Hours remove the bars and chains at once,3 and, dispelling the 1 "So eben hatten unsre Bildergiesser Mich unter Händen; sie bepichten mich An Brust und Rücken, und ein lächerlicher Panzer, 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 'IкαρоμÉVITTO, 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. "In silence, to ourselves, indeed, lest Damis chance to hear us.' (The scene changes from Heaven to the Stoa Pakile 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 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 οἱ 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 Δικαιος 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."1 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,1 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 :— 2 כי "Too wretched this: another plea produce." 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. 3 instruct them by their fables; and, in fine, use every device with a view to delighting. However, I should be truly glad to hear by which of Homer's verses you were especially persuaded. Was it, perhaps, those in which he speaks of Zeus, how his daughter, and brother, and wife formed a conspiracy to put him in fetters; and, unless Thetis, as cognisant of the occurrence,' had summoned Briareus, our most excellent Zeus would have been carried off and actually put into prison ? 2 In return for which good offices, calling to mind his debt of gratitude to Thetis, he deceives Agamemnon by sending him a certain lying dream, so that many of the Achæans perished. Do you observe? It was impossible for him to hurl his thunderbolt and burn up Agamemnon there, on the spot, without acquiring the reputation of an impostor. Or, is it hearing these particulars that have chiefly forced you into belief— how Diomedes wounded Aphrodite, and afterwards Ares himself, at the instigation of Athena; and how, a little after, the Gods themselves engaged in battle, and fought duels, ladies and gentlemen indiscriminately and how Athena conquers Ares, as he had been, I suppose, beforehand disabled by the wound which he had received from Diomedes,* : "Luck-bringer Hermes stout defied the deity of Leto," 5 1 Reading (with Jacobitz) wc vońcaσa, instead of ¿λɛŋoaσa, “pitying." 2 See 'IX. i. 397-406. For this ouλov ovεpov, see 'IX. ii. 1-35, for which, among other things, Plato finds fault with the poet:-Δεῖ περὶ θεῶν καὶ λέγειν καὶ ποιεῖν, ὡς μήτε αὐτοὺς γοήτας τῷ μεταβάλλειν ἑαυτοὺς, μήτε ἡμᾶς ψεύδεσι παράγειν ἐν λόγῳ ἢ ἔργῳ . . . τοῦτο οὐκ ἔπαινεσόμεθα τὴν τοῦ ἐνυπνίου πομπὴν ὑπὸ Διὸς τῷ ̓Αγαμέμνονι. Πολ. ii. Macrobius (Somnium Scipionis, i. 7), and other pagan theologians, have laboured to prove that there was no real deception. 4 See 'IX. v. 310-909 : 5 ῥεε δ ̓ ἄμβροτον αἷμα Θεοῖο A stream of nectarous humour flowed For the indiscriminate battle among the Gods, see 'IX. xx. |