Zeus Catechized (18)

What’s that you say? Don’t you believe that there are any punishments and rewards, and a court where each man’s life is scrutinized!

I hear that somebody named Minos, a Cretan, acts as judge in such matters down below. And please answer me a question on his behalf, for he is your son, they say.

What have you to ask him, Cyniscus?

Whom does he punish principally?

wicked, of course, such as murderers and temple-robbers.

And whom does he send to join the heroes?

Those who were good and pious and lived virtuously.

Why is that, Zeus?

Because the latter deserve reward and the former punishment.

But if a man should do a dreadful thing unintentionally, would he think it right to punish him like the others?

Not by any means.

I suppose, then, if a man did something good unintentionally, he would not think fit to reward him, either?

Certainly not!

Then, Zeus, he ought not to reward or punish anyone.

Why not?

Because we men do nothing of our own accord. but only at the behest of some inevitable necessity, if what you previously admitted is true, that Fate is the cause of everything If a man slay, it is she who slays, and if he rob temples, he only does it