ZEUS 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! CYNISCUS 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. ZEUS What have you to ask him, Cyniscus? CYNISCUS Whom does he punish principally? ZEUS wicked, of course, such as murderers and temple-robbers. CYNISCUS And whom does he send to join the heroes? ZEUS Those who were good and pious and lived virtuously. CYNISCUS Why is that, Zeus? ZEUS Because the latter deserve reward and the former punishment. CYNISCUS But if a man should do a dreadful thing unintentionally, would he think it right to punish him like the others? ZEUS Not by any means. CYNISCUS I suppose, then, if a man did something good unintentionally, he would not think fit to reward him, either? ZEUS Certainly not! CYNISCUS Then, Zeus, he ought not to reward or punish anyone. ZEUS Why not? CYNISCUS 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 under orders. Therefore if Minos were to judge justly, he would punish Destiny instead of Sisyphus and Fate instead of Tantalus, for what wrong did they do in obeying orders?