Zeus Catechized (6-10)

ZEUS

I know where you get these clever questions— from the cursed sophists, who say that we do not even exert any providence on behalf of men. At any rate they ask questions like yours out of impiety, and dissuade the rest from sacrificing and praying on the ground that it is silly; for we, they ay, not only pay no heed to what goes on among you, but have no power at all over affairs on ‘arth. But they shall be sorry for talking in that vay,

CYNISCUS

I swear by the spindle of Clotho, Zeus, they did lot put me up to ask you this, but our talk itself as

it went on led somehow or other to the conclusion that sacrifices are superfluous. But if you have no objection I will question you briefly once more. Do not hesitate to answer, and take care that your answer is not so weak.

ZEUS

Ask, if you have time for such nonsense.

CYNISCUS

You say that all things come about through the Fates?

ZEUS

Yes, I do.

CYNISCUS

And is it possible for you to change them, to unspin them?

ZEUS

Not by any means.

CYNISCUS

Then do you want me to draw the conclusion or is it patent even without my putting it into words?

ZEUS

It is patent, of course; but those who sacrifice do not do so for gain, driving a sort of bargain, forsooth, and as it were buying blessings from us; they do so simply to honour what is superior to themselves.

CYNISCUS

Even that is enough, if you yourself admit that sacrifices are not offered for any useful purpose, but by reason of the generosity of men, who honour what is superior. And yet, if one of your sophists were here, he would ask you wherein you allege the gods to be superior, when really they are fellow-

slaves with men, and subject to the same mistresses, the Fates. For their immortality will not suffice to make them seem better, since that feature certainly is far worse, because men are set free by death at least, if by nothing else, while with you gods the thing goes on to infinity and your slavery is eternal, being controlled by a long thread.[*]

ZEUS

But, Cyniscus, this eternity and infinity is blissful for us, and we live in complete happiness.

CYNISCUS

Not all of you, Zeus; circumstances are different with you as with us, and there is great confusion in them. You yourself are happy, for you are king and can draw up the earth and the sea by letting down a well-rope, so to speak, but Hephaestus is a cripple who works for his living, a blacksmith by trade, and Prometheus was actually crucified once upon a time.[*] And why should I mention your father (Cronus), who is still shackled in Tartarus? They say too that you gods fall in love and get wounded and sometimes become slaves in the households of men, as did your brother (Poseidon) in the house of Laomedon and Apollo in the house of Admetus. This does not seem to me altogether blissful; on the contrary, some few of you are probably favoured by Fate and Fortune, while others are the reverse. I say nothing of the fact that you are carried off by pirates[*] even as we are, and plundered by temple-robbers, and from very rich become very poor in a second; and many

have even been melted down before now, being of gold or silver; but of course they were fated for this.

ZEUS

See here, your talk is getting insulting, Cyniscus, and you will perhaps regret it some day.

CYNISCUS

Be chary of your threats, Zeus, for you know that nothing can happen to me which Fate has not decreed before you. I see that even the templerobbers I mentioned are not punished, but most of them escape you; it was not fated, I suppose, that they should be caught!

ZEUS

Didn’t I say you were one of those fellows that abolish Providence in debate?

CYNISCUS

You are very much afraid of them, Zeus, I don’t know why. At any rate, you think that everything I say is one of their tricks.

CYNISCUS

I should like to ask you, though—for from whom can I learn the truth except from you?—what this Providence of yours is, a Fate or a goddess, as it were, superior to the Fates, ruling even over them?

ZEUS

I have already told you that it is not permitted you to know everything. At first you said that you would ask me only one question, but you keep chopping all this logic with me, and I see that in your eyes the chief object of this talk is to show that we exert no providence at all in human affairs.

CYNISCUS

That is none of my doing: you yourself said not long ago that it was the Fates who brought every-

thing to pass. But perhaps you repent of it and take back what you said, and you gods lay claim to the oversight, thrusting the Fates aside?