Cyniscus Then when Homer says, for instance, in another place,

 Lest unto Hell thou go, outstripping Fate, 

he is talking nonsense, of course? Zeus Absolute nonsense. Such a thing is impossible: the law of the Fates, the thread of Destiny, is over all. No; so long as the poets are under the inspiration of the Muses, they speak truth: but once let those Goddesses leave them to their own devices, and they make blunders and contradict themselves. Nor can we blame them: they are but men; how should they know truth, when the divinity whose mouthpieces they were is departed from them? Cynic That point is settled, then. But there is another thing I want toknow. There are three Fates, are there not,—Clotho,
Lachesis, and Atropus? Zeus Quite so.