Cyniscus Ah, you must tell me one thing more first. Do the Fates also control you Gods? Do you depend from their thread?

 

 Zeus We do. Why do you smile? Cyniscus I was thinking of that bit in Homer, where he makes you address the Gods in council, and threaten to suspend all the world from a golden cord. You said, you know, that you would let the cord down from Heaven, and all the Gods together, if they liked, might take hold of it and try to pull you down, and they would never do it: whereas you, if you had a mind to it, could easily pull them up,

 And Earth and Sea withal. 

I listened to that passage with shuddering reverence; I was much impressed with the idea of your strength. Yet now I understand that you and your cord and your threats all depend from a mere cobweb. It seems to me Clotho should be the one to boast: she has you dangling from her distaff, like a sprat at the end of a fishing-line.

 Zeus I do not catch the drift of your questions. Cyniscus Come, I will speak my_mind; and in the name of Destiny and the Fates take not my candour amiss. If the case stands thus, if the Fates are mistresses of all, and their decisions unalterable, then why do men sacrifice to you, and bring hecatombs, and pray for good at your hands? If our prayers can neither save us from evil nor procure us any boon from Heaven,
I fail to see what we get for our trouble.

 Zeus These are nice questions! I see how it is,—you have been with the sophists; accursed race! who would deny us all concern in human affairs. Yes, these are just the points they raise, impiously seeking to pervert mankind from the way of sacrifice and prayer: it is all thrown away, forsooth! the Gods take no thought for mankind; they have no power on the earth.—Ah well; they will be sorry for it some day. Cyniscus Now, by Clotho’s own spindle, my questions are free from all sophistic taint. How it has come about, I know not;

 

but one word has brought up another, and the end of it is—
there is no use in sacrifice. Let us begin again. I will put you a few more questions; answer me frankly, but think before you speak, this time. Zeus Well; if you have the time to waste on such tomfoolery.

 Cyniscus Everything proceeds from the Fates, you say? Zeus Yes. Cyniscus And is it in your power to unspin what they have spun? Zeus It is not. Cyniscus Shall I proceed, or is the inference clear? Zeus Oh, clear enough. But you seem to think that people sacrifice to us from ulterior motives; that they are driving a bargain with us, buying blessings, as it were: not at all; it is a disinterested testimony to our superior merit. Cyniscus There you are, then. As you say, sacrifice answers no useful purpose; it is just our good-natured way of acknowledging your superiority. And mind you, if we had a sophist here, he would want to know all about that superiority. You are our fellow slaves, he would say; if the Fates are our mistresses, they are also yours. Your immortality will not serve you; that only makes things worse. We mortals, after all, are liberated by death: but for you there is no end to the evil; that long thread of yours means eternal servitude.