ZEUS 
Why, Hera, the circumstances of the gods are as
bad as they can be, and as the saying goes, it rests
on the edge of a razor whether we are still to be
honoured and have our due on earth or are actually
to be ignored completely and count for nothing.
 HERA 
It can’t be that the earth has once more given
birth to giants, or that the Titans have burst their
bonds and overpowered their guard, and are once
more taking up arms against us?
 ZEUS Take heart: the gods have naught to fear from
Hell. A parody on Euripides, Phoenissae 117. HERA 
Then what else that is terrible can happen?
Unless something of that sort is worrying you, I
don’t see why you should behave in our presence
like a Polus or an Aristodemus Famous actors in tragedy, contemporaries of Demosthenes. instead of Zeus.

 ZEUS 
Why, Hera, Timocles the Stoic and Damis the
Epicurean had a dispute about Providence yesterday
(I don’t know how the discussion began) in the
presence of a great many men of high standing, and
it was that fact that annoyed me most. Damis
asserted that gods did not even exist, to say nothing
of overseeing or directing events, whereas Timocles,
good soul that he is, tried to take our part. Then a

 

large crowd collected and they did not finish the
conversation ; they broke up after agreeing to finish
the discussion another day, and now everybody is in
suspense to see which will get the better of it and
appear to have more truth on his side of the
argument. You see the danger, don’t you? We
are in a tight place, for our interests are staked
on a single man, and there are only two things
that can happen—we must either be thrust aside
in case they conclude that we are nothing but
names, or else be honoured as before if Timocles
gets the better of it in the argument.