TIMOCLES 
Then can’t you even hear Zeus when he thunders,
Damis, you god-fighter ?
 DAMIS 
Why shouldn’t I hear thunder, Timocles? But
whether it is Zeus that thunders or not, you no
doubt know best, coming as you do from some place
or other where the gods live! However, the people
who come here from Crete tell us a different tale,
that a grave is pointed out there with a tombstone
standing upon it which proves that Zeus cannot
thunder any more, as he has been dead this long
time.
 MOMUS 
I knew far in advance that the fellow would say
that. But why have you become so pale, Zeus, and
why do you tremble till your teeth chatter? You
should be bold and despise such mannikins.
 ZEUS 
What’s that you say, Momus? Despise them?
don’t you see how many are listening, and how they



 

have already been persuaded against us and he is
leading them after him tethered by the ears ?
 MOMUS 
But whenever you like, Zeus, you can let down a
cord of gold and

 Sway them aloft, with the earth and the sea, too,
into the bargain. Iliad8, 24. 


 TIMOCLES 
Tell me, you scoundrel, have you ever made a
voyage ?
 DAMIS 
Yes, often, Timocles.
 TIMOCLES 
Well, you were kept in motion then, were you not,
either by-the wind striking the canvas and filling the
sails, or else by the rowers, but the steering was
done by a single man in ‘command, who kept the
vessel safe ?
 DAMIS 
Yes, certainly.
 TIMOCLES 
Then do you suppose that while the ship would
not sail if she were not steered, this universe keeps
in motion unsteered and unofficered ?
 ZEUS 
Good! Timocles put that very shrewdly, with a
valid illustration.
 DAMIS 
Why, Timocles, you superlative admirer of the gods,
in the one case you would have seen the captain
always planning what had better be done and making
ready beforehand and giving orders to the crew, and


 

the ship would contain nothing at all that was
profitless and senseless, that was not wholly useful
and necessary to them for their voyage. But in the
other case your captain, the one who, you say, is in
command of this great ship, manages nothing in a
sensible or fitting way, and neither do the members
of his crew; the forestay is carried aft, maybe, and
both the sheets forward, the anchors are sometimes
‘of gold while the figurehead is of lead, and all the
ship’s underbody is painted while her upper works
are unsightly.