POSEIDON Now why is it right, Hermes, for this dog-faced
fellow from Egypt Anubis. to sit in front of me when I am
Poseidon?
 HERMES That’s all very well, but Lysippus made you of
bronze and a pauper because the Corinthians had no
gold at that time, while this fellow is richer than you
are by mines-full. So you must put up with being
thrust aside and not be angry if one who has such
a snout of gold is preferred before you.
 APHRODITE Well then, Hermes, take me and seat me in the
front row somewhere, for I am golden.
 HERMES Not as far as I can see, Aphrodite: unless I am
stone blind, you are of white marble, quarried on
Pentelicus, no doubt, and then, the plan having approved itself to Praxiteles, turned iuto Aphrodite
and put into the care of the Cnidians.
 APHRODITE But I'll prove it to you by a competent witness,
Homer, who says all up and down his lays that I
am “golden Aphrodite.”
 HERMES Yes, and the same man said that Apollo was rich
in gold and wealthy, but now you'll see that he too
is sitting somewhere among the middle class, uncrowned by the pirates and robbed of the pegs of
his lyre. So be content yourself if you are not quite
classed with the common herd in the meeting.

 

 COLOSSUS OF RHODES But who would make bold to rival me, when I ain
Helius and so great in size? If the Rhodians had
not wanted to make me monstrous and enormous,
they might have made sixteen gods of gold at the
same expense, so in virtue of this I should be
considered more valuable. And I have art and precision of workmanship, too, for all my great size.
 HERMES What’s to be done, Zeus? This is a hard
question to decide, at least for me; for if I should
consider the material, he is only bronze, but if I compute how many thousands it cost to cast him, he
would be more than a millionaire.
 ZEUS Oh, why had he to turn up to disparage the
smallness of the others and to disarrange the
seating? See here, most puissant of Rhodians,
however much you may deserve precedence over
those of gold, how can you sit in the front row
unless everyone else is to be obliged to stand up so
that you alone can sit down, occupying the whole
Pnyx with one of your hams? Therefore you had
better stand up during the meeting and stoop over
the assembly.