Zeus Tragoedus (51-53)

Timocles Weil, well; my ship leaves you unconvinced; I must drop my sheet-anchor, then; that at least is unbreakable.

Zeus I wonder what it is.

Timocles See whether this is a sound syllogism; can you upset it?—

Damis Ha, ha, ha! I will answer as soon as I can get done with laughing.

Timocles Will you never stop? At least tell me what the joke is.

Damis Why, you don’t see that your anchor (sheet-anchor, too) hangs by a mere thread. You depend on connexion between the existence of Gods and the existence of altars, and fancy yourself Safe at anchor! As you admit that this was your sheet-anchor, there is nothing further to detain us.

Timocles You retire; you confess yourself beaten, then?

Damis Yes; we have seen you take sanctuary at the altars under persecution. At those altars I am ready (the sheet-anchor be my witness) to swear peace and cease from strife.

Timocles You are playing with me, are you, you vile body-snatcher, you loathsome well-whipped scum! As if we didn’t know who your father was, how your mother was a harlot! You strangled your own brother, you live in fornication, you debauch the young, you unabashed lecher! Don't be in such a hurry; bere is something for you to take with you 5 this broken pot will serve me to cut your foul throat.

Zeus Damis makes off with a laugh, and the other after him, calling him names, mad at his insolence. He will get him on the head with that pottery, I know. And now, what are we to do?

Hermagoras Why, the man in the comedy was not far out: Put a good face on’t, and thou hast no harm.

It is no such terrible disaster, if a few people go away infected. There are plenty who take the other view—a majority of Greeks, the body and dregs of the people, and the barbarians to'a man.

Zeus Ah, Hermes, but there is a great deal in Darius’s remark about Zopyrus—I would rather have had one ally like Damis than be the lord of a thousand Babylons.