Apollo Hear now the word divine, declared by the prophet Apollo Dealing with shuddering strife that men wage, shrill with their screaming, Armed cap-a-pie with words, with arguments well-compacted. Hither and yon with the clucking that shifts to the side of the victor Strike they and bear to earth the towering stern of the plow-tail. Yet, when the locust shall fall 'neath the crooked claw of the vulture, Then the rain - bringing crows shall utter their ultimate portent. Victory lies with the mules, but the ass shall butt his fleet children. Zeus Why do you burst out laughing at this,
Momus? Surely there is nothing humorous in
our present situation. Stop, wretch, or you will
choke with laughing. Momos How can I help laughing at such a
clear, straightforward oracle? Zeus Then, perhaps, you will kindly interpret
to us what he says. Momos It is perfectly plain, so that we shall
not need Themistokles. The oracle says clearly
that the seer is a juggler and that we are packasses,

 

by Zeus! and mules to believe in him, with
not the wit of a locust among us. Herakles I do not hesitate, father, to express
my views, even though I am only a resident foreigner. My idea is that when they meet and are
already engaged in discussion, then, if Timokles
prove the better man, we will allow the meeting
to proceed to our advantage. But if it turn out
otherwise, then by your leave I will shake the
Porch itself from its foundations and hurl it at
Damis, so that the accursed wretch may not offer
insult to us. Zeus Heavens, Herakles, what a boorish speech,
and how horribly Boeotian! To destroy so many
for the sake of one wretch, and, what is more, the
Porch with Marathon, Miltiades, Kynaegeiros and
all? If all these should perish together, how
would the orators continue to practise, deprived
of the chief theme of their speeches? Moreover,
in your lifetime it was perhaps possible to do
even a thing of that kind; but since you have
become a god, you have learned, I presume, that
the Fates alone control these matters, and we
have no voice in them. Herakles Then, when I was slaying the lion
or the hydra, the Fates were doing these things
by my agency? Zeus Certainly. Herakles And at this moment if any one uses


 



insolence towards me, by rifling one of my temples or overturning my statue, shall I not destroy
him unless it was long ago so decided by the
Fates? Zeus By no means. Herakles Then, Zeus, hear me declare myself
frankly, for I am a boor, as the comic poet said,
and I call a spade a spade. If this is our plight,
I shall bid a long farewell to the worship and
savor of burnt-offerings and blood of victims in
heaven, and go off to Hades. There the ghosts,
at least, of the beasts I slew will be afraid of me,
if I have my bow, though I be unarmed beside. Zeus Very well; nothing like a relative for
turning state's evidence, as they say.

You would
have saved Damis the trouble of making these
remarks by suggesting them yourself.