Timokles But tell me, god-forsaken wretch,
whose work would you call oracles and prophecies
of future events, if not of the gods and their
providence? Damis Hold your peace, my good fellow, on
the subject of the oracles, for I shall ask you


 


which of them in particular you would like to recall. Perhaps that one Apollo delivered to the
Lydian, which was neatly double-edged and looked both ways, like some of the Hermae, which are
exactly alike on both sides to whichever part of
them you look. For tell me, will Croesus by
crossing the Halys be more likely to overthrow
his own kingdom or that of Cyros? And yet
that Sardian pest paid no small sum for this reversible utterance. Momos The man is enumerating the very
things I was most afraid of. Where now is our
handsome harper? Go down and defend yourself against these charges of his. Zeus You strike us when we are down, Momos,
finding fault with us now, when the season is past.