ZEUS 
The people were still unfamiliar with the teachings of philosophy at that time, and there were few
that pursued it, so it was natural that the juries
inclined towards Anytus and Meletus. But at
present, do not you see how many short cloaks and
staves and wallets there are? On all sides there are
long beards, and books in the left hand, and everybody preaches in favour of you; the public walks
are full of people assembling in companies and in
battalions, and there is nobody who does not want to
be thought a scion of Virtue. In fact, many, giving
up the trades that they had before, rush after the
wallet and the cloak, tan their bodies in the sun to
Ethiopian hue, make themselves extemporaneous
philosophers out of cobblers or carpenters, and go
about praising you and your virtue. Consequently,
in the words of the proverb, it would be easier for a
man to fall in a boat without hitting a plank than
for your eye to miss a philosopher wherever it looks.

 JUSTICE 
Yes, but those very men frighten me, Zeus, by
quarrelling with each other and showing unfairness
even in their discussions of me. It is rumoured,
too, that while most of them claim kinship with me
in words, when it comes to facts they do not even
open their house to me at all, but make it plain that
they will lock me out if ever I come to their door ;
for they made Injustice their bosom friend long ago.


 

 ZEUS 
They are not all bad, my daughter, and it is
enough if you find some that are good. But go now,
so that a few cases, at least, may be heard to-day.

 HERMES 
Let us set out in this direction, Justice, straight for
Sunium, not far from the foot of Hymettus, to the left
of Parnes, where you see those two heights Lycabettus and the Acropolis. The promontory of Sunium is the most conspicuous landmark because Hermes and Justice are coming down from above, and from seaward (cf. below, ἐν δεξιᾷ). Lucian’s gods live in Heaven, not on Olympus or Ida. ; you
have probably forgotten the way long since. But why
are you crying and taking it hard? Don't be afraid:
things are no longer the same in life. All those
Scirons and Pinebenders and Busirises and Phalarises
whom you used to fear in former days are dead, and
now Wisdom and the Academy and the Porch are
in full sway, seek for you everywhere, and hold
conversations about you, in open-mouthed expectation that, from some quarter or other, you may
perhaps come flying down to them once more.
 JUSTICE 
Well, Hermes, you are the only person who can
tell me the truth, inasmuch as you associate with
them a great deal, passing your days with them in
the athletic clubs and in the market-place; for you
are the god of the market, as well as being crier in
the meetings of the assembly. What sort’of people
are they, and is it possible for me to abide among
them?
 HERMES 
To be sure; I should not be treating you fairly if
I did not tell you, since you are my sister. Most of



 

them have been helped not a little by philosophy:
for if it goes no further, at least regard for their
cloth makes them more circumspect in sinning.
However, you will come upon a few rascals among
them—I must tell the truth, I suppose—and some who
are partly wise and partly foolish. You see, when
Wisdom took them in hand and dyed them over, all
those who thoroughly absorbed the dye were made
entirely serviceable, without any intermixture of
other hues, and they are quite ready to receive you ;
while those who because of their ingrained filth
were not deeply penetrated by the colouring matter
of the dyestuff are better than the rest, to be sure,
but unfinished products, half-white, blemished, and
spotted like the pard. And there are some who
have only touched the kettle on the outside with
a finger-tip and smeared on some of the soot, yet
think that they too are well enough dyed over.
You, however, will of course pass your time with
the best of them.

 

But in the course of our talk we are already drawing near to Attica, so let us leave Sunium on our
right, and now let us glide down to the Acropolis.
Now that we have alighted, you sit down here
on the Areopagus somewhere, facing the Pnyx, and
wait until I give out the proclamation from Zeus.
If I climb the Acropolis it will be easier for me to
summon everybody from that point of vantage for
the voice.
 JUSTICE 
Don’t go, Hermes, until you have told me who
comes here, the person with the horns and the
shepherd’s pipe and the hairy legs.

 

 HERMES 
What! Don’t you know Pan, the most bacchanalian of the servants of Dionysus? He formerly lived
on Parthenion, A mountain in Arcadia. but at the time of the approach of
Datis by sea and the landing of the barbarians at
Marathon, he came unasked to fight on the side of
the Athenians ; and since then, accepting this cavern
under the Acropolis, a little above the Pelasgicon, The cave of Pan, being in the N.W. corner of the Acropolis, can be pointed out (ταύτην) trom the Areopagus, which is close by (ἐκ γειτόνων). For the bit of the prehistoric wall below it (Pelasgicon), see p. 63, note 1, and p. 71. 
he lives in it, paying the usual tax as a resident
alien. Very likely he has seen us near and is coming
up to greet us.

 PAN 
Good day to you, Hermes and Justice.
 HERMES 
The same to you, Pan, most musical and most
frolicsome of all satyrs, and at Athens the most
bellicose !
 PAN 
What business brought you two here, Hermes ?
 HERMES 
She will tell you the whole story; I am going to
the Acropolis, to make my proclamation.
 JUSTICE 
Zeus sent me down, Pan, to empanel juries for the
lawsuits. But how do you find things in Athens?
 PAN 
On the whole, I do not get on as well as I ought
here—much worse than I expected; and yet I dis-



 

pelled the mighty hue and cry of the barbarians.
In spite of that, they come up only two or three
times a year, pick out and sacrifice in my honour
a he-goat with a powerful goatish smell, and then
feast on the meat, making me a mere witness of
their good cheer and paying their respects to me
only with their noise. However, their laughter and
fun afford me some amusement.