The Judgement of the Goddesses (4)

ATHENA I say, you are betraying your trust in talking to her privately all this while.

HERMES It was nothing alarming, Athena, or against you and Hera; she asked me whether Paris is unmarried. ATHENA Why was she inquisitive about that?

HERMES I don’t know; she says, however, that she asked because it came into her head casually, and not because she had anything definite in view.

ATHENA Well, what about it? Is he unmarried?

HERMES Apparently not.

ATHENA Tell me, does he covet success in war and is he fond of glory, or nothing but a herdsman?.

HERMES I can’t say for certain, but it is fair to suppose that, being young, he yearns to acquire all that too, and would like to be first in war.

APHRODITE You see, I am not making any complaint or reproaching you with talking confidentially to her; that is the way of fault-finders, not of Aphrodite!

HERMES She herself asked me _ractically the same questions; so do not be ill-tempered or think you are getting the worst of it if I answered her as I did you, in a straightforward way.