That is about what she had to say; she commended most of the piece, but could not put up
with one feature of it, that you compared her to
goddesses, to Hera and Aphrodite. ‘Such praise,”
she said, “is too high for me; indeed, too high for
human kind. For my part I did not want you to
compare me even to those great ladies, Penelope
and Arete and Theano, let alone the noblest of the
goddesses. Besides, I am very superstitious and

 

timorous in all that concerns the gods. Consequently, I am afraid I may be thought to resemble
Cassiopeia The boastful mother of Andromeda, who would have had to surrender her daughter to the sea-monster except fur the timely intervention of Perseus. if I accept such praise as yours; and yet
she, as a matter of fact, compared herself only to
the Nereids and was duly reverential toward Hera
and Aphrodite.”