MOMUS 
It is splendid, Zeus, that you actually urge me to
frankness; that is a truly royal, high-souled action.
Therefore I shall give the name. It is this peerless
Dionysus, who is half human; in fact, on his mother’s
side he is not even Greek, but the grandson of a
Syrophoenician trader named Cadmus. Inasmuch
as he has been honoured with immortality, I say
nothing of the man himself—either of his hood or of
his drunkenness or of his gait; for you all, I think,
see that he is womanish and unmanly in his character,
half crazy, with strong drink on his breath from the
beginning of the day. But he has foisted upon us a
whole clan; he presents himself at the head of his
rout, and has made gods out of Pan and Silenus and
the Satyrs, regular farm-hands and goat-herds,
most of them—capering fellows with queer shapes.
One of them has horns and looks like a goat from the
waist down, and wears a long beard, so that he is
not much different from a goat. Another is a baldpated gaffer with a flat nose who usually rides on a
donkey. He is a Lydian. The Satyrs are prickeared, and they too are bald, with horns like those
that bud on new-born kids; they are Phrygians, and
they all have tails. D’ye see what sort of gods he is
making for us, the bounder?

 
 
And then we wonder that men despise us when
they see such laughable and portentous deities! I
omit to mention that he has also brought up two
women, one his sweetheart Ariadne, whose very
head-band he has admitted into the starry choir, and
the other the daughter of Icarius the farmer! Erigone; her dog Maera guided her to the spot where Icarius lay buried. He had been slain by drunken shepherds to whom he had given wine that Dionysus Thad taught him how to make. After her suicide Erigone became Virgo, and Maera, it would seem from Lucian’s xuvidiov, Procyon (Canis Minor). No doubt it is Momus’ indignation about the dog that accounts for his failure to mention Icarius’ introduction into the heavens as Bootes. And
what is most ridiculous of all, Gods, even Erigone’s
dog—that too he has brought up, so that the little
maid shall not be distressed if she cannot have in
heaven her pet, darling doggie! Does not all
this look to you like insolence, impudence, and
mockery? But let me tell you about others.
 ZEUS 
Say nothing, Momus, about either Asclepius or
Heracles, for I see where you are heading in your
speech. As far as they are concerned, one of them
is a doctor who cures people of their illnesses and is
“as good as a host in himself,” Iliad, XI, 514, alluding to Machaon. whilst Heracles,
though my own son, purchased his immortality at
the cost of many labours; so do not denounce them.
 MOMUS 
I shall hold my tongue, Zeus, for your sake, although
I have plenty to say. Indeed, if there were nothing
else, they still carry the marks of fire! Heracles cremated himself, and Asclepius was struck by lightning. Cf. p. 6, n. 1. And if it
were permissible to employ free speech about yourself, I should have plenty to say.





 

 ZEUS 
I assure you, about me it is quite permissible.
But you are not prosecuting me as an alien, are you?
 MOMUS 
Well, in Crete not only that may be heard, but
they tell another story about you and show people
atomb. However, I put no faith either in them or
in the Achaeans of Aegium, who assert that you are a
changeling. Zeus was not only born in Crete, but buried there, in more than one place. His critics in Lucian several times refer to this fact (Timon, 4; Zeus Rants, 45). Lucian very likely means the place that was pointed out to R. Pashley in 1834 as the tomb of Zeus, on Mt. Juktas; see A. J. Cook’s Zeus, I, 157-163. The Achaean version of the birth of Zeus which made him out a changeling is not mentioned elsewhere, but plenty of places gave him other fathers than Cronus, which amounts to the same thing. 
 
But I do intend to speak of one thing
that in my opinion ought by all means to be censured. 
It was you, Zeus, who began these illegalities and
caused the corruption of our body politic by cohabiting with mortal women and going down to visit them,
now in one form, now in another. It has gone so far
that we are afraid that someone may make a victim
of you if he catches you when you are a bull, or that
some goldsmith may work you up when you are gold,
and instead of Zeus we may have you turning up as a
necklace or a bracelet or an earring. However that
may be, you have filled heaven with these—demigods! I do not care to put it otherwise. And it is a
very ridiculous state of things when one suddenly
hears that Heracles has been appointed a god, but
Eurystheus, who used to order him about, is dead;
and that the temple of Heracles, who was a slave,
and the tomb of Eurystheus, his master, stand side
by side; and again, that in Thebes Dionysus is a



 

god, but his cousins Pentheus, Actaeon, and Learchus
were of all mankind the most ill-fated. All three were own cousins of Dionysus, being sons of other daughters of Cadmus; Pentheus of Agave, Actaeon of Autonoe, and Learchus of Ino. Learchus was killed by his father Athamas.