So you must be assuredly liable to one of these three charges: either you were lying, to put it


 


harshly, when you said that the Muses promised you power to foretell the future; or they kept their promise, but out of spite you are keeping their gift hidden in your pocket and not sharing it with those who ask; or you have written a great deal on the subject, but not yet given it to the outside world, preserving its use for some or other special occasion. I wouldn’t dare say this, that the Muses promised you two things and gave you one, breaking half their promise—knowledge of the future I mean—especially when they promised this first in your verse.
 Cf. Hesiod, Theogony , 32.