Dialogue and comedy were not entirely friendly and compatible from the beginning. Dialogue used to sit at home by himself and indeed spend his time in the public walks with a few companions; Comedy gave herself to Dionysus and joined him in the theatre, had fun with him, jested and joked, sometimes stepping in time to the pipe and generally riding on anapaests. Dialogue’s companions she





 

mocked as “Heavy-thinkers”, “High-talkers”, and suchlike. She had one delight—to deride them and drown them in Dionysiac liberties. She showed them now walking on air and mixing with the clouds, now measuring sandals for fleas
 In the Clouds of Aristophanes, 144 ff. 
 —her notion of heavenly subtleties, I suppose! Dialogue however took his conversations very seriously, philosophising about nature and virtue. So, in musical terms, there were two octaves between them, from highest to lowest. Nevertheless I have dared to combine them as they are into a harmony, though they are not in the least docile and do not easily tolerate partnership.
 Well, I am afraid that I in my turn may seem to have acted something like your Prometheus in mixing female with male and may be charged with that; or rather that I may seem a Prometheus in another respect—in deceiving my listeners perhaps by giving them bones covered in fat,
 See Hesiod, Theogony 537 ff. 
 comic jests under philosophic solemnity. For as to theft (he is the god of theft), away with that charge! this alone you could not say was in my works. Whom could I steal from? Unless someone has invented such fish-horses and goat-stags independently without my knowing. But what could I do? I must abide by what I chose once and for all. To change one’s plan is the work of Epimetheus, not Prometheus.
 I.e ., Afterthought, not Forethought.