Dialogues of the Gods (1.1-1.2)

ARES

My dear Hermes, have you heard Zeus’ threats? How proud and preposterous they are! “If I please”, says he, “I’ll let a cord [*] down from heaven; you’ll be hanging on it, trying with all your might to pull me down, but you’ll be wasting all your efforts, for you’ll never succeed. And, if I choose to tug up, it won’t be only you, but I’ll pull up the earth and the sea into the bargain, and leave the lot dangling in mid-air.” He goes on and on like that. You’ve heard it all too. I’ll admit that he’s more than a match and too strong for any one of us, but that he’s too much for all of us put together, so that, even if we have the earth and the sea with us, our weight wouldn’t overpower him—that I’ll never believe.

HERMES

Hush, Ares. It isn’t safe to talk like that, or we may be sorry for our silly chatter.

ARES

Do you think I’d have said that to just anyone, or only to you? I knew you would hold your

tongue. But I must tell you what struck me as most ridiculous as I listened to his threats. I remember, just the other day, when Poseidon and Hera and Athena rebelled, [*] and were plotting to catch him and clap him in irons, he was crazy with terror though there were only three of them. And in irons he would have been, thunder and lightning and all, if Thetis had not been sorry for him, and called in to his help Briareos with his hundred hands. When I thought of that, I had to laugh at his fine talk.

HERMES

Quiet, I tell you. It’s dangerous for you to talk like that, and for me to listen.