HELIOS Well, I hope he makes a success of the job, though I must say, Hermes, this sort of thing didn’t happen in Cronos ’ day. (It’s all right, we’re alone.) He would never sleep away from Rhea, Cf. however, Pindar, Nemeans 3, 75 and Apollonius Rhodius 2, 1235 ff., for the love of Cronos for Philyra, daughter of Oceanus, and the birth of their son Chiron. or leave heaven for a bed in Thebes, but day was day, and night night, varying only within their proper limits with the seasons of the year, with none of these strange upheavals. No, Cronos would never have had anything to do with a mortal woman. Now, however, for some poor miserable woman, everything must be turned topsy-turvy, my horses become stiff for want of exercise, the road grows difficult, left untrodden for three days on end, and men must spend a miserable time in the dark. That’s what they’ll get from Zeus’ love-affairs. Why, they’ll have to sit waiting in darkness for hours, till he finishes his job on the labouring fellow you’ve been telling me about. HERMES Quiet, Mr. Sun, or your words may get you into trouble. I’ll be off now to the Moon and to Sleep, and pass on Zeus’ instructions to them too, telling her to take her time, and Sleep not to leave men, so that they may not know the night’s been so long. Zeus, Asclepius and Heracles ZEUS Stop quarrelling, you two; you’re just like a couple of men. It’s quite improper and out of place at the table of the gods. HERACLES But, Zeus, do you really mean this medicine man to have a place above me? ASCLEPIUS He does, by Zeus, for I’m your better. HERACLES How, you crackbrain? Because Zeus blasted you with his thunderbolt for your impious doings, In resurrecting men from the dead (cf. Pindar, Pythians , 3, 54). According to Lucian, The Dance 45, one of these was Tyndareus, while other authorities (see Apollodorus, 3.10.3) mention Capaneus, Lycurgus, Hippolytus, Hy- menaeus and Glaucus. The version of Diodorus (4.71.1-3) is that Asclepius’ skill so lowered the death-rate that Hades accused him before Zeus of trespassing on his preserves, and Zeus in anger struck him down with the thunderbolt. and you’ve now received immortality because he relented and pitied you? ASCLEPIUS You must have forgotten, Heracles, how you too were scorched to death on Oeta, For the suicide of Heracles on Mount Oeta see the Trachiniae of Sophocles. that you taunt me with getting burned. HERACLES That doesn’t mean our lives were the same. I’m the son of Zeus, and performed all those labours cleaning up the world, by overcoming monsters, and punishing men of violence; but you’re just a herb-chopper and quack, useful perhaps among suffering humanity for administering potions, but without one manly deed to show.