Good! There you have them, quieter than the
sophists. It is time to make your speech, then.
Come, come, they have been gazing at you this long
time, waiting to see what in the world you are going
to say.
Well, Hermes, I need not hesitate to tell you how
I feel, since you are my son. You know how confident and loud-spoken I always was in our meetings ?
Yes, and I used to be frightened when I heard
you making a speech, above all when you threatened
to pull up the earth and the sea from their
foundations, with the gods to boot, letting down
that cord of gold.Iliad, 8, 24; compare Zeus Catechized, 4.
But now, my boy, I don’t know whether because
of the greatness of the impending disasters or
because of the number of those present (for the
meeting is packed with gods, as you see), I am
confused in the head and trembly and my tongue
seems to be tied ; and what is strangest of all, I have
forgotten the introduction to the whole matter, which
I prepared in order that my beginning might present
them “a countenance most fair.”Pindar, Olymp. 6, 4.
You have spoiled everything, Zeus. They are
suspicious of your silence and expect to hear
about some extraordinary disaster because you are
delaying.
Then do you want me to recite them my famous
Homeric introduction ?
Which one?
"Hark to me, all of the gods, and all the goddesses
likewise.”Iliad 8, 5.
Tut, tut! you gave ws enough of your parodies
in the beginning. If you wish, however, you can
stop your tiresome versification and deliver one of
Demosthenes’ speeches against Philip, any one you
choose, with but little modification. Indeed, that
is the way most people make speeches nowadays.
Good! That is a short cut to speechmaking and a
timely help to anyone who doesn’t know what to
say.