ZEUS One is going away laughing, gods, and the other is following him up with abuse, because he can’t stand the mockery of Damis ; it looks as if he would hithim on the head with the brickbat. But what ofus? What are we to do now?

HERMES It seems to me that the comic poet hit it right when he said : No harm’s been done you if you none admit.Menander, Epitrepontes (179 Kock). What very great harm is it if a few men go away convinced of all this? The people who think diferently are in large majority, not only the rank and file of the Greeks, but the barbarians to a man. mY

ZEUS Yes, Hermes, but what Darius said about Zopyrus is very much in point too. I myself had rather have this man Damis alone on my side than possess a thousand Babylons.See Herodotus 3, 153 ff.