Juppiter Tragoedus

MOMUS Didn't I tell you, gods, that all this would come out and be thoroughly looked into ?

ZEUS You did, Momus, and your criticism was just. I shall try to set it all right if we escape this immediate danger.

TIMOCLES But, you god-hater, how about the oracles and pre-

dictions of coming events? whose work can you call them except that of the gods and their providence ?

DAMIS Don’t say a word about the oracles, my worthy friend, or else I'l ask you which of them you want to cite. The one that Apollo gave the Lydian, which was thoroughly double-edged and two-faced, like some of our Herms, which are double and just alike on both sides, whichever way you look at them ; for what was there to show that Croesus by crossing the Halys would destroy his own kingdom rather than that of Cyrus? And yet the luckless Sardian had paid a. good many thousands for that ambidextrous verse.

MOMUS Gods, the man keeps saying the very things that I most feared. Where is our handsome musician now? (Zo Arotto) Go down and defend yourself to him against these charges !

ZEUS You are boring us to extinction, Momus, with yout untimely eriticism.