Juppiter Tragoedus

Zeus Alas, alack! What an outcry the crowd made, deities, applauding Damis! And our man seems to have lost his head. He is frightened, certainly, and trembling, and on the point of throwing away his shield. He is already looking about for some loop-hole through which he can slip and make his escape.

Timokles Perhaps you do not think that Euripides says anything sound, either, when he introduces the gods themselves upon the stage and shows them engaged in saving the good among

the heroes, but destroying the wicked and impiety like yours?

Damis But, most illustrious of philosophers, if the dramatists have convinced you by such means as that, one of two things follows. Either you believe the actors to be for the moment gods, or else the divine masks themselves, and the shoes, and the tunics flowing to the feet, and the cloaks, and the loose sleeves, and the false paunches, and the padding, and all the rest of the apparatus which makes the tragedy impressive, which is most ridiculous, I think. But whenever Euripides speaks his own mind, unforced by the exigencies of the dramas, hear how bold he is:

You see this boundless aether spread on high,

Enfolding earth in damp, encircling arms?

Deem then that this is Zeus, believe this god.

and again,

Zeus,

Whoe'er Zeus is, for I know not, unless

By hearsay,

and other similar passages.