Dialogi mortuorum

Heracles Prating knave, no more of thy gibes; else thou shalt presently learn how great a God calls me phantom.

Diogenes H’m. That bow looks as if it meant business, And yet,—what have I to fear now? A man can die but once. Tell me, phantom,—by your great Substance I adjure you— did you serve him in your present capacity in the upper world? Perhaps you were one individual during your lives, the separation taking place only at your deaths, when he, the God, soared heavenwards, and you, the phantom, very properly made your appearance here?

Heracles Thy ribald questions were best unanswered. Yet thus much thou shalt know.—All that was Amphitryon in Heracles, is dead; I am that mortal part. The Zeus in him lives, and is with the Gods in Heaven.