Lucian of Samosata, Juppiter Confutatus, Austin Morris Harmon (Translator), 1

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ZEUS

What is it, Cyniscus? You shall not be disappointed, especially if your request is reasonable, as you say it is.

CYNISCUS

Answer me a question; it isn’t hard.

ZEUS

Your prayer is indeed trivial and easy to fulfil; so ask what you will.

CYNISCUS

It is this, Zeus: you certainly have read the poems of Homer and Hesiod: tell me, then, is what they have sung about Destiny and the Fates true, that whatever they spin for each of us at his birth is inevitable?¹

ZEUS

It is really quite true. There is nothing which the Fates do not dispose; on the contrary, everything that comes to pass is controlled by their spindle and has its outcome spun for it in each instance from the very beginning, and it cannot come to pass differently.

Juppiter Confutatus. Lucian of Samosata. Austin Morris Harmon (Translator). United States. Perseus 5.0.

Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Zeus Catechized (English) (Lucian, Vol. 2. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1915.)

Editions (1)

Ζεὺς ἐλεγχόμενος Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 2. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1915.) — 1 focus

Κυνίσκος

ἐγὼ δέ, ὦ Ζεῦ, τὰ μὲν τοιαῦτα οὐκ ἐνοχλήσω σε πλοῦτον ἢ χρυσὸν ἢ βασιλείαν αἰτῶν, ἅπερ εὐκταιότατα τοῖς πολλοῖς, σοὶ δʼ οὐ πάνυ ῥᾴδια παρασχεῖν· ὁρῶ γοῦν σε τὰ πολλὰ παρακούοντα εὐχομένων αὐτῶν. ἓν δέ, καὶ τοῦτο ῥᾷστον, ἐβουλόμην παρὰ σοῦ μοι γενέσθαι.

Ζεύς

τί τοῦτό ἐστιν, ὦ Κυνίσκε; οὐ γὰρ ἀτυχήσεις, καὶ μάλιστα μετρίων, ὡς φής, δεόμενος.

Κυνίσκος

ἀπόκριναί μοι πρός τινα οὐ χαλεπὴν ἐρώτησιν.

Ζεύς

μικρά γε ὡς ἀληθῶς ἡ εὐχὴ καὶ πρόχειρος· ὥστε ἐρώτα ὁπόσα ἂν ἐθέλῃς.

Κυνίσκος

ἰδοὺ ταῦτα, ὦ Ζεῦ· ἀνέγνως γὰρ δῆλον ὅτι καὶ σὺ τὰ Ὁμήρου καὶ Ἡσιόδου ποιήματα· εἰπὲ οὖν μοι εἰ ἀληθῆ ἐστιν ἃ περὶ τῆς Εἱμαρμένης καὶ τῶν Μοιρῶν ἐκεῖνοι ἐρραψῳδήκασιν, ἄφυκτα εἶναι ὁπόσα ἂν αὗται ἐπινήσωσιν γεινομένῳ ἑκάστῳ;

Ζεύς

καὶ πάνυ ἀληθῆ ταῦτα· οὐδὲν γάρ ἐστιν ὅ τι μὴ αἱ Μοῖραι διατάττουσιν, ἀλλὰ πάντα ὁπόσα γίνεται, ὑπὸ τῷ τούτων ἀτράκτῳ στρεφόμενα εὐθὺς ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἕκαστον ἐπικεκλωσμένην ἔχει τὴν ἀπόβασιν, καὶ οὐ θέμις ἄλλως γενέσθαι.

Translations (1)

Zeus Cross-examined Perseus (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 3. Fowler, Henry Watson and Fowler, Francis George, translators. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.) — 1 focus

Cyniscus

Zeus: I am not going to trouble you with requests for a fortune or a throne; you get prayers enough of that sort from other people, and from your habit of convenient deafness I gather that you experience a difficulty in answering them. But there is one thing I should like, which would cost you no trouble to grant.

Zeus

Well, Cyniscus? You shall not be disappointed, if your expectations are as reasonable as you say.

Cyniscus

I want to ask you a plain question.

Zeus

Such a modest petition is soon granted; ask what you will,

Cyniscus

Well then: you know your Homer and Hesiod, of course? Is it all true that they sing of Destiny and the Fates—that whatever they spin for a man at his birth must; inevitably come about?

Zeus

Unquestionably. Nothing is independent of their control. From their spindle hangs the life of all created things; whose end is predetermined even from the moment of their birth; and that Jaw knows no change.

Notes on the current edition

Zeus Catechized

1. Homer, Iliad 20, 127; Hesiod, Theogony 218, 904.

Lucian of Samosata Juppiter Confutatus 1

Austin Morris Harmon (Translator)

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

ZEUS

What is it, Cyniscus? You shall not be disappointed, especially if your request is reasonable, as you say it is.

CYNISCUS

Answer me a question; it isn’t hard.

ZEUS

Your prayer is indeed trivial and easy to fulfil; so ask what you will.

CYNISCUS

It is this, Zeus: you certainly have read the poems of Homer and Hesiod: tell me, then, is what they have sung about Destiny and the Fates true, that whatever they spin for each of us at his birth is inevitable?¹

ZEUS

It is really quite true. There is nothing which the Fates do not dispose; on the contrary, everything that comes to pass is controlled by their spindle and has its outcome spun for it in each instance from the very beginning, and it cannot come to pass differently.

Current edition Perseus

Ζεύς

τί τοῦτό ἐστιν, ὦ Κυνίσκε; οὐ γὰρ ἀτυχήσεις, καὶ μάλιστα μετρίων, ὡς φής, δεόμενος.

Κυνίσκος

ἀπόκριναί μοι πρός τινα οὐ χαλεπὴν ἐρώτησιν.

Ζεύς

μικρά γε ὡς ἀληθῶς ἡ εὐχὴ καὶ πρόχειρος· ὥστε ἐρώτα ὁπόσα ἂν ἐθέλῃς.

Zeus

Well, Cyniscus? You shall not be disappointed, if your expectations are as reasonable as you say.

Cyniscus

I want to ask you a plain question.

Zeus

Such a modest petition is soon granted; ask what you will,

Cyniscus

Well then: you know your Homer and Hesiod, of course? Is it all true that they sing of Destiny and the Fates—that whatever they spin for a man at his birth must; inevitably come about?

Zeus

Unquestionably. Nothing is independent of their control. From their spindle hangs the life of all created things; whose end is predetermined even from the moment of their birth; and that Jaw knows no change.

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

ZEUS What is it, Cyniscus? You shall not be disappointed, especially if your request is reasonable, as you say it is.

CYNISCUS Answer me a question; it isn’t hard.

ZEUS Your prayer is indeed trivial and easy to fulfil; so ask what you will.

CYNISCUS It is this, Zeus: you certainly have read the poems of Homer and Hesiod: tell me, then, is what they have sung about Destiny and the Fates true, that whatever they spin for each of us at his birth is inevitable? 1

ZEUS It is really quite true. There is nothing which the Fates do not dispose; on the contrary, everything that comes to pass is controlled by their spindle and has its outcome spun for it in each instance from the very beginning, and it cannot come to pass differently.

Current edition Perseus

Ζεύς τί τοῦτό ἐστιν, ὦ Κυνίσκε; οὐ γὰρ ἀτυχήσεις, καὶ μάλιστα μετρίων, ὡς φής, δεόμενος.

Κυνίσκος ἀπόκριναί μοι πρός τινα οὐ χαλεπὴν ἐρώτησιν.

Ζεύς μικρά γε ὡς ἀληθῶς ἡ εὐχὴ καὶ πρόχειρος· ὥστε ἐρώτα ὁπόσα ἂν ἐθέλῃς.

Zeus Well, Cyniscus? You shall not be disappointed, if your expectations are as reasonable as you say.

Cyniscus I want to ask you a plain question.

Zeus Such a modest petition is soon granted; ask what you will,

Cyniscus Well then: you know your Homer and Hesiod, of course? Is it all true that they sing of Destiny and the Fates—that whatever they spin for a man at his birth must; inevitably come about?

Zeus Unquestionably. Nothing is independent of their control. From their spindle hangs the life of all created things; whose end is predetermined even from the moment of their birth; and that Jaw knows no change.

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers

ZEUS

What is it, Cyniscus? You shall not be disappointed, especially if your request is reasonable, as you say it is.

CYNISCUS

Answer me a question; it isn’t hard.

ZEUS

Your prayer is indeed trivial and easy to fulfil; so ask what you will.

CYNISCUS

It is this, Zeus: you certainly have read the poems of Homer and Hesiod: tell me, then, is what they have sung about Destiny and the Fates true, that whatever they spin for each of us at his birth is inevitable?¹

ZEUS

It is really quite true. There is nothing which the Fates do not dispose; on the contrary, everything that comes to pass is controlled by their spindle and has its outcome spun for it in each instance from the very beginning, and it cannot come to pass differently.

Ζεύς

τί τοῦτό ἐστιν, ὦ Κυνίσκε; οὐ γὰρ ἀτυχήσεις, καὶ μάλιστα μετρίων, ὡς φής, δεόμενος.

Κυνίσκος

ἀπόκριναί μοι πρός τινα οὐ χαλεπὴν ἐρώτησιν.

Ζεύς

μικρά γε ὡς ἀληθῶς ἡ εὐχὴ καὶ πρόχειρος· ὥστε ἐρώτα ὁπόσα ἂν ἐθέλῃς.

Zeus

Well, Cyniscus? You shall not be disappointed, if your expectations are as reasonable as you say.

Cyniscus

I want to ask you a plain question.

Zeus

Such a modest petition is soon granted; ask what you will,

Cyniscus

Well then: you know your Homer and Hesiod, of course? Is it all true that they sing of Destiny and the Fates—that whatever they spin for a man at his birth must; inevitably come about?

Zeus

Unquestionably. Nothing is independent of their control. From their spindle hangs the life of all created things; whose end is predetermined even from the moment of their birth; and that Jaw knows no change.