ZEUS
Well then, make a proclamation and let everyone come; you are right in what you say.
Well then, make a proclamation and let everyone come; you are right in what you say.
HERMES
Hear ye, gods, assemble in meeting! Don’t delay! Assemble one and all! Come! We are to meet about important matters.
Hear ye, gods, assemble in meeting! Don’t delay! Assemble one and all! Come! We are to meet about important matters.
ZEUS
Is that the sort of proclamation you make, Hermes, so bald and simple and prosaic, and that too when you are calling them together on business of the greatest importance?
Is that the sort of proclamation you make, Hermes, so bald and simple and prosaic, and that too when you are calling them together on business of the greatest importance?
HERMES
Why, how do you want me to do it, Zeus?
Why, how do you want me to do it, Zeus?
ZEUS
How do I want you to do it? Ennoble your proclamation, I tell you, with metre and_highsounding, poetical words, so that they may be more eager to assemble.
How do I want you to do it? Ennoble your proclamation, I tell you, with metre and_highsounding, poetical words, so that they may be more eager to assemble.
HERMES
Yes, but that, Zeus, is the business of epic poets and reciters, and I am not a bit of a poet, so that I shall ruin the proclamation by making my lines too long or too short and it will be a laughing-stock to them because of the limping verses. In fact I see that even Apollo gets laughed at for some of his oracles, although they are generally so beclouded with obscurity that those who hear them don’t have much chance to examine their metres.
Yes, but that, Zeus, is the business of epic poets and reciters, and I am not a bit of a poet, so that I shall ruin the proclamation by making my lines too long or too short and it will be a laughing-stock to them because of the limping verses. In fact I see that even Apollo gets laughed at for some of his oracles, although they are generally so beclouded with obscurity that those who hear them don’t have much chance to examine their metres.
ZEUS
Well then, Hermes, put into the proclamation a lot of the verses which Homer used in calling us together; of course you remember them.
Well then, Hermes, put into the proclamation a lot of the verses which Homer used in calling us together; of course you remember them.
HERMES
Not at all as distinctly and readily as I might, but I'll have a try at it anyway:
Never a man of the gods bide away nor ever a woman,
Never a stream stay at home save only the river of Ocean,
Never a Nymph; to the palace of Zeus you're to come in a body,
There to confer. I bid all, whether feasters on hecatombs famous,
Whether the class you belong to be middle or lowest, or even
Nameless you sit beside altars that yield ye no savoury odours.
Not at all as distinctly and readily as I might, but I'll have a try at it anyway:
Never a man of the gods bide away nor ever a woman,
Never a stream stay at home save only the river of Ocean,
Never a Nymph; to the palace of Zeus you're to come in a body,
There to confer. I bid all, whether feasters on hecatombs famous,
Whether the class you belong to be middle or lowest, or even
Nameless you sit beside altars that yield ye no savoury odours.
Juppiter Tragoedus. Lucian of Samosata. Austin Morris Harmon (Translator). United States. Perseus 5.0.
Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.