Lucian Prometheus 10

How much more good-natured human beings are about such things! One would expect them to be more quick to wrath than the gods, but in spite of that there is not one among them who would propose to crucify his cook if “he dipped his finger into the broth while the meat was boiling and licked off a little, or if he pulled off a bit of the roast and gobbled it up. No, they pardon them. To be sure, if they are extremely angry, they give them a slap or hit them over the head; but among them nobody was ever crucified on so trivial a ground. So much for the meat—an unseemly plea for me to make, but a far more unseemly accusation for him to bring;

How much more reasonable is the conduct of mortals, though one would have expected them to be more irritable than Gods! A mortal would never want his cook crucified for dipping a finger into the stew-pan, or filching a mouthful from the roast; they overlook these things. At the worst their resentment is satisfied with a box on the ears or a rap on the head, I find no precedent among them for crucifixion in such cases. So much for the affair of the meat; there is little credit to be got in the refutation of such a charge, and still less in the bringing of it.