HERACLES. But nothing could be more detestable.
DIONYSUS. Where cookery is concerned, you can be my master.[402]
XANTHIAS. They don't say a thing about me!
DIONYSUS. If I have decked myself out according to your pattern, 'tis that you may tell me, in case I should need them, all about the hosts who received you, when you journeyed to Cerberus; tell me of them as well as of the harbours, the bakeries, the brothels, the drinking-shops, the fountains, the roads, the eating-houses and of the hostels where there are the fewest bugs.
XANTHIAS. They never speak of me.[403]
HERACLES. Go down to hell? Will you be ready to dare that, you madman?
DIONYSUS. Enough of that; but tell me the shortest road, that is neither too hot nor too cold, to get down to Pluto.
HERACLES. Let me see, what is the best road to show you? Aye, which? Ah! there's the road of the gibbet and the rope. Go and hang yourself.
DIONYSUS. Be silent! your road is choking me.
HERACLES. There is another path, both very short and well-trodden; the one that goes through the mortar.[404]