Heracles.
That was a foolish tale. Do you not recollect that I am not as the rest of you?
Eros.
Come, man, brighten up! You look as sulky as you did when I broke your bow and arrows, and set Aphrodite laughing at you. But I have learned manners, and the goddesses only smile now. Cheer up! How is your destiny a whit different from ours?
Heracles.
That rude old story about Alcmena, Eros—it is impossible that you can be the dupe of that? When I hunted lions on Cithaeron—that really was a gentlemanlike
sport, my friend—when I hunted lions I was not a god. Gods don't hunt lions, Eros; I have not gone a-hunting since that curious affair on Mount Œta. You remember it?
Eros.
I have preferred to forget it.
Heracles.