We hear that you have already invented a means of amusing Zeus, Hermes? Is he prepared to forget his thunderbolt?
Hermes.
He has mentioned it only twice this morning, and I have set Hephæstus to work to make him another, of yew-tree wood. It will be less incommodious, more fitted to this place, and in a very short time Zeus will forget the original.
Kronos [loudly, to himself].
Zeus gave me an orb and sceptre to console me. I used to play cup and ball with them behind his throne.
Rhea [in a solicitous aside to Hermes].
Oh! it is not true. Kronos' mind now wanders so strangely. He thinks that it is Zeus who has turned him out of Olympus.
Hermes [in the same tone].
Do not distress him, Rhea, by contradiction and explanation. I will find modes