Hermes, make formal proclamation, and let the debate commence.
Herm. Hear, keep silence, clamour not. Of full and qualified Gods, speak who will. Why, what means this? Doth none rise? Cower ye confounded at these momentous tidings?
Mo.
Away, ye dull as earth, as water weak!
But I could find plenty to say, Zeus, if free speech were granted me.
Zeus. Speak, Momus, and fear not. You will use your freedom, surely, for the common good.
Mo. Hear, then, ye Gods; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. You must know, I foresaw all this clearly—our difficulty—the growth of these agitators; it is ourselves who are responsible for their impudence; I swear to you, we need not blame Epicurus nor his friends and successors, for the prevalence of these ideas. Why, what can one expect men to think, when they see all life topsy-turvy—the good neglected, pining in poverty, disease, and slavery, detestable scoundrels honoured, rolling in wealth, and ordering their betters about, temple-robbers undetected and unpunished, the innocent constantly crucified and bastinadoed? With this evidence before them, it is only natural they should conclude against our existence. All the more when they hear the oracles saying that some one
The Halys crossed, o’erthrows a mighty realm, but not specifying whether that realm is his own or his enemy’s;
or again
O sacred Salamis, thou shalt slay
Full many a mother’s son.