There was a little silence.
"Diana," Forrester said, "what are the Gods?"
She got up and crossed to the window. Looking out, she said: "Before I answer that, I want you to tell me what you think we are."
"Men and women," he said. "More or less human, like myself. Except you've somehow managed to get so far ahead of any kind of science Earth knows that, even today, your effects can only be explained as 'magic' or 'miracle.'"
"How could we get that far ahead of you?"
Forrester took a leap in the dark to the only conclusion he could see. "You're not from Earth," he said. "You're from another planet." The words sounded strange in his own ears—but Diana didn't even act surprised.
"That's right," she said. "We're from another planet—or, rather, from several other planets."
"Several?" Forrester exclaimed. "But—oh. I see. Pan, for instance—"
Diana nodded. "Pan isn't even really humanoid. His home is a planet where his type of goatlike life evolved. Neither Pluto nor Neptune is humanoid, either; they're a little closer than Pan, but not really very close when you get a good look. The rest of the Gods are humanoid—but not human."
"Wait a minute," Forrester said. "Venus is human. Or, anyhow, she's a replacement, just the way I was slated to be a replacement for Dionysus."