“Who inhabits the sanctuary that is in the middle of the earth,
Dispensing most certain oracles to mortals,”
is thus exposed:
“It was in obedience to him that I killed her who brought me forth;
Him do you regard as stained with guilt—put him to death;
It was he that sinned, not I, uninstructed as I was
In right and justice.”[71]
He introduces Heracles, at one time mad, at another drunk and gluttonous. How should he not so represent the god who, when entertained as a guest, ate green figs to flesh, uttering discordant howls, that even his barbarian host remarked it? In his drama of Ion, too, he barefacedly brings the gods on the stage:
“How, then, is it right for you, who have given laws to mortals,
To be yourselves guilty of wrong?