Life more than ever gives us cause for mirth.
Between you both I stand in thoughtful pother,
How I should weep with one, how laugh with t’other.”
Beside his short poems, we quote a little of the prose of
Lucian
A QUESTION OF PRECEDENCE
ZEUS, ÆSCULAPIUS, and HERACLES
“Zeus. Do, Æsculapius and Heracles, stop your wrangling, in which you indulge as if you were a couple of mortals; for this sort of behavior is unseemly, and quite strange to the banquets of the gods.
“Heracles. But, Zeus, would you have that quack drug-dealer there take his place at table above me?
“Æsculapius. By Zeus, yes, for I am certainly the better man.
“Heracles. How, you thunderstruck fellow, is it, pray, because Zeus knocked you on the head with his bolt for your unlawful actions, and because now, out of mere pity, by way of compensation, you have got a share of immortality?