“_Heracles._ We have not lived at all an equal or similar sort of life--I, who am the son of Zeus, and have undergone so many and great labors, purifying human life, contending against and conquering wild beasts, and punishing insolent and injurious men; whereas you are a paltry herb-doctor and mountebank, skilful, possibly, in palming off your miserable drugs upon sick fools, but who have never given proof of any noble, manly disposition. “_Æsculapius._ You say well, seeing I healed your burns when you came up but now half-burned, with your body all marred and destroyed by the double cause of your death--the poisoned shirt, and afterward the fire. Now I, if I have done nothing else, at least have neither worked like a slave, as you have, nor have I carded wool in Lydia, dressed in a fine purple gown; nor have I been beaten by that Omphale of yours, with her golden slipper. No, nor did I, in a mad fit, kill my children and my wife! “_Heracles._ If you don’t stop your ribald abuse of me at once, you shall very speedily learn your immortality will not avail you much; for I will take and pitch you head first out of heaven, so that not even the wonderful Pæon himself shall cure you and your broken skull. “_Zeus._ Have done, I say, and don’t disturb the harmony of the company, or I will pack both of you off from the supper-room; although, to speak the truth, Heracles, it is fair and reasonable Æsculapius should have precedence of you at table, inasmuch as he even took precedence of you in death.” --“_Dialogues of the Gods._” _ODYSSEUS’S TRICK ON POLYPHEMUS_ POSEIDON _and_ POLYPHEMUS “_Polyphemus._ Oh, father, what have I endured at the hands of the cursed stranger, who made me drunk and put out my eye, assaulting me when I was lulled to sleep! “_Poseidon._ Who dared to do this, my poor Polyphemus? “_Polyphemus._ In the first instance, he called himself Outis; but when he had got clear away, and was out of reach of my arrow, he said that his name was Odysseus. “_Poseidon._ I know whom you speak of--him of Ithaca, and he was on his return voyage from Ilium. But how did he do it, for he is by no means a man of too much courage?