ALCIBIADES. We will suppose that too. I am sure it was supposed, with as little reason, when I was initiated. SPEUSIPPUS. But you are sworn to secrecy. ALCIBIADES. You a sophist, and talk of oaths! You a pupil of Euripides, and forget his maxims! "My lips have sworn it; but my mind is free." (See Euripides: Hippolytus, 608. For the jesuitical morality of this line Euripides is bitterly attacked by the comic poet.) SPEUSIPPUS. But Alcibiades-- ALCIBIADES. What! Are you afraid of Ceres and Proserpine? SPEUSIPPUS. No--but--but--I--that is I--but it is best to be safe--I mean--Suppose there should be something in it. ALCIBIADES. Now, by Mercury, I shall die with laughing. O Speusippus. Speusippus! Go back to your old father. Dig vineyards, and judge causes, and be a respectable citizen. But never, while you live; again dream of being a philosopher. SPEUSIPPUS. Nay, I was only-- ALCIBIADES. A pupil of Gorgias and Melesigenes afraid of Tartarus! In what region of the infernal world do you expect your domicile to be fixed? Shall you roll a stone like Sisyphus? Hard exercise, Speusippus! SPEUSIPPUS. In the name of all the gods-- ALCIBIADES. Or shall you sit starved and thirsty in the midst of fruit and wine like Tantalus? Poor fellow? I think I see your face as you are springing up to the branches and missing your aim. Oh Bacchus! Oh Mercury! SPEUSIPPUS. Alcibiades! ALCIBIADES. Or perhaps you will be food for a vulture, like the huge fellow who was rude to Latona. SPEUSIPPUS. Alcibiades! ALCIBIADES. Never fear. Minos will not be so cruel. Your eloquence will triumph over all accusations. The Furies will skulk away like disappointed sycophants. Only address the judges of hell in the speech which you were prevented from speaking last assembly. "When I consider"--is not that the beginning of it? Come, man, do not be angry. Why do you pace up and down with such long steps? You are not in Tartarus yet. You seem to think that you are already stalking like poor Achilles, "With stride Majestic through the plain of Asphodel." (See Homer's Odyssey, xi. 538.) SPEUSIPPUS. How can you talk so, when you know that I believe all that foolery as little as you do? ALCIBIADES. Then march. You shall be the crier. Callicles, you shall carry the torch. Why do you stare? (The crier and torchbearer were important functionaries at the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries.) CALLICLES. I do not much like the frolic. ALCIBIADES. Nay, surely you are not taken with a fit of piety. If all be true that is told of you, you have as little reason to think the gods vindictive as any man breathing. If you be not belied, a certain golden goblet which I have seen at your house was once in the temple of Juno at Corcyra. And men say that there was a priestess at Tarentum--