(“Yes, and no doubt your view is correct, but that is not how the matter strikes me. For by nature I have no turn for raillery, or parody, or raising a laugh. But since I must obey the ordinance of the god of the festival, should you like me to relate to you by way of entertainment a myth in which there is perhaps much that is worth hearing?”) [C] Λέγοις ἂν καὶ μάλα ἀσμένῳ, ἐπεὶ καὶ αὐτὸς οὐκ ἀτιμάζω τοὺς μύθους οὐδὲ παντάπασιν ἐξελαύνω τοὺς ὀρθῶς ἔχοντας, ἀκόλουθά σοί τε καὶ φίλῳ τῷ σῷ, μᾶλλον δὲ τῷ κοινῷ, Πλάτωνι διανοούμενος, ἐπεὶ καὶ αὐτῷ πολλὰ ἐν μύθοις ἐσπούδασται. (“I shall listen with great pleasure, for I too am not one to despise myths, and I am far from rejecting those that have the right tendency; indeed I am of the same opinion as you and your admired, or rather the universally admired, Plato. He also often conveyed a serious lesson in his myths.”) Λέγεις ναὶ μὰ Δία ταῦτα ἀληθῆ. (“By Zeus, that is true indeed!”) Τίς δὲ καὶ ποταπὸς ὁ μῦθος; (“But what is your myth and of what type?”) [307] Οὐ τῶν παλαιῶν τις, ὁποίους Αἴσωπος ἐποίησεν, ἀλλ᾽ εἴτε πλάσμα λέγοις Ἐρμοῦ· πεπυσμένος γὰρ αὐτὸν ἐκεῖθέν σοι φράσω· εἴτε καὶ τἀληθὲς οὕτως ἔχει εἴτε μίξις τίς ἐστιν ἀμφοῖν, αὐτό, φασί,(542) δείξει τὸ πράγμα. (“Not one of those old‐fashioned ones such as Aesop(543) wrote. But whether you should call mine an invention of Hermes—for it was from him I learned what I am going to tell you—or whether it is really true or a mixture of truth and fiction, the upshot, as the saying is, will decide.”) Τουτὶ μὲν οὖν ἤδη μυθικῶς ἅμα καὶ ῥητορικῶς ἐξείργασταί σοι τὸ προοίμιον· ἀλλά μοι τὸν λόγον αὐτόν, ὁποῖός ποτέ ἐστιν, ἤδη διέξελθε. (“This is indeed a fine preface that you have composed, just the thing for a myth, not to say an oration! But now pray tell me the tale itself, whatever its type may be.”) Μανθάνοις ἄν. (“Attend.”) [B] Θύων ὁ Ῥωμύλος τὰ Κρόνια πάντας ἐκάλει τοὺς θεούς, καὶ δὴ καὶ αὐτοὺς(544) τοὺς καίσαρας. κλῖναι δὲ ἐτύγχανον παρεσκευασμέναι τοῖς μὲν θεοῖς ἄνω κατ᾽ αὐτό, φασίν, οὐρανοῦ τὸ μετέωρον, (At the festival of the Kronia Romulus gave a banquet, and invited not only all the gods, but the Emperors as well. For the gods couches had been prepared on high, at the very apex, so to speak, of the sky,(545) on) Οὔλυμπόνδ᾽, ὅθι φασὶ θεῶν ἕδος ἀσφαλὲς αἰεί. (“Olympus where they say is the seat of the gods, unshaken for ever.”(546))