_Ares. Hermes_
_Ar_. Did you hear Zeus's threat, Hermes? most complimentary, wasn't
it, and most practicable? 'If I choose,' says he, 'I could let down a
cord from Heaven, and all of you might hang on to it and do your very
best to pull me down; it would be waste labour; you would never move
me. On the other hand, if I chose to haul up, I should have you all
dangling in mid air, with earth and sea into the bargain and so on; you
heard? Well, I dare say he _is_ too much for any of us individually,
but I will never believe he outweighs the whole of us in a body, or
that, even with the makeweight of earth and sea, we should not get the
better of him.
_Her_. Mind what you say, Ares; it is not safe to talk like that; we
might get paid out for chattering.
_Ar_. You don't suppose I should say this to every one; I am not afraid
of you; I know you can keep a quiet tongue. I _must_ tell you what made
me laugh most while he stormed: I remember not so long ago, when
Posidon and Hera and Athene rebelled and made a plot for his capture
and imprisonment, he was frightened out of his wits; well, there were
only three of them, and if Thetis had not taken pity on him and called
in the hundred-handed Briareus to the rescue, he would actually have
been put in chains, with his thunder and his bolt beside him. When I
worked out the sum, I could not help laughing.
_Her_. Oh, do be quiet; such things are too risky for you to say or me
to listen to.