f(1) He pretends to forget the presence of the ambassadors.
HERACLES We have no interest to serve in fighting you; as for you, be
friends and we promise that you shall always have rain-water in your
pools and the warmest of warm weather. So far as these points go we are
armed with plenary authority.
PISTHETAERUS We have never been the aggressors, and even now we are
as well disposed for peace as yourselves, provided you agree to one
equitable condition, namely, that Zeus yield his sceptre to the birds.
If only this is agreed to, I invite the ambassadors to dinner.
HERACLES That's good enough for me. I vote for peace.
POSIDON You wretch! you are nothing but a fool and a glutton. Do you
want to dethrone your own father?
PISTHETAERUS What an error! Why, the gods will be much more powerful if
the birds govern the earth. At present the mortals are hidden beneath
the clouds, escape your observation, and commit perjury in your name;
but if you had the birds for your allies, and a man, after having sworn
by the crow and Zeus, should fail to keep his oath, the crow would dive
down upon him unawares and pluck out his eye.