---
title: "Dialogues of the Gods · Θεῶν διάλογοι"
author: "Lucian"
translator: "Matthew Donald Macleod"
languages: [grc, en]
shelf: "Classical Greek"
section: 18 of 25
url: https://scriptura.si/works/lucian-dialogues-of-the-gods/18/
cite: "Lucian, tr. Matthew Donald Macleod, Dialogues of the Gods · Θεῶν διάλογοι, section 18. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/lucian-dialogues-of-the-gods/18/"
---

# Dialogues of the Gods · Θεῶν διάλογοι

*Lucian, tr. Matthew Donald Macleod*

The Olympians gossip, quarrel and complain: Zeus, Hera, Hermes, Ganymede and Eros.

> Greek: ed. Matthew Donald Macleod, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-greekLit, tlg0062.tlg068, CC BY-SA 4.0).

> English: Matthew Donald Macleod, from the Perseus Digital Library (tlg0062.tlg068.perseus-eng3). Notes are not included.

> Rows follow the references the two texts share (books, chapters and sections), cut where both reach the end of a sentence.

## 18. Dialogue 18

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/lucian-dialogues-of-the-gods/18/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/lucian-dialogues-of-the-gods/18/#p-N

[¶0] 1. HERA: My dear Leto, the children you’ve given to Zeus are beautiful too. LETO: My dear Hera, we can’t all have children like Hephaestus.

> Greek: 1. ΗΡΑ: Καλὰ μέν, ὦ Λητοῖ, καὶ τὰ τέκνα ἔτεκες τῷ Διί. ΛΗΤΩ: Οὐ πᾶσαι γάρ, ὦ Ἥρα, τοιούτους τίκτειν δυνάμεθα, οἷος ὁ Ἥφαιστός ἐστιν.

[¶1] HERA: Cripple though he is, he’s certainly useful; he’s an excellent craftsman, and has done a fine job of work on our heaven; what’s more, he’s married Aphrodite, and she thinks the world of him, but as for your children—the girl’s far too much of a tomboy and roamer of the mountains, and now, to cap it all, she’s gone off to Scythia, and everyone knows about her diet there, how she murders visitors and eats them, just like the Scythian cannibals themselves; while Apollo pretends to know everything, be it archery, harping, medicine or prophecy, and has set up prophecy factories in Delphi, Claros, Colophon and Didyma, deceiving his customers by giving crooked replies, hedging between two possible answers, so that there’s no risk of a slip-up. He gets rich in this way, for there are plenty of fools as willing victims of his quackery. However, the more intelligent people see through most of his mystery-mongering. The prophet himself didn’t know he was going to kill his darling with that quoit, and didn’t foretell that Daphne would run away from him, for all his beauty and fine hair. So I can’t see why you thought you had better children than Niobe.

> Greek: ΗΡΑ: Ἀλλ' οὖν οὗτος, εἰ καὶ χωλός, ἀλλ’ ὅμως χρήσιμός γέ ἐστι τεχνίτης ὢν ἄριστος καὶ κατακεκόσμηκεν ἡμῖν τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν Ἀφροδίτην γεγάμηκε καὶ σπουδάζεται πρὸς αὐτῆς, οἱ δὲ σοὶ παῖδες ἡ μὲν αὐτῶν ἀρρενικὴ πέρα τοῦ μετρίου καὶ ὄρειος, καὶ τὸ τελευταῖον ἐς τὴν Σκυθίαν ἀπελθοῦσα πάντες ἴσασιν οἷα ἐσθίει ξενοκτονοῦσα καὶ μιμουμένη τοὺς Σκύθας αὐτοὺς ἀνθρωποφάγους ὄντας· ὁ δὲ Ἀπόλλων προσποιεῖται μὲν πάντα εἰδέναι καὶ τοξεύειν καὶ κιθαρίζειν καὶ ἰατρὸς εἶναι καὶ μαντεύεσθαι καὶ καταστησάμενος ἐργαστήρια τῆς μαντικῆς τὸ μὲν ἐν Δελφοῖς, τὸ δὲ ἐν Κλάρῳ καὶ ἐν Κολοφῶνι καὶ ἐν Διδύμοις ἐξαπατᾷ τοὺς χρωμένους αὐτῷ λοξὰ καὶ ἐπαμφοτερίζοντα πρὸς ἑκάτερον τῆς ἐρωτήσεως ἀποκρινόμενος, πρὸς τὸ ἀκίνδυνον εἶναι τὸ σφάλμα. καὶ πλουτεῖ μὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ τοιούτου· πολλοὶ γὰρ οἱ ἀνόητοι καὶ παρέχοντες αὑτοὺς καταγοητεύεσθαι· πλὴν οὐκ ἀγνοεῖταί γε ὑπὸ τῶν ξυνετωτέρων τὰ πολλὰ τερατευόμενος· αὐτὸς γοῦν ὁ μάντις ἠγνόει μὲν ὅτι φονεύσει τὸν ἐρώμενον τῷ δίσκῳ, οὐ προεμαντεύετο δὲ ὡς φεύξεται αὐτὸν ἡ Δάφνη, καὶ ταῦτα οὕτω καλὸν καὶ κομήτην ὄντα· ὥστε οὐχ ὁρῶ καθότι καλλιτεκνοτέρα τῆς Νιόβης ἔδοξας.

[¶2] 2. LETO: Anyway, I know how it vexes you to see my children among the gods, murderer and false prophet though you call them—particularly when they praise my daughter for her beauty, and all admire my son for his harp-playing at dinner. HERA: You make me laugh, Leto. Who could admire one that Marsyas would have beaten at music and skinned alive with his own hands, if the Muses had chosen to judge fairly? But as it was, he was tricked and wrongly lost the vote, poor fellow, and had to die. And your pretty maid is so pretty that, when she found out that Actaeon had seen her, she was afraid the young fellow would tell everyone how hideous she was, and set her hounds on him. I won’t bother pointing out she could never have been a midwife, if she were a virgin herself. LETO: Living with Zeus and sharing his throne has swollen your head, Hera, and so you don’t mind how you insult others. But it won’t be long before I see you in tears again—the next time he leaves you and goes down to earth as a bull or swan.

> Greek: 2. ΛΗΤΩ: Ταῦτα μέντοι τὰ τέκνα, ἡ ξενοκτόνος καὶ ὁ ψευδόμαντις, οἶδα, ὅπως λυπεῖ σε ὁρώμενα ἐν τοῖς θεοῖς, καὶ μάλιστα ὁπόταν ἡ μὲν ἐπαινῆται ἐς τὸ κάλλος, ὁ δὲ κιθαρίζῃ ἐν τῷ συμποσίῳ θαυμαζόμενος ὑφ' ἁπάντων. ΗΡΑ: Ἐγέλασα, ὦ Λητοῖ· ἐκεῖνος θαυμαστός, ὃν ὁ Μαρσύας, εἰ τὰ δίκαια αἱ Μοῦσαι δικάσαι ἤθελον, ἀπέδειρεν ἂν αὐτὸς κρατήσας τῇ μουσικῇ· νῦν δὲ κατασοφισθεὶς ἅθλιος ἀπόλωλεν ἀδίκως ἁλούς· ἡ δὲ καλή σου παρθένος οὕτω καλή ἐστιν, ὥστε ἐπεὶ ἔμαθεν ὀφθεῖσα ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀκταίωνος, φοβηθεῖσα μὴ ὁ νεανίσκος ἐξαγορεύσῃ τὸ αἶσχος αὐτῆς, ἐπαφῆκεν αὐτῷ τοὺς κύνας· ἐῶ γὰρ λέγειν ὅτι οὐδὲ τὰς τεκούσας ἐμαιοῦτο παρθένος γε αὐτὴ οὖσα. ΛΗΤΩ: Μέγα, ὦ Ἥρα, φρονεῖς, ὅτι ξύνει τῷ Διὶ καὶ συμβασιλεύεις αὐτῷ, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ὑβρίζεις ἀδεῶς· πλὴν ἀλλ’ ὄψομαί σε μετ' ὀλίγον αὖθις δακρύουσαν, ὁπόταν σε καταλιπὼν ἐς τὴν γῆς κατίῃ ταῦρος ἢ κύκνος γενόμενος.