DIONYSUS. Not so fast! Oh! indeed! I disguise you as Heracles for a joke and you take the thing seriously! None of your nonsense, Xanthias! Take back the baggage.
XANTHIAS. What? You are not thinking of taking back what you gave me yourself?
DIONYSUS. No, I don't think about it; I do it. Off with that skin!
XANTHIAS. Witness how i am treated, ye great dogs, and be my judges!
DIONYSUS. What gods? Are you so stupid, such a fool? How can you, a slave and a mortal, be the son of Alcmena?
XANTHIAS. Come then! 'tis well! take them. But perhaps you will be needing me one day, an it please the gods.
CHORUS. 'Tis the act of a wise and sensible man, who has done much sailing, always to trim his sail towards the quarter whence the fair wind wafts, rather than stand stiff and motionless like a god Terminus.[442] To change your part to serve your own interest is to act like a clever man, a true Theramenes.[443]
[442] Whose statues were placed to make the boundaries of land.
[443] One of the Thirty Tyrants, noted for his versatility.
Studies
