9–11
ZEUS
Didn’t I say you were one of those fellows that abolish Providence in debate?
CYNISCUS
You are very much afraid of them, Zeus, I don’t know why. At any rate, you think that everything I say is one of their tricks.
I should like to ask you, though—for from whom can I learn the truth except from you?—what this Providence of yours is, a Fate or a goddess, as it were, superior to the Fates, ruling even over them?
ZEUS
I have already told you that it is not permitted you to know everything. At first you said that you would ask me only one question, but you keep chopping all this logic with me, and I see that in your eyes the chief object of this talk is to show that we exert no providence at all in human affairs.
CYNISCUS
That is none of my doing: you yourself said not long ago that it was the Fates who brought every- thing to pass. But perhaps you repent of it and take back what you said, and you gods lay claim to the oversight, thrusting the Fates aside?
ZEUS
By no means, but Fate does it all through us.
CYNISCUS
I understand; you allege that you are servants and assistants of the Fates. But even at that, the providence would be theirs, and you are only their instruments and tools, as it were.
