5–6
ATHENA
But I think differently, father. Let’s not stir Heaven all up and show that you are upset over the business: manage it yourself in such a way that Timocles will win in the argument and Damis will be laughed to scorn and abandon the field.
5
HERMES
But people won’t fail to know of it, Zeus, as the philosophers are to have their dispute in public, and they will think you a tyrant if you don't call everyone into counsel on such important matters of common concern to all.
ZEUS
Well then, make a proclamation and let everyone come; you are right in what you say.
HERMES
Hear ye, gods, assemble in meeting! Don’t delay! Assemble one and all! Come! We are to meet about important matters.
ZEUS
Is that the sort of proclamation you make, Hermes, so bald and simple and prosaic, and that too when you are calling them together on business of the greatest importance?
HERMES
Why, how do you want me to do it, Zeus?
ZEUS
How do I want you to do it? Ennoble your proclamation, I tell you, with metre and_highsounding, poetical words, so that they may be more eager to assemble.
5
HERMES
Yes, but that, Zeus, is the business of epic poets and reciters, and I am not a bit of a poet, so that I shall ruin the proclamation by making my lines too long or too short and it will be a laughing-stock to them because of the limping verses. In fact I see that even Apollo gets laughed at for some of his oracles, although they are generally so beclouded with obscurity that those who hear them don’t have much chance to examine their metres.
