2
HERMES
For you to see everything minutely in detail is impossible, ferryman, since it would busy us for many years. In that event Zeus would be obliged to have me advertized by the crier, like a runaway slave, and you yourself would be prevented from doing the work of Death and compelled to embarrass the revenues of Pluto’s government by not bringing in aly dead for a long time; besides, Aeacus the toll-taker would be angry if he did not make even an obol. We must manage it so that you can see the principal things that are going on.
CHARON
You must determine what is best, Hermes; I know nothing at all about things above ground, being a stranger.
HERMES
In a word, Charon, we want a high place of some sort, from which you can look down upon everything. If it were possible for you to go up into Heaven, we should be in no difficulty, for you could see everything plainly from on high. But as it is not permissible for one who consorts always with shades to set foot in the palace of Zeus, we must look about for a high mountain.
