4
CHARON
Shall we be able to lift Pelion or Ossa and heave it up, Hermes, when there are only two of us?
HERMES
Why not, Charon? Surely you don’t consider us weaker than that pair of infants? Moreover, we are gods.
CHARON
No, but the thing seems to me to involve an incredible deal of work,
HERMES
Of course, for you are only a prosaic body, Charon, and not a bit of a poet. Good Homer, however, has made it possible for us to scale Heaven in a jiffy with a pair of verses, for he puts the mountains together as easily as that. I am surprised that you think this miraculous, for, of course, you know Atlas, who carries Heaven itself without any help, upholding us all. And no doubt you have heard about my brother Heracles, how he himself once took the place of Atlas and relieved him of his load for a time by taking the burden on his own shoulders.
CHARON
Yes, I have heard that; but whether it is true or not, Hermes, you and the poets only know!
5
HERMES
True as can be, Charon. Why should wise men lie? So let us uproot Ossa first, according to the directions of the poem and the master-builder, Homer; then upon Ossa Pelion quivering-leaved. Od. 11, 305. Don’t you see how easily and poetically we have done the job? Come now, let me climb up and see if this is enough or we shall have to add to the pile.
