HERMES
Just as if long speeches and adequate preparation were necessary, Prometheus, and it were not enough simply to summarize your wrong-doings and say that when you were commissioned to divide the meat you tried to keep the best for yourself “and cheat the king, and that you made men when you should not, and that you stole fire from us and took it to them! You do not seem to realize, my excellent friend, that you have found Zeus very humane in view of such actions. Now if you deny that you have committed them, I shall have to have it out with you and make a long speech and try my best to bring out the truth; but if you admit that you served the meat in that way and made the innovations in regard to men and stole fire, my accusation is sufficient and I don’t care to say any more; to do so would be a mere waste of words.
PROMETHEUS
Perhaps what you have said is also a waste of words; we shall see a little later! But as you say your accusation is sufficient, I shall try as best I can to dissipate the charges. And first let me tell you about the meat. By Heaven, even now as I speak of it I blush for Zeus, if he is so mean and fault-finding as to send a prehistoric god like me to be crucified just because he found a small bone in his portion, without remembering how we fought side by side or thinking how slight the ground for his anger is and how. childish it is to “be angry and enraged unless he gets the lion’s share himself.
