3
CHARON
You know, Hermes, what I am in the habit of telling you and the others when we are on the water. When we are close-hauled and the wind in a sudden squall strikes the sail and the waves rise high, then you all in your ignorance tell me to take the sail in or slack the sheet off a bit or run before the wind; but I urge you to keep quiet, saying that I myself know what is best. Just so in this case; you must do whatever you think is right, for you are skipper now, and I will sit in silence, as a passenger should, and obey your orders in everything.
HERMES
Quite right; I will see what is to be done, and will find the proper coign of vantage. Well then, will Caucasus do, or Parnassus, or Olympus yonder, which is higher than either? But no, as I looked at Olympus an idea came to me that is not half bad; but you must bear a hand and help me out.
CHARON
Give your orders; I will help as much as I can,
HERMES
The poet Homer says that the sons of Alocus, who, like ourselves, were two in number, took a faney once upon a time while they were still mere children to pluck Ossa from its base and set it on Olympus, and then to set Pelion on top of it, thinking that this would give them a suitable ladder with which to scale Heaven.Od. 11, 305. Well, these two lads were sacrilegious and they were punished for it; but we two are not making this plan to harm the gods, so why shouldn’t we build in the same way, rolling the mountains one atop of another, in order to secure a better view from a higher place?
