ALCIBIADES.
Then march. You shall be the crier. Callicles, you shall carry
the torch. Why do you stare? (The crier and torchbearer were
important functionaries at the celebration of the Eleusinian
mysteries.)

CALLICLES.
I do not much like the frolic.

ALCIBIADES.
Nay, surely you are not taken with a fit of piety. If all be
true that is told of you, you have as little reason to think the
gods vindictive as any man breathing. If you be not belied, a
certain golden goblet which I have seen at your house was once in
the temple of Juno at Corcyra. And men say that there was a
priestess at Tarentum--

CALLICLES.
A fig for the gods! I was thinking about the Archons. You will
have an accusation laid against you to-morrow. It is not very
pleasant to be tried before the king. (The name of king was
given in the Athenian democracy to the magistrate who exercised
those spiritual functions which in the monarchical times had
belonged to the sovereign. His court took cognisance of offences
against the religion of the state.)

ALCIBIADES.
Never fear: there is not a sycophant in Attica who would dare to
breathe a word against me, for the golden plane-tree of the great
king. (See Herodotus, viii. 28.)