Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 03 by Lucian of Samosata
page 85 of 337 (25%)
page 85 of 337 (25%)
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_Cyn_. Well then: you know your Homer and Hesiod, of course?
Is it all true that they sing of Destiny and the Fates--that whatever they spin for a man at his birth must inevitably come about? _Zeus_. Unquestionably. Nothing is independent of their control. From their spindle hangs the life of all created things; whose end is predetermined even from the moment of their birth; and that law knows no change. _Cyn_. Then when Homer says, for instance, in another place, Lest unto Hell thou go, _outstripping Fate_, he is talking nonsense, of course? _Zeus_. Absolute nonsense. Such a thing is impossible: the law of the Fates, the thread of Destiny, is over all. No; so long as the poets are under the inspiration of the Muses, they speak truth: but once let those Goddesses leave them to their own devices, and they make blunders and contradict themselves. Nor can we blame them: they are but men; how should they know truth, when the divinity whose mouthpieces they were is departed from them? _Cyn_. That point is settled, then. But there is another thing I want to know. There are three Fates, are there not,--Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropus? _Zeus_. Quite so. |
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