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Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 03 by Lucian of Samosata
page 85 of 337 (25%)
_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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