PEACE. 61

and found himself outside the celestial palace. He
at once called loudly for admittance. Hermes, who
was acting as porter, opened accordingly, and was
not a little astonished and disgusted at what he saw.
“What is this?” he said. “A beetle-horse,” said the
visitor. “Away with you, then, you and your beetle-
horse,” cried the god. Trygzeus, however, had come
prepared to overcome this obstacle, and made his
peace with a piece of flesh that he had brought with
him. “And now,” said he, “step in, and tell Zeus
that I want to see him.”
Hermes. “Oh! that’s impossible. You can’t see
the gods; they are gone to the seventh heaven.”
T. “But how come you to be here, then?”
H. “Oh, they left me to look after a few little mat-
ters, pots and pans, and so forth, that they left here.”
Z. “But why did they go away?”
ff, “Because they were displeased with the
Greeks. That is why they went away, and left War
‘settled here for good.’ He is to do what he likes
with you. They are not going to look at you with
‘your everlasting fightings any more.”
T. “Oh, but why is this? What have we done?”
H. “When they wanted Peace, you were always
for War. First the Spartans would get a little the
better of the fight, and then it was, ‘These Athenian
rascals shall suffer for it’ Then you had a turn of
luck, and it was, ‘No, no, we won’t listen; as long
-as we keep Pylos, we shall always have them on
their knees.’”