Page:The Eleven Comedies (1912) Vol 1.djvu/170

166

Yes, I am going. You hurt me too sorely, my daughters, when you ask me for bread, calling me your daddy, and there is not the ghost of an obolus in the house; if I succeed and come back, you will have a barley loaf every morning—and a punch in the eye for sauce!

But how will you make the journey? ’Tis not a ship that will carry you thither.

No, but this winged steed will.

But what an idea, daddy, to harness a beetle, on which to fly to the gods.

We see from Æsop’s fables that they alone can fly to the abode of the Immortals.

Father, father, ’tis a tale nobody can believe! that such a stinking creature can have gone to the gods.

It went to have vengeance on the eagle and break its eggs.

Why not saddle Pegasus? you would have a more tragic appearance in the eyes of the gods.