9
What! Don’t you know Pan, the most bacchanalian of the servants of Dionysus? He formerly lived on Parthenion,A mountain in Arcadia. but at the time of the approach of Datis by sea and the landing of the barbarians at Marathon, he came unasked to fight on the side of the Athenians; and since then, accepting this cavern under the Acropolis, a little above the Pelasgicon,The cave of Pan, being in the N.W. corner of the Acropolis, can be pointed out (ταύτην) trom the Areopagus, which is close by (ἐκ γειτόνων). For the bit of the prehistoric wall below it (Pelasgicon), see p. 63, note 1, and p. 71. he lives in it, paying the usual tax as a resident alien. Very likely he has seen us near and is coming up to greet us.
10
Good day to you, Hermes and Justice.
10
The same to you, Pan, most musical and most frolicsome of all satyrs, and at Athens the most bellicose!
10
What business brought you two here, Hermes?
10
She will tell you the whole story; I am going to the Acropolis, to make my proclamation.
10
Zeus sent me down, Pan, to empanel juries for the lawsuits. But how do you find things in Athens?
10
On the whole, I do not get on as well as I ought here—much worse than I expected; and yet I dis- pelled the mighty hue and cry of the barbarians. In spite of that, they come up only two or three times a year, pick out and sacrifice in my honour a he-goat with a powerful goatish smell, and then feast on the meat, making me a mere witness of their good cheer and paying their respects to me only with their noise. However, their laughter and fun afford me some amusement.
11
In general, Pan, have they been improved in virtue by the philosophers?
11
What do you mean by philosophers? Those gloomy fellows, flocking together, with beards like mine, who talk so much?
11
To be sure.
