9
Well, you must allow me Attis, Corybas, and Sabazius: by what contrivance, now, did they get here? and that Mede there, Mithras, with the candys and tiara? why, the fellow cannot speak Greek; if you pledge him, he does not know what you mean. The consequence is, that Scythians and Goths, observing their success, snap their fingers at us, and distribute divinity and immortality right and left; that was how the slave Zamolxis’s name slipped into our register.
10
However, let that pass. But I should just like to ask that Egyptian there—the dog-faced gentleman in the linen suitAnubis. —who he is, and whether he proposes to establish his divinity by barking? And will the piebald bull yonderApis., from Memphis, explain what use he has for a temple, an oracle, or a priest? As for the ibises and monkeys and goats and worse absurdities that are bundled in upon us, goodness knows how, from Egypt, I am ashamed to speak of them; nor do I understand how you, gentlemen, can endure to see such creatures enjoying a prestige equal to or greater than your own.—And you yourself, sir, must surely find ram’s horns a great inconvenience?
11
Zeus Certainly, it is disgraceful the way these Egyptians go on. At the same time, Momus, there is an occult significance in most of these things; and it ill becomes you, who are not of the initiated, to ridicule them.
11
Momus Oh, come now: a God is one thing, and a person with a dog’s head is another; I need no initiation to tell me that.
11
Zeus Well, that will do for the Egyptians; time must be taken for the consideration of their case. Proceed to others.
