5
This, Zeus—and I beg you by the Fates and by Destiny not to hear me with exasperation or anger when I speak the truth boldly. If all this is so, and the Fates rule everything, and nobody can ever change anything that they have once decreed, why do we men sacrifice to you gods and make you great offerings of cattle, praying to receive blessings from you? I really don’t see what benefit we can derive from this precaution, if it is impossible for us through our prayers either to get what is bad averted or to secure any blessing whatever by the gift of the gods.
6
I know where you get these clever questions— from the cursed sophists, who say that we do not even exert any providence on behalf of men. At any rate they ask questions like yours out of impiety, and dissuade the rest from sacrificing and praying on the ground that it is silly; for we, they ay, not only pay no heed to what goes on among you, but have no power at all over affairs on ‘arth. But they shall be sorry for talking in that vay,
6
I swear by the spindle of Clotho, Zeus, they did lot put me up to ask you this, but our talk itself as it went on led somehow or other to the conclusion that sacrifices are superfluous. But if you have no objection I will question you briefly once more. Do not hesitate to answer, and take care that your answer is not so weak.
6
Ask, if you have time for such nonsense.
7
You say that all things come about through the Fates?
7
Yes, I do.
7
And is it possible for you to change them, to unspin them?
7
Not by any means.
7
Then do you want me to draw the conclusion or is it patent even without my putting it into words?
7
It is patent, of course; but those who sacrifice do © not do so for gain, driving a sort of bargain, forsooth, and as it were buying blessings from us; they do so simply to honour what is superior to themselves.
