Kitap 17
1
To think, Apollo, that a poor cripple and mere artisan like him has married the two fairest of the fair, Aphrodite and Charis! Cf. Iliad, XVIII, 382. Hesiod, Theogony, 945-946 calls her Aglaea, youngest of the Charites (Graces).
1
That’s just good luck, my dear fellow; but what does surprise me is that they can stand living with him, especially when they see him bathed in sweat, bending over his furnace, with soot all over his face. And yet they embrace a creature like that and kiss him and sleep with him.
1
That annoys me too, and makes me jealous of Hephaestus. You can show off your fine hair, Apollo, and play on your harp, and be proud of your beauty, and I of my fine physique and my lyre, but when it comes to bedtime, we’ve got to sleep alone.
2
I’m Generally unlucky in love; at least I lost my two special sweethearts, Daphne and Hyacinthus. Daphne so loathes and shuns me that she’s chosen to turn into a tree rather than share my company, and Hyacinthus was killed by that quoit. All that’s left of them for me is wreaths.
2
And I once with Aphrodite—but I mustn’t boast.
2
I know. They say she presented you with Hermaphroditus. But tell me, if you can, why Aphrodite and Charis are not jealous of each other.
3
Because, my dear fellow, Charis keeps company with him in Lemnos, and Aphrodite in heaven. Besides, Aphrodite is most wrapped up in Ares, and in love with him, and so doesn’t trouble much about this blacksmith fellow.
3
Do you think Hephaestus knows of this?
3
Of course he does, but what can he do when he sees Ares is such a fine strapping young fellow, and a man of war? So he keeps quiet. But he’s threatening to invent some sort of trap Cf. pp. 335-337. for them, and to catch them in a net on the bed.
3
That’s news to me; but I know I’d like to be destined to fall into that trap myself.
