cyniscus

Updated: June 23, 2025

I would go further than Scythia, to meet with such friends as Toxaris's narratives have shown him to be. Cyniscus. Zeus Cyn. Zeus: I am not going to trouble you with requests for a fortune or a throne; you get prayers enough of that sort from other people, and from your habit of convenient deafness I gather that you experience a difficulty in answering them.

of Samosata Lucian - Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 03

And by the way talking of thunder-bolts there is one thing I will ask you and Destiny to explain; you can answer for her. Is this one of the things it is not proper for me to know? Zeus. It is, Cyniscus. You are a meddlesome fellow; I don't know where you picked up all these ideas. Cyn.

of Samosata Lucian - Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 03

But there is one thing I should like, which would cost you no trouble to grant. Zeus. Well, Cyniscus? You shall not be disappointed, if your expectations are as reasonable as you say. Cyn. I want to ask you a plain question. Zeus. Such a modest petition is soon granted; ask what you will. Cyn. Well then: you know your Homer and Hesiod, of course?

of Samosata Lucian - Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 03

All destiny, of course. Zeus. Take care, Cyniscus: you are going too far. You will repent of this one day. Cyn. Spare your threats: you know that nothing can happen to me, except what Fate has settled first. I notice, for instance, that even temple-robbers do not always get punished; most of them, indeed, slip through your hands. Not destined to be caught, I suppose. Zeus.

of Samosata Lucian - Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 03

I say nothing of our own days, in which villains and money-grubbers prosper, and honest men are oppressed with want and sickness and a thousand distresses, and can hardly call their souls their own. Zeus. Surely you know, Cyniscus, what punishments await the evil-doers after death, and how happy will be the lot of the righteous? Cyn. Ah, to be sure: Hades Tityus Tantalus.

of Samosata Lucian - Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 03

It is not proper, Cyniscus, that you should know all. But what made you ask me about the Fates? Cyn. Ah, you must tell me one thing more first. Do the Fates also control you Gods? Do you depend from their thread? Zeus. We do. Why do you smile? Cyn. I was thinking of that bit in Homer, where he makes you address the Gods in council, and threaten to suspend all the world from a golden cord.

of Samosata Lucian - Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 03