Are you related to her ?" "Of course.

She was the sister of my grandfather Charaxus, and is called the tenth muse or the Lesbian swan.

I suppose then, your friend Gyges speaks Greek better than you do ?" "Yes, he learnt Greek and Lydian together as a little child, and speaks them both equally well.

He can speak Persian too, perfectly; and what is more, he knows and practises all the Persian virtues." "Which are the highest virtues then according to you Persians ?" "Truth is the first of all; courage the second, and the third is obedience; these three, joined with veneration for the gods, have made us Persians great." "But I thought you worshipped no gods ?" "Foolish child! who could live without a god, without a higher ruler?
True, they do not dwell in houses and pictures like the gods of the Egyptians, for the whole creation is their dwelling.

The Divinity, who must be in every place, and must see and hear everything, cannot be confined within walls." "Where do you pray then and offer sacrifice, if you have no temples ?" "On the grandest of all altars, nature herself; our favorite altar is the summit of a mountain.