If such ill counsels are to prevail, we shall have no pleasure at our banquet.

Let me then advise my mother--and she must herself know that it will be better--to make friends with my dear father Jove, lest he again scold her and disturb our feast.

If the Olympian Thunderer wants to hurl us all from our seats, he can do so, for he is far the strongest, so give him fair words, and he will then soon be in a good humour with us." As he spoke, he took a double cup of nectar, and placed it in his mother's hand.

"Cheer up, my dear mother," said he, "and make the best of it.

I love you dearly, and should be very sorry to see you get a thrashing; however grieved I might be, I could not help, for there is no standing against Jove.