The Double Indictment or Trials by Jury

​Hermes Let us go forward, Dike, this way straight toward Sunium, a little below Hymettus to the left of Parnes, where those two peaks are; for you seem to have long since forgotten the way. But why do you weep and complain? Do not fear; things in life are no longer the same. All those Scirons, Pityocamptes, Busirises, and Phalarises whom you feared back then are dead, and now Wisdom, the Academy, and the Stoa possess all things, and they seek you everywhere and discourse about you, gaping if by some chance you might fly down to them again. Dike You at least, Hermes, would be the only one to tell me the truth, since you associate with them for the most part and spend time with them both in the gymnasia and in the marketplace—for you are indeed of the marketplace and you make announcements in the assemblies—what sort of people they have become, and whether my staying among them is possible. Hermes By Zeus, for I would be acting unjustly toward you, who are my sister, if I did not tell you. Many of them have benefited not a little by philosophy; for even if nothing else, at least out of respect for their appearance, they commit errors more moderately. However, you will also meet with some who are wicked among them—for I must, I think, tell the truth—and some who are half-wise and half-worthless. For when Wisdom took them over and dyed them anew, as many as drank of the dye to their fill were made perfectly good, unmixed with other colors, and these are most ready for your reception; but as many as, due to their old filth, did not admit to the depth the deep-dyeing quality of the drug, are indeed better than the rest, yet unfinished, mixed-white, speckled, and leopard-like in their complexion. And there are some who, having only touched the outside of the kettle with the tip of their finger and smeared themselves with the soot, think that they too have been sufficiently dyed. For you, however, it is clear that your association will be with the best.

​Hermes But while we are talking, we are already approaching Attica; so let us leave Sunium on the right, and bend our course now toward the Acropolis. And since we have descended, you yourself sit here somewhere on the Hill, looking toward the Pnyx and waiting until I herald the commands from Zeus; and I, having gone up to the Acropolis, will thus more easily summon everyone from a place within hearing. Dike Do not depart, Hermes, before telling me who this is who approaches, the horned one, the one with the pipe, the one shaggy in his legs. Hermes What do you say? Are you ignorant of Pan, the most Bacchic of Dionysus’ attendants? He used to dwell formerly up on Mount Parthenium, but at the time of Datis’ invasion and the barbarians’ landing at Marathon, he came uninvited as an ally to the Athenians, and from that time, having received this cave under the Acropolis, he dwells a little above the Pelasgicon, contributing to the resident-alien tax. And now, as is natural, having seen us from nearby, he approaches to welcome us.

​Pan Greetings, Hermes and Dike. Hermes And you too, Pan, the most musical and most leaping of all Satyrs, and in Athens also the most warlike. Pan But what need, Hermes, brought you here? Hermes She will explain everything to you; and I am going away to the Acropolis and the proclamation. Dike Zeus, Pan, sent me down to allot the lawsuits. But how are things in Athens for you? Pan On the whole, I am not faring according to my worth among them, but far below my expectation, and that too after having repelled so great a tumult from the barbarians. Nevertheless, two or three times a year they come up and, having chosen an uncastrated goat smelling strongly of rancid fat, sacrifice it to me, then they feast on the meat, making me a witness of their merriment, and honoring me with bare clapping. Still, their laughter and play afford me some amusement.