My brother churned out lame, conventional bulletins about sun and rain, good and bad harvests, the breeding of livestock and children. How differently I would have spoken! I would have laid down the law in quite a different tone; I would have liked to teach them something quite, quite different, those unsuspecting, easily satisfied people – namely … Namely? What would I have taught them then? Panthous, who kept an eye on me in those days, asked me the question point-blank. What else would I have talked about besides weather, the fertility of the soil, cattle pests, diseases. Did I want to tear the people out of their familiar round where they felt comfortable and looked for nothing else? To which I arrogantly replied: ‘Because they don’t know anything else. Because this sort of question is all they are allowed.’
‘All they are allowed by whom? The gods? Circumstances? The king? And who are you to force other questions on them?