"One must agree," said Apollo, "that Athena has chosen for herself a
charming home."

"Oh, she is very clever! Who could choose better?" answered Hermes.
"Then Zeus has a fancy for her. If she wishes for anything she has
only to caress his beard and immediately he calls her Tritogenia, dear
daughter; he promises her everything and permits everything."

"Tritogenia bores me sometimes," grumbled Latona's son.

"Yes, I have noticed that she becomes very tedious," answered Hermes.

"Like an old peripatetic; and then she is virtuous to the ridiculous,
like my sister Artemis."

"Or as her servants, the Athenian women."

The Radiant turned to the Argo-robber Mercury: "It is the second time
you mention, as though purposely, the virtue of the Athenian women.
Are they really so virtuous?"

"Fabulously so, O son of Latona!"

"Is it possible!" said Apollo. "Do you think that there is in town one
woman who could resist me?"

"I do think so."

"Me, Apollo?"