A light breeze blowing from the Attic valley carried to the ears of the two gods the sounds of laughter, singing, kissing.  Apollo, in whose eyes nothing under the sun was fairer than a woman, turned to Hermes and said: 

“O Maya’s son, how beautiful are the Athenian women!”

“And virtuous too, my Radiant,” answered Hermes; “they are under Pallas’ tutelage.”

The Silver-arrowed god became silent, and listening looked into space.  In the mean while the twilight was slowly quenched, movement gradually stopped.  Scythian slaves shut the gates, and finally all became quiet.  The Ambrosian night threw on the Acropolis, city, and environs, a dark veil embroidered with stars.

But the dusk did not last long.  Soon from the Archipelago appeared the pale Selene, and began to sail like a silvery boat in the heavenly space.  And then the walls of the Acropolis lighted again, only they beamed now with a pale-green light, and looked even more like a vision in a dream.

“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?”

“You, my Radiant.”

“I, who should bewitch her with poetry and charm her with song and music!”

“You, my Radiant.”

“If you were an honest god I would be willing to make a wager with you.  But you, Argo-robber, if you should lose, you would disappear immediately with your sandals and caduceus.”

“No, I will put one hand on the earth and another on the sea and swear by Hades.  Such an oath is kept not only by me, but even by the members of the City Council in Athens.”

“Oh, you exaggerate a little.  Very well then!  If you lose you must supply me in Trinachija with a herd of long-horned oxen, which you may steal where you please, as you did when you were only a boy, stealing my herds in Perea.”

“Understood!  And what shall I get if I win?”

“You may choose what you please.”