Doubt reigned in the celestial councils. Should they kill them and
annihilate the race with thunderbolts, as they had done the giants, then
there would be an end of the sacrifices and worship which men offered to
them; but, on the other hand, the gods could not suffer their insolence to
be unrestrained. At last, after a good deal of reflection, Zeus discovered
a way. He said: 'Methinks I have a plan which will humble their pride and
improve their manners; men shall continue to exist, but I will cut them in
two and then they will be diminished in strength and increased in numbers;
this will have the advantage of making them more profitable to us. They
shall walk upright on two legs, and if they continue insolent and will not
be quiet, I will split them again and they shall hop about on a single
leg.' He spoke and cut men in two, like a sorb-apple which is halved for
pickling, or as you might divide an egg with a hair; and as he cut them one
after another, he bade Apollo give the face and the half of the neck a turn
in order that the man might contemplate the section of himself: he would
thus learn a lesson of humility.
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