"Pish! a fig for its talk!" cried Hercules, with another hitch of his shoulders. "Just take the sky upon your head one instant, will you? I want to make a cushion of my lion's skin, for the weight to rest upon. It really
chafes me, and will cause unnecessary inconvenience in so many
centuries as I am to stand here."
"That's no more than fair, and I'll do it!" quoth the giant; for he had no unkind feeling towards Hercules,
and was merely acting with a too selfish consideration of his own ease.
"For just five minutes, then, I'll take back the sky. Only for five minutes, recollect! I have no idea of
spending another thousand years as I spent the last. Variety is the spice of life, say l."
Ah, the thick-witted old rogue of a giant! He threw down the golden apples, and received back the sky,
from the head and shoulders of Hercules, upon his own, where it rightly belonged. And Hercules picked up
the three golden apples, that were as big or bigger than pumpkins,
and set out on his journey homeward, without paying the slightest heed to the thundering tones of the
giant, who bellowed after him to come back.
-From A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Which represents a theme of the passage?
O wit vs. strength
O Hercules tricks Atlas into carrying the world on his shoulders.
O the cost of deception
The weak-minded must shoulder the burdens of the quick-witted