I put up with your nonsense the same way Jupiter does with the silly stories poets tell about him. Some poets give him wings. Others give him horns. One poet makes him an adulterer who stays out all night. Another shows him being cruel to the gods or unfair to people. Another makes him seduce noble young men and kidnap them by force — even his own relatives. Another turns him into someone who kills his father and steals another's kingdom. These stories only make people feel less ashamed about their own sins, because they think the gods act badly too.
I bear with your prating in the same spirit in which Jupiter, best and greatest, bears with the idle tales of the poets, one of whom represents him with wings, another with horns, another as an adulterer staying out all night, another is dealing harshly with the gods, another as unjust to men, another as the seducer of noble youths whom he carries off by force, and those, too, his own relatives, another as a parricide and the conqueror of another's kingdom, and that his father's. The only result of such tales is that men feel less shame at committing sin if they believe the gods to be guilty of such actions.