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Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)

182. ZEUS AND APOLLO
Perry 104 (Babrius 68)

As he made a distant shot with his bow and arrow, Apollo said to the gods, 'No one can shoot farther than I, not even Zeus.' Zeus played along and agreed to a contest. Hermes shook the lots in the helmet of Ares. The lot fell to Apollo, who went first, flexing the golden bowstring and swiftly letting loose an arrow which landed inside the Garden of the Hesperides. Zeus then covered the same distance in a single stride and stood there asking, 'Where should I shoot my arrow, son? There's nowhere for me to stand.' So it was that Zeus won the archery contest without even taking a shot.

Note: Ares was the Greek god of war (Roman Mars). The Hesperides were the daughters of Atlas, and together with a dragon they guarded a tree of golden apples in a garden at the western edge of the world.

Source: Aesop's Fables. A new translation by Laura Gibbs. Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002.
NOTE: New cover, with new ISBN, published in 2008; contents of book unchanged.