 After these attempts at modernizing the epic, the next phase of the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns focused on other aspects of modern life. This time, Boileau faced a new opponent, Charles Perrault, now best known as a compiler of fairy tales. In fact, fairy tales were significant because they celebrated the European oral tradition that did not have Greco-Roman roots, in contrast to the fables of La Fontaine, who was a partisan of the Ancients. Perrault took a stand for the Modern side by writing Parallel of the Ancients and the Moderns (1688–97), a series of dialogues between three interlocutors: an abbot who represents the Modern camp, a président or high-level administrator who represents the Ancient camp, and a cavalier who tries to reconcile the two points of view. At stake was the view of human history as one of degeneration or of progress: the Ancients beheld Antiquity as the Golden Age, so subsequent history could only represent a deterioration—in the arts, in morals, and in other aspects of life. The Moderns saw new inventions and scientific discoveries as signs of an upward trend. Even in terms of manners, the Moderns claimed that the newly developed French courtly politeness was an improvement on the rough, though heroic, behavior of the Ancient Romans and Greeks. For example, in Perrault’s dialogue, the Modern partisan objects to the mention in the Iliad that Zeus could beat his wife Hera, whereas that behavior was considered taboo among the upper classes of Ancien Régime France. The abbot even compares Zeus’ behavior to that of a French peasant. This contrast between ancient Greek and Early Modern French codes of conduct would reappear in the next phase of the Quarrel.