Jewish & Christian Prophecies in Pagan Dress, Newly Translated from the Greek · First Edition (2026)
If working diligently at the reading of Greek writings
produces great benefit for those who accomplish it, since it can make
those who labor over these things widely learned,
much more so with the divine writings, since they concern God and the things
that procure benefit for the soul--it is fitting that right-thinking men
devote themselves always to these, gaining a twofold profit from them,
being able to benefit both themselves and their readers.
For these reasons it seemed good to me also to take the so-called Sibylline
oracles, found scattered about, and their reading and understanding
confused, and to set them out into a single connected order
and harmony of discourse, so that they might be easily surveyed by readers
and thereby confer upon them the benefit that comes from them,
disclosing not a few things necessary and useful
and at the same time making the undertaking richer and more varied.
For indeed they make plain, quite clearly, concerning the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit, the divine and life-giving Trinity,
and concerning the incarnate dispensation of the Lord and God
and our Savior Jesus Christ--I mean the birth from a virgin,
untainted, and the healings accomplished by him,
likewise his life-giving suffering and his rising from the dead
on the third day, and the judgment that is to come, and
the recompense for all we have done in this life; besides
these things, what is disclosed in the Mosaic writings and the books
of the prophets concerning the creation of the world and the
forming of man and his fall from paradise, and again
his refashioning, they set forth distinctly; concerning things that have happened, or
perhaps are yet to happen, they foretell in various ways; and simply put,
they are able to benefit their readers not a little.
Now 'Sibyl' is a Roman word meaning, when interpreted, 'prophetess,' or
'seer'; whence all female seers came to be called by this one name.
Sibyls, then, as many have written, arose at different
times and places, ten in number. The first, then, was the Chaldean,
that is, the Persian, called by her proper name Sambethe, of the
lineage of Noah, most blessed among men, who is reported to have foretold
the affairs of Alexander the Macedonian; Nicanor, who wrote
the life of Alexander, mentions her; the second was the Libyan, whom
Euripides mentioned in the preface to the Lamia; the third of these was the Delphic one,
born at Delphi, of whom Chrysippus spoke in his book concerning
divinity; the fourth was the Italian, in Cimmeria of Italy, whose
son was Evander, who founded in Rome the shrine of Pan called
the Lupercal; the fifth was the Erythraean, who also foretold
the Trojan War, of whom Apollodorus the Erythraean
gives sure testimony; the sixth was the Samian, called by her proper name Phyto,
of whom Eratosthenes wrote; the seventh was the Cumaean, called
Amalthea, also Herophile, and by some Taraxandra; but Virgil
calls the Cumaean Deiphobe, daughter of Glaucus; the eighth was the Helles-
pontine, born in the village of Marmessus near the little town of Gergis,
which was once a district of the Troad, in the times of Solon
and Cyrus, according to what Heraclides of Pontus recorded; ninth, the Phrygian;
tenth, the Tiburtine, called Abunaea (i.e. Albunea).
They say that the Cumaean woman brought nine books of her own oracles
to Tarquinius Priscus, who then ruled over the affairs of Rome, demanding three hundred gold philippics for them. But being
scorned, and not even asked what was contained within them,
she gave three of them to the fire. Then again, on another
visit to the king, she brought the remaining six books, asking the same price
for them. And not being deemed worthy of a hearing, she burned three more.
Then, for a third occasion, carrying the three books left over, she approached again
asking the same price, saying that if she did not receive it, she would burn these too.
Then, they say, the king, examining them and marveling, gave
a hundred philippics for them and took possession of them, and begged
concerning the others; but she declared that she no longer had the equal of those that had been
burned, nor could she know such things apart from the divine frenzy,
though at times some had been gathered from various cities and regions
such oracles as were judged necessary and beneficial to them, and that from these
a collection should be made, and this they did with all speed. For what
was truly given by God, though hidden in a secret place, did not go unnoticed. And of all
the Sibyls' books were laid up in the Capitol of ancient Rome, though those of the Cumaean were kept hidden and not
given out to many, since the things destined to happen in Italy she had proclaimed
more particularly and more plainly, while the others were made known
to everyone. But the books of the Erythraean bear this name
inscribed upon them, taken from her homeland; but the others are not
labeled as to which belong to which Sibyl, and so remain indistinguishable.
Firmianus, then, a philosopher of no small renown and a priest of the
aforesaid Capitol, having turned his gaze toward our eternal light,
Christ, set down in his own writings the things spoken by the Sibyls
concerning the unspeakable glory, and forcefully refuted the folly of the Greek
error. And his vigorous exposition was set forth in the
Ausonian tongue, while the Sibylline verses themselves were uttered in the Greek voice
and were carried down. But so that this may not seem unbelievable, I shall offer the testimony of the
aforementioned man, given in this manner: since
the Sibylline verses found among us are held cheap not only because they are easily obtained—
for to those versed in Greek learning they seem contemptible, since rare things
are thought precious—but also because, since not all the verses preserve
the strict accuracy of meter, they command a feebler belief. The cause of this
is that the swift scribes could not keep pace with the rush of her speech, or
were themselves untrained—not any fault of the prophetess; for together with the
cessation of her inspiration the memory of what was said would cease as well. Looking to this, Plato too
said that such people accomplish many great things while knowing nothing
of what they say. We, then, from the copies brought to Rome
by the envoys, will set forth as much as we are able. He then expounded
concerning the God without beginning, as follows:
One God, who alone rules, immense beyond measure, unbegotten—
but God alone, the one, highest above all, who made
heaven and the sun and the stars and the moon,
the fruit-bearing earth and the swelling waves of the sea.
He alone is God, the creator, existing uncontrolled by any other—
he himself fixed the form and shape of mortal men,
he himself blended the nature of all things, begetter of life.
This he said either in the sense that, coming together, they become one flesh from the father,
or in the sense that from the four elements, opposed to one another,
he fashioned both the world beneath heaven and man himself.
The Sibylline Oracles: From the First Book
Beginning from the first generation of speech-endowed men
I shall prophesy each thing down to the very last age,
all that has happened before, all that is now, and all that is destined
to come upon the world through the impiety of men.
First of all God bids me tell truly how the universe
came to be. But you, versatile mortal, speak it out
with understanding, so that you never neglect my commands.
the Most High King, who founded the whole universe,
saying, "Let it be born," and it was born. For he set the earth firm,
casting it about Tartarus, and gave sweet light himself.
He raised up the heaven, and spread out the gray sea,
and crowned the vault of the sky abundantly with fire-bright stars,
and adorned the earth with plants, and the sea with rivers
he poured out and mixed, and blended breezes into the air
and dewy clouds. And then, setting in place yet another race,
he gave fish to the deep waters and birds to the winds,
and to the woods shaggy-necked beasts and serpents
that creep upon the earth, and all things now beheld —
he himself made these by his word, and all things came to be
swiftly and truly. For this world was self-begotten,
seen from heaven above; beneath it the universe was completed.
And then after this he shaped again a breathing work,
a new man, pressed from his own image,
beautiful and wondrous, whom he bade dwell in the ambrosial
paradise, that he might tend its beautiful works.
But he, being alone in the paradise's luxuriant garden,
longed for conversation, and prayed to behold a form
other than his own such as he had. So God himself, taking
a bone from his side, made lovely Eve.
A lawful wife, whom he gave him in the paradise
to dwell with. And he, beholding her, was seized in his heart
with sudden wonder, delighted at what he saw —
a counterpart likeness; and they exchanged wise words
flowing spontaneously, for God cared for all things.
For they did not yet veil their minds with intemperance, nor did they
have shame, but their hearts were far from evil,
and like wild beasts they went about with limbs uncovered.
But afterward God, proclaiming his commands to them,
showed them not to touch the tree; but them the terrible
serpent deceitfully led astray to go to the portion
of death, and to gain knowledge of good and evil.
But the woman was first, a betrayer, she bore that fate for him,
she who gave, and persuaded her unknowing husband to sin.
And he, persuaded by his wife's words, forgot
the immortal creator, and neglected his clear commands.
Therefore, instead of good, they took evil, such as they had done.
And then, threading together leaves of the sweet fig tree,
they made garments and put them upon one another,
and covered their private parts, since shame had come upon them.
The Immortal set wrath against them and cast them out
from the country of the immortals. For it had been decreed
that they should remain in a mortal land, since they had not kept
the word of the great immortal God, though they had heard it.
But when they went out at once upon the grain-giving earth
they were drenched in tears and groans; and then to them
the immortal God himself spoke a more gracious word:
"Increase, multiply, and work the earth
with skill, so that you may have your fill of food by your own sweat."
So he spoke; and the crawling one to blame for the deception
he made press the earth with belly and flank,
driving him out in bitterness; and he cast terrible enmity
between the two of them; and the one guards his head
to keep it safe, the other his heel, since death lies
close beside men and venom-shooting evil counsel.
And then indeed the race multiplied, as the All-Ruler
himself had commanded, and people grew, one upon another,
a people beyond counting; and they built houses
of every kind, and cities too, and walls they raised,
well and skillfully; and to them a long-lasting day
was granted for a life much beloved; for not in pain
worn down did they die, but as though overcome by sleep;
blessed were those great-hearted mortals, whom he loved,
the immortal savior, God the king. But even they
went astray, struck with folly. For shamelessly
they mocked their fathers and dishonored their mothers,
and plotted against their own kin, not knowing them as brothers.
They became defiled, gorged on the blood of men,
and made wars. Then upon them came a ruin,
a last one, hurled from heaven, which their dread
lives cut short; and Hades in turn received them;
and they called it Hades, since Adam was the first to go there,
having tasted death, and the earth covered him over.
Therefore all men born upon the earth
are called to go into the house of Hades.
But all these, even having gone down into Hades,
kept their honor, since they were the first race.
But when he had received these, a second
of the most righteous men left behind,
he fashioned another race, richly varied, to whom mattered
lovely works and noble pursuits and surpassing reverence
and close-woven wisdom; and they practiced arts
of every kind, discovering inventions out of their helplessness.
And one found how to till the earth with ploughs,
another to build, another cared to sail the sea,
another to watch the stars and read the omens of birds,
drug-lore fell to one, and magic again to another;
and others each crafted their own several concerns,
Watchers, men of bread-winning skill, sharing this name
because in their minds they held a sleepless understanding.
insatiable of body; strong in their mighty form
they were; yet still they came beneath Tartarus' dread house,
bound fast in unbreakable chains, to pay the price
into the birth of fierce, raging, unwearied fire.
From these, thereafter, again a mighty-hearted race
appeared, a third race of overweening men,
terrible men, who wrought much evil among themselves.
And these, battles and manslaughters and wars
kept destroying without pause, though their hearts were violent.
From these, after this, there came down a late-fated,
youngest race, another, blood-stained, reckless in counsel,
of men, in the fourth generation; who poured out much
blood, fearing neither God nor men,
nor showing shame; for indeed upon them had fallen
a maddening frenzy of wrath and grievous impiety.
And these, wars and manslaughters and battles
sent down to Erebus, wretched as they were —
impious men. But others, afterward, in his wrath,
the heavenly God himself removed from his world,
casting them into Tartarus, beneath the earth's great depths.
And again another race, far worse, thereafter
of men he made, for whom nothing good thereafter
the immortal God fashioned, since they wrought much evil.
For these were far more insolent than those
crooked Giants, foully pouring out cursed words.
Alone among them all, most righteous and true
was Noah, most faithful, devoted to good works.
And to him God himself spoke thus from heaven:
"Noah, take courage in your own body, and to all the people
proclaim repentance, that all may be saved.
But if, having shameless hearts, they will not heed,
I will destroy the whole race with mighty floods of waters.
But for you, swiftly, upon roots that never thirst, flourishing,
I bid you fashion a house of timber, imperishable.
I will place in your breast understanding, and cunning skill,
and measures for its hold; and I will care for everything,
so that you may be saved, and all who dwell with you.
I myself am the One who is; consider this in your mind:
I am clothed in heaven, and wrapped about with the sea,
the earth is the support of my feet, and around my body is poured
the air, and the chorus of stars runs round me on every side.
Nine letters I have; I am four syllables; understand me:
the first three each have two letters,
and the last has the rest, and five of them are mute;
and of the whole number there are twice eight hundreds,
and three, three tens together with seven. And knowing who I am,
you shall not be uninitiated in the wisdom that is mine."
So he spoke; and boundless trembling seized him at what he heard.
And then, with understanding, having crafted each thing,
he entreated the peoples, and began his words as follows:
"Men gorged on faithlessness, driven by a monstrous frenzy,
God will not fail to notice what you have done, for he sees everything,
the immortal savior who watches over all, who has commanded me
to announce it to you, so that you do not destroy yourselves in your minds.
Sober up, cut away your vices, and do not violently
fight one another with murderous hearts,
drenching the wide earth with human blood.
Show reverence, mortals, for the immense and fearless
heavenly builder, the imperishable God who dwells in the sky,
and all of you pray to him — he is kind —
pray to him for the life of your cities and of the whole world,
of four-footed creatures and birds, that he may be gracious to all.
For there will come a time when the whole boundless world of men,
perishing in waters, will wail a terrible song.
Suddenly the air will grow turbulent against you,
and the wrath of the great God will come from heaven upon you.
It will surely happen, when he sends it upon men —
the immortal savior — unless you appease God
and hold to repentance from now on, and no longer
let one man do to another anything harsh or wicked and lawless,
but rather keep guard over a holy life."
But hearing him, each of them sneered,
calling him deranged, a madman.
And then again Noah cried out his song once more:
"O you utterly wretched, evil-hearted, unstable men,
who have abandoned reverence and long for shamelessness,
tyrants in your turmoil, sinners and violent,
liars gorged on faithlessness, wrongdoers with no truth in you at all,
seducers of beds, sophists pouring out foul speech,
not fearing the wrath of God Most High,
reserved for payment down to the fifth generation.
You do not weep for one another, hard-hearted men, but laugh —
you will laugh a sardonic laugh, when it comes,
this, I tell you, the fearful and oncoming water of God.
[When the foul offspring of Rhea, flourishing on earth
in unquenchable roots, an ever-flowing wave,
becomes vanished, trunk and all, in a single night,
and the earthshaker who shakes the ground scatters
the hiding-places of the earth and breaks apart the walls of cities full of their men.]
And then the whole world of countless men
will die. But how much shall I grieve, how much shall I weep
in my wooden house, how many tears shall I mingle with the waves?
For when this water commanded by God comes upon us,
the earth will sail, the mountains will sail, and the sky too will sail,
everything will be water, and in the waters everything will perish.
The winds will stop, and there will be a second age.
O Phrygia, you will be first to rise up from the crest of the water;
you will be first in turn to nurture another generation of men
beginning anew; you will be the nurse of all."
But when he had spoken these things in vain to that lawless generation,
The Most High appeared, and again he cried out and spoke:
"Now the time is come, Noah, to declare each thing,
all that on that day I promised you and pledged,
all the countless evils that generations before have wrought,
to do to the boundless world because of a disobedient people.
But quickly go aboard with your sons and your wife
and your daughters-in-law. And call, as many as I bid you summon,
the tribes of four-footed beasts, and creeping things, and birds.
Into their breasts I myself will afterward cast
the willing impulse to come, as many as I ordain to live."
So he spoke; and Noah went, and cried out greatly and spoke.
And then in turn his wife and his sons and his daughters-in-law
entered into the house of timber; and thereafter
the rest went in, each kind, all that god willed to bring to pass.
But when the fitted bolt was set about the lid,
joined crosswise into the smooth-planed wall,
then indeed the counsel of the heavenly god was accomplished.
He gathered the clouds together, and hid the fire-bright disk,
and with the stars the moon, and heaven's crown of light,
and wrapping all things round he thundered greatly, a terror to mortals,
sending storm-blasts; and the winds rose up together,
all of them, and every vein of the waters was loosed,
as the great cataracts of heaven were opened wide,
and from the hidden depths of earth and the tireless abyss
countless waters appeared, and the earth was covered,
the whole boundless earth. And upon the flood there floated
the god-fashioned house; and by many raging waves
buffeted, and swimming beneath the gusts of the winds,
it was driven in terror; its keel cut through boundless foam
of the stirred waters as they rushed and roared.
But when god had drowned the whole world with rains,
then in turn he put it into Noah's mind, that he might look forth
to see the will of the immortal, and behold the flood's abating,
swiftly he opened the lid from the smooth-planed wall,
skillfully fitted with joints set opposite each other.
And seeing the great multitude of boundless waters
everywhere before his eyes, appearing to be seen,
terror seized him and shook his heart greatly. And then the air,
having drawn in a little, since for many days it had labored
drenching the whole world, then, toward evening, pale and wan,
showed the great blood-red vault and the fire-bright disk
worn out and weary; and scarcely did Noah regain his courage.
And then, setting apart a raven alone,
he sent it forth, that he might know in his mind whether the earth
yet appeared solid. But it, wearying its wings,
flying about everywhere, turned back again; for the water
had not yet abated, for it had filled every place completely.
But he, waiting quietly, again after some days sent forth a dove
once more, that he might know whether the great waters had ceased.
And she, on the wing, flew forth, and went out over the earth,
Resting her body a little while on the wet earth,
she came back again to Noah, bearing an olive twig,
a sign, the token of great news. Courage filled everyone,
and great joy, since now they hoped to see the land.
And then after that another bird, black-winged,
he swiftly sent out; and it, trusting in its wings,
flew on eagerly, and coming to the land it stayed there.
And Noah knew that the land was near, close by.
But when upon the rushing waves, here and there,
the ark of wondrous craft went floating on the swells of the sea,
it settled fast, made firm, upon a narrow shore.
There is a place on the dark mainland of Phrygia,
a towering, long-stretching mountain, and it is called Ararat,
since indeed upon it all were destined to be saved;
and in that place there was a great and cherished longing—
for there the springs of the great river Marsyas rise.
On this the ark came to rest, upon its lofty peaks,
when the waters had subsided; and then again from heaven above
the awful voice of the great God cried out once more,
speaking this word: "Noah, well-guarded, faithful, righteous one,
go forth boldly with your sons and with your wife
and the three brides, and fill the whole earth,
increasing, multiplying, dealing out justice
to one another, generation after generation, until the judgment comes
upon every race of men, since judgment shall be for all."
So spoke the immortal voice. And Noah from his resting place
rushed forth, taking courage, onto the earth, and with him his sons
and his wife and the brides, and creeping things and winged things,
the races of four-footed beasts, and all the rest together
went out of the wooden house into one place.
And then indeed Noah, most righteous of men,
came forth on the eighth, the forty-first dawn,
once it had been filled with waters, through the counsels of the great God.
There again a new generation of life sprang up,
the golden race, the first, which is the sixth, and the best,
since the first-formed man came to be; and its name
is Heavenly, because it shall be wholly devoted to God.
O first race of the sixth generation, O great joy,
which fell to me afterward, when I escaped steep destruction,
tossed much upon the waves with my own husband and my husband's brothers
and my father-in-law and mother-in-law and the wives of my husband's brothers, suffering terrible things.
Fitting things I shall foretell: there shall be a many-colored flower
upon a fig tree; and time shall come to its middle course; a kingly rule,
scepter-bearing, it shall hold. For three great-hearted kings,
most righteous men, shall bring destruction upon their portions;
and for many years they shall rule, dealing out justice
to men who care for labor and for lovely works.
And the earth again exults in its own self-grown fruits,
springing up abundantly, overflowing in harvest for that generation.
And their nurturers, ageless through all their days,
they shall be, free of chill and wasting diseases,
and shall die struck down by sleep; and down to Acheron,
into the house of Hades, they shall pass, and there
shall hold honor, since they were the race of the blessed,
happy men, to whom Sabaoth gave a noble mind,
and with whom he always took counsel besides.
But these, blessed, even having gone down into Hades,
shall remain so. Then again, heavy and strong thereafter,
a second, other race of earthborn men shall come,
the Titans. And one likeness shall belong to all alike—
one form, one stature, one nature, and one voice—
as long ago, from the first generation, God had set it
within their breasts. But these too, having hearts too proud,
shall in the end take counsel, driven on toward ruin,
to make open war against the starry heaven.
And then upon them shall come the flood of the great ocean,
its waters raging. But great Sabaoth, in wrath,
shall shut it back and hold it, for he had not sworn
to make a flood again upon evil-hearted men.
But whenever the boundless swell of many waters,
of the rising wave, drives now this way, now that,
to cease from its fury, and into the deep places of the sea
lessens its measure, toward harbors and rugged shores,
bounding it about the earth—the great god of the high thunderbolt—
then indeed the child of the great God, to mankind
shall come, clothed in flesh, made like mortals upon earth,
bearing four vowels, and the unvoiced letter within him
twofold; and I will tell you the whole number outright:
for eight units, and as many tens besides these,
and eight hundreds shall he declare his name
to men without faith; but do you take it to heart—
the child of the immortal, highest God is Christ.
He himself shall fulfill God's law, not tear it down,
bearing its very likeness stamped upon him, and shall teach all things.
To him priests shall bring their offerings, gold set forth,
myrrh, and frankincense too—for all this he shall accept.
But when a voice, out of the desolate land,
shall come proclaiming to mortals, and cry out to all
to make the pathways straight, and to cast away
wickedness from the heart, and to be made bright by water
in every limb, so that men, born again from above,
may no longer at all transgress the bounds of the just—
but that one, the barbarous-minded, bound fast by the dancing,
shall cut him down and pay it as a wage; then a sign to mortals
shall come of a sudden, when, kept safe, there arrives
out of the land of Egypt a fair stone; and against it
the people of the Hebrews shall stumble; but nations shall gather,
led by his guidance; for indeed the god who rules on high
they shall come to know, through this path, in the common light.
For he shall show eternal life to mankind
on the chosen ones, but on the lawless he will bring fire for ages.
and then he will heal the sick and those held in reproach,
all who place their faith in him.
the blind will see, and the lame will walk,
the deaf will hear, and those who could not speak will talk.
he will drive out demons, and there will be a rising of the dead;
he will walk on the waves, and in a lonely place
from five loaves and a fish out of the sea
he will feed five thousand full, and of what remains
he will fill twelve baskets, for the hope of the peoples. — —
and then Israel, drunk, will not understand,
nor again will it hear, its ears grown heavy and dull.
but when the wrath of the Most High comes upon the Hebrews,
maddened with frenzy, and takes their faith away from them,
because they did outrage to the heavenly son of God,
then indeed with blows and with venomous spitting
Israel will assail him with its filthy lips.
for food they will give him gall, and for drink unmixed vinegar,
impiously, struck by their evil frenzy,
in breast and heart, yet seeing nothing with their eyes,
blinder than moles, more fearsome than crawling
venomous beasts, bound fast in heavy sleep.
but when he stretches out his hands and measures all things
and wears the crown of thorns, and they pierce his side
with reeds, for whose sake, in the space of three hours,
there will be monstrous darkness, night at midday,
and then the temple of Solomon will show mankind
a great sign, when to the house of Hades
he goes, proclaiming resurrection to the dead.
but when after three days he comes again to the light
and shows mortals the pattern, and teaches them all things,
mounting upon the clouds he will journey to the house of heaven,
leaving to the world the covenant of good tidings.
of him a new shoot will flower in his name,
out of the nations led by the law of the Great One.
but after this there will also be wise guides,
and then afterward there will be a ceasing of prophets.
from then, when the Hebrews reap the evil harvest,
a Roman king will carry off much gold
and silver besides. and after him other kingships
will follow one on another as kingdoms perish,
and they will oppress mortals. and great will be the fall
for those men, when they begin their unjust arrogance.
but when the temple of Solomon, in the holy land,
falls, cast down by men of barbarous speech
clad in bronze armor, the Hebrews will be driven from the land,
wandering, plundered, and much darnel
they will mix into the grain; evil discord will befall
all men; and the cities, outraged at every turn,
will weep for one another, since they took upon themselves
an evil deed, receiving the great wrath of God into their bosoms.
When God at last had stilled the all-wise song,
who had begged him much, and again in my breast
he set the joyous voice of inspired words.
Struck through my whole frame, I follow after these; for I do not know
what I say, but God bids me proclaim each thing.
But whenever upon the earth violent quakings and raging thunderbolts,
and thunders and lightnings . . . and blight upon the earth,
and madness of jackals and of wolves, and slaughters of men,
and deaths of men, or of lowing oxen too,
of four-footed cattle and of toiling mules,
and of goats and sheep — then the barren field,
left much untended, will come from neglect,
and the crops will fail, and free men will be sold into bondage
among most mortals, and temple-robbing of shrines.
Then also, after these things, the tenth generation
of men will appear, when the earth-shaking thunderbolt-hurler
shatters the people's zeal for idols and shakes
the people of seven-hilled Rome, and great wealth will perish,
burned in much fire by the flame of Hephaestus.
And then, blood-red, descending from the heavens —
but the whole world of countless men,
raging, will slay one another, and in the tumult
God will loose hunger and pestilence and bolts of fire
upon men who judge their statutes apart from justice.
There will be a diminishing of men throughout the whole world,
so that, if one should see a footprint on the earth, he would marvel
at a man. Then again the great God dwelling in the sky
will become in all things the savior of pious men.
And then there will be deep peace and understanding,
and the fruit-bearing earth will bear yet more abundant fruits again,
neither divided up nor any longer enslaved.
Every harbor, every haven will be free
to men, as it was before, and shamelessness will perish.
And then indeed God will afterward make a great sign:
for a star like a bright crown will shine,
brilliant, all-radiant, from the glorious heaven,
for not a few days; then to men a crown
he will display from heaven for those contending in the games,
and . . . (corrupt); for there will be a great entrance-contest
into the heavenly city, and it will be open to all people
of the world, holding the glory of immortality.
And then all the people, for immortal prizes,
will contend for a most beautiful victory; for no one there
can shamelessly purchase the crown with silver.
For holy Christ will award them just judgments
and will crown the approved, and will give the prize to the witnesses,
immortal, to those who make the contest even unto death.
And to virgins who have run well he will give an incorruptible prize
of that contest, and to those who deal out justice,
to all men and to peoples of foreign nations.
to those who live in holiness and know the one God.
But those who love marriage and refrain from adultery,
he will give rich gifts, and everlasting hope besides.
For every soul of mortal men is a gift of God,
and it is not right for men to stain it with every kind of grief.
Do not grow rich unjustly, but live from holy gains.
Be content with what you have, and keep from what belongs to others.
Speak no falsehoods, but guard all that is true.
(Do not worship idols in vain — but the one who never perishes.)
Honor God first, and after him your parents.
Deal out all things justly, and never come to unjust judgment.
Do not cast down the poor unjustly, and do not judge by appearance.
If you judge wrongly, God will afterward judge you.
Flee false witness, and give the verdict that is just.
Guard what is entrusted to you; keep love in all things.
Give just measures; and let the measure run over for all.
Do not tip the scale unevenly, but weigh things equal.
Do not swear falsely, neither unknowing nor of your own will.
God hates the false swearer, whatever oath a man has sworn.
(Never take into your hand a gift from unjust deeds.)
Do not steal seed; cursed is whoever takes it —
(cursed unto generations of generations, unto the scattering of life.
Do not lie with a male, do not slander, and do not murder.)
Give wages to the one who toils; do not oppress the poor.
Hold your tongue in check by your mind; keep a hidden word in your heart.
(Give to orphans, widows, and those in need.)
Neither wish to do wrong, nor let a wrongdoer go free.
Give to the poor at once, and do not tell them to come tomorrow.
(Give with a hand that has sweated for the grain to one in need.
Whoever gives alms knows that he lends to God.
Mercy rescues from death, when judgment comes.
God wants not sacrifice, but mercy in place of sacrifice.
Clothe the naked, then, and share your bread with the hungry.)
Take the homeless into your house, and guide the blind.
Pity the shipwrecked, for the voyage is uncertain.
Give a hand to the one who has fallen; save a man who stands alone.
Suffering is common to all, life is a wheel, and prosperity unstable.
If you have wealth, stretch out your hand to the poor.
Of what God has given you, give to one in need.
Life is common to all mortals, though it is shaped unequal.
(Never, seeing a poor man, mock him with your words,
nor speak harshly to any man marked by blame.
Life is tested in death; if a man has done
lawless deeds or just, he is judged when he comes to judgment.
Do not harm your mind with wine, nor drink beyond measure.
Do not eat blood, and abstain from what is sacrificed to idols.)
Gird on the sword not for murder, but for defense.
May you never use it, neither unlawfully nor even justly —
for even if you kill an enemy, you stain your own hand.
Keep away from your neighbor's field, and do not cross its bounds.
Every boundary is just, and transgression brings grief.
Wealth is a blessing to the righteous, but to the unjust it is ruin.
Do not harm any fruit of the field as it ripens.
Let strangers be held in equal honor among the citizens;
for all will know the many hardships of exile,
(strangers to one another; yet none among you
shall be a stranger, since all mortals are of one blood,)
and no land holds a fixed place for men.
(Do not wish to be rich, nor pray for it; pray instead
to live on little, possessing nothing unjust.)
Love of money is the mother of every evil.
(Let there be no craving for gold or silver; for in these too
a double-edged, soul-destroying iron shall be found.)
Silver and gold are forever a trap laid for mankind.
Gold, author of evils, destroyer of life, corrupter of all things,
would that you had never become a longed-for torment to mortals;
for through you come wars and plunder and murders,
and children grow hateful to parents, and brothers to their own kin.
(Do not weave deceits; do not arm your heart against a friend.)
Do not hide one thought in your heart while speaking another;
and do not shift about like an octopus clinging to the rock.
Be plain and open with everyone, and say what comes from the soul.
Whoever does wrong willingly is a wicked man; but whoever does so under compulsion—
I will not declare the outcome; the intent of each is the true judge.
Do not exult in wisdom, nor in strength, nor in wealth;
God alone is wise and mighty and rich in every blessing.
Do not wear out your heart over evils that are past;
for what has been done can no longer be undone.
Be not quick with your hand; hold the wild temper in check;
for often a blow struck unwillingly has ended in murder.
Let sufferings be shared in common; seek nothing great or overweening.
Excess was never a good gift to mortals.
Great luxury draws men toward measureless desires.
Great wealth puffs up the heart and swells into arrogance.
Anger, once kindled, breeds a ruinous madness.
Wrath is desire; when it oversteps its bound, it becomes rage.
Zeal for good things is noble, but zeal for base things is base.
Daring in evil is destructive, but in good deeds it brings glory.
Reverent is the love of virtue, but the love of Cypris brings shame.
He who is *gentle and kind* is called sweet among the citizens.
Eat, drink, and speak in due measure;
measure is best in all things; transgression brings grief.
(Be not envious, be not faithless, be not slanderous,
nor ill-minded, nor a boundless deceiver of others.)
Practice self-control, and hold back from shameful deeds.
Do not imitate wickedness; leave vengeance to justice;
for persuasion is a blessing, but strife breeds further strife.
Do not trust too quickly, before you see the outcome clearly.
This is the contest, these are the prizes, these the rewards,
this is the gate of life and the entrance to immortality,
which the heavenly God, for the most righteous of men,
set up as the prize of victory; and they who take
the crown shall pass through it in glory.
But when this sign shall appear throughout the whole world,
children born gray-templed from their very birth,
afflictions of men, famines, plagues, and wars,
and change of times, and mournings, and many tears,
ah, how many children in their lands shall feast
on their parents, piteously wailing as they do it, and wrapping the flesh
in cloths, shall bury it in the earth, mother of nations,
smeared with blood and dust — O greatly wretched,
men of the last generation, dread and evil-working,
foolish, and understanding nothing, that when the tribes of women
bear no more children, the harvest of mortal men has come.
The consummation is near, when certain men in place of prophets
shall draw close upon the earth, deceivers proclaiming falsehoods.
And Beliar too shall come, and shall work many signs
for men. Then there shall be turmoil among holy men,
the elect and the faithful, and plundering shall come
upon these and upon the Hebrews. Dread wrath shall come upon them,
when the ten-tribed people shall come from the east
seeking the people whom the Assyrian branch destroyed,
their Hebrew kinsmen; and the nations shall perish before them.
Afterward again shall rule over overweening men
the elect and faithful Hebrews, enslaving
them as before, since power shall never fail them.
The Most High, overseer of all, dwelling in the heavens,
shall pour sleep upon men, covering their eyelids round about.
O blessed servants, as many as, when he comes, watching
the Master shall find; for they are all awake,
ever expectant with unslumbering eyes.
For he shall come at dawn, or at evening, or at midday;
and he shall come surely, and it shall be as I proclaim,
it shall be for those yet to be, when from the starry heaven
all the stars shall appear to all in the midst of the day
together with the two great lights, as the time draws near.
And then the Thesbite, stretching his chariot
from heaven, and setting foot upon the earth, shall then show three signs
to the whole world, as life is perishing.
Ah, all the women who in that day, heavy with burden,
shall be found with child, and all who give their infants
the breast, and all who dwell upon the waves;
ah, all who shall behold that day;
for a murky darkness shall cover the boundless world,
east and west and south and north.
And then indeed a great river of blazing fire
shall flow down from heaven and consume every place,
earth, and the great ocean, and the gray sea,
lakes and rivers, springs, and pitiless Hades,
and the vault of heaven. But the heavenly lights
shall crash together into one, into a shape utterly desolate.
For all the stars will fall from heaven into the sea,
and all the souls of men will gnash with their teeth,
burning in a river and in brimstone and in the onrush of fire
on a raging floor, and ash will cover everything.
And then all the elements of the world will be left widowed,
air, earth, sea, light, sky, days, nights;
and no longer will the countless birds fly in the air,
no swimming creatures will swim at all any more in the sea,
no laden ship will voyage upon the waves,
no guiding oxen will plow the field,
no rustling of trees beneath the gales; yet everything together
will melt into one and be sifted out pure.
But when the undying messengers of the immortal God
Barakiel, Ramiel, Uriel, Samiel, and Azael,
themselves knowing all the evils each man wrought before,
shall lead the souls of men out of the murky darkness
all of them to judgment, before the tribunal of God,
the great immortal one; for he alone is undying,
the Almighty himself, who will be judge of mortals;
and then to those below souls and spirit and voice
the heavenly one will give, and bones fitted
with joints of every kind, flesh and sinews . . .
and veins and skin about the flesh, and hair as before,
immortally knit together, and breathing, set in motion,
the bodies of earth-dwellers will rise up in a single day.
And then, of unyielding and unbreakable adamant
the monstrous bolts of the gates and the unforged doors of Hades,
Uriel the great angel, bursting them, will straightway cast down,
and he will lead to judgment all the many-mourned forms
of phantoms, above all of the primeval Titans
and of the Giants, and as many as the flood took,
and as many as the wave of the sea destroyed in the deep,
and as many as beasts and reptiles and birds
feasted upon, all these he will summon to the tribunal;
and again those whom the flesh-devouring fire destroyed in flame,
these too, gathering them, he will set before the tribunal of God.
And when he has raised up the dead, dissolving their fate,
and Sabaoth Adonai, the high-thundering one, is seated
upon the heavenly throne, and sets up a great pillar,
he himself, the undying one, will come on a cloud to the undying one,
in glory, Christ, with his blameless messengers,
and will sit at the right hand of the Great One, judging from the tribunal
the life of the pious and the ways of impious men.
Moses too will come, the great friend of the Most High,
putting on flesh again; and Abraham himself, the great one, will come,
Isaac and Jacob, Joshua, Daniel and Elijah,
Habakkuk and Jonah, and those whom the Hebrews killed.
And those after Jeremiah he will destroy utterly at the tribunal,
the Hebrews being judged, so that they may receive the wages of their deeds
and pay for whatever each did in mortal life.
And then indeed all shall pass through the burning river
and through unquenchable flame; and the just
shall all be saved; but the impious upon them shall perish
for whole ages — all who did evil before,
and who committed murders, and all who were accomplices to them,
liars and thieves and treacherous, dreadful home-wreckers,
lurkers at another's table, adulterers pouring out foul words,
terrible men, violent, lawless, and idolaters;
and all who abandoned the great immortal God,
and became blasphemers and plunderers of the pious,
betrayers of trust and destroyers of righteous men;
and all who, before deceitful and shameless two-faced men —
elders, venerable ones, ministers — take notice…
showing them respect, judge unjustly, favoring others,
persuaded by false and deceitful reports . . . . . .
more destructive than leopards or wolves, and worst of all;
and all who are greatly arrogant, and usurers,
who gather interest upon interest through their houses
and ruin orphans and widows in every way;
and all who give to widows and orphans
out of unjust deeds — and those who, giving from their own labors,
then reproach the gift; and all who left their parents in old age
unpaid entirely, not returning nourishment to their parents
in exchange, and rather were disobedient
and answered back with harsh words against their begetters;
and all who took pledges of trust and then denied them;
and servants who turned against their masters;
and again those who defiled the flesh with wantonness,
and all who loosed the virgin girdle
mingling in secret, and as many as cast from the womb the burden
they carry, and as many as throw away their offspring unlawfully;
sorcerers and sorceresses, and along with them these too —
the wrath of the heavenly and incorruptible God
shall drive to the pillar, where round about the whole circle
a tireless river of fire flows; and all these together
the angels of the immortal God who is forever
with fiery whips and with chains of fire,
binding them fast with unbreakable bonds from above,
shall punish most terribly; then in the dead of night
they shall be thrown to beasts of Tartarus, born
of many fearsome kinds, where the darkness is boundless.
But when they have inflicted many punishments
on all whose hearts were evil, then afterward again
out of the great river a fiery wheel shall roll round
upon them, because reckless deeds were their concern.
And then they shall wail, one apart from another, far off,
in most piteous fate — fathers and infant children,
mothers and their nursing babes, all in tears.
Nor shall there be for them a surfeit of tears, nor even a voice
he will hear the pitiful wailing of one another, this one and that,
but far off, beneath dark and moldering Tartarus,
tormented, they will cry out; and in unholy places
they will pay three times over for the evil deed they committed,
burning in great fire; and they will gnash their teeth,
all wasting away from raging thirst and violence,
and they will call death a good thing, and it will flee from them.
For no longer will death give these men rest, nor night.
And often in vain they will beg the god who rules on high,
and then he will openly turn his face away from them.
For seven ages he gave days for repentance
to men who had gone astray, through the hand of a holy virgin.
But the others, all those who cared for justice and noble deeds
and piety too, and the most righteous reasonings,
angels will lift up through the burning river
and lead into light and into a life free of care,
where lies the immortal path of the great god,
and three springs, of wine and honey and milk.
And the earth, equal to all, with no walls and no enclosures,
divided among them, will then bear more abundant fruits
of its own accord, and life will be shared, and wealth without division.
For there will be no poor man there, no rich man, no tyrant,
no slave, and none great or small any longer,
no kings, no rulers; but all alike together.
And no one at all will ever say, "night has come," nor yet "tomorrow,"
nor "yesterday happened," nor will anyone fret over the run of days,
no spring, no summer, no winter, no autumn,
no marriage, no death, no selling, no buying,
no setting, no rising of the sun; for he will make one long day.
And to them the almighty, imperishable God will grant still more:
to the pious, whenever they ask the imperishable God,
out of the raging fire and from the undying gnashing of teeth,
he will grant that men be saved; and this he will do.
For having chosen them out again from the unwearied flame,
removing them elsewhere, he will send them, for his own people's sake,
into another life, everlasting, among the immortals,
to the Elysian plain, where for him roll the long waves
of the ever-flowing lake, deep-bosomed Acherusia.
Ah, wretched me, what will become of me on that day,
because I, foolish in mind, having labored over everything,
sinned, caring neither for marriage nor for right reasoning,
but even in the halls of my wealth-hoarding husband
shut out those in need; and lawless things I did before,
knowing it. But you, Savior, from my tormentors
rescue me, shameless creature that I am, though I acted without shame.
And here I beg you to let me rest a little from my song,
holy bestower of manna, sovereign of the mighty realm.
From the Second Discourse, Concerning God
High-thundering, blessed one, heavenly, who upon the Cherubim
art enthroned, I beseech you, who have declared all truth,
stay me a little while, for my heart within is spent.
But why does my heart pound again, and my spirit,
struck as with a lash, is driven from within to raise its voice
and proclaim to all; yet again I will tell out everything,
all that God bids me proclaim to mankind.
Men who bear a god-fashioned form in your image,
why do you wander in vain, and not the straight path
walk, remembering always the undying Creator?
One God there is, sole ruler, unutterable, dwelling in the sky,
self-begotten, unseen, himself beholding all things.
No hand of stone-cutter made him, nor out of gold
does craft of man display his likeness, nor of ivory;
but he himself revealed himself, eternal, being of himself,
existing now and having existed before, and again hereafter.
For what mortal can behold God with his eyes?
Or who can bear even to hear his name alone,
the heavenly God, the great, who rules the world,
who by his word made all things, both heaven and sea,
and the unwearying sun and the moon at her full,
and the shining stars, and mighty mother Tethys,
springs and rivers, unfailing fire, days and nights,
he himself is God who fashioned Adam of four letters,
the first man fashioned, who fulfilled the name
of the rising and the setting, the noonday and the north.
He it was who set the pattern of mortal shape,
and made the beasts, and creeping things, and birds.
You do not revere, nor fear God, but wander vainly,
bowing before serpents and sacrificing to cats,
to voiceless idols and to stone images of men;
and sitting before the doors of godless temples
keep watch over the God that is, who guards all things,
delighting in the vileness of stones, forgetting the judgment
of the immortal Savior, who made heaven and earth.
Ah, blood-loving race, deceitful, wicked, impious,
of lying, double-tongued men and evil-minded,
bed-defilers, idol-worshippers, contriving deceit,
in whose breasts is evil, in whom a maddened frenzy dwells,
seizing for themselves, having shameless hearts;
for no one rich and possessing will share with another,
but there will be dread wickedness for all mortals,
and they will hold no faith at all, and widowed women
will secretly cleave to other men, many for gain,
not keeping the bond of life allotted to their husbands.
But when Rome shall also rule over Egypt,
still tarrying, then indeed the greatest kingdom
of the immortal King will appear among men.
And a holy Lord shall come, to hold the scepter of all the earth
into all the ages of hurrying time.
and then the unappeasable wrath of the men of Latium—
three shall bring Rome to ruin by a piteous fate.
and all men shall perish beneath their own roofs,
when from heaven a fiery cataract shall pour down.
woe is me, wretched one, when shall that day come,
and the judgment of the immortal, the great king god?
even now you are still building cities, and adorning them all
with temples and stadiums, marketplaces, golden images,
of silver and of stone, that you may come to a bitter day.
for it shall come, when the reek of brimstone shall pass
through all mankind. but I will declare each thing in turn,
in how many cities men bring evil upon themselves.
and out of the Sebastenes shall come Beliar hereafter,
and he shall set up the height of mountains, he shall halt the sea,
the great fiery sun and the shining moon,
and he shall raise the dead and work many signs
for men; but nothing of it shall come to fulfillment,
but he shall lead men astray, and he shall lead many astray,
the faithful and the chosen, Hebrews and lawless men and other
men besides, who have not yet heard the word of God.
but when the threats of the great God draw near,
and a blazing power comes through the surge upon the earth,
it shall burn up Beliar and all the arrogant men
who put their faith in him;
and then indeed the world under the hands of a woman
shall be ruled, and obedient in everything.
there, when a widowed woman holds sway across the entire earth,
and shall cast gold and silver into the divine sea,
and bronze too, and the iron of men who live but for a day,
shall cast into the deep, then indeed every element
shall be widowed of the world, when God who dwells in the sky
shall roll up the heaven, as a scroll is rolled up;
and the whole many-shaped vault of the sky shall fall upon the holy earth
and upon the sea; and there shall flow a cataract of raging fire,
unwearied, and it shall burn the earth, and burn the sea,
and the vault of heaven, and the days, and creation itself
it shall melt into one and refine to purity.
and no more the joyous spheres of the luminaries,
no night, no dawn, no more the many days you fret over,
no spring, no summer, no winter, no autumn.
and then indeed the judgment of the great God shall come into the midst
of the great age, when all these things come to pass.
woe, woe for the sailing waters and for all the dry land!
for the sun rising, which shall not again go down,
all the world shall obey it as it rises anew;
wherefore he himself first knew it, and its power.
but when the threats of the great God are fulfilled,
which once he threatened against mortals, when they built the tower
in the land of Assyria; and all of them were of one speech
and they wished to climb up into the starry heaven;
but at once the Immortal One laid a great constraint
upon the winds; and then the winds hurled the great tower on high
down, and stirred up strife among mortals against one another;
for this cause mortals gave the city the name Babylon.
But when that tower toppled down, and the speech of mortals
was twisted into every kind of tongue, then the whole
earth was filled with mortals, and kingdoms were divided,
and then indeed came the tenth generation of speaking men,
counting from when the flood came upon the men before.
And Cronos reigned, and Titan, and Iapetos,
the mightiest offspring born of Gaia and Ouranos, called by mortals
Earth and Heaven, giving them these names,
because they were the very first of speaking men.
Threefold were the portions of earth, allotted to each by lot,
and each ruled holding his own share, and they did not fight;
for there were oaths, and the father's shares were just.
But then the appointed time of the father's old age came upon him,
and he died; and the sons, transgressing the oaths,
stirred up a terrible strife against one another,
over who should hold the royal honor over all mortals
and rule; so Cronos and Titan waged war on one another.
But Rhea and Gaia and garland-loving Aphrodite,
Demeter and Hestia and lovely-haired Dione,
brought them to friendship, gathering together the kings,
all the brothers of one blood, and also the other
men who were of their blood and lineage;
and they judged that Cronos should be king and rule over all,
because he was the eldest and best in form.
But Titan in turn laid great oaths upon Cronos,
not to raise up any male offspring, so that he himself might rule
when old age and fate should come upon Cronos.
And whenever Rhea gave birth, the Titans sat beside her
and tore apart all the male children,
but let the females live and be raised beside their mother.
But when queenly Rhea bore the third generation,
Hera was born first; and when with their own eyes
the Titans saw the female child, the savage men went away.
And then Rhea bore a male child,
whom she swiftly sent away in secret to be raised apart,
taking three sworn Cretan men, into Phrygia;
for this reason they named him Zeus, because he was sent away.
In the same way she sent Poseidon away in secret.
A third time Rhea, divine among women, bore Plouton,
passing by Dodona, whence flowed the watery paths
of the river Europos, and its water streamed into the sea,
mingled with the Peneios, and they call it the Stygian stream.
But when the Titans heard that sons existed,
secretly begotten, whom Cronos and his consort Rhea had sown,
then Titan gathered together sixty sons
and he held Kronos in chains, and Rhea his consort,
and hid her in the earth and kept her bound in fetters.
and then, unwilling, the offspring of mighty Kronos learned of it,
and they roused against him a great war and tumult.
and this became the beginning of war for all mortals.
[for this was the first beginning of war for mortals].
and then God delivered evil into the hands of the Titans.
and all the generations of the Titans and of Kronos
died. but afterward, as time rolled on,
the kingdom of Egypt arose, and then that of the Persians,
the Medes, the Ethiopians, and Assyrian Babylon,
then the Macedonians, then Egypt again, then Rome.
and then the utterance of the great God stood
in my breast, and bade me prophesy over all
the earth, and set before kings the things that are to be.
and this God first put into my mind,
how many kingdoms of men shall arise.
for the house of Solomon shall rule first of all,
then the Phoenicians, masters of Asia and of other
islands, and the race of Pamphylians and Persians and Phrygians,
the Carians and Mysians, and the race of the gold-rich Lydians.
then after them the Greeks, insolent and unholy;
another great and manifold nation of Macedon shall rule,
who shall bring a fearsome cloud of war upon mortals.
but the heavenly God shall utterly destroy them from the depths.
and then there shall be the beginning of another kingdom,
white and many-headed, from the western sea,
which shall rule over much land, and shake many peoples,
and shall bring fear afterward upon all kings,
and shall carry off much gold and silver besides
out of many cities; and once more upon the holy ground there will be
gold, and then silver too, and ornament.
and they shall oppress mortals. and great shall be the fall
of those men, when they begin their unjust arrogance.
and at once among them there shall be a compulsion to godlessness,
and man shall lie with man, and they shall set up boys
in shameful brothels, and in those days there shall be
great oppression among men, and it shall throw everything into turmoil,
and it shall cut down everything and fill everything with evils
through shameful love of money and ill-gotten wealth,
in many lands, but most of all in Macedonia.
hatred shall arise, and every deceit shall be theirs.
[until the seventh kingdom, over which shall reign
a king of Egypt who shall be of the race of the Greeks.]
and then the nation of the great God shall again be strong,
who shall be guides of life for all mortals.
yet why has the Deity laid this further charge upon my thought, to speak,
what evil shall be first, what next, and what last of all
upon all mankind, and what shall stand as the opening of these things?
first God shall deliver evil into the hands of the Titans.
For they will pay the penalty to the sons of mighty Cronus,
because they bound Cronus and his honored mother.
A second time, for the Greeks there will be tyrannies and arrogant,
haughty kings, overbearing and unholy,
adulterers, wicked through and through, and never again for mortals
will there be rest from war. The Phrygians will perish terribly,
all of them, and evil will come upon Troy on that day.
At once evil will come upon the Persians and the Assyrians too,
upon all Egypt, Libya, and the Ethiopians,
upon the Carians and Pamphylians, evil enough to shake them from their place,
and upon all mortals. Why should I proclaim it point by point?
But when the first things reach their end, at once there will come
second things upon mankind. And first of all I will cry aloud.
Evil will come upon righteous men, who around the great
temple of Solomon dwell, and who of just
men are the offspring; likewise I will cry aloud of these too,
their tribe and the generation of their fathers and the whole people —
all of it in full detail, you devious mortal, crooked in your scheming.
There is a city ..... beneath the earth, Ur of the Chaldeans,
from which is the race of the most righteous men,
whose care is always for good counsel and noble deeds.
For they do not concern themselves with the circling course of the sun nor of the moon,
nor the monstrous works beneath the earth,
nor the depth of the gray-green sea, of Ocean,
nor signs of sneezing, nor the birds of the bird-diviners,
no seers, no sorcerers, nor indeed enchanters,
no foolish deceits of tales from belly-talking ventriloquists,
nor do they read the stars for the prophecies of the Chaldeans
nor do they practice astronomy; for all these things are error,
whatever foolish men search after day by day,
exercising their souls in work of no use at all;
and indeed they taught wretched errors to mankind,
from which many evils come to mortals upon the earth,
causing them to wander from good paths and just deeds.
But those others are concerned with righteousness and virtue,
and not with love of money, which breeds countless evils
for mortal men, war and boundless famine.
For them just measures prevail in field and city alike,
and they do not commit thefts by night against one another,
nor do they drive off herds of cattle, sheep, and goats,
nor does neighbor move the boundary-markers of neighbor's land,
nor does any man grown rich distress the poorer man,
nor does he oppress widows, but rather he helps them,
always giving aid with grain, wine, and oil;
and always the wealthy man in the community, toward those who have nothing,
toward the destitute, sends a share of his harvest,
fulfilling the word of the great God, the lawful hymn;
for the Heavenly One made the earth common to all.
But when the twelve-tribed people shall leave Egypt
and journey on their path under god-sent leaders
In a pillar of fire he went through the night,
and in a pillar of cloud he will journey the whole day through,
and over this people he will set as leader a great man,
Moses, whom a princess found by the marsh and carried home,
and having reared him she called him her son. And when he came
leading this people, whom God brought out of Egypt
to Mount Sinai, and the law from heaven above
God gave, writing on two tablets every just decree,
and commanded them to keep it; and if anyone should disobey,
either by the law he shall pay the penalty at mortal hands,
or, escaping men's notice, by every kind of justice he shall utterly perish.
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
for them alone the grain-giving field brings forth its fruit
a hundredfold from one seed, and God's own measures stand fulfilled.
But even upon these evil shall come, and they shall not escape
pestilence. And you too, indeed, leaving your most beautiful shrine,
shall flee, since it is your fate to leave the holy ground.
You will be led away to the Assyrians, and your infant children
you will see enslaved among hostile men,
and your wives; and all your livelihood and wealth shall perish;
and all the earth shall be full of you, and all the sea;
and everyone will be disgusted at your customs.
All your land shall be desolate; and the strong altar
and the temple of the great God and the long walls,
all shall fall to the ground, because in your heart you did not trust
the sacred law of the undying God, but, led astray,
you served hideous idols and did not fear
the immortal begetter of all gods and of men;
you were not willing to honor him, but honored the idols of mortals.
Because of this, for seven decades of years the fruit-giving earth
for to all the Heavenly One made the earth common,
and faith, and the best understanding in their hearts.
shall be wholly desolate, you and the wonders of your shrine.
But there awaits you a good end and the greatest glory,
as the immortal God has ordained for you. But do you remain,
trusting in the holy laws of the great God,
until your weary knee is lifted upright toward the light.
And then indeed the heavenly God will send a king,
and he will judge every man in blood and in the gleam of fire.
There is a certain royal tribe, whose line shall be
unfailing; and this, as the years roll round,
shall rule, and shall set about founding anew a shrine unto God.
And every Persian king in turn shall bring as tribute
gold and bronze and much-wrought iron.
For God himself will send a holy dream in the night.
And then indeed the temple will be again as it was before. ⁂
When at last my spirit ceased its inspired song,
and I begged the great Begetter to grant a respite from my compulsion,
and again the utterance of the great God rose within my breast,
He stood and bade me prophesy across all
the earth, and set before kings the things that are to be.
And this God first put into my mind to tell,
how many grim sorrows he devised for Babylon,
the Immortal, because she laid waste his great temple.
Woe to you, Babylon, and the race of Assyrian men,
a roaring blast comes at last upon the whole land of sinners,
and a great cry will destroy every country of mortal men
and the stroke of the great God, the leader of hymns.
For upon you, Babylon, a fiery doom will come from on high
[yea, it will descend from heaven upon you, from the holy ones]
and everlasting destruction for the children of your wrath.
And then you will be as you were before, as though you had never been;
and then you will be sated with blood, as you yourself once
poured out — of good men and of righteous men,
whose blood even now cries out to the long heavens.
A great blow shall come upon your houses, Egypt,
terrible, one you never hoped would come upon you.
For the sword shall pass through your very midst,
and scattering and death and famine shall hold you fast
in the seventh generation of kings, and then it shall cease.
Woe to you, land of Gog and Magog, lying between
the rivers of Ethiopia, how great a flood of blood you shall receive,
and you shall be called the dwelling-place of judgment among men,
and your dew-drenched earth shall drink your own dark blood.
Woe to you, Libya; woe to sea and land alike;
daughters of the west, how bitter the day you shall come to.
You shall come, driven too by harsh strife,
terrible and harsh; a dreadful judgment shall come again,
and by necessity all of you shall go down into ruin,
in payment for how greatly you defiled the Immortal's
great house, and gnawed it fearfully with teeth of iron.
Therefore you shall see your own land filled with corpses,
some slain by war and every onslaught of divine wrath,
by famine and plague, and by savage-hearted enemies.
And your whole land shall lie desolate, and your cities desolate.
And in the west a star shall blaze, one men shall call a comet,
a sign to mortals of the sword, of famine, and of death,
and of the ruin of rulers and of great and eminent men.
And there shall be still greater signs among mankind:
for the deep-eddying Tanais shall abandon
the Maeotian lake, and in place of its deep stream there shall be the furrow's course
of fruitful land, and its once boundless flood shall block a narrow strait.
There shall be chasms and yawning pits; and many cities
shall fall with all their men; in Asia, Iassus,
Cebren, Pandonia, Colophon, Ephesus, Nicaea,
Antioch, Tanagra, Sinope, Smyrna, Maros,
Gaza most blessed, Hierapolis, Astypalaea,
and of Europe, Cyagra of great renown, the royal city Meropeia,
Antigone, Magnesia, Mycenae the all-divine.
Know then the destroying race of Egypt draws near to ruin,
and then for the men of Alexandria the past year will seem the better one.
As much tribute as tribute-bearing Asia has yielded up to Rome,
three times as much wealth shall Asia receive back again
from Rome, and shall exact from her the destroying insult she once paid.
And as many of the Italians as tended house in Asia,
twenty times as many of them shall serve as slaves in Asia,
Italians in poverty, and shall owe countless debts besides.
O Rome, luxurious, golden, offspring of the Latin land,
O maiden, often drunk with your many-wooed marriages,
you shall be wedded as a slave, not in due order,
and often your mistress shall shear your soft and lovely hair,
and executing justice she shall cast you down from heaven to earth,
and again raise you up from earth to heaven,
because mortals held to a base and unjust life.
Samos too shall become sand, and Delos shall be no more Delos,
and Rome shall be a mere lane; but all the oracles shall be fulfilled.
When Smyrna perishes, no word shall be spoken of it. There shall be a judge,
but through evil counsels and the wickedness of rulers—
yet peace, calm and serene, shall come traveling to the land of Asia.
And Europe then shall be blessed, the sky rich in pasture,
for many years strong and untroubled by storm or hail,
bearing all things, both birds and creeping beasts of the earth.
O blessed indeed the man who shall live to see that time,
or the woman—so far from the empty-worded and rustic ways of the blessed ones—
for all good order shall come down from the starry heaven
upon mankind, and righteousness with it, and after her
harmony, wisest of all, surpassing all things for mortals,
and affection, and trust, and friendship even from strangers as from kin;
and lawlessness, blame, envy, wrath, and folly
shall flee from mankind, and poverty too shall flee, and necessity
and murder, and ruinous strifes, and grim contentions,
and thefts by night, and every evil on those days.
But Macedonia shall bring forth a heavy affliction for Asia,
and for Europe the greatest grief shall spring up
from the race of the son of Cronus and the offspring of bastard slaves.
That race shall also build up the city of Babylon as a stronghold,
and over all the land the sun looks down upon,
proclaimed as mistress, shall perish through evil ruin,
holding a name among far-wandering generations to come.
And there shall come, faithless, into the rich soil of Asia
a man clothed in a purple mantle upon his shoulders,
savage, lawless, ablaze with fire; for before him
a thunderbolt roused up its flame; and Asia shall bear an evil yoke,
all of it, and the earth, drenched, shall drink much blood.
But even so Hades shall tend all things utterly unseen,
and whatever race he himself wishes to destroy utterly,
from the seed of that one's race, that race shall be utterly destroyed;
granting one single root, which the man-destroyer shall also cut off
from ten horns; and beside it he shall plant another shoot,
He will strike down the warrior father of the purple race,
and he himself will perish at the hands of sons who once agreed with him in fair intent —
and then the horn that sprouted alongside will begin to rule.
And a sign for life-sustaining Phrygia will come at once,
whenever the foul brood of Rhea, on the land a swell,
ever-flowing, flourishing on roots that never thirst,
vanishes trunk and all in a single night,
in a city full of its own people, shaken by the earth-shaker who moves the ground —
the city men will one day call by the name Dorylaeum,
of ancient Phrygia, the dark land of many tears.
When that time comes, the Earthshaker true to his name
will scatter the hollows of the earth and break down its walls.
The signs will not be of good, but the beginning of evil will spring up.
It will have kings skilled in war against every tribe,
giving the sons of Aeneas of the native stock, kindred blood.
But afterward you will become plunder for men who desire you.
Ilion, I pity you — for in Sparta a Fury
will cause to bud a shoot most beautiful, ever-famed, the noblest,
leaving behind the wide-scattered flood of Asia and Europe.
And to you above all she will bring lamentation, toil, and groaning,
she will set these upon you; but her glory will be undying for those yet to come.
And there will be a certain old man, a mortal writer of falsehoods, once more
a false countryman; the light will set within his own eyes.
But he will have great understanding and verse fitted to his thoughts,
mingled under two names; he will call himself
Chian, and he will write of the affairs of Ilion, not truthfully,
but skillfully — for he will master my words and my meters.
For he will be the first to unroll my books with his own hands,
and he in turn will richly adorn the champions of war,
Hector son of Priam and Achilles son of Peleus,
and the others, all who cared for the works of war.
And he will make gods stand beside these men,
writing falsehood in every way, empty-headed mortals.
And for these men dying will bring wide renown
at Ilion; but he himself will receive requital for his deeds.
And in Lycia the offspring of Locris will plant many evils.
Chalcedon, who has drawn the strait of the narrow sea as her portion —
an Aetolian youth will come one day and destroy you.
Cyzicus, and the sea will tear away your heavy prosperity.
And you too, one day, Byzantium, will cling to Ares in league with Asia,
and indeed you will receive groanings and blood beyond counting.
And Cragus, the lofty mountain of Lycia, from its peaks,
when the rock's clefts open, will gush forth water,
until it puts an end even to the oracular signs of Patara.
Cyzicus, dweller by the wine-dark Propontis,
the river Rhyndacus around you will roar with rearing wave.
And you, Rhodes, for a long time will remain unenslaved,
daughter of the day; and great prosperity afterward
will be yours, and on the sea you will hold power beyond all others.
But afterward you will become plunder for men who desire you.
in beauty and in wealth; a terrible yoke it shall lay upon your neck.
Then a Lydian earthquake shall lay waste the land of the Persians,
bringing to Europe and to Asia the most dreadful of griefs.
And the deadly king of the Sidonians, and the war of others
faring over the sea, shall bring deadly destruction on the Samians.
With the blood of men the ground shall stream down into the sea, of those
who perish; and wives together with their splendid-robed daughters
shall wail aloud their own shameful outrage,
some for the dead, others for their perishing sons.
A sign for Cyprus: an earthquake shall waste its ravines,
and Hades shall hold many souls together in one company.
Tralles, neighbor of Ephesus, shall be brought down by earthquake,
its well-built walls and the heavy-hearted people within them;
the earth shall rain down scalding water, and from it
the burdened ground itself shall drink; and there shall be a smell of sulfur.
And Samos in its season shall build royal halls.
Italy, no foreign war of Ares shall come upon you,
but kindred blood, much-groaning and not slight,
much-spoken-of and shameless, shall lay you waste.
And you yourself, stretched out beside your own still-warm ashes,
unaware, shall slay yourself upon your own breast.
You shall be no mother of good men, but a nurse of wild beasts.
But when from Italy a ravaging man shall come,
then, Laodicea, falling prone,
glorious city of the Carians beside the wondrous water of the Lycus,
you shall fall silent, having mourned your great-boasting father.
And the Thracian Crobyzi shall rise up along the Haemus.
For the Campanians there shall be a clamor, because of the fruitful
famine of many years; long having mourned their father.
Corsica and Sardinia, by the great storm-blasts of winter
and by the blows of the holy God, into the depths of the sea
shall plunge under the swell, with their seafaring offspring.
Alas, how many maidens shall Hades take to wife,
and how many unburied youths the deep shall keep in its care.
Alas for infant children adrift on the sea, and for wealth turned to heavy grief.
O blessed land of the Mysians, a royal race shall suddenly
be raised up. Yet in truth it shall not endure for long,
Carthage. And for the Galatians there shall be much-groaning misery.
And upon Tenedos too shall come an evil, the last, but the greatest.
And bronze Sicyon with its baying, and you, Corinth,
shall boast above all; and the flute alike shall cry aloud.
When at last my spirit ceased its god-inspired song,
again within my breast the voice of the great God
took its stand, and bade me prophesy across the earth.
Alas for the race of Phoenician men and women,
and for all the cities by the sea — not one of you
shall stand before the light of the sun in the common day,
nor shall the count of your life or your people exist any longer,
in payment for the unjust tongue, the lawless and unclean life,
which all wore away, opening an unclean mouth,
and they set forth terrible words, false and unjust,
and stood up against the great king, God,
and falsely opened their polluted mouths. For this the god
will strike them with terrible blows over the whole
earth, and send upon them a bitter fate,
burning their cities and many foundations to the ground.
Woe to you, Crete of many sorrows — upon you shall come
a blow, and a fearful ruin shall lay you waste forever,
and all the earth shall see you smoking once again,
and fire shall never leave you through the ages, but you shall burn.
Woe to you, Thrace, for you shall come under a slave's yoke,
when the Galatians, joined with the sons of Dardanus,
rush upon Greece to sack it — then evil shall be yours,
and you shall give yourself to a foreign land, and receive nothing back.
Woe to you, Gog, and to all the Magog in your train,
and to the Marsi and the Angi — whatever evil fate draws near you,
and much evil too for the sons of the Lycians, the Mysians, and the Phrygians.
Much shall fall too among the peoples of Pamphylia and Lydia,
of the Mauri and the Ethiopians and the barbarous-tongued nations,
of the Cappadocians and the Arabians — why should I tell
each one in turn? For upon all who dwell upon the earth
the Most High shall send a terrible blow against the nations.
But upon the Greeks, when a great barbarian nation shall come,
it shall destroy the heads of many chosen men,
and shall waste many fat sheep belonging to mortals,
and herds of horses and mules and loud-bellowing cattle,
and shall lawlessly burn well-built houses with fire,
and shall lead many bodies into slavery, by force, to another land,
children and deep-girdled women alike,
falling tender before their captors' cruel feet from their chambers.
They shall see them bound in chains under barbarous-tongued enemies,
suffering every terrible outrage — and there will be for them
no small war to give aid, no defender of their life.
They shall see their own possessions and all their wealth
yielding fruit for the enemy, and trembling shall seize their knees.
A hundred shall flee, and one man shall destroy them all;
five shall stir up heavy wrath, and they, turning upon them,
basely mingled in dreadful war and tumult,
shall bring joy to their enemies, but grief to the Greeks.
And a slave's yoke shall then be laid upon all Greece;
war and pestilence together shall come upon all mortals,
and God shall forge a great bronze heaven on high,
and drought over all the earth, and make the earth itself iron.
Then afterward all mortals shall weep terribly
for the unsown and unplowed land; and upon the earth fire
shall lay low the great web he wove, who founded heaven and earth;
and out of the whole human race, one part in three shall be left living.
Greece, why do you put your trust in men, your leaders,
mortals who cannot escape the end of death?
Why do you bring vain gifts to the dead?
and sacrifice to idols? Who has set delusion in your minds,
to do these things, forsaking the face of the great God?
Hold in reverence the name of the All-Begetter, and do not forget it.
A thousand years there are, and five hundred more besides,
since arrogant kings began to reign,
kings of the Greeks, who first led mortals into evil,
raising up many idols of dead gods who had perished,
on account of which vain thinking was shown to you.
But whenever the wrath of the great God shall come upon you,
then indeed you will come to know the face of the great God.
And all the souls of men, groaning greatly,
lifting up their hands toward the wide heaven,
will begin to call upon the great king as their defender
and to seek who will be the deliverer from the great wrath.
But come, learn this too, and lay it up in your hearts,
what troubles there shall be as the years roll round.
And when Hellas offers up bulls and loud-bellowing oxen
as whole burnt offerings before the temple of the great God,
you shall escape the din of war and escape fear,
and escape the plague, and be freed once more from the slaves' yoke.
But the race of ungodly men shall persist only until this measure,
when that fated day at last overtakes it.
For you will not cease sacrificing to God, until all comes to pass
that God alone has ordained; nothing is left unfulfilled.
All shall be accomplished, and mighty necessity shall bear down upon it.
A holy race of pious men shall arise again,
devoted in counsel and mind to the Most High,
who greatly honor the temple of the great God
with libation and fat-smoke, and again with holy hecatombs,
with sacrifices of well-fed bulls and perfect rams,
firstborn sheep and fat young of lambs,
offering whole burnt offerings in holiness upon the great altar.
And having received a portion in the righteousness of the law of the Most High,
blessed, they shall dwell in cities and fertile fields,
themselves exalted as prophets by the Immortal One,
bringing great joy to all mortal men.
For to them alone did the great God give wise counsel
and faith and the noblest understanding in their breasts,
who neither by empty deceits nor by the works of men
wrought in gold and bronze and silver and ivory,
and idols of wood and stone, of gods that have perished,
clay figures smeared with ochre, painted images shaped like living things,
do they honor, such as mortals in their vain-minded counsel
do honor — but instead they lift toward heaven their pure arms
at dawn, rising from their beds, ever purifying their flesh
with water, and honor only the one who forever rules,
the Immortal One, and after him their parents; and beyond all else
of men, they are mindful of the sanctity of the marriage bed;
and they do not mingle impurely with male children,
as do the Phoenicians, Egyptians, and Latins.
Wide-spaced Hellas, and the tribes of many other nations,
Persians and Galatians, and all of Asia besides, transgressing
the sacred ordinance of the deathless God, transgressing it --
in return for this the Immortal will set upon all mortals
ruin and famine and sufferings and groaning,
and war and plague and tearful griefs,
because the immortal begetter of all mankind
they would not honor rightly, but honored idols instead,
worshiping things made by hand, which mortals themselves will fling away
hiding them in the clefts of rocks, out of shame,
when a new seventh king of Egypt shall rule
his own land, counted from the rule of the Greeks,
the rule which countless Macedonian men will hold --
then from Asia a great king shall come, a blazing eagle,
who will cover all the land with foot soldiers and horsemen,
and cut down everything, and fill everything with evils;
he will overthrow the kingdom of Egypt, and taking
all its wealth, he rides on over the broad back of the sea.
And then indeed they shall bend the knee to the great God, the king,
the immortal one, their white knee upon the all-nourishing earth;
and all the works made by hands shall fall into the flame of fire.
And then indeed God will give great joy to men;
for earth and trees and the countless flocks of sheep
will give to men their true fruit --
wine, and honey sweet, and milk pale as snow
and grain, which of all things is fairest to mortals.
But you, cunning mortal, do not delay, do not linger,
but turn back from your wandering and appease God.
Sacrifice to God hundreds of bulls and lambs
and firstborn goats, as the seasons come round.
But appease him, the immortal God, that he may show mercy.
For he alone is divine, and none exists beside him.
Honor justice, and oppress no one.
For these things the Immortal commands to wretched mortals.
But guard yourself against the wrath of the great God,
when the end of plague shall come upon all mortals,
and, overpowered, they meet the fearful outcome of judgment,
and king shall seize king and take away his land,
and nations shall ravage nations, and tribes their rulers,
and the leaders shall all flee into another land,
and the earth of mortals shall be changed, and a barbarian rule
shall ravage all Hellas and the rich land,
draining it of its wealth; and against one another
they shall come into strife for the sake of gold and silver; and there shall be
love of money, shepherding evils upon the cities.
In a foreign land, and all shall be left unburied,
and of them the vultures and the wild beasts of the earth
shall devour the flesh; and when these things are accomplished,
let the monstrous earth consume the remains of the dead.
and the whole land itself shall be unsown and unplowed.
proclaiming, wretched one, the pollution of ten thousand men—
for many lengths of time, as the years wheel round,
shields and bucklers and spears and armor of every kind;
and no longer will they cut wood from the forest for the flame of fire.
and then from the sun God will send a king,
who will stop all the earth from evil war,
some he will kill, but with others he will seal faithful oaths—
nor indeed shall he accomplish any of this on his private judgment,
but obeying the noble decrees of the great God.—
and the temple of the great God, again, with its surpassing wealth
will be laden, with gold and silver and purple
adornment; and the earth, fruit-bearing, and the sea
will be full of good things. and kings will begin
to rage against one another, working evils in their hearts—
envy is no good thing for wretched mortals.
but again the kings of the nations, against this land,
will rush together, bringing doom upon themselves;
for they will wish to sack the shrine of the great God
and its noblest men, whenever they come upon the land.
the defiled kings will set, ringing the city,
each his own throne, and his disobedient host.
and then God will speak with a great voice to all
the untaught, empty-minded people, and judgment for them
will come from the great God, and all will perish
by the immortal hand; and from heaven will fall
fiery swords upon the earth; torches, great gleams
will come, blazing bright into the midst of men.
and the all-begetting earth will be shaken on that day
by the immortal hand, and the fish that swim the sea,
and every beast that treads the earth and the numberless flocks of birds,
and every soul of men, and the whole sea
will shudder before the immortal face, and there will be fear.
the towering peaks and the huge hills of the mountains
he will rend, and murky darkness will appear to all.
and misty ravines in the high mountains
will be full of corpses; and rocks will run
with blood, and every torrent will fill the plain.
and the well-built walls will all fall to the ground,
walls of hostile men, because they did not know the law
nor the judgment of the great God, but with senseless hearts
all rushing upon the Holy Place, you lifted your spears.
and God will judge all by war and by the sword,
and by fire and by drenching rain; and there will be
brimstone from heaven, and stone besides and hail,
much and harsh; and death will come upon the four-footed beasts.
and then at last they will recognize the deathless God, arbiter of these matters;
wailing and shrieking over the boundless earth
will come, of men perishing; and all the unclean
will bathe in blood; and the earth itself will drink
the blood of the perishing, and beasts will glut themselves on flesh.
All this the great god himself, the ever-flowing one,
told me to prophesy; and it shall not be left unfulfilled,
nor uncompleted, whatever he alone has willed in his heart;
for the spirit of god that moves through the world does not lie.
And the sons of the great god, all of them, around his temple
shall live in peace, rejoicing in these gifts
which the founder, the righteous judge and sole monarch, will give them.
For he himself alone, standing beside them mightily, will shelter them,
holding round them, as it were, a wall of blazing fire.
And they shall be without war in their cities and in their lands.
For no hand of evil war shall touch them, but rather
the immortal one himself shall fight for them, and the hand of the Holy One.
And then all the islands and the cities shall say,
how much the immortal one loves those men.
For all things strive together with them and help them,
the heaven, and the sun driven by god, and the moon.
And they shall utter sweet speech from their mouths in hymns:
"Come, let all of us prostrate ourselves upon the ground and implore
the immortal king, the great god, the ever-flowing one.
Let us send to the temple, since he alone is master;
and let us all consider the law of the Most High god,
and the earth, the mother of all, shall shake in those days
when he who is most righteous of all upon the earth appears.
But we had wandered from the immortal's path,
and with foolish hearts we worshipped works made by hands,
idols and carved images of dead men."
These things the souls of faithful men shall cry aloud:
["Come, falling upon our faces before god's people,
let us delight the begetter god with hymns in our homes,
gathering the weapons of our enemies from all the earth
for the space of seven revolving years,
shields and bucklers, helmets and armor of every kind,
and many bows and a multitude of unrighteous arrows;
for no wood shall be cut from the forest for the blaze of fire."]
But, wretched Greece, cease from your arrogant thoughts;
beseech the immortal, great-hearted one, and guard yourself beforehand;
do not send your reckless people against this city,
which does not come from the holy land of the Great One.
Do not stir Camarina; for unstirred she is better;
do not rouse the leopard from its lair; lest evil meet you;
but hold back, and do not keep in your breast
an overweening spirit, having set out for a mighty contest.
And serve the great god, that you may share in these things.
But when this fated day too shall reach its end,
[and the judgment of the immortal god shall come upon mortals,]
there shall come upon men a great judgment and a great rule.
For the earth, mother of all, shall give to mortals the best
and boundless fruit of grain, wine, and oil,
[but from heaven a sweet drink of honey shall come,
and trees shall give the fruit of the choicest orchard-fruits and rich apples
and oxen, and lambs from the sheep, and kids from the goats;
and it will break open sweet springs of white milk;
and cities will overflow with abundance, and the farmland grow fertile,
and there will be no sword upon the earth, nor battle-din;
no longer will the deep-groaning earth be shaken;
there will be no war, nor will drought still come upon the land,
no famine, nor hail that ravages the crops;
but there will be great peace over all the earth,
and king will hold friendship with king, right down to the close
of the age, and a common law throughout all the earth
the Immortal will bring to fulfillment for men, in the starry heaven,
for all that wretched mortals have done.
For he alone is God, and none exists beside him;
he himself will burn with fire the race of harsh men.
But you, hastening the thoughts within your breasts,
flee lawless worship, and serve the Living One;
guard against adultery and indiscriminate union with males;
rear your own offspring and do not murder it;
for the Immortal will be angered against whoever transgresses these things.
And then indeed he will raise up a kingdom for all ages
over all mankind, the holy law which once he gave
to the pious, to all of these he vowed he would unlock the earth
and the world and the gates of the blessed and every joy,
and immortal mind and everlasting gladness.
And from every land they will bring frankincense and gifts to the house
of the great God; and there will be no other
house among men for those yet to be born to learn of,
but only the one which God gave to faithful men to honor.
[For mortals will call him son of the great God,]
and every track across the plain and the rugged hills
and the towering mountains and the wild waves of the sea
will become easy to walk and easy to sail in those days;
for all peace of good things comes upon the earth;
the prophets of the great God will take away the sword;
for they themselves will be judges of mortals, and righteous kings.
There will indeed be just wealth among men;
for this is the judgment and the rule of the great God.
Rejoice, O maiden, and exult; for to you he has given
the gladness of the age, he who founded heaven and earth.
He will dwell in you; and you will have unfailing light;
and wolves and lambs will feed together on the mountains
on grass, and leopards will graze together with kids;
roving bears will lodge together with calves;
the flesh-eating lion will eat straw at the manger
like an ox; and quite little children will lead them
with cords; for he will make the beasts harmless upon the earth.
Serpents will sleep together with infants and asps,
and will do them no harm; for the hand of God will be upon them.
And I will tell you a sign, very clear, so that you may understand,
when indeed the end of all things comes to pass upon the earth.
Whenever swords appear in the starry sky
at night, seen shining toward evening and toward dawn,
at once dust too will be borne down from heaven
onto all the earth, and the sun's radiance
will fail at midday, and from heaven the moon's
rays will shine out and fall back down upon the earth
with blood and dripping drops, and a sign will come out of the rocks;
and in a cloud you will see a battle of foot and horse,
like a hunt of wild beasts, dim as through mist.
This end of war God who dwells in heaven brings to pass.
But all must offer sacrifice to the great king.
These things I tell you, having left behind Assyria's
long Babylonian walls, frenzy-driven, a fire sent into Greece,
prophesying to all mortals the wrath of God—
so that I might prophesy divine riddles to mortals.
And mortals throughout Greece will call me of another homeland,
shamelessly born from Erythrae; and some will say I am a Sibyl
born of Circe as mother and Gnostos as father,
a raving liar; yet once every one of these things is fulfilled,
then you will remember me, and no one any longer
will call me mad, but prophetess of the great God.
For he did not reveal to me what he once revealed to my forebears;
but the things that happened first, God recounted to me,
and all that came after, God set within my mind,
so that I might prophesy the things to come and the things that are
and speak them to mortals. For when the world was flooded
with waters, and one man alone, of good repute, was left,
sailing upon the waters in a house of hewn timber
with beasts and birds, so that the world might be filled again—
of that man I was daughter-in-law, and from his blood I came to be;
to him the first things happened, and all the last things have been shown;
so let all these true things be spoken from my mouth.
The Fourth Oracle
Hear, people of Asia and of great-boasting Europe,
all that through my honey-voiced, great mouth
I am about to prophesy, all of it true —
no lying oracle-speaker of Phoebus, whom vain
men have called a god, and lied about their seer;
but of the great God, whom the hands of men did not shape
in the likeness of speechless idols smoothed from stone.
For he has no house, no stone dragged into a temple,
utterly dumb and toothless, a grief and shame to mortals;
but he is one no eye can see from earth, nor measure
with mortal eyes, nor was he shaped by a mortal hand;
he who looks upon all men at once is seen by none;
whose are the murky night and the day and the sun,
the stars and the moon and the fish-filled sea,
and the earth and the rivers and the mouths of ever-flowing springs,
creations for life, and the rains that with them bring forth the fruit of the field,
and trees, and the vine, and the olive.
This God has driven a goad through the depths of my mind,
all that now is for men and all that shall be hereafter,
from the first generation until it reaches the tenth;
to recount exactly; for he himself will bring all to proof
in the fulfilling. So hear all this, O people, from the Sibyl,
pouring forth the true voice from a holy mouth.
Blessed among men will those be upon the earth,
as many as will love and bless the great God
before eating and drinking, trusting in their reverence;
who will renounce all temples once they see them
and altars, vain seats of dumb stones,
and stone-carved images and idols made by hand,
defiled with the blood of living things and with the sacrifices
of four-footed beasts; but they will look to the great glory of one God,
committing no wicked murder, and no thievish
gain trafficking away, which are the most dreadful of deeds,
nor holding shameful desire for another's bed,
[nor for the hateful and detestable outrage against a male].
The manner of their piety and their ways, other men
will never imitate, in their love of shamelessness;
but they will mock them with jeering and laughter,
fools, and in their folly slander them with lies,
for the very deeds of wickedness and evil which they themselves commit.
For the whole race of mortals is unbelieving. But when at last
the judgment of the world and of mortals comes, which God himself
will bring about, judging the impious together with the pious;
and then he will send the impious under darkness into fire,
[and then they will recognize how great was the impiety they wrought];
but the pious will remain upon the life-giving earth,
God giving them his spirit, and life, and grace besides.
But all this will be fulfilled in the tenth generation;
now I will tell what shall be from the first generation onward.
First of all mortals the Assyrians shall rule,
holding mastery of the world for six generations from the beginning,
from the time when the heavenly God, in his anger,
over those very cities and over all mankind
made the sea cover the earth, when the flood broke forth.
Them the Medes shall overthrow and glory upon their thrones,
to whom two generations only are given, in which these deeds shall be:
there shall be night, dark night, in the middle of the day's hour;
the stars shall fail from heaven, and the orbs of the moon;
and the earth, shaken by the shock of a great earthquake,
shall lay low many cities and the works of men;
and then from the deep the islands shall rise above the sea.
But when the mighty Euphrates runs red and overflows,
then indeed for Medes and Persians dread battle-strife
shall be joined in war; and beneath the spears of the Persians the Medes,
falling, shall flee beyond the great water of the Tigris.
And the power of the Persians shall be greatest of the whole world,
to whom one generation of rich and prosperous rule is appointed.
And there shall be evil deeds, all that men would pray against,
battles and murders and factions and flights,
the toppling of towers and the uprooting of cities,
when Greece, greatly boasting, upon the broad Hellespont
shall sail, bearing heavy doom to the Phrygians and to Asia.
But upon Egypt, of many furrows and rich in wheat,
famine and barrenness, as the years roll round,
shall come for twenty years, when the corn-nourishing Nile
shall hide its dark water somewhere else beneath the earth.
And there shall come from Asia a king, lifting up a great spear,
with ships beyond counting; the wet paths of the deep
he shall march on foot, and shall sail, having cut through a high-crested mountain.
Him, a fugitive from war, wretched Asia shall receive.
And wretched Sicily entirely he shall set ablaze
with a stream of great fire belched forth from the flame of Etna;
and Croton, a great city, shall fall into the deep flood.
And there shall be strife in Greece; and, maddened against one another,
they shall lay low many cities, and shall destroy many
in fighting; and the strife shall be evenly balanced between them.
But when the race of mortal men comes to the tenth generation,
then upon the Persians shall come the yoke of slavery and fear.
But when the Macedonians shall glory in the scepter,
there shall also be, afterward, the evil capture of Thebes,
and Carian folk shall make their homes in Tyre, while the Tyrians perish.
And sand shall cover the whole of Samos beneath its shores,
and Delos shall no longer be Delos, and all of Delos' things unclear.
And Babylon, great to look upon, but small in battle,
shall stand, walled about on hopes that come to nothing.
The Macedonians shall settle Bactra; and men from Bactra
and from Susa every one of them shall run away into Hellas.
It shall be for generations yet to come, when Pyramus of the silver eddies,
pouring forth its shore, shall reach the sacred island.
And you, Baris, will fall, and Cyzicus too, when the earth
is shaken by earthquakes and cities slip down.
A last evil will come upon the Rhodians too, but the greatest.
Nor will Macedon hold power any longer; but out of the west
an Italian war great shall blossom, beneath which the world
shall serve, bound in a slave's yoke to the sons of Italy.
And you, wretched Corinth, shall one day behold your own capture.
Carthage, your tower too shall bow its knee to the ground.
Suffering Laodicea, an earthquake shall one day lay you low,
flattening you — yet the city, once founded, shall rise again.
O fair Myra of Lycia, never shall the trembling earth
hold firm beneath you; falling prone upon the ground
you shall pray to flee to another land, like an exile,
when once the tumult of the Patareans, for their impieties,
with thunders and earthquakes spreads the sea's black water wide.
Armenia, on you too a slave's necessity remains;
upon the people of Jerusalem too shall come an evil storm of war
out of Italy, and it shall raze the great temple of God,
when in their folly, trusting in themselves, their piety
they cast away, and accomplish hateful murders before the temple—
and then, out of Italy, a mighty king, like a runaway slave,
shall flee, unseen, unheard of, beyond the stream of Euphrates,
when he has borne the guilt of a mother's hateful murder
and many other things besides, trusting to an evil hand.
Many around the throne of Rome shall redden the ground with blood
when that man has fled beyond the Parthian land.
Into Syria shall come a champion of Rome, who with fire
shall burn the temple of Jerusalem entire, and slaughtering many men besides
of the Jews, shall destroy their great, wide-wayed land.
Then shall a quake lay waste to Salamis and Paphos as well,
when the black water overwhelms wave-tossed Cyprus.
But when from a fissure in the Italian earth
a fire-brand, turned back, reaches the wide heaven,
and burns many cities and destroys many men,
and much smoldering ash fills the great sky,
and drops fall from heaven like red ochre,
know then the wrath of the heavenly God,
for they shall destroy the innocent race of the pious.
And then, toward the west, when the strife of war is roused,
the exile from Rome shall come too, lifting his great spear,
having crossed the Euphrates together with many myriads.
Wretched Antioch, they shall no longer call you a city,
when in your folly you fall beneath the spears.
And then plague and dread battle shall destroy Cyrrhus.
Alas, wretched Cyprus, the broad wave of the sea
shall hide you, hurled up by wintry storms.
And great wealth shall come to Asia, which once Rome herself,
having plundered it, stored away in her house of many possessions—
and then twice as much again, and more besides, shall she pay back
to Asia; then shall come the war's requital in excess.
The cities of the Carians beside the waters of Maeander,
however beautifully towered they stand, bitter famine shall destroy them,
when Maeander hides away his dark water.
But when reverence has perished from among mankind
and faith and justice are hidden away in the world,
-- turncoats -- and men, daring unholy deeds,
living in outrage, work reckless and evil works,
and no one takes account of the reverent, but even themselves,
all of them, great fools, destroy through folly,
delighting in outrage and holding hands stained with blood --
then shall they know God no longer gentle,
but gnashing in wrath and destroying the whole race
of men together beneath a great burning.
Ah, wretched mortals, change these ways, and do not to full anger
of every kind provoke the great God, but letting fall
swords and groanings and man-slaughters and outrages,
wash your whole body in ever-flowing rivers,
and stretching out your hands to heaven for the deeds done before,
ask forgiveness, and with prayers of praise for your bitter
impiety make atonement; God will grant repentance
and will not destroy; he will stay his wrath again, if only all of you
practice reverence, most honored, in your hearts.
But if you do not obey me, evil-minded ones, but loving
impiety, receive all this with wicked ears,
flame shall descend across the entire earth, together with a great portent
of sword and trumpet, together with the rising sun;
the whole world shall hear a bellowing and a mighty roar.
It shall burn all the earth, and destroy the whole race of men
and all the cities and the rivers together and the sea;
it shall consume all things, and the dust shall be a smoldering ash.
But when all has already become ash and cinder,
and God has put to sleep the boundless fire he himself kindled,
God himself shall again shape anew the bones and ashes
of men, and shall raise mortals up again, as they were before.
And then indeed judgment shall be, at which God himself shall sit in judgment,
judging the world anew; and as many as through impiety
have sinned, these shall the poured earth cover over again,
and moldering Tartarus, and the stygian depths of Gehenna.
But as many as are reverent shall live again upon the earth,
when God, the great and immortal, gives them his spirit
and life and imperishable bliss and grace besides,
the reverent; and then all shall look upon themselves,
beholding the sweet and delightful light of the sun.
O most blessed, that man who shall live to see that time.
The Fifth Book
Come now, hear from me the grievous age of the sons of Latium.
First, indeed, after the kings of Egypt had perished—
all of them borne away alike by the same earth—
and after him who held Pella, master of the city, under whom
all the East was struck down, and the wealthy West as well,
whom Babylon refuted, and gave up a corpse to Philip,
no true son of Zeus, no true son of Ammon, though so proclaimed—
and after him of the race and blood of Assaracus,
who came out of Troy, who broke free from the rush of fire,
and after many lords, men beloved of war,
and after infant boys, children of the sheep-devouring beast,
there shall be a first king, one who sums to twice ten
at his name's opening letter; long shall he prevail in wars;
he shall bear from the number ten his first mark; so that after him
shall rule whoever draws the first letter of the alphabet;
Before that one Thrace shall tremble, Sicily too, and then Memphis—
Memphis cast down through the wickedness of her rulers
and of an unenslaved woman who fell upon the wave.
and he shall set laws for the peoples and bring all beneath him;
but when a long span has passed he shall yield his rule to another,
one who upon the first horn of the number three hundred
shall stand, and bear the river's own dear name, who against the Persians
shall rule, and against Babylon; with the spear he shall then strike down the Medes.
Then whoever draws the horn of the number three shall rule.
And whoever rules next, twice ten, shall bear upon the first horn
his mark as king; and he, at Ocean's furthest limit,
shall reach the waters, rushing to the ebb-tide under Ausonian skies.
And whoever draws the horn of fifty shall be its lord,
a dread serpent breathing heavy war, who one day, stretching out
his hands against his own kin, shall destroy them and throw all into turmoil,
striving, driving on, killing, and daring countless deeds;
and he shall cleave the twin-peaked mountain and splatter it with gore;
but he too shall vanish, utterly destroyed; then he shall return,
making himself equal to god—but he shall be shown not to be one.
three kings after him shall perish, each by the other's hand.
then shall come a great destroyer of the godly,
one who plainly bears the number seven times ten.
and refuting him whose number stands first among the three hundred,
a son shall strip away his power; and after him shall be lord
one from the horn of four—a fate cut short—but after him
a venerable man of the number fifty. And after him,
whoever holds the stamped beginning of the number three hundred,
a Celt, a mountain-wanderer, rushing to battle in the east,
shall not escape an unseemly fate, but shall grow weary and fall;
foreign dust shall hide his corpse—yet bearing the name
of the flower of Nemea; and after him another shall rule,
a silver-headed man; his name shall be that of the sea;
and he shall be a man best of all, and shall understand everything.
and upon you, best of all, most excellent, dark-haired one,
And upon your branches these things shall be all your days.
After him three shall rule, and the third shall hold power late.
Thrice-wretched, I am worn to lay this evil word upon my heart:
the tale of Isis, known to all, and the god-inspired hymn of oracles.
First, around the base of your much-wept temple
maenads shall rush headlong, and into evil hands
you shall fall on that day, when the Nile shall run
over the whole land of Egypt to sixteen cubits,
so as to flood all the land and water it with its streams;
and the grace of the land and the glory of its face shall fall silent.
Memphis, you shall weep the greatest tears over Egypt;
for you who once ruled the land greatly shall become
wretched, so that even the thunder-loving one himself shall cry out
from heaven with a great voice: "Mighty Memphis,
you who once boasted the greatest boasts to wretched mortals,
you shall weep, grievous and utterly doomed, so as to know
that the eternal, undying god himself is in the clouds.
Where now is your once-mighty pride among men?
For this — that you raged madly against my god-anointed children
and stirred up evil against good men —
in payment for so much you shall have such nurture, for the sake of vengeance.
No longer shall it be right for you to stand openly among the blessed;
you have fallen from the stars, and to heaven you shall not ascend."
These things the god declared to Egypt to be spoken aloud
in that final age, when mortals shall grow wholly lawless.
But the wicked shall suffer, awaiting wickedness,
the wrath of the immortal, deep-thundering lord of heaven,
since instead of God they worship stones and beasts,
fearing many different things in many different places, things that have no reason,
no mind, no hearing — of which it is not right for me even to speak —
each of them idols, wrought by the hands of mortals;
out of their own labors and reckless devisings
men have taken up gods of wood and of stone,
of bronze and of gold and of silver, vain
lifeless, deaf things, melted in fire
they have made them in vain, trusting in such as these. —
Thmuis and Xois are crushed, struck down by the counsel
of Heracles and of Zeus and of Hermes. —
And you too, Alexandria, famed nurse of nations,
war shall not leave you, nor . . . . . . . . . .
you shall pay for your arrogance, all that you did before.
You shall fall silent for a long age, even on the day of your homecoming —
and no longer shall the luxurious drink flow for you . . . . . —
for the Persian shall come upon your soil like hail
and shall destroy your land and your men of evil craft,
with blood and with corpses beside the dreadful altars,
a barbarian-hearted, mighty man, raging blood-drunk and mindless,
rushing headlong to sweep away your ruin utterly, like sand in multitude.
And then you shall be, most blessed of cities, having suffered much.
All Asia shall weep for the sake of the gifts which from you
she rejoiced, her head crowned, and fell upon the earth.
But he who holds the land of the Persians will make war,
and killing every man, will lay waste the whole of life,
so that only a third portion remains to wretched mortals.
He himself will fly in from the west with a light leap,
besieging the whole earth, laying all of it waste.
But when he holds mighty height and unbearable boldness,
he will come, wanting even to destroy the city of the blessed.
And some king, sent from God against this man,
will destroy all the great kings and the best of men.
Then thus shall come judgment upon men from the imperishable one.
Alas for you, wretched heart, why do you stir me up
to make plain to Egypt its grievous multitude of rulers?
Go toward the sunrise, to the mindless generations of the Persians,
and make plain to them what is now and what is yet to be.
The stream of the river Euphrates will bring a flood,
and it will destroy Persians and Iberians and Babylonians,
the war-loving Massagetae too, trusters in the bow.
The whole of Asia, blazing with fire, will flash all the way to the islands.
Pergamum, once so revered, will perish cluster by cluster,
and Pitane will appear utterly desolate among men.
All of Lesbos will sink into the deep abyss to be lost.
Smyrna, rolling down along the cliffs, will one day weep,
she who was once revered and glorious, will be utterly destroyed.
The Bithynians will weep for their own land turned to ash,
and for great Syria and many-tribed Phoenicia.
Alas for you, Lycia, what evils are contrived against you
by the sea, rising up of itself against your grievous country,
to flood with a cruel earthquake and bitter waters
the fragrant land of Lycia and its once sweet-breathing shore.
There will be terrible wrath also upon Phrygia because of grief,
for whose sake Rhea, wife of Zeus, came and remained there.
The sea will destroy the race of the Taurians and the barbarian nation;
and it will lay the Lapiths low upon the ground across the land.
The deep-eddying river will destroy the land of Thessaly,
the deep-flowing Peneus, the shapes of beasts up from the earth—
the Epidanus, claiming once to have begotten the shapes of beasts.
Poets will wail for thrice-wretched Greece,
when from the isthmus of Italy he strikes the sinew
of great Rome — a great god-like king, a man,
whom, they say, Zeus himself begot, and queenly Hera;
one who, with an all-tuneful voice, sweet-sounding hymns
performing on the stage, will destroy many along with his wretched mother.
He will flee from Babylon, a dreadful and shameless lord,
whom all mortals hate, and the best of men as well;
for he destroyed many and laid hands upon the womb,
he sinned against wives, and was fashioned out of foul stock.
He will go among the Medes, unto the Persian rulers' thrones,
the very first he longed for and in whom he placed his fame,
lurking among these evils, bound for a truthful nation—
who seized the god-built temple and burned its people,
the crowds that entered it, whom I rightly praised in song;
for when he appeared, all creation was shaken,
and kings perished, and among them the rule remained,
they laid waste the mighty city and its righteous folk.
But when, in the fourth year, a great star shall blaze,
which alone shall level all the earth for the sake of honor —
the very ones who first set it up for Poseidon of the sea —
there shall come from heaven a great star into the divine sea,
and it shall burn the deep ocean and Babylon itself,
and the land of Italy, for whose sake many perished,
the holy faithful of the Hebrews and the true people.
You shall be, among mortals, one who has wrought evils upon evils,
but you will remain utterly desolate through ages upon ages,
[it shall be so, and it shall remain forever utterly desolate,]
your own ground hating you, because you longed after sorcery;
adulteries are yours, and unlawful mingling of children,
female-born and unjust — evil city, most wretched of all.
Ah, city wholly unclean of the Latin land,
raving, viper-loving, sit as a widow beside your banks,
and the river Tiber shall weep for you, whom it took as its bride,
you who have a blood-polluted heart and an impious spirit.
You did not know what God can do, what he can devise;
but you said, "I alone am, and no one shall lay me waste."
But now God who exists forever shall destroy you and all your people,
and no longer shall any sign of you remain on that land,
as of old — since the great God has found again his own honors.
Remain, lawless one, alone; mingled with blazing fire,
go dwell in the tartarean, lawless realm of Hades.
But now again, Egypt, I mourn your ruin;
Memphis, you shall be the source of your own toils, your sinews struck;
in you the pyramids shall utter a shameless voice.
Pytho, once rightly called the twin city,
be silent for ages, that you may cease from your wickedness.
Insolence, treasury of evil toils, raving one full of laments,
grievously suffering, full of tears, you will remain a widow forever.
For many years you alone ruled over the world.
But when Barce puts on her tunic,
white over filthy — may I neither be nor have been born to see it.
O Thebes, where is your great strength now? A savage man
shall destroy your people; and you, clad in gray garments,
shall mourn, wretched one, alone, and pay for everything,
all that you did before with a shameless spirit.
and they shall see mourning for the lawless deeds.
May the great man of the Ethiopians destroy Syene;
the black-skinned Indians shall dwell in Teuchira by force.
Pentapolis, you shall weep; a man of great might shall destroy you.
Who shall tell of your ruins, all-lamented Libya?
and who shall weep piteous tears for you, Cyrene, among mortals?
you shall not cease from hateful lament until the hour of your ruin.
It shall come to pass among the Bruges and the gold-rich Galatians,
Ocean roaring, filled with much blood.
For they themselves wrought evil against the children of God,
when the Phoenician king led against the Sidonians a Galican
multitude out of Syria, vast; and you he shall slaughter,
you yourself, Ravenna, and shall lead the way to murder.
Indians, take no courage, nor you, great-hearted Ethiopians;
for when the wheel of the Axis brings round these things, and the Goat-Horned
and the Bull among the Twins circle the midst of heaven,
and the Virgin rises up, and the Sun about his brow
having fixed a girdle wide-encompassing shall lead the way,
there shall be a great burning of the sky upon the earth,
and among the warring stars a strange new nature, so that all
the land of the Ethiopians shall perish in fire and groaning.
Weep too, Corinth, for the bitter ruin within you;
for when the three sister Fates with twisted threads
spinning shall drag him aloft by guile along the shore of the isthmus,
him fleeing, until all men look upon him,
him who long ago cut the rock with much-wrought bronze,
he shall also destroy and cut down your land, as has been foreordained.
For to him God gave the strength to accomplish
such deeds as no former king among all men had done;
first, from three heads together with a blow he shall set up
roots, and give them mightily to others to devour,
so that the impious king's own kin should eat their flesh.
For upon all men lie murder and terrors
on account of that mighty city and its just inhabitants,
ever preserved, whom Providence held foremost.
O unstable and ill-counseled one, girt about with evil dooms,
beginning of toil and great end for men
of creation now harmed, now again saved by the Fates,
O insolence, ringleader of evils and great affliction to men,
who among mortals ever longed for you, who from within was not enraged at you?
In you a king lost his solemn life, cast down.
All things you disposed evilly, and drowned the whole in evil,
and through you the fair folds of the world were changed.
Against our strife, perhaps, you cast these last things forward;
how do you plead? I shall persuade you, and if I blame you, I shall say why:
there was once among men a shining radiance of the sun,
the scattered ray of the prophets' common libation;
a honey-dripping tongue poured a fair draught for all mortals,
showed it forth and set it before them, and brought forth gentle things for all.
For this cause, narrow-counseled ringleader of the greatest evils,
both the beak and mourning shall come on that day.
Beginning of toil and great end for men
of creation now harmed, now again saved by the Fates,
hear the bitter, ill-sounding report, a woe to men.
But whenever the Persian land shall hold back from war,
from plague and from groaning, then on that day it shall be
the blessed race of the Jews, divine and heavenly.
Who dwell around God's city in the inland regions,
and circling even Joppa's mighty wall,
raise themselves up as high as the dark clouds.
No longer shall the trumpet shriek war's clashing din,
nor shall men perish still by raving hostile hands,
but he shall raise trophies over an age of evils.
And there shall come again a man preeminent from heaven,
who stretched out his hands upon the fruit-laden wood,
best of the Hebrews, who once halted the sun,
speaking a fair word with lips undefiled.
Grieve no longer in your heart, O blessed one,
god-born, all-rich, sole and longed-for flower,
good light, and holy, pure, long-desired end,
graceful Judaea, fair city, filled with god-inspired hymns.
No longer shall an unclean foot rage in Bacchic frenzy over your land,
the foot of Greeks who hold their common godless mind;
but glorious children shall hold you in high honor,
and set for you a table with holy songs of praise,
with sacrifices of every kind and prayers held dear to God,
those who out of narrow hardship endured their toils —
the righteous shall rule over greater and gracious, goodly things;
but the wicked, who raised to heaven a lawless tongue,
shall cease their speaking against one another,
and shall be hidden away, until the world is changed.
And from the clouds there shall come a rain of blazing fire;
no longer shall mortals reap the shining grain from earth;
all things shall stand unsown and unplowed, until
men come to know the lord of all, God everlasting, immortal,
and mortal men no longer honor mortal things,
nor dogs and vultures, which Egypt has set up for reverence,
to honor with empty mouths and foolish lips.
The holy earth of the pious alone shall bear all this,
a stream of honey-dripping from the rock, and from the spring,
and ambrosial milk shall flow for all the righteous;
for in one begetter, God alone, supreme above all,
they placed their hope, holding great piety and faith.
But why does my wise mind press these things upon me?
Now I mourn for you piteously, wretched Asia,
and the race of Ionians, Carians, and gold-rich Lydians.
Alas for you, Sardis; alas, lovely Tralles;
alas, Laodicea, fair city — how you shall perish,
destroyed by earthquakes and turned to dust.
For dark Asia, and the gold-rich Lydians too —
the shrine of Artemis at Ephesus, once fast-founded,
by chasms and earthquakes shall one day plunge into the sacred sea,
headlong, as storm-winds overwhelm ships.
And Ephesus, thrown on her back, shall wail, weeping upon the shore,
seeking the temple that stands there no more.
And then, in wrath, the imperishable God who dwells in heaven
shall hurl from the sky a fiery bolt upon the unholy head.
Instead of the cold season, warmth shall reign upon that very day.
And then thereafter it shall come to pass for mortal men:
for the high-thunderer shall destroy all the shameless,
with thunders and lightnings and blazing bolts,
the men who hate him, and shall wreck the impious utterly,
so that the corpses lying under earth outnumber the sand.
For Smyrna too shall come weeping for her wolf-slaying lord,
to the gates of Ephesus, and she herself shall perish the more.
And foolish Cyme, with her god-inspired waters,
cast down into the hands of godless, lawless, unjust men,
shall no longer send her chariot so high into the sky,
but shall lie dead amid the Cymaean streams.
And then they shall wail together, awaiting their misery.
The harsh people of Cyme shall know the sign they bear,
in payment for what they have suffered, that shameless race.
Then, when they wail over their evil land turned to ash,
Lesbos, by the Eridanus, shall be destroyed forever.
Woe to you, Corcyra, fair city, cease your revelry.
And Hierapolis, land alone joined in marriage to Pluto,
you shall get, just as you yearned to get, a country of endless weeping,
heaping earth upon yourself beside the streams of Thermodon.
And rock-built Tripolis, beside the waters of Maeander,
allotted to the shore by the waves of night,
this providence of God shall someday utterly destroy you.
Let it not wish to seize the land neighboring Phoebus's own;
delicate Miletus a whirlwind from above shall one day destroy,
in payment for choosing Phoebus's deceitful song
and the clever study of men and their prudent counsel.
Be gracious, all-begetter, to the delicate, fruitful land,
great Judaea, that we may see your purposes fulfilled.
For this land first, O God, you knew among all in grace,
so that it might seem your foremost gift to all mankind,
and be held in honor, as God bestowed it.
Thrice-wretched, I long to see the deeds of the Thracians,
and the wall between two seas, in the dust beneath Ares,
dragged along like a river toward the fish-teeming strait.
Wretched Hellespont, an Assyrian's son shall one day yoke you,
and against you the mighty strength of the Thracians shall wage war and be laid waste.
And Macedonia the Egyptian king shall seize,
and shall cast down upon the barbarian region the strength of its rulers.
Lydians and Galatians, Pamphylians together with Pisidians,
armed in full array, shall wage their evil strife.
Thrice-wretched Italy, you shall remain wholly desolate, unwept,
in your flourishing land, consumed by a deadly plague.
And there shall be, from the broad heaven above,
a thunderous roaring, so that God's voice may be heard,
and the sun's own unfading flames shall be no more,
nor shall the moon's bright light shine again,
in the last time, when God shall take command.
All shall grow dark, and darkness shall cover the earth,
and blind mortals, and evil beasts, and misery.
That day shall be, and long shall be its season, until men perceive
the lord himself, God who oversees all things from heaven above.
He himself shall have no mercy then upon hostile men,
who sacrifice herds of lambs and sheep and loud-bellowing bulls,
and great gold-horned calves
to lifeless Hermai and gods of stone.
Let justice and wisdom and the glory of the righteous go before;
lest the imperishable God, once roused to wrath, utterly destroy
the whole race of men, their very life, and the shameless tribe.
One must cherish the begetter, God, ever wise and everlasting.
In the last season, near the ending of the moon's course,
there shall be world-maddened war, treacherous in its thieving guile.
And a matricide man shall arrive out of earth's farthest bounds,
a fugitive, plotting sharp-tongued schemes in his mind,
who shall bring down the whole earth and master all things,
and shall devise all things more cunning than all mankind;
for whose sake he himself perished, yet he shall seize it at once.
He shall lay waste to many men, and mighty tyrants too,
and shall set all things ablaze as no other ever did,
but those who cower he shall raise up again, out of zeal (rivalry).
And from the west there shall come great war upon men,
and blood shall flow as far as the bank of the deep-eddying rivers.
And the wrath of Macedonia shall drip down upon the plains—
he shall grant alliance from the west, but ruin to the king.
And then a wintry blast shall blow across the earth,
and the plain shall again be filled with the evil of war.
For fire shall rain upon mortals from the floors of heaven,
fire and blood, water, whirlwind, darkness, a heavenly night,
and wasting death in war, and mist over the slaughtered,
and it shall destroy together all kings and the noblest of men.
Then thus the pitiful ruin of war shall cease,
and no longer shall any man make war with swords, nor with iron,
nor even with arrows—for that shall no longer be lawful again.
And the wise people who are left shall keep peace,
having endured wickedness, that afterward they may rejoice.
Matricides, cease from your insolence and your wicked daring,
you who of old impurely furnished the bed of children,
and set upon the rooftops as harlots those once chaste,
with outrage and punishment and toilsome shame.
For in you a mother mingled with her own son, lawlessly,
and a daughter was joined as bride to her own father;
in you kings too defiled their ill-fated mouths,
in you wicked men found their bed even with beasts.
Be silent, all-lamented evil city, holding your revels;
for no longer from you, of the nurturing forest,
shall maiden girls tend the god-inspired fire.
Quenched, at your hand, is the long-desired house,
when for the second time I saw the house cast down,
hurled headlong, drenched in fire by an impure hand.
a house forever flourishing, the watchful temple of God,
born of holy things and everlasting, ever existing,
hoped for from the soul and from its own body —
for it does not carelessly praise a god out of hidden earth,
nor did a clever craftsman make it out of stone beside them,
nor did it honor an ornament of gold, a deception of souls.
but the great begetter, God of all god-inspired things,
they honored in holy sacrifices and hecatombs.
but now a hidden king, unclean, having risen up,
cast this down and left it unbuilt,
with a great multitude and glorious men.
and he himself perished, having set foot on undying ground,
and no such sign was ever wrought again among men,
so that others thought they had sacked the great city.
for a blessed man came from the heavenly ridges,
holding in his hands a scepter, which God placed there,
and he ruled over all things well and gave back to all
the good men the wealth which former men had taken.
and he took the whole city from its foundations in a great fire,
and burned the peoples of mortals who had done evil before,
and the city which God desired, this he made
more radiant than the stars, the sun, and the pale moon,
and he set the world in order, and made it holy... and made it
fair in flesh, most beautiful, and he fashioned
over many furlongs a great tower without limit,
touching the clouds themselves and visible to all,
so that every faithful soul and every just one might see
the glory of the eternal God, the longed-for form;
the risings and settings of the sun hymned the fame of God.
for terrors no longer come upon wretched mortals,
nor adulteries, nor lawless lust for children,
nor murder, nor tumult, but righteous strife among all.
this is the last season of holy things, when God who thunders on high,
the builder of the greatest temple, brings these things to pass.
alas for you, Babylon of the golden throne, golden-sandaled,
you who for many years alone ruled the world as queen,
you who were once great and a city of many, no longer will you lie
among mountains of gold and beside the Euphrates' streams;
you shall be laid low by the shock of earthquake; and the dread Parthians
shall make you master of all no more. hold your mouth shut with a muzzle, unclean
race of the Chaldeans, do not ask nor be anxious
how you shall rule the Persians or how you shall master the Medes;
for on account of your empire, which you once held, having sent
hostages to Rome and men serving in Asia,
therefore you yourself, queen, thinking to come to judgment
shall face your adversaries, for whose sake you have sent ransoms;
and instead of crooked words you shall give a bitter word to your enemies.
and in the last season the sea shall one day be dry,
and no longer then shall ships sail to Italy,
but great Asia shall then be all-bearing water
and Crete a plain of ruin. Cyprus shall have a great affliction,
and Paphos shall wail a dread fate, so terrible to conceive,
and Salamis, that great city, shall suffer a great affliction —
now barren wasteland shall it be again upon the shore,
and no small swarm of locusts shall utterly destroy the Cyprian land.
Toward Tyre, ill-fated mortals, you shall weep as you look on.
Phoenicia, a dread wrath awaits you, until you fall
into evil ruin, so that even the Sirens shall truly weep.
It shall be in the fifth generation, when the destruction ceases
of Egypt, when shameless kings intermarry;
and the tribes of the Pamphylians shall settle into Egypt,
throughout Macedon and across Asia and through the Lycian lands
a world-maddened war, drenched in blood, in the dust,
which the king of Rome and the lords of the west shall bring to an end.
When the wintry blast drips down its snow,
as the great river freezes and the greatest of lakes,
at once the barbarian horde shall march into the land of Asia,
and shall destroy the dread race of Thracians as though it were nothing.
And then heart-devouring mortals shall eat their own parents,
worn down by famine, and shall tear apart their food.
Out of every house the wild beasts shall devour the table,
and beasts and birds alike shall devour all mortal men,
and the ocean shall be filled with the evil of war,
bloody with flesh and with the blood of the senseless.
Then such feebleness shall come upon the earth
that one may count the tally of men and the reckoning of women.
Endlessly shall the wretched generation wail at the world's end,
as the sun goes down, that it may never rise again,
remaining in the ocean, to be plunged beneath its waters —
for it has seen the impure wickedness of many mortals.
And there shall be gloom-darkness about the great heaven itself,
and no small mist shall wrap round the folds of the cosmos
a second time; but afterward the light of God shall lead the way
for the good men, all who have sung the praises of God.
Isis, thrice-wretched goddess, you shall remain by the streams of the Nile,
alone, a voiceless madwoman on the sands of Acheron,
and no memory of you shall remain any longer in all the earth.
And you, Sarapis, lying upon a heap of idle stones,
you shall lie a mighty ruin in Egypt, thrice-wretched.
And all who brought their longing for Egypt to you, all of them
shall weep for you bitterly, having set you as an undying god in their hearts;
they shall know you for nothing, all who have sung the praises of God.
And then some priest, a man clad in linen, shall say:
"Come, let us raise a beautiful shrine to the one true God;
come, let us change the dread law handed down from our fathers,
for the sake of which, offering processions and rites
to gods of stone and earthenware, they understood nothing.
Let us turn our souls, singing the praises of the undying God,
the very begetter, who has come to be everlasting,
the ruler of all things, the true one, the king,
"the soul-nourishing begetter, God the great, ever existing." —
And then, within Egypt's land, a mighty and sacred temple shall rise,
and to it a god-fashioned people shall bring their sacrifices,
and to them the imperishable God shall grant to live.
But when, abandoning the shameless tribes of the Triballi,
the Ethiopians set out to plow up Egypt for their own,
they shall begin the evil, so that all the last things come to pass.
For they shall tear down the great temple of the Egyptian land,
and God shall rain down upon them from the earth his dread wrath,
so as to destroy all the wicked and all the lawless.
And no longer shall there be any mercy left in that land,
because they did not keep what God had entrusted to them.
I saw a threat among the stars of blazing Helios,
and the dread wrath of Selene amid the lightnings;
the stars traveled in birth-pangs of war, and God let them make war.
For against Helios long flames rose up in rebellion,
and the double-horned rushing course of Selene was changed;
Phosphoros held the battle-line, mounting the back of the Lion;
and Capricorn struck the sinew of the young Bull;
and the Bull tore away from Capricorn his day of return;
and Orion drove the Balance away, that it stay no longer;
the Virgin exchanged with the Ram the portion of the Twins;
the Pleiad no longer shone, and the Dragon renounced its belt;
the Fishes went sinking down beneath the Lion's girdle;
the Crab would not remain, for it feared Orion;
the Scorpion came upon the tail through the dread Lion,
and the Dog slipped away from the flame of Helios;
and the might of strong Phaenon set the Water-bearer ablaze.
Heaven itself rose up, until it shook the warring stars;
and in wrath it flung them down headlong upon the earth.
So swiftly, once struck, into the baths of Ocean
they plunged the whole earth; and the starless sky remained.
Sixth Oration
I sing from the heart of the great and famous Son of the Immortal,
to whom the Most High Father granted a throne to take up
before he was yet born; since as to the flesh, twice over,
he was raised, washed in the outpourings of the river
Jordan, which runs with grey foot, dragging its waves along.
He who, escaping the fire, shall first see God as sweet,
coming as spirit, on the white wings of a dove.
A pure flower shall bloom, and springs shall gush forth.
I shall show men the paths, and he shall show the ways
of heaven; and he shall teach all with wise words.
He shall come to judgment and shall persuade the disbelieving people,
boasting of the praised lineage of his heavenly Father.
He shall walk the waves on foot, he shall loose men from disease,
he shall raise the dead, he shall drive away many pains;
and from a single wallet of bread there shall be a fill of men,
when the house of David buds forth its shoot; and in his hand
shall be the whole world, and earth, and heaven, and sea.
He shall flash lightning upon the earth, such as once before
was seen, when two were born from one another's ribs.
It shall be, when the earth rejoices in the hope of the child.
But for you alone, Sodom's land, evil sufferings lie in store;
for you in your folly did not perceive your God
when he came before mortal eyes; but with a crown of thorns
you wreathed him, and you mixed a fearful gall
for insolence and for his breath; that shall work you evil sufferings.
O wood, O most blessed, on which God was stretched out,
the earth shall not hold you, but you shall look upon heaven as your home,
when your fiery eye, O God, shall flash its lightning.
From the seventh book
O wretched Rhodes—you I will weep for first,
you will be first of cities, and first to perish,
widowed of men, and utterly bereft of life.
Delos, you will sail, unstable even upon the water;
Cyprus, a wave of the grey sea will one day destroy you;
Sicily, the fire that burns against you will scorch you.
This, I say, is God's fearful and encroaching water.
A certain Noah, alone of all men, came forth a fugitive.
The earth will sail, the mountains will sail, and the sky too will sail;
all will be water, and all will perish in the waters;
the winds will cease, and a second age will come to be.
O Phrygia, you will be first to rise from the water's crest,
and first, into impiety, you yourself will deny God,
delighting in speechless idols—which, wretched one,
will destroy you, as many years come round.
Wretched Ethiopians, suffering pitiful pains,
will be struck by swords, crouching low beneath their flesh.
Rich Egypt, ever tended by her grain,
whom the Nile drenches with his seven flowing streams,
civil strife among her own will destroy—whence, beyond hope,
men will drive out Apis, who is no god to men.
Alas, Laodicea, you who never saw the true God
will speak falsely, bold one—the wave of the Lycus will overwhelm you.
He himself, the begotten one, the great God, who will make
many stars, and will hang the middle axis through the sky,
will set before men a great terror to behold on high—
a pillar measured out in vast fire, whose sparks
will destroy the races of men who have wrought evil.
For there will come, just once, that time, when men
will seek to appease God, but will not bring their griefs to an end,
unfulfilled. And through David's house all is accomplished.
For to him God himself gave the throne, placing it in his hands;
and the messengers will lie down beneath his feet,
those who kindle beacon-fires and those who point out the rivers,
those who guard the cities and those who send the winds.
But again a harsh life comes upon many men,
sinking into their souls and changing the minds of men.
But when from the root a new shoot puts forth its eyes,
the creation which once gave abundant nourishment to all,
and what surrounds it in time will grow greater. But when others,
the Persians, a warlike tribe, begin to rule, at once dreadful
will be the bridal chambers, because of lawless tribes.
For a mother will have her own son also as husband; a son
will violate his mother; and a daughter, lying with her father,
will sleep under this barbarous law; but afterward, for them,
the Roman War-god will blaze forth from many a spear;
and with the blood of men they will drench much land.
And then the champion of Italy will flee from the strength of the spear.
And they will leave upon the earth a flower stamped in gold
Coming forth, ever bearing the sign of necessity.
It shall be, when all wretched and ill-fated, pitiably,
Ilium drains out her tomb, not marriage-song, where deep
brides shall weep, because they never knew God,
but ever gave voice to timbrels and clashing noise.
Prophesy, Colophon! A great and fearful fire hangs over you.
Thessaly, ill-wed, the earth shall no longer look on you,
nor even your ashes; alone you shall sail, a fugitive from the mainland.
To them, O wretched one, you shall be war's grim refuse,
fallen to dogs and rivers and to swords.
O wretched Corinth, around yourself heavy Ares
you shall receive, poor city, and you shall perish at each other's hands.
Tyre, how great a fate you alone shall receive! For of righteous
men bereaved, you shall be marked out by your folly.
Ah, hollow Syria, last of the Phoenician men,
against whom the Berytian brine lies belching.
Wretched one, you did not know your God, whom once
Jordan washed on the third day, and the Spirit flew down as a dove,
who, before earth itself and the starry heaven,
became the Word, self-existent, with the Father and the holy Spirit,
and putting on flesh, swiftly flew to the halls of the Father.
Three towers did great Heaven set firm for him,
in which now dwell the noble mothers of God,
Hope, and Piety, and longed-for Reverence,
who delight not in gold or silver, but in the reverent
offerings of men and in most righteous reasonings.
You shall sacrifice to the immortal God, great and majestic,
not melting frankincense grains upon the flame, nor with a knife
cutting down a shaggy ram, but together with all
who bear your blood, taking wild birds,
praying, you shall send them up, stretching your eyes to heaven;
and you shall pour out water before the pure fire, crying out such words:
"As the Father begot you, Word, O Father, I have released a bird,
a swift messenger of words, the Word, with holy waters
sprinkling your baptism, through which you were revealed by fire."
Nor shall you close your door, when some other stranger
shall come, needy, to ward off poverty and hunger.
But taking this man's head, sprinkling it with water,
pray three times; and to your God cry aloud such words:
"I do not long for wealth; a simple man, I have received a simple man;
both, grant them, Father, you the provider — hear me."
To one who prays he will grant it; and from then the man departed.
"Do not oppress me, holy and righteous reverence of God,
pure, unenslaved, proven around my birth...
steady my wretched heart, O Father; for I have looked
toward you, the undefiled one, whom no hands have made.
Sardinia, now heavy with pride, you shall be changed into ash.
You shall no longer be an island, when the tenth age comes.
Sailors shall seek you in the waters, no longer existing,
and the halcyons shall wail a pitiful lament over you.
Rugged Mygdonia, torch of the sea hard to escape,
you will boast through an age, but through ages you shall perish,
all of you, in hot breath, and go mad with many pains.
Land of the Celts, upon your mountain, by the impassable Alps,
deep sand will bury you whole; you will pay tribute no more,
no grain, no grass; you will be utterly emptied of peoples
forever, thickened over with icy frosts,
you will pay for the outrage you never understood, unholy one.
Rome of the strong heart, after the Macedonian spear
you will flash lightning up to Olympus; but God will make you
utterly unheard of, just when you think it far better
to stand fixed in view; then I will cry such things to you:
perishing, you will one day cry out radiantly — and shine like marble.
a second time, Rome, I am about to speak a second time to you.
But now, wretched Syria, I mourn for you piteously.
Ill-counseled Thebes, an evil sound shall come upon you
of pipes sounding, and upon you the trumpet's evil sound
shall ring, and you shall see the whole land perishing.
Ah, wretched one, ah, evil-hearted sea.
you shall be devoured wholly by fire, and destroy your people with brine.
For there shall be so great a raging fire upon the earth,
as much as water, and it shall flow and destroy the whole earth.
It shall burn the mountains, scorch the rivers, and empty the springs.
The world shall become a world unworlded, as men perish.
Burning miserably then, the wretched shall look up
at heaven, not at the stars, but weary in fire.
Nor do they perish quickly; but as their flesh is destroyed,
burning in spirit for years upon years,
forever, in hard trials, they shall come to know God's law,
that it is not to be mocked; and the earth, compelled,
having dared to receive whichever god upon its altars,
falsely, saw smoke rise through the sky in anguish.
and those shall suffer greatly who for gain
prophesy shameful things, fattening an evil age.
Those who, having donned the shaggy hide of sheep,
call themselves Hebrews falsely, a race they never were born to,
but speaking words for profit amid others' pains,
shall not change their life, nor persuade the righteous,
who propitiate God most faithfully in their hearts.
And in the third portion of the revolving years
of the first ogdoad, another world again is seen.
There shall be night everywhere — long, and disobedient.
And then a dread smell of sulfur shall spread about,
announcing slaughters, when those men shall perish
by night and by famine; then a pure mind shall be born
in men, and your race shall be established, as it was before for you;
no one shall cut a deep furrow with the curved plow anymore;
no oxen shall plunge the guiding iron into the ground;
there shall be no vine-shoots nor grain; but all together
shall eat the dewy manna with white teeth.
And with them then there shall also be God, who will teach you,
as he taught me, the wretched one. For all the evils I did before,
knowing them, and I toiled wickedly at many other things besides, careless.
Countless were my beds, but no marriage was ever my concern;
and I, utterly faithless, brought a savage oath upon all.
I shut out the needy, and going forth among those who came to me
as into a likeness of a glen, I did not understand God's word.
Therefore fire devoured me and shall devour me; for I myself
shall not live, but an evil time shall destroy me, where men
shall build me a tomb, passing by me on the sea.
And they shall destroy me with stones; for concerning my own father,
speaking, I gave up my own dear son. Cast at me, cast, all of you;
for thus shall I live, and fix my eyes upon the heavens.
The Eighth Word
As great wrath comes upon a disobedient world
for the last age I show forth the anger of God,
prophesying to all men, city by city.
Ever since that tower collapsed and human speech
were divided into many mortal dialects,
first the kingdom of Egypt, then that of the Persians,
the Medes, the Ethiopians, and Assyrian Babylon,
then Macedonia, boasting its great pride,
fifth then the famed, lawless kingdom of the Italians
will show to all mortals the last and many evils
and will exhaust the toils of men across all the earth.
It will lead untiring kings of nations to the west
and set laws upon the peoples and subject all things.
Late grind the mills of God, yet grind the fine flour.
Then fire will destroy everything and render to fine dust
the peaks of high-crested mountains, and of all flesh.
The beginning of all evils is love of money and folly.
For there will be a lust for deceitful gold and silver;
for mortals prized nothing above these,
not the light of the sun, not heaven, nor the sea,
not the broad-backed earth, from which all things grow,
not God who gives all things, begetter of all,
not faith in these things, nor piety did they prefer.
It is the fountain of impiety and the guide of disorder,
the contriver of wars, the enemy grief of peace,
setting parents against children and children against parents.
Nor will marriage ever at all be honored apart from gold.
The earth will have boundaries, and every sea its guards,
deceitfully divided among all who hold gold;
so, wishing for ages to hold the earth that feeds many,
they will plunder the poor, that they themselves,
gaining more territory, may enslave them through arrogance.
And if the monstrous earth, from the starry heaven,
did not hold her throne far off, the light would not be equal for men,
but would exist bought with gold for the wealthy,
while God was preparing another age for the poor.
There will come to you at last from above, equally, high-necked Rome,
a heavenly blow, and you will first bend your neck,
and you will be razed to the ground, and fire will consume you wholly
as you lie prostrate on your own foundations, and wealth will perish,
and wolves and foxes will dwell in your foundations.
And then you will be utterly desolate, as though you had never been.
Where then will be your Palladium? What god will save you,
one of gold, or of stone, or of bronze? Or where then for you
the decrees of the senate? Where the offspring of Rhea or Cronos
or of Zeus, and of all whom you revered,
lifeless demons, idols of dead men who have perished,
whose tombs, to her sorrow, Crete will hold as her boast,
worshipping with rites senseless corpses on their thrones.
But when for you, luxurious one, three times five kings have come to be,
having enslaved the world from the rising to the setting sun,
there shall be a gray-headed lord bearing a name akin to the sea,
surveying the world with polluted foot, furnishing gifts,
having gold in greatest abundance and silver more than the enemies'
he has gathered, and having stripped it bare he will squander it.
And he will take part in all the mysteries of the magicians' shrines,
he will display a child as a god, he will dissolve every object of worship,
and from the beginning he will throw open to all the mysteries of delusion.
A doleful season from then on, when Ailinos himself shall perish.
And once the people will say: "Your great power, city, shall fall,"
knowing straightway the evil day approaching that is to come.
And then together they will mourn, foreseeing your
most pitiable fate, fathers and infant children;
wretched, they will wail their doleful dirges by the banks of the Tiber.
After him three shall rule, each holding the very last day,
having filled up the name of the god of heaven,
whose power is now and unto all the ages.
One, an old man, shall hold the scepter for a long while,
a most pitiable king, who all the wealth of the world
will shut up and guard within his houses, so that when he returns
from the ends of the earth, the fiery matricide fugitive,
giving all these things to everyone, he will set great wealth upon Asia.
And then you shall mourn, having stripped off
the broad-purple light of your rulers and put on mourning garb,
O boastful queen, offspring of Latin Rome;
no longer shall the glory of your great pride be yours,
nor shall you ever be set upright again, ill-fated one, but you shall be laid low;
for the glory of the eagle-bearing legions shall fall.
Where then is your power? What land will be your ally,
enslaved lawlessly by your own vain follies?
For then there will be confusion of mortals over all the earth,
when the Almighty himself, coming, judges from his throne
the souls of the living and the dead, and the whole world.
And parents will not be dear to children, nor children to parents,
on account of impiety and hopeless affliction.
From then on for you: gnashing of teeth, scattering, and capture,
when the fall of cities comes, and chasms open in the earth;
and when the purple dragon comes upon the waves
with a belly full of multitudes, and shall feed on your children,
while famine is coming and civil war,
the end of the world is near, and the last day,
and judgment of the immortal God upon the approved and called.
First there will be the relentless wrath of the Romans,
a blood-drinking season, and a wretched life shall come.
Woe to you, land of Italy, great barbarian nation,
you did not perceive from where, naked and unworthy, you came
to the light of the sun, that to that same place again
naked you shall depart, and afterward come to judgment,
as one who judged unjustly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
with giant hands, alone, over the whole ordered world,
coming down from on high, you will dwell beneath the earth.
with naphtha and pitch and brimstone and much fire
you will be utterly blotted out, and be ashes for all ages,
burning; and everyone who looks on will hear a bellowing,
a great mourning cry from Hades, and the gnashing of teeth,
and your own hands beating your godless breast.
night is the same for all alike, for those who have wealth
and for the poor; naked from the earth, naked again to the earth
they come and finish, completing the time of their life.
no slave is there, no master, and no tyrant,
no kings, no rulers swollen with great pride,
no lawyer-orator, no magistrate who judges for money;
none pour out blood in sacrifice with libations at altars;
no drum sounds, no cymbal . . . . . . . . . .
no many-holed flute with its mind-maddening voice,
no hissing pipe carrying the likeness of a coiling serpent,
no trumpet, barbarous-voiced herald of wars;
none drunk in lawless revels, none in dancing;
no note of the lyre, no evil-working device;
no strife, no many-colored wrath, and no sword
is there among the dead, but one common age for all. —
the key-keeper of the great prison, at the judgment-seat of God. —
and with golden images, silver ones, and stone ones,
make yourselves beautiful, so that you may come to the bitter day,
your first punishment, Rome, and see the gnashing of teeth.
and no longer will anyone lay a slave's yoke on your neck,
not the Syrian, not the Greek, not the barbarian, no other nation.
you will be sacked and made to pay for all that you have done,
and wailing in terror you will pay, until you repay everything;
and you will become a spectacle to the world and a disgrace to all. —
from then on, the sixth generation of Latin kings
will finish out its last span of life and give up the scepter.
another king of that same line will come to reign,
who will hold sway over all the earth and wield the royal staff,
and he will rule of his own accord (autokerasta, a corrupt word) by the counsels of the Most High God;
his children and his children's children, an unshaken line —
for so it stands decreed, as the wheel of time turns round,
whenever the kings of Egypt come to number thrice five.
from then, when the phoenix of the fifth year has come round,
he will come to ravage the race of peoples, the countless tribes,
the nation of the Hebrews. then Ares will plunder Ares,
and he himself will destroy the overweening threat of the Romans.
for at that time the flourishing power of Rome perished,
the ancient mistress over many neighboring peoples.
no longer may the soil of luxuriant Rome prevail,
when the conqueror comes from Asia together with Ares.
and having done all this he will come to the city built on its foundations.
three times three hundred, and forty, and eight
years you will fulfill, when your evil fate comes upon you.
Fate, driven on by force, will fill your name to the full.
Woe is me, thrice wretched, when shall I see that day —
yours at last, Rome — and above all the Latins' day?
Revel on, if you will, over him hidden in secret childbed,
who from the land of Asia mounted the Trojan chariot,
carrying the spirit of a blazing beast. But when he cuts through the isthmus,
gazing about him, advancing against all, having crossed the sea,
then he will go after the great beast for its dark blood.
A hound will hunt down the lion that was destroying the shepherds.
They will strip him of his scepters, and he will pass into Hades.
Evil will come upon the Rhodians too, last of all but greatest,
and for Thebes an evil capture still waits, later on.
Egypt will perish through the wickedness of its rulers.
[And as for the mortals who afterward fled the sheer destruction,
thrice blessed and four times fortunate was that man.]
Rome will become a lane, and Delos undelian,
and Samos will be sand — — — — — — —
and later still, after that, evil will come upon the Persians too,
in return for their arrogance; all their insolence will perish.
And then a holy lord will hold the scepter of the whole earth
for all ages, raising up those who had perished.
Three men the Most High will lead to Rome, then, to a pitiful fate,
and all people will perish, each in his own house.
But they will not be persuaded — which would have been far better.
But when at last the evil day has grown to its full for all,
with famine and plague past enduring, and uproar of war,
then again that wretched ruler, as before,
will call together his council and take counsel how he may destroy —
dry things will bloom, leaves appearing along with them;
and the vault of heaven will show, over solid rock,
rain and burning heat and a great blast of wind upon the earth,
and a multitude of locusts moving over all the land. —
But again they will act with shameless hearts,
fearing neither the wrath of god nor of men,
abandoning reverence, craving shamelessness instead,
tyrants in their factions, sinners and violent men,
liars, faithless lovers, evildoers, in nothing true,
breakers of trust, sophists spinning words, pouring out blasphemies —
and no surfeit of wealth will ever be enough for them; but shamelessly
they will gather still more; and once made tyrants, they will perish.
All the stars will fall, prows turned against the sea,
many stars in succession, and the radiant comet
that men call a star — a sign of much toil
coming on, of war and of slaughter.
Never may I live to see the day that filthy woman reigns,
but rather that day when the heavenly grace comes to reign,
and when the holy child, at last, the deceiver of all,
destroys him, opening the deadly abyss in chains,
and suddenly a house of wood covers mortals over.
But when the tenth generation enters the house of Hades,
Then great power will come to a woman; through her many evils
God himself will increase, when the royal honor,
crowned, she has won; and the whole year will be a mild age.
The sun, running parched, will show nights,
and the stars will leave the sky; raging with a great storm
it will lay the earth waste; and there will be a rising of the dead;
and the lame will run swiftest, and the deaf will hear,
and the blind will see, and the mute will speak,
and life will be common to all, and wealth as well.
The earth, equal for all, with no walls, no fences
dividing it, will bear ever more abundant fruit,
and springs of sweet wine, and white milk,
and honey it will give . . .
and the judgment of the immortal God . . .
But when God changes the seasons . . .
making winter summer, then all the oracles are fulfilled.
But when the world has perished . . .
JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD, SAVIOR, CROSS.
The earth will sweat, when the sign of judgment comes.
The king who is to be for all ages will come from heaven,
present in person to judge all flesh and the whole world.
Mortals will see God, the faithful and the faithless,
the Most High, alongside his holy ones, when the age reaches its close.
He judges the souls of flesh-bearing men at the tribunal,
when the whole world becomes dry ground and thorn.
Mortals will cast away their idols and all their wealth.
Fire will burn up earth, heaven, and sea,
hunting them down, and will break open the gates of Hades' prison.
Then all the flesh of the dead will come into the light of freedom,
the flesh of the saints; but fire will expose the lawless forever.
Whatever anyone did in secret, then all of it will be told;
for God will throw open dark breasts to the light.
There will be wailing from all, and gnashing of teeth.
The sun's brightness will fail, and the dances of the stars.
He will roll up the heaven; and the moon's light will perish.
He will lift up the ravines, and level the heights of the hills,
and grim loftiness will no longer be seen among men.
The mountains will lie level with the plains, and the whole sea
will no longer bear ships. For the earth will then be scorched,
springs and all, and the babbling rivers will fail.
A trumpet from heaven will send forth a voice full of mourning,
wailing the pollution of limbs and the miseries of the world.
Then the gaping earth will show the chasm of Tartarus.
All will come before the tribunal of God the king.
A river of fire and brimstone will flow down from heaven.
And a sign then for all mortals, a notable seal —
the wood among the faithful will be the longed-for horn,
the life of pious men, but a stumbling-block for the world,
giving light with water to the called at twelve springs;
an iron rod will shepherd and rule over them.
This one now inscribed above in the letters of the acrostic is our god,
the Savior, immortal king, who suffered for our sake.
Him Moses prefigured when he stretched forth his holy arms
conquering Amalek by faith, that the people might know
he was chosen by God the Father and held precious,
the rod of David, and the stone which he endured to be,
on whom whoever believes shall have life everlasting.
For he shall come into creation not in glory, but as a mortal,
pitiable, without honor, without form, that he may give hope to the pitiable,
and to perishable flesh he shall give form, and faith to the faithless,
a heavenly gift, and he shall reshape from the beginning
the man molded by the holy hands of God,
whom the serpent deceived by guile, driving him to that fate
of death, and to gain the knowledge of good and of evil,
so that, abandoning God, he served the ways of mortal men.
For God, taking him first of all as counselor from the beginning,
the Almighty said: "Let us make, child, together,
molding mortal races after the stamp of our own image;
now I with my hands, and you thereafter with your word shall tend
our form, that we may give it a shared uprising."
Mindful, then, of this counsel, he shall come into creation
bearing a copied likeness into a holy virgin,
giving light through water by the hands of elders together,
doing all things by word, and healing every sickness.
He shall still the winds by a word, and he shall calm the sea
raging, treading it underfoot in faith and in peace.
And from five loaves together, and a fish out of the sea,
he shall satisfy five thousand men in the wilderness,
and taking up all the fragments left over then
he shall fill twelve baskets, for the hope of the peoples.
And he shall call the souls of the blessed, and love the pitiable,
who, mocked, shall render good in place of evil,
beaten, scourged, longing after poverty.
Knowing all things, seeing all things, and hearing all things,
he shall search out the inmost heart and lay it bare for reproof;
for he himself is the hearing and mind and sight of all,
and the word that shapes all forms, to whom all things are obedient,
and he saves the dead, and heals every sickness.
Into the hands of the lawless and the faithless he shall come at last,
and they shall give God blows with unclean hands,
and with foul mouths poisoned spittings.
And he shall offer up his back then, bared for the scourges;
[for he himself shall give over the holy virgin to the world.]
And being buffeted he shall be silent, lest anyone perceive
whose he was, or whence he came, that he may speak to the perished.
And he shall wear the crown of thorns; for out of thorns
the crown is the everlasting glory of the elect.
They shall pierce his side with a reed, for the sake of their law;
for out of reeds shaken by a wind not their own
for judgments upon the soul was he nourished, of wrath and of requital.
But when all these things I have spoken are fulfilled,
then every law given to men from the beginning
in ordinances, for a disobedient people, is loosed upon him.
He will stretch out his hands and measure out the whole world.
For food they gave him gall, and vinegar to drink;
this table of inhospitality they will show.
The veil of the temple shall be rent, and at midday
there shall be night, monstrous and dark, for three hours.
For no longer, it was shown again, is he to be served
by hidden law and temple, veiled in the world's illusions,
once the very Master has come down upon the ever-flowing earth.
He will come to Hades announcing hope to all
the holy ones, the end of ages and the last day,
and he will accomplish the lot of death, sleeping the third day;
and then, released from the dead, he will come into the light,
first of resurrection, showing its beginning to the called,
having washed away, in the waters of the undying spring,
the former evils, so that being born from above
they no longer serve the lawless customs of the world.
First to his own then shall the Lord be openly seen,
in the body, unchanged from what he was, and he will show in hands and feet
four prints fastened upon his own limbs,
east and west and south and north—
for so many royal realms of the world shall carry out
the lawless, blameworthy deed against our likeness.
Rejoice, holy daughter of Zion, who have suffered much!
Your own king comes, mounted on a colt, leading you in,
appearing meek to all, that the yoke of ours,
servile, hard to bear, lying on the neck, he may lift away
and loose the godless statutes and the bonds of violence.
Know him as your own God, the Son of God being he;
glorifying him and holding him in your breast,
love him with all your soul, and bear his name.
Put away your former ones, and wash yourself clean of his blood;
for he is not appeased by your songs nor by prayers,
nor does he heed corruptible sacrifices, being himself incorruptible;
but bringing forth then a hymn from understanding mouths,
know who this is, and then you shall see the Begetter.
Then for a time all the elements of the world shall stand bereft—
air, earth, sea, and the light of blazing fire;
and the vault of heaven, and night, and all the days
shall crash together into one, into a form utterly desolate.
For the stars, all the luminaries, shall fall from heaven.
No longer shall fair-winged birds fly upon the air,
nor shall there be footing on earth; for all beasts shall perish.
And there shall be no voices of men, of beasts, of birds.
The world, disordered, shall hear no useful sound;
but the deep sea shall resound with a mighty roar of menace,
and all the swimming creatures of the sea shall die trembling;
and the ship bearing its cargo shall sail upon the waves no more.
And the earth shall bellow, drenched with blood in her wars,
and every soul of every mortal shall grind and clench its teeth,
the souls of the lawless, with wailing and with fear,
wasting away with thirst, with famine, plague, and slaughter,
and they shall call death lovely, and it shall flee from them;
for death shall no longer come to them, nor shall night give them rest;
and often in vain they shall question the god who rules on high,
and then openly he shall turn his face away from them.
For he gave days of repentance spanning seven ages
for men who strayed, through the hands of the holy virgin.
God himself set all these things in my mind,
and through my mouth he shall bring to pass all that has been spoken.
I know the number of the sand and the measures of the sea,
I know the recesses of the earth and misty Tartarus,
I know the number of the stars, the trees, and all the tribes,
of four-footed beasts, of swimming things, and of birds that fly,
and of men now living and of the dead yet to be.
For I myself shaped the forms and the minds of men,
and gave them right reason and taught them knowledge,
I who fashioned eyes and ears, seeing and hearing,
and knowing every thought, and witness to all things,
dwelling within I keep silence, and later I myself shall convict,
and shall bring to account whatever a mortal has done in secret,
coming even to God's tribunal to speak to mortal men.
I understand the deaf man, and I hear him who does not speak,
and I know how great is the whole height from earth to heaven,
I know the beginning and the end, I who created heaven and earth.
For all things are from him, and he knows all from beginning to end.
For I alone am God, and there is no other god.
They deify an image of mine, molded out of matter,
and shaping with their own hands a speechless idol,
they glorify it with prayers and with unclean rites of worship.
Abandoning the Creator, they served in wantonness,
and all, holding gifts, give them to the useless idols,
and think all these things are of worth, as though they were honors paid to me,
reeking with feasts, as though for their own dead.
For they burn flesh and marrow-laden bones,
sacrificing on altars, and pour out blood to demons,
and light lamps to me, who am the giver of light,
and mortals pour out wine as to a thirsting god,
growing drunk to no purpose over useless idols.
I have no need of your sacrifice or libation,
no need of foul reeking smoke, nor of most hateful blood.
For these things they will do in memory of kings and of tyrants,
to dead demons, as though to the beings of heaven,
carrying out a godless and ruinous worship.
And the godless call their own images gods,
abandoning the Creator, and placing in them all their hope
and thinking to have life from them — from things deaf and speechless,
trusting toward evil, ignorant of the good end.
I myself set forth two ways, of life and of death,
and gave the mind the power to choose the good life;
but they rushed on toward death and everlasting fire.
Man is my image, possessing right reason —
for him set a table clean and unstained by blood,
fill it with good things, and give bread to the hungry,
and drink to the thirsty, and clothing to the naked body,
providing it from your own labor, with pure hands.
Take up the oppressed, and stand by the one who suffers,
and offer to me, the living God, a living sacrifice,
sowing now upon the water, that I in turn may give you
immortal fruits, and you will have everlasting light
and unfading life, when I test all men by fire.
For I will melt all things down and sift them clean,
I will roll up the heaven, I will open the hidden places of earth,
and then I will raise up the dead, dissolving fate
and the sting of death, and afterward I will come to judgment,
judging the life of the pious and the impious.
And I will set ram beside ram, and shepherd beside shepherd,
and calf beside calf, each near the other, to be tested;
those who were exalted shall be tested under testing,
and every mouth shall be stopped, so that those who envied
the ones who acted righteously, thinking to enslave them equally,
commanding them to silence, driven on by greed —
and all who prove worthy shall then come before me,
and no longer, grieving, will you say, "tomorrow will come,"
nor "it happened yesterday"; you will not fret over many days,
no spring, no winter, no summer either, no autumn,
no setting, no rising; for I will make one long day.
and into eternity the light shall be longed for.
Self-begotten, undefiled, everflowing and eternal,
heaven's holder, measuring by his strength the fiery breath,
and holding the scepter of the crash together with the harsh flame,
he calms the poundings of the heavy-thundering thunders,
shaking the earth, he holds back the rushing winds,
and he blunts the fire-gleaming lashes of the lightnings,
he holds the boundless streams of rain and the driving blasts of hail,
the flights of icy clouds and the onsets of winter storm.
For they themselves determine each thing in their own mind,
as much as seems good to you, and you nod your assent to it done.
Formed for your Son before all creation, of one bosom equal with your own,
counselor, molder of mortal men and founder of their life —
him first with the sweet voice of your mouth you addressed:
"Let us make, behold, a man wholly like in form
to ourselves, and let us give him breath sufficient for life;
to him, though mortal, all things of the world shall be in service,
and though shaped from clay, we will subject all things to him."
These things you spoke to the Word, and by your mind all things came to be;
and all the elements together obeyed your command,
and eternal creation was ordered together with the mortal form,
Heaven, air, fire, earth, and the flowing stream of the sea,
sun, moon, the chorus of stars, the mountains . . .
evening and day, sleep and waking, breath and impulse,
soul and understanding, skill and voice and strength,
the wild tribes of creatures, those that swim and those that fly,
those that walk, those that live in both realms, and the twin-natured crawling things—
for all these were ordered together by you, under your own command.
In the last of times he crossed over to earth, and coming for a little while,
from the womb of the virgin Mary a new light rose up,
and coming down from heaven he put on mortal form.
First Gabriel was shown, a strong and holy shape;
second, the archangel spoke to the girl with his voice:
"Receive God, O virgin, into your unstained womb."
So speaking, God breathed grace, forever, into the girl,
and fear together with wonder seized her as she listened,
and she stood trembling; her mind was startled,
her heart pounding at the unfamiliar words.
Again her heart was gladdened and warmed by the voice,
and she laughed a girl's laugh, and her cheek reddened,
delighting in joy, her mind charmed by reverence,
and courage came upon her. The word flew into her womb,
and made flesh in time, quickened in the belly,
it was shaped into mortal form, and became a boy
through a virgin's childbirth—this indeed is a great wonder to mortals,
but no great wonder to God the Father and God the Son.
As the babe was born, the earth leapt up in joy,
the heavenly throne laughed, and the cosmos exulted,
and a strange new star, foretold, was revered by the magi,
and the swaddled babe was shown in a manger that trusted God,
to drivers of oxen, and herders of goats, and shepherds of lambs,
and Bethlehem, called by God, was named the fatherland of the Word.
To be humble in heart, to hate bitter ends,
and to love one's neighbor, every one, as oneself,
and to love God from the soul, and to serve him alone—
for this we, born of the holy heavenly
line of Christ, are called his kindred by blood,
keeping the memory of gladness in our worship,
walking the paths of piety and truth.
Never are we permitted to draw near the inner shrines of temples,
nor pour libations to carved images, nor honor them with prayers,
nor with the sweet scents of flowers, nor with the gleam
of lamps, nor indeed to adorn them with votive offerings,
nor to raise up the flame of incense-smoke on an altar,
nor to send the blood of slaughtered sheep with bull-sacrificing libations,
delighting in ransom, appeasement of an earthly penalty,
nor to defile the bright air of heaven with the greasy smoke
and foul breath of a flesh-devouring pyre;
but rejoicing with pure minds and a cheerful spirit,
with generous love and open-handed gifts,
with gentle psalms and songs worthy of God,
we are bidden to hymn you, imperishable and never false,
the Father of all, the all-wise God . . .
The Sibyl's Eleventh Oracle
World of far-scattered men, and long walls,
and cities without measure, and nations without number,
of the East and the West, the South and the North,
divided by every kind of tongue and by kingdoms—
yet I am about to declare to you the worst of your fates.
For after the deluge overwhelmed those men of old
and destroyed that wretched generation with many waters—
the Almighty himself—he gave forth another race,
tireless men, who, rivaling heaven itself,
built a tower to an unspeakable height; then, one from another,
their tongues were torn apart; and wrath came upon them,
hurled by the Most High God, and the vast tower fell,
unutterable ruin; and they stirred up evil strife against each other.
Then indeed came the tenth generation of speaking men,
since these things happened; and all the earth was divided
among peoples of strange tongues, of every kind of speech,
whose numbers I shall tell, and name them out in acrostics,
beginning from a letter, and so make plain each name.
First Egypt shall receive a kingly rule,
excellent and just; and then within her
many counselors shall hold power; but after them
a fearsome man shall rule, a mightier warrior at close quarters;
and his name shall bear the letter of the acrostic,
and he shall stretch out swords against godly men.
And a great sign shall come to pass while he holds power,
in the land of Egypt, which greatly glorying
shall then feed with grain the souls perishing of famine;
she shall nourish the East and the race of Assyrian men—
he himself a prisoner, the dispenser of justice; and his name
shall be Isthin... by the number of the tenth measure.
But when the ten-plagued one from the shining heaven
shall come upon Egypt, then again I shall cry these things to you.
Alas for you, Memphis, alas, great kingdom—
the Red Sea shall destroy your many people.
There, when they shall leave the fruitful land to ruin,
the twelve-tribe people, commanded by the immortal one,
and God himself, the Lord, shall give a law to men.
Then for the Hebrews afterward a great and great-hearted king
shall rule, bearing some name out of sandy Egypt,
a false-born Theban man; and he shall love Memphis,
a dreadful serpent, and shall guard himself much in wars.
When the twelfth decade of his kingdom comes round—
seventeen years beyond a hundred, and five more
still remaining—then indeed the rule of Perseus' line.
And then darkness shall come upon the Jews, nor shall they escape
famine and plague unbearable in that day.
But when the Persian shall rule, and shall give up the scepter—
the son of a grandson—as the years come round
to only five sets of four, and shall tithe these...
having completed a hundred nine-year cycles, and you will pay for everything;
and then, Persia, you will be given as a slave to the Medes,
perishing under blows through mighty battles.
Straightway there will be evil for the Persians and the Assyrians,
and for all Egypt, for Libya, and for the Ethiopians,
for the Carians, the Pamphylians, and all other mortals.
And then he will give the kingly rule to his grandsons,
who again will ravage nations with much plunder,
seizing the whole earth, showing no pity.
Wretched, the Persians will wail their dirge of grief by the Tigris.
Egypt will water her wide land with tears.
And then upon you, land of Media, many evils will be worked
by the wealthy king born of India, until you pay for everything,
all that you did before with a shameless heart.
Alas for you, Median nation — after that you will be enslaved
to the men of Ethiopia, beyond the land of Meroë;
adding seven to a hundred years from the beginning
you will complete, wretched one, and set your neck beneath the yoke.
And then a dark-skinned, gray-haired, great-hearted
Indian king will afterward arise, who many evils
will inflict upon the East through mighty battles;
and you above all he will outrage, and ruin beyond all others.
But when he has reigned twenty years
and seven more added, then indeed of the kingly rule
every nation will grow frenzied and proclaim its freedom,
leaving the yoke of slavery for three single years.
But it will come again, and set beneath the yoke
every nation of men once more, under harsh rule, as before it was
enslaved to the king, and willingly it will submit.
There will be great peace throughout the whole world.
And then for the Assyrians there will be a great king, a man
who will rule and persuade all to speak in accord with his will,
all that God has lawfully ordained; and then before him
all kings, long-haired and crested with spear-points,
will shudder, terrified and speechless — the mighty ones and the fair —
they will serve this man through the counsels of the great God.
For he will persuade all things by word, and subdue all,
and the temple of the great God and the lovely altar
he himself will build in strength, and cast down the idols;
the tribes and the offspring of the fathers and the infant children
he will gather into one, encircling them as dwellers within;
and he shall bear a name whose number is two hundred,
and will show the signs of the eighteenth letter's line.
But when, as the tens revolve, he shall reach
two beyond and five more, coming to the end of that span of time,
there will be as many kings as there are tribes of mortals,
as many peoples, as many cities, as many islands,
the blessed continents and the fields rich in glorious fruit.
One among these shall be a great king, leader of men;
and to him many great-hearted kings will yield,
And to this man's children and to his most blessed grandsons
they shall give shares of kingly rule for the sake of dominion,
unto eight hundred years, and six more units beside them,
years he shall reign, and to the very last they shall contend for it.
When the mighty beast shall come together with strong Ares,
then for you, queen of the earth, wrath shall burst forth.
Woe to you, land of Persia, what floods you shall receive
of human blood, when that man shall come upon you,
the man of raging spirit; then again I shall cry these things to you.
But when Italy brings forth a great wonder for mortals,
the whimpering of infants beside an undefiled spring,
in a shadowy cave, the whelps of a sheep-devouring beast,
who, grown to manhood upon seven mighty hills,
shall cast down many who bear a shameless spirit,
both numbering a hundred, to whom a name shall show
a great sign of things to come; and upon the seven hills, walls
mighty they shall build, and around them heavy war
they shall set in motion. Then again there shall be an uprising of men
springing up around you, great land of the fair grain-ear,
great-hearted Egypt; but again I shall cry these things.
Toward a great blow besides, you shall take into your houses,
and again there shall be for you an uprising of your own men.
But now for you, wretched Phrygia, I mourn most piteously;
for capture shall come upon you from horse-taming Greece,
and dreadful war through mighty battles.
Ilium, I pity you; for out of Sparta a Fury
shall come to your halls, mingled with a deadly star;
and for you above all, toils and hardships and groaning and wailing
it shall bring, when men well skilled in war begin the battle,
heroes of the war-loving Greeks, by far the best.
And one of these shall be a king, a mighty spearman;
for the sake of his brother he shall pursue the vilest deeds.
And they themselves shall destroy the famous walls of Phrygian Troy;
when, twice five years having run their circle,
the son of Cronos shall fulfill the bloodstained works of war,
and suddenly a wooden house shall enfold men within it,
and you shall take it upon your lap, not knowing
that it is pregnant with an ambush of Greeks, O grief-laden city;
alas, in a single night how many shall Hades receive,
and how much plunder of the much-weeping old man
shall be carried off; but undying glory there shall be for those to come.
And a great king, a man sprung from Zeus, shall bear a name
beginning with that letter; and when he has won his homecoming,
then indeed he shall fall by the hand of a treacherous woman.
And one shall rule, of the race and blood of Assaracus,
a famous child of heroes, a mighty and valiant man.
He shall come from Troy, ravaged by great fire,
fleeing his fatherland through the fearsome toil of Ares;
bearing on his shoulders his aged father,
and holding by the hand his only son -- a pious deed
He will act, peering about — he who cut short the onrush of fire
in burning Troy — and hurrying through the crowd,
in terror he will cross the fearsome land and sea.
He will hold a name of three syllables, for its opening
letter reveals no common man, but the highest of men.
And then he will raise up the mighty city of the Latins.
In his fifteenth year, in the depths of the brine,
perishing in the waters, he will meet the end that is death.
But not even dead will the nations of men forget him;
for his line will rule after him, over all,
as far as the Euphrates and Tigris, between the rivers
of the Assyrian land, where the Parthian once held sway.
It shall be for those still to come, when all this happens.
And a certain old man, wise, will again be a singer,
whom all will call the wisest among mortals,
by whose noble mind the whole world will be schooled;
for he will set down in summary both power and thought.
And clearly he will write many unutterable things, here and there,
mastering my own words in meters and in speech;
for he himself will be the very first to unroll my books,
and after that will hide them, and show them to men no more
until the end of ruinous death, the close of life.
But when all this has been brought to pass, as I have said,
the Greeks will again make war upon one another;
Assyrians, Arabs, and quiver-bearing Medes as well,
Persians and Sicilians and Lydians will rise up,
Thracians, Bithynians, and those who by the streams of the Nile
dwell in the land of the richest grain; and turmoil
the undying God will set upon them all together. But most terribly
a bastard Assyrian man, an Ethiopian, will come without warning,
bearing the heart of a beast, and will cut clean through the isthmus,
peering about, and pressing on against all, he will sail across the sea.
And then very much will happen to you, faithless Greece.
Ah, woe to you, suffering Greece, how much you must lament!
When eighty-seven years have run their course,
you will be the wretched leavings of a war of all tribes, and terrible.
There again the Macedonians will be a torment to Greece,
and will destroy all Thrace, and the toil of Ares
upon the islands and mainlands and the war-loving Toratroi. —
He will stand among the front-fighters, and he will share this name,
ten times fifty in number — that is the letter it signifies.
At first he will be short-lived; but the greatest
kingdom, boundless over the earth, he will leave behind.
But he himself will fall by a spear-bearing man of evil counsel,
having lived in Syria, ruling as no one ever did.
And after him his great-hearted son will rule in turn,
the first letter of whose name begins it — his line's descent will continue.
Not truly of Zeus, not of Ammon, will they all alike
call him true-born, but will falsely make him out the bastard son of Cronus' child.
And he in turn will sack the cities of many mortal men;
But upon Europe the greatest wound shall spring up like grain.
This one shall ravage the city of Babylon with plague,
and all the land the sun looks down upon,
in the East, and he alone shall sail across the world.
Woe to you, Babylon — you shall serve in triumphal processions,
you once called mistress; Ares comes down upon Asia,
he comes in truth, and shall slaughter many of your children.
And then you shall send forth your kingly man,
named for the number four, the spear-wielder,
the terrible archer, with mighty warriors.
And then between the Cilicians and the Assyrians
famine and war shall hold sway; and great-hearted kings
shall stir up the dread strife of soul-devouring discord.
But you, flee across, leave the king behind,
do not wish to remain, nor be ashamed to prove a coward;
for a terrible lion shall rush upon you, a raw-flesh-eating beast,
savage, a foreign judge, a cloak wrapped about his shoulders.
Flee the thunderbolt man. An evil yoke shall come upon Asia,
and again all the earth shall drink blood like rain.
But when the great, wealth-giving city of Egypt
the Pellaean Ares shall establish, and name it for himself,
his fate and death betrayed treacherously by his companions —
for having left the Indians and come to Babylon,
a barbarous murder shall destroy him at the banquet tables.
Afterward others shall rule, each over his own tribe,
people-devouring kings, arrogant and faithless,
in a few short years; but the great-hearted, lordly one,
who shall strip Europe bare before the eyes of all,
from the time when all the earth shall drink the blood of every race,
shall depart, having spent his own life's very form.
And there shall be other kings, eight men in all,
of his line, all bearing the very same name.
And Egypt shall then be a bride holding sovereign sway,
and the great city of the Macedonian lord,
queenly Alexandria, glorious nurse of cities,
shining in beauty, shall alone be the mother-city.
And then let Memphis reproach those who hold the rule.
And deep peace shall come upon the whole world;
and the black-clodded earth shall then bear more abundant fruit.
And then evil shall come upon the Jews, nor shall they escape
famine and plague on that unbearable day;
but the black-clodded, fair-eared, newly-ordered
immortal earth shall receive the many who perish.
But eight kings of marshy Egypt
shall fill out the number of years — three and thirty
added to two hundred. But the race shall utterly perish —
not all of them — yet from the root there shall spring up
a woman, a destroyer of mortals, betrayer of her own kingdom.
But they themselves, in wickedness, shall work evil deeds
against one another thereafter, and one shall destroy another;
[The purple-robed father shall smite down his warrior sire,
struck himself by his own son, before another shoot is planted,
he shall fail; but the root shall flourish again afterward,
self-sprung; and from it a kindred stock shall spring forth.]
For there shall be a queen of the land by the streams of the Nile,
where the sea comes on through seven-mouthed channels,
and by the number twenty her name shall be much-beloved.
Countless things she shall demand and gather all manner of wealth,
gold and silver alike; but treachery shall come upon her
from her own men. Then again for you, blessed land,
there shall be wars and battles and the slaughter of men.
But when many shall begin to rule flourishing Rome,
not indeed those blessed ones foretold, but tyrants,
commanders born over thousands and over tens of thousands,
overseers of the lawful markets, and the greatest
Caesars shall rule, succeeding one another for all their days;
and the last of these shall rule, the tenth in number,
the last of the Caesars, stretching his limbs upon the ground,
struck down by dread Ares at the hand of an enemy man;
whom the sons of Rome, bearing him with their own hands,
shall piously bury, and heap up over him a tomb,
sharing in his memory for the sake of that friendship.
But when the term of the year's circling time shall come,
twice two hundred years fulfilled, and twice ten more,
from when your founder, child of a beast, first ruled you,
no longer shall the dictator be a ruler bound by measure;
but a lord and king shall arise, a man like unto god.
Know then, Egypt, that a king is coming upon you;
and truly there shall come dread Ares, flashing-helmed.
And then for you, widow, capture shall come afterward;
for terrible and ravening wars, by force, around the walls of the land
shall be, evil-working. And in these wars
you yourself, suffering grievously, over the freshly wounded
shall flee, wretched one; but afterward you shall come to the bed
of that same fearsome one; that marriage-bed shall be your final union.
Alas for you, ill-wedded maiden — the kingly rule
you shall give to the Roman king, and pay back all
that you once did through manly deeds of war;
you shall give your whole land as a dowry to that mighty man,
even to inner Libya and the dark-skinned men.
No longer shall you be a widow, but shall dwell with a lion,
a man-devouring, fearsome warrior of war.
And then, wretched one, unseen among mankind
you shall be to all, for you shall perish, holding a shameless spirit;
and a resounding tomb, circling around, shall seize your solemn form,
fitted alive within its barred confines at the topmost heights, cunningly wrought, and many a people shall weep for you,
and the king himself shall groan over you in dread lament.
And then Egypt, the much-toiling, shall become a slave,
she who for many years bore trophies over the Indians;
she shall serve in shame, and mingle tears with her river.
to the fruit-bearing Nile, since she who possesses wealth
and the greatness of every good, nurse of many peoples,
will nourish the flock-devouring race of dreadful men.
Ah, to how many beasts you will become slave and prey,
Egypt rich in blessings, giver of laws to peoples --
you who once exulted even in mighty kings,
will serve as a wretched slave to peoples, because of that people
whom once, though pious, you drove into much suffering,
into toils and lamentations, and set the plow upon his neck,
and watered your fields with mortal tears.
Therefore the Lord himself, the undying God who dwells in heaven,
will utterly waste her and cast her down into mourning;
and you will pay for what you once did lawlessly,
and at the last you will know that the wrath of God has come upon you.
But I to Pytho and to well-towered Panopeus
will go; there all will proclaim me a true
prophet by my oracle; yet with a raving spirit
some will call me a mere messenger; but when one comes to my books,
let him not tremble -- for all things that shall be and that have been
he will learn from my words. Then the god-possessed woman
no one will any longer call a raving prophetess driven by necessity.
But now, my lord, put an end to my much-desired voice,
driving away the frenzy and the true, god-given cry,
and the dreadful madness -- and grant instead a lovely song.
The Twelfth Sibylline Oracle
But come, hear from me the doom-laden age of the sons of Latinus.
Truly, first, after the perishing kings
of Egypt, whom one same earth carried all down alike,
and after the citizen of Pella, beneath whom all
the East was struck down, and the rich West,
whom Babylon proved false, and gave his corpse to Philip —
no true son of Zeus, no true son of Ammon, as was rumored,
and after him of the race and blood of Assaracus,
who came from Troy, who split the onrush of fire,
and after many lords again, warlike men beloved of Ares,
and after infant children, the young of the sheep-devouring beast,
and after six hundred years have passed
and twice ten more, while Rome was ruled by dictators,
there shall be a first lord out of the western sea,
ruling Rome, greatly valiant and a warrior,
who obtained the first of the letters, and having fettered you
away from murderous war, he shall stand fast, O glory-fruited one;
you shall pay for the outrage you yourself let loose;
for he himself, great-hearted, shall excel in wars;
before whom Thrace shall cower, and Sicily, and after them Memphis,
Memphis brought low through the wickedness of her rulers
and of a woman, unenslaved, fallen by the spear;
and he shall ordain statutes for the nations and bring everything under his sway;
holding mighty glory, he shall rule long over the scepters;
for he shall not be surpassed by even a little time, nor shall any other
scepter-bearing king exceed him, of the Romans, not by one hour,
since God has ordained all things upon him;
and indeed he showed forth seasons upon the sacred earth,
great and wondrous, and upon them he displayed signs.
But when a star, wholly like the sun,
bright, shall appear from heaven in the midst of days,
then indeed the hidden Word of the Most High shall come,
bearing flesh like unto mortals; and with him
the might of Rome and of the glorious Latins shall increase,
yet he himself, the great king, by his own fate
shall die, handing over the royal power to another.
And after him another man, a mighty spearman,
shall rule, the purple robe cast about his shoulders,
he who bears, in the first stroke of the numbers, three hundred —
he shall destroy the Medes and the arrow-shooting Parthians together;
and he himself shall bring down the high-gated city by his might;
and evil shall come upon the city of Egypt, and upon the Assyrians,
the Colchians, the Heniochi, and the Germans who dwell by the streams of the Rhine, above the sandy shores.
he himself shall sack, thereafter, the high-gated
city near the Eridanus, plotter of evils.
and then he shall fall, struck down by gleaming iron.
and after him shall rule another man, a weaver of deceit,
who received the number of the three, and his name
the stroke of the letter shall reveal; and much gold shall he gather up.
and there will be no satiety of great wealth, but shamelessly
having plundered still more, he will heap it up across the whole land.
There will be peace, and Ares will rest from his wars.
But he will do great harm, trusting most of all in prophecies
for the sake of his life and livelihood; and against him
there will be a great sign: from heaven bloody
drops will pour down, as the king is destroyed.
He will do many lawless things, and around their necks he will set
sufferings for the Romans, trusting in prophecies;
he will destroy the heads of the Senate. Famine will grip
the Campanians and Thracians and Macedonians and Italians;
only Egypt will feed the teeming multitudes.
Having deceived a young virgin girl with a mystery-rite,
the king himself will destroy her by treachery; and the citizens
in grief will bury her; and all, laying their anger
against the ruler by treachery, will tear him apart.
Mighty, he will perish by mighty hands, while Rome still flourishes.
Then again another lord will rule, of the number twice ten;
and then upon the Sarmatians wars and grievous sorrows
will come, and upon the Thracians and the javelin-throwing Triballi;
and Roman Ares will ravage them all.
A fearful sign there will be while he holds power
over the land of Italy and of Pannonia; and around them
there will be darkened night in the middle of the day's hour,
and a rain of stones from heaven; but after that
the mighty lord, judge of the Italians,
will go down to the house of Hades by his own fate.
Again another man will come, of the number fifty,
terrible and fearsome; and he himself will destroy many,
the noblest of every city, men born to wealth—
a terrible serpent by nature, in short account. His hands
he will stretch out as commanders, and destroy, and accomplish much,
contending, driving on, killing, and daring countless things;
and he will cut through the twin-peaked mountain, and spatter it with gore.
But to the Italians he will also become a vanishing, ruinous thing,
making himself equal to god, and he will put the willing people to the test;
there will be deep peace while he holds power.
[And tremblings among men; and rushing in beneath the Ausonians
strange water will pour forth from the streams of Ocean;]
gazing about himself, he will set contests for the people,
very many indeed, and he himself will compete as a contestant,
with voice and lyre, singing his song to the strings;
but later he will flee, abandoning his royal rule,
and perishing in misery he will pay for all that he has done.
After him three will rule, allotted by their names
the number seventy—two lords, and one besides these
of the third letter; and one after another will perish
by mighty Ares, at the hands of an army's schemes.
Then one of the pious will come, a great destroyer of men,
a lord, a man of mighty spirit, a spear-brandishing Ares,
He who sevenfold displays the tenth stroke plainly:
he will destroy Phoenicia and utterly ravage Syria;
and the sword will come upon the land of Solyma,
even to the farthest bend of the Tiberian brine.
Ah, Phoenicia, how much you will endure, heavy with grief -
gripped in tight routs, and every nation will trample you.
Ah, you will come among the Assyrians, and your infant children
you will see enslaved among hostile men,
together with their wives and their whole livelihood, and wealth will perish;
for the wrath of God will come upon you, heavy with grief,
since they would not hold fast to his commandment, but to all
idols gave service, with shameful crafts.
Many more wars again, and battles, and slaughters of men,
famines and plagues and upheavals of cities.
And at the end of his life the venerable, great-hearted king,
himself excelling in valor, will fall under the compulsion of his army.
Afterward two other men will rule as lords,
cherishing the memory of their great father the king,
and glorying greatly among warriors close in battle.
One of these will be a noble man and lord,
and his name will hold the number three hundred; yet he
will fall by treachery, stretched out among the armies,
struck down on the ground of Rome by double-edged bronze.
And after him another man, a mighty spearman,
will rule a great kingdom, from the stroke of the number four,
whom all mortals will love across the boundless earth.
And then there will be rest from war throughout the whole world.
Yet under him, from the west to the dawn,
all will serve willingly and not under compulsion,
and cities of their own accord will become subject
and enslaved. For upon him great glory will be bestowed
by heavenly Sabaoth, the imperishable God who dwells in the heavens.
And then Pannonia and all the land of the Celts
famine will diminish, and will destroy them against one another.
For the Assyrians, past whom the Orontes flows,
there will be buildings and adornment, and whatever greater thing is seen anywhere.
And these the great king will cherish and love
above the other citizens; but he himself
will take a deep wound square in the center of his chest,
taken by treachery at life's end by a companion,
inside the great and sacred house of the kingdom,
he will fall, wounded; and after him there will be a lord,
a venerable mortal of the number fifty, who beyond all
will destroy many of Rome's people and citizens; but he will rule as an oligarch, for on account of the former king
he will go down to the house of Hades, wounded from behind.
Then straightway another king, a mighty spearman,
who obtained rule stamped with the number three hundred,
will rule also the land of the Thracians, richly varied as it is,
and will destroy those at the farthest barbarian reaches of the Rhine,
the Germans dwelling there, and the arrow-shooting Iberians.
Soon for the Jews another mighty evil shall come,
and Phoenicia after them shall drink a deluge of blood.
The walls of the Assyrians shall fall before many warriors,
and again a deadly man shall utterly destroy them.
Then shall come the threats of God who rules all,
earthquakes and great famines across all the earth,
snowstorms out of season, and raging thunderbolts.
And then the great king, through the labor of war,
a Celt, a mountain-treader, rushing to the strife of battle,
shall not escape a shameful fate, but shall perish.
Foreign dust shall hide him, a corpse — and his name shall be
one bearing the name of a flower. After him another shall rule,
a man silver-headed, and his name shall be that of the sea,
bringing forth the first of its element, a four-syllabled Ares.
This one shall dedicate temples to every city,
surveying the world on his own foot, bearing gifts,
and shall furnish gold and amber in abundance to many.
This one shall master all the mysteries of the magicians,
drawn from their inner shrines; and indeed far better for mankind
shall he establish while he reigns... a thunderbolt—
Long peace shall come to be, for as long as
this lord reigns; and there shall be a clear-voiced singer too,
a sharer in the laws, a righteous keeper of justice.
But he himself shall fall in turn by his own fate, his rule ended.
After him three shall rule, and the third shall come to power late,
holding three tens; but then again, from the first unit,
another lord shall rule; and after him another ruler,
out of seven tens; and their names shall be noble ones.
And they in turn shall destroy the many-tattooed peoples,
Britons and Moors, the mighty Dacians and Arabs.
But when the youngest of these shall utterly perish,
then indeed shall Ares come again upon Parthia,
terrible, the one who wounded before, and shall lay it waste utterly.
And then that lord himself shall fall by a treacherous beast,
while exercising his hands at sport; and this shall be the cause of his death.
After him another man shall rule, knowing many wise things,
bearing the name... of the first mighty king,
out of the first unit; and he shall be good and great.
Much shall this mighty one accomplish for the great Latins,
for his father's memory's sake; and soon the walls of Rome
he shall adorn with gold and silver and ivory,
in market-places and temples, coming in his own great might.
And at some time for the Romans a wound shall spring up,
most terrible in war; and he shall lay waste their whole land,
all the land of the Germans, when the great sign of God
shall appear from heaven, and bronze-armored men,
worn down, he shall save through the king's piety;
for to him the heavenly God shall hearken in everything;
when he prays, He shall send down rain at the needed hour.
But when at last these things I have spoken are fulfilled,
And then the famed kingdom of the great, godly lord
will fail him, as the years roll round to their end;
and at the close of his life, having shown forth his own son
as heir ascending to the throne, he will die by his own fate,
leaving the royal power to a fair-haired ruler,
who will bear the name of twice ten, and being born
king from his father's line, will inherit the rule.
This man, with a more excessive reckoning than any,
will rival great-hearted, overweening Heracles in all things,
and will excel with mighty weapons of war,
and in hunting and in horsemanship will hold
the greatest glory; but he will live perilously, alone by himself.
A fearful sign there will be while this one rules:
over the ground of Rome there will be cloud and mist,
so that no man can see his neighbor beside him.
And then at once wars and grievous griefs,
when the ruler himself, mad with lust, the frenzied one,
shall come disgracing his own kin in the marriage bed,
shameful, in reckless and unholy weddings.
Then, hidden in widowhood, a great, destroying man,
nursing his wrath, will vent his evil in the bath-house,
a man a murderer, bound by treacherous fates.
Know then that Rome's ruinous hour draws near,
for the sake of jealous rule; and many will perish
in the Palladian halls beneath the hands of Ares.
And then Rome will be widowed, and will pay for all
that she alone once did in her many wars.
My heart weeps, and my spirit weeps within me;
for since the first king, O high-necked Rome,
established one good law for men upon the earth
[and the utterance of the mighty deathless God descended to earth,]
until the end of the nineteenth reign,
let the span of years be filled: twice a hundred, twice twenty,
twice two, and six months besides -- then a widowing --
the twentieth king, when in your own halls
he pours out blood, struck by the sharp sword,
the number eighty, whose letter reveals
his name, and bearing heavy old age; he will make her a widow
in a little time, when many warriors,
many fallen, and slaughters and man-killings,
and ruinous strifes and miseries for the sake of victory
in rule, and many, horses and men together,
will fall upon the ground, cut down in wars.
And then another man will come, bearing the number ten
as the sign of his name, and he will do much
grief and groaning, and he will lay waste to many;
but he himself, swift-fated, will in turn be brought low and fall,
struck down by mighty Ares with gleaming iron.
Another, a warrior bearing the number fifty, will come,
roused from the East for the sake of empire.
And warlike Ares shall come even as far as Thrace;
and afterward he shall flee, and come into the land of the Bithynians,
and the plain of the Cilicians; but swiftly bronze-clad Ares,
soul-destroying, shall utterly waste him on the Assyrian plains.
And then, knowing well the arts of guileful conquest,
a man of cunning mind shall rise up out of the west,
and he shall bear a name whose sign is the number
two hundred; and far more, for the sake of royal power,
he shall raise up war against the Assyrian people,
gathering every army, and shall subdue all things.
And for the Romans he shall wield the great dominion; and in his heart
much cunning device, the wrath of ruinous Ares;
a dread serpent and heavy war, who shall destroy all
the high-born men that walk upon the earth,
slaying the noble for the sake of wealth, like a falling star,
plundering the whole earth of its perishing peoples, —
he shall turn his course toward the east; and all guile shall be theirs.
There, when an infant Caesar shall reign together with him,
bearing the name of the mighty Macedonian king,
its letter but beginning; and around him, war having swept him off,
he shall escape the steep snare of the king who comes against him,
in the bosom of the army; but he, by barbarian customs,
ruling suddenly, the temple-warden, shall utterly perish,
overpowered by mighty Ares with the blazing iron;
and even dead, the people shall tear him apart.
And then indeed the kings of the Persians shall rise up,
... Roman Ares against the Roman lord.
And Phrygia, rich in flocks, shall groan beneath the earthquakes.
Woe, Laodicea! Woe, wretched Hierapolis!
for you the gaping earth once swallowed first of all.
... monstrous things ... Ausonian ...
all things, as many as ...
shall wail ... of men who perish
in the hands of Ares; and evil shall be your fate,
the fate of men; but afterward, by the road of the east,
hastening to look upon Italy, by the blazing iron
stripped bare, he shall fall, having gathered hatred through his mother.
For the seasons hold all things ... and a fourth shall possess another,
one that is burning ...; but not all men know this together;
for not all things belong to all; only these shall come to joy,
who practice piety toward God and have forgotten idols.
But now, lord of the cosmos, king of every kingdom,
unlying, immortal one — for you have set within my heart
an ambrosial voice — stop my speech; for I do not even know
what I am saying; for it is you within me who speak all things.
Grant me a little rest, and lay to rest within my heart
the lovely song; for within me my heart grows weary
of the god-given verses, foretelling the reigns of kings.
The word of the Sibyl, book thirteen.
God bids me sing a mighty word,
the holy, undying, imperishable God, who to kings
gave power and took it away, and marked out for them their time,
of both together, of life and of ruinous death.
And these things the God of heaven forces me, unwilling,
to declare to kings, concerning the royal power.
And the raging spear of Ares; and by it all shall perish.
A child-ruler, once born, shall give judgment in the assemblies;
for many wars and battles and slaughters of men,
famines and plagues, earthquakes and consuming thunderbolts,
and many Assyrian crossings, throughout the whole world,
and plundering and the robbing of temples.
And then the uprising of the Persians, men of bread-winning toil,
and of Indians and Armenians and Arabs together; and against these
a Roman king shall draw near, insatiable for war,
leading spearmen even against the Assyrians, a new Ares;
as far as the deep-flowing, silver-eddying Euphrates
he shall stretch out, sending forth his warlike spear, that Ares,
for the sake of... and betrayed by a companion
he shall fall in the battle-line, struck by gleaming iron.
Straightway again shall rule a purple-loving spearman,
appearing out of Syria, a terror to Ares, and upon his son
Caesar too, and he shall lay waste all the land; and the name
shall be one for both of them; upon the twenty-first
there are set five hundreds. And when these
shall rule in wars, and become dispensers of law,
there shall be a brief respite from war, not for long;
but when the wolf shall pledge oaths to the flock
before the white-toothed dogs, and afterward shall do harm,
wounding the woolly sheep, and shall cast the oaths away,
then shall come lawless strife of overweening kings
in wars, and the Syrians shall perish terribly,
Indians and Armenians, Arabs, Persians, Babylonians.
They shall destroy one another in mighty battles.
But when the Roman Ares shall destroy the German
Ares, conquering him who devours the spirit of the ocean,
then upon the Persians too, men overweening,
shall come a war of many years, and victory shall not be theirs;
for as upon a high, wind-swept, many-ridged
sheer rock the fish does not swim upon the summit,
nor does the tortoise fly, nor does the eagle swim into water,
so too the Persians shall be far removed from victory
on that day, for as long as the dear nurse of the Italians,
lying in the plain of the Nile beside its divinely-ordained water,
shall send to seven-hilled Rome her portion of the season.
These things are fated; and as many as the name Rome holds in number, when the time is reckoned up,
so many years shall she willingly measure out grain to you,
O splendid great city of the Macedonian lord.
And another grief, full of much toil, will I sing for the men of Alexandria.
perishing in the strife of monstrous men.
males who before were cowardly and without strength
will cling to peace through the wickedness of their rulers.
and the wrath of the great God will come upon the Assyrians,
and a river's flood will destroy them, coming
into Caesar's city, it will wrong the Canaanites.
the Pyramus will water Mopsus' city, where will fall
the Aegeans through the strife of overbearing men.
wretched Antioch, heavy Ares will not leave you
as the Assyrian war presses hard about you;
for in your halls a foremost man of men will dwell,
who will make war on all the Persians, the arrow-shooters,
he himself born of the royal power of the Romans.
now adorn yourselves, cities of the Arabs, with temples and racecourses
and broad marketplaces and splendor-shining wealth
and statues of gold and silver and ivory;
but of all things most of all, though skilled in astrology,
Bostra and Philippopolis, there you will come to great mourning;
for the exulting spheres will not help you,
the zodiac's circle, the Ram, the Bull, the Twins,
nor all the others that appear with them in heaven,
the stars that mark the hours, wretched one, in which you trusted so much,
when that day of yours draws near hereafter.
but now I will sing for the war-loving Alexandrians
the most terrible wars; and a great host will perish,
citizens destroyed by rival townsmen
fighting for the sake of hateful strife, and around these
fearsome-faced Ares, rushing in, will set war ablaze.
and then again the great-hearted one with his mighty son
will fall by treachery through the elder king.
after him again will rule over strong, flourishing Rome
another great-hearted lord skilled in warfare,
sprung from the Dacians, of the number three hundred;
he will come from the fourth of the horned line, and will destroy many;
and then indeed all his brothers and friends
the king will destroy, and when kings have perished,
at once there will be plunder and murders of the faithful
suddenly, on account of the former king.
then, when the man of crafty mind comes upon his couch,
a robber from Syria appearing, a hidden Roman,
he will draw near treacherously to the race of the Cappadocians
and, laying siege, he will fall, insatiate of war;
then indeed for you, Tyana and Mazaca, capture will come;
you will be enslaved, and beneath him you will bow your neck to the yoke;
and Syria would weep for her perishing people,
nor will the Moon-goddess then save the sacred city.
when, fleeing beforehand from Syria, the shameless one who circles round,
escaping the Romans through the streams of the Euphrates,
no longer like the Romans, but like the haughty,
venom-shooting Persians, then the lord of the Italians
He shall fall in his rank, struck down by the flashing iron,
having left the world behind; and after him his sons shall perish.
But when another king shall reign over Rome,
then unsettled nations shall come upon the Romans,
ruinous Ares with a bastard son against the walls of Rome, and then famines, plagues, and raging thunderbolts,
and dread wars and the upheavals of cities
shall come suddenly; and the Syrians shall perish terribly,
for upon them shall come the great wrath of the Most High,
at once the uprising of the toiling Persians,
and the Syrians, joined with the Persians, shall destroy the Romans;
yet they shall not conquer, all the same, by the god-ordained counsel.
Ah, how many born in the East shall flee
with their own possessions to men of foreign speech.
Ah, how much dark blood of men the earth shall drink!
For such a time shall come, when to the dead
the living, uttering blessing from their lips,
shall declare that death is good, and it shall flee from them.
And now for you, wretched Syria, I mourn piteously;
a blow shall come upon you from venom-shooting men,
dread, which you never hoped would come upon you.
And the exile of Rome shall come, lifting his great spear,
crossing the Euphrates together with many myriads,
who shall burn you utterly and lay all to ruin.
Wretched Antioch, they shall never call you a city again,
when through your own follies you fall beneath the spears.
Having plundered and stripped you bare, he shall leave you
roofless, uninhabited; and one who sees you shall suddenly weep.
And you too shall be a trophy of triumph, Hierapolis, and you, Beroea;
weep together with Chalcis over your newly-wounded children.
Ah, all who dwell ... about steep Mount Casius,
and all along Amanus, and all whom the Lycus washes,
and all whom the Marsyas and the silver-eddying Pyramus,
for even to the bounds of Asia they shall carry off spoil,
stripping the cities bare, and they shall take away the whole images of the gods,
and cast the temples down upon the much-nourishing earth.
And one day great ruin shall come upon Gaul and Pannonia,
and upon Mysia and Bithynia, when the warrior shall come.
O Lycians, Lycians, the wolf comes to lap up blood,
when the Sanni come with city-sacking Ares
and the Carpi draw near to do battle against the Ausonians.
And then a bastard son, with shameless daring,
shall utterly destroy the king, and at once he himself shall perish
for his impiety; and after him another again shall rule,
bearing his rule under new names; but swiftly he too shall fall,
struck down by mighty Ares with the flashing iron.
And again the world shall be a world disordered, with men perishing
by plague and by war; and the Persians, into the toil of Ares,
shall again rush raging upon the Ausonians.
And then there shall be flight for the Romans; but thereafter
the priest-king, the very last, sun-sent, shall come,
appearing out of Syria, and he will accomplish everything by deceit.
And then a city sacred to the sun will stand; encircling it,
the Persians will endure the fearful threats of the Phoenicians.
But when in turn two war-swift lords of the mighty Romans shall rule, of whom the one will hold
the number seventy, and the other a third number;
and then a high-necked bull, digging with its hooves
the earth, and stirring up dust with its two horns,
will do much harm to a dark-colored creeping thing
dragging its coiled, scaly length; but it too will perish.
And after this a fair-horned stag, another again, will come
hungry through the mountains, eager to devour in its belly
venom-shooting beasts; then will come, sent by the sun,
a terrible and fearsome lion, breathing much flame.
Then he in turn will destroy, with great and shameless daring,
the fair-horned swift stag and the greatest beast,
the fearsome venom-shooter, hissing many times,
and the goat that walks sideways; and glory follows him.
He himself, whole, unmarred, and insatiable,
will rule the Romans, and the Persians will be weak.
But Lord, king of the cosmos, God, put an end to the song
of our words, and grant a lovely song.
The Sibyl's Fourteenth Oracle
Mortals, why in vain, as though you were immortal,
and ruling briefly, do you think such lofty thoughts,
all wishing to reign above your fellow mortals,
not understanding that God himself
hates the love of power, and most of all insatiable kings,
terrible and impious ones, and rouses darkness against them?
Because instead of good deeds and just reasoning
all of them preferred purple robes and cloaks,
longing for wars, and miseries, and murders—
immortal God, who dwells in the sky, will make them swift to die,
destroying these men, and slaying one after another elsewhere.
But when the destroyer of bulls, trusting in his strength,
long-haired and grim, shall come and destroy them all
and crush the shepherds, and there shall be no force left to them,
unless, swift of foot, hound-pups through the glens
shall come to meet him in strife, eager in pursuit—
and the dog chased the lion that was destroying the shepherds.
And then there shall be a lord of four syllables, trusting in his strength,
appearing out of one; but bronze Ares shall swiftly
destroy him, through the strife of insatiable men.
Afterward two other lordly men shall rule,
both counting forty; and under them great
peace shall come for the world and for every people,
and justice and right; but these, again, helmet-flashing men,
greedy for gold and silver, for this reason
impiously kill, seizing them in their hands.
And then again a terrible young close-fighter shall rule,
a lord of seventy in number, soul-destroying, fiery,
who shall impiously hand over the people of Rome to the army,
to be killed through wickedness, because of the wrath of kings,
casting down the whole famous city of the Latins.
And Rome shall no longer be seen, nor shall it be heard of
such as the passer-by once saw it.
For all these things shall lie in ashes, and no work
shall be spared; for he himself shall come, entire,
from heaven, and shall send storm-blasts from the sky and thunderbolts
upon mankind, immortal God; some he will destroy
with blazing bolts, and others with chilling lightning.
And then indeed they shall kill the shameless, dread lord—
the children of mighty Rome, and the Latins of Rome.
No light dust shall cover him when he is dead,
but he shall be sport for dogs and birds and wolves,
because he slew and despoiled the war-loving people in death.
Next after him another famous one, forty in number, shall rule,
Parthian-slayer, German-slayer, putting down the beasts,
terrible man-killers, who by the streams of Ocean
and of the Euphrates continually range.
And then indeed Rome shall be again as it was before.
But when the great wolf shall come upon its own ground,
A lord, having come from the west, shall afterward die,
cut down by mighty Ares with the sharp bronze.
And then again another shall rule the overmighty Romans, a great-hearted Ares revealed out of Assyria,
beginning with a letter of his name, and he shall subdue all things by wars,
and he himself together with his armies shall display his rule
and set down laws; but swiftly bronze Ares
shall destroy him, fallen among treacherous armies.
After him three shall rule, men with overweening hearts,
one holding the number of a unit, and of three tens
one, and another lord shall share in three hundred;
reckless men, who gold and silver in a great fire
shall melt down, the founded images of hand-made temples,
and give it to their armies, arming themselves for victory,
as wealth, dividing up many goodly treasures;
and eager for shameful deeds, they shall likewise tear apart
the arrow-shooting Parthians of deep-flowing Euphrates
and the Medes, their enemies, and the long-haired warriors,
the Massagetae and the Persians, quiver-bearing men.
But when a king, by his own fate, lays down his rule,
leaving the royal scepter to his younger sons
and begging them to keep justice, they at once their father's commands
forgetting, and arming their hands for Ares,
shall rush into strife over the royal power.
And then one lord alone, again another from the third,
shall rule, and swiftly meet his fate, struck down by a spear.
After him many then shall perish against one another,
mighty men, struggling over the royal power.
And one great-hearted lord of the overmighty Romans shall rule,
an elder king of the fourth number, and order all things well.
And then there shall be war and strife for Phoenicia,
when the arrow-shooting nations of the Persians draw near.
Ah, how much shall fall before men of barbarous speech!
Sidon and Tripolis and boastful Berytus
shall look on one another in blood and corpses.
Wretched Laodicea, you shall raise up around yourself a great
and fruitless war, because of men's impiety.
Ah, wretched Tyrians, you shall reap the evil harvest,
whenever the sun that gives light to mortals fails by day,
and its disk shines not, and drops shall come upon the earth,
thick and frequent, bloody drops out of heaven.
And then indeed the king shall die, betrayed by his companions.
And many shameless rulers after him again
shall slay one another, stirring up evil strife.
And then again there shall be a venerable, cunning-counseled lord,
whose name has the number of five, trusting in great armies,
whom mortals shall love for the sake of his royal rule;
and having a noble name, he shall join it to noble deeds.
And a fearful sign there shall be: while he holds power,
between the Taurus and the snow-struck Amanus,
out of the land of the Cilicians a certain city shall utterly perish.
fair and mighty, of the heavy-strengthed river.
And many earthquakes will strike the Propontis and the Phrygian lands;
and a king renowned, by his own fate,
will lose his life to a wasting sickness of death.
After him two kings will rule as lords,
one bearing the number three hundred, the other three;
for this cause he will destroy many beyond the city,
of seven-hilled Rome, for the sake of a mighty kingdom.
And then evil will come upon the Senate, nor will it be escaped,
since the angered king holds wrath against it.
A sign will appear before all people on earth:
rains beyond measure and snows will come, and hail
will destroy the fruits of the harvest over the boundless earth.
And they themselves in turn will fall, overcome in wars,
by mighty Ares, for the sake of war among the Italians.
And then again another king of many devices will rule,
gathering every army and distributing riches
to the bronze-corseleted men for the sake of war; but then
the Nile, beyond many-eared Libya of the mainland,
will water for two years the black soil of Egypt
and the plowland; and famine will hold all things fast,
and war and robbers and murders and slaughters of men.
And many cities again, by warring men,
will be destroyed, laid low by the hands of an army;
and he himself will fall in turn, betrayed to the gleaming iron.
After him, one who obtained rule among the number three hundred
will rule over the Romans and over overweening men;
he will stretch out the soul-destroying spear against the Armenians,
the Parthians, the Assyrians, and the war-loving Persians.
And then again there will be the founding of splendid-built Rome,
exalted in adornment with gold and amber and silver and ivory;
and a great people within it,
of all the East and of the wealthy West,
will dwell there; and a king will set upon it
other laws; and after him, on a boundless island,
destructive death and mighty fate will receive him.
And another man will rule, of the ten threes, like a beast,
shaggy-haired and grim, who will be of Greek stock.
And then the much-nourishing city of the Molossians in Phthia,
and famous Larissa, and by the banks of the Peneius—
and then there will be an uprising of horse-grazing Scythia.
And a dread war will be by the waters of the Maeotic lake,
at the outpourings by the farthest mouth of the spring
of well-watered Phasis, along the asphodel meadow;
many indeed will fall by the hands of mighty warriors.
Ah, wretched men, however many bronze-armed Ares seizes.
And then a king, having utterly destroyed the Scythian race,
will die, releasing his life by his own fate.
And another in turn will rule, of the four, raised up thereafter,
a dread man, whom all who drink the thickest
Armenians will dread the ice of the fierce-flowing Araxes,
fearing the wars to come, and the great-hearted Persians too.
Between the Colchians and the mighty Pelasgians
there will be terrible wars and slaughters of men.
And the land of Phrygia and the cities of the Propontis-land,
baring double-edged swords from their sheaths,
will cut one another down through grievous impiety.
And then God will show a great sign to mortal men,
from heaven, as the years come round,
a sickle-star, portent of an evil war to come.
And then the king of the army will not escape violent hands,
but will die, struck down by a hand wielding gleaming iron.
After him, fifty counted, another again will rule,
appearing out of Asia, a dread terror, a close fighter;
and he will make war even against the shining walls of Rome,
against the Colchians, the Heniochi, the milk-drinking Agathyrsi,
by the Euxine sea, by the sandy gulf of Thrace.
And then the king of the army will not escape violent hands,
and even his dead corpse they will tear apart;
and then, the king having perished, desolate will be
man-glorying Rome, and many of her people will perish.
And then again another will rule, out of mighty Egypt,
dread and terrible, and he will destroy the great-hearted Parthians,
the Medes and Germans and the peoples of the Bosporus and the Agathyrsi,
the Britons, the Permanians, and the quiver-bearing Iberians,
the crooked Massagetae and the overweening Persians.
And then a splendid man will look upon all Hellas,
hating it, and Scythia, and windy Caucasus.
And a mighty sign there will be: while this man holds power,
from heaven crowns of light, at noon and at the north,
will rise, appearing like stars, all alike.
And then to his own son he will leave the royal power,
for a new age begins, when in his own allotted fate
the manly king shall go down into the house of Hades.
But when this man's son rules in the land of Rome,
appearing forth as one alone, there will be over all the earth
a great and lovely peace; and the Latins
will cherish him as king, for the honor of his father;
him, eager to go both to the rising and the setting sun,
the Romans will hold back, unwilling though he be, to their homes,
to rule over Rome, because he had become dear to all,
their hearts devoted to that far-famed lord and king.
But brief will be the life that death snatches from him,
accursed death, betrayed in his own allotted fate.
And afterward again other mighty warriors
will cut one another down, stirring up evil strife,
holding no royal palace, but that of tyrants.
And they will bring to pass many evils in all the world,
and most of all upon the Romans, until the third Dionysus,
until helmeted Ares comes forth from Egypt,
whom men call by another name, lord Dionysus.
But when the murderous lion and the murderous lioness
shall tear the famed purple royal robe,
*they shall crush in the lung of the hastening kingdom*,
and then the holy lord, who received the first of the letters,
having exchanged hostile rulers for victory,
shall give them over to be food for dogs and birds.
Woe to you, fire-scorched city, mighty Rome,
how greatly you shall suffer, once all this has befallen.
But then the great king, the far-renowned, thereafter
with gold and amber and silver and ivory
shall raise you up entire, and in splendor you shall surpass all before,
in possessions and temples, markets, riches, and stadiums;
and then again you shall be a light to all, as you were before.
Ah, wretched Cecropians, Cadmeans, and Laconians,
who around the Peneus and the deep-reeded Molossus,
Trikke and Dodona and lofty-built Ithome,
the Pierian ridge, and the great height of Olympus,
Ossa and Larissa and high-gated Calydon,
But when God shall make a great sign for mortals,
a daylight darkened, dim, over all the world,
then for you, o king, shall come the end, nor shall you escape
the sharp bow of your own brother, aimed against you.
And then again shall reign a soul-destroying, boundless burning one
of the royal line, who shall be of Egyptian stock,
younger indeed, but far braver than his kinsman,
who took up the stamped rule numbering eighty;
and then the soul-grieving wrath of the immortal God
the whole world shall receive into its bosom for the sake of honor;
for there shall come upon short-lived mortal men
famines and plagues and wars and slaughters of men,
and unwearied darkness upon the mother earth of peoples,
and disorder of seasons and merciless wrath,
earthquakes from heaven and blazing thunderbolts,
and showers of stone and parching drizzling rains.
The steep peaks of the Phrygian land were shaken again,
the feet of the Scythian mountains were shaken, the cities trembled,
and all the earth trembled together with the land of Greece.
And many cities, while God raged in his great fury,
shall fall prostrate beneath smoking thunderbolts
and lamentations, nor can wrath be fled or escaped.
And then again the king shall fall by the hand of his own army,
struck down as no man ever was by his own people.
After him many men of the Latins shall rise up again,
men clad in purple mantles about their shoulders,
who shall be content to take the royal rule by lot.
And then three kings upon the shining walls of Rome
shall be, two holding first the number,
and one bearing strife, the renamed one, as no other ever was;
these themselves shall love Rome and the whole world
caring for mortal men; yet no fulfillment shall be theirs;
for God was not born gracious to the world, nor will he be
gentle to men, since they have wrought so many evils.
Therefore again he shall bring upon kings a monstrous fury,
far worse than that of leopards or of wolves; for these,
the bronze-corseleted men, seizing them with their own hands,
shall utterly destroy their lords upon their very scepters,
helpless, subdued, unmanned like women.
Ah, wretched men, foremost of glorious Rome,
persuaded by lying, deceitful oaths, you shall be utterly destroyed.
And then many spear-wielding lords, not in due order,
men rushing upon them shall tear away whole generations
with the blood of firstborn men . . . . . . . . .
twice such a thing, and not for the first time, shall that pitiable fate be led on,
and it shall destroy all men by their own deeds.
But again God shall bring those who have shameless hearts
to judgment, as many as have devised evil things;
they themselves shall contrive it, casting it upon one another,
reaching for their own downfall in their eagerness for wickedness.
{all the stars shall fall, facing the sea}
many stars in succession, and a radiant comet
{men shall call the star, a sign of travail}
of great war coming on, and of much slaughter and strife. —
And when again he gathers many oracles concerning islands,
devising with strangers battle and destruction
and grievous, sacred ruin, he shall declare most swiftly
that wheat and barley are gathered into the houses of Rome, hastening toward wealth for twelve months.
And the city shall be in misery in those days,
but at once it shall again be prosperous, not by a little;
and there shall be quiet, when that which now holds power perishes.
And then the race of the Latins, its last king ruling,
shall come to an end, and after it a kingdom shall spring up anew,
and children and the generation of children shall stand unshaken;
for it shall be known to him, since God himself is ruler.
There is a certain land, a dear nurse to men,
lying in a plain, and around it the Nile marks its bounds,
watering all Libya and Ethiopia,
and Syrians, creatures of a day, plunder it, now one, now another,
every furnishing out of this land; in it a great
and noble lord and king shall be, sending forth for his children and his men.
And devising terrible things, over all things most terrible,
a mighty helper to all of great-hearted Italy;
and when he comes upon the wine-dark sea of Assyria
and lays waste the Phoenicians in their own homes,
binding fast evil war and dreadful strife,
of the two dominions of the earth there shall be one ruler.
But now I will sing the toilsome end for the men of Alexandria;
and holy Egypt, unharmed, unshaken,
barbarians shall dwell in it, when envy comes from somewhere;
{but when God shall change the seasons . . . . . . . . . .}
When winter turns to summer, then all the oracles are fulfilled.
But when three boys win victory at Olympia,
and if indeed they proclaim it, one shall speak god-inspired oracles,
purified first with the blood of a suckling four-footed beast,
then thrice shall the Most High bring on a dread fate,
not mournfully, when he stretches his long spear over all,
much barbarian blood shall then flow in the dust,
at the hands of inhospitable strangers, when the city is sacked.
Blessed is he who has died, and blessed is he who is childless;
for he shall set his neck beneath the slavish yoke,
he who once ruled renowned for his freedoms,
turning over counsels once celebrated in song;
such bondage the lord of many thrones shall impose.
And then straightway the ill-fated army of the Sicilians shall come,
bringing terror, when a great barbarian nation attacks;
when the crops have sprouted, they shall cut through the fields.
On them the high-thundering god shall give evil instead of good;
stranger shall ever plunder stranger for hateful gold.
But when all shall look upon the blood of the lion,
the raw-devouring lion, and a murderous lioness shall come upon the body,
down from his very head, and he shall cast the scepter from himself.
And as when at a beloved feast all the peoples in Egypt taste together,
and perform mighty deeds,
one holding back another, and great clamor rises among them;
just so shall terror come upon men
from raging strife, and many others too shall perish,
slaying one another in the mighty battle;
and then shall come one clad thick in dark-blue scales;
two others shall come, of one accord with each other,
and a third with them, a great ram out of Cyrene,
of whom I spoke before, fleeing the battle beside the streams of the Nile;
but not even so shall all of them finish their journey without toil.
And then, as the great years roll round,
there shall be long stretches of much peace; but afterward
war shall be set upon them again a second time in Egypt,
and there shall be a sea-battle, but victory shall not be theirs.
O wretched ones, the famous city shall be brought low,
and shall become the spoil of wars, but not for long.
And then men who share the borders of a great land
shall flee in cowardice, leading their grey-haired parents with them.
And again they shall meet a child holding great victory,
they shall destroy the Jews, men steadfast in war,
ravaging with wars as far as the grey sea,
both of them shepherds, fighting for fatherland and parents.
And he shall lay among the dead the race of trophy-bearing men.
Ah, how many men shall be swimming among the waves!
for many shall lie upon the sandy shores;
fair-haired heads shall fall to the birds of Egypt;
then indeed the mortal blood of the Arabs shall be avenged.
But when wolves in turn make firm their oaths with dogs
on a sea-girt island, then shall towers rise again,
and men shall dwell in the city that suffered much.
For no longer shall there be deceitful gold nor silver,
no possession of land, no toilsome slavery;
but one love and one way of life for the well-minded people;
all things shall be shared, and one equal light of life.
Evil shall sink into the earth, into the sacred sea.
And then near at hand shall be the harvest-time of mortal men.
A mighty necessity shall be laid upon these things to be fulfilled.
No other wayfarer meeting him shall then say,
how the race of mortal men, though perishing, shall ever find rest.
And then the holy nation shall hold the scepters of all the earth
for all ages, together with their mighty forebears.
Mortal men, made of flesh, who are nothing at all,
how quickly you are puffed up, not seeing life's end?
You do not tremble, you do not fear God, your overseer,
the Most High, all-knowing, all-seeing witness of all things,
nourisher of all, the creator, who set sweet breath in all,
and made it the guide of every mortal.
One God there is, who alone rules, immense, unbegotten,
almighty, unseen, yet himself seeing all things,
while he himself is not seen by any mortal flesh.
For what flesh is able, with its own eyes,
to look upon the heavenly and true immortal God, who dwells in heaven?
But men cannot even stand against
the rays of the sun, being born mortal,
men who are veins and flesh set upon bones.
Revere him alone, the only one who is, the guide of the world,
who alone has existed from age to age and unto age,
self-begotten, unbegotten, ruling all things through all,
granting to all mortals judgment in a common light.
For your wicked will you shall receive the wage it deserves,
because, forsaking the true and everlasting God,
you glorify him no longer, and instead of offering sacred hecatombs to him
you have made your sacrifices to the demons who dwell in Hades.
You walk in delusion and in madness, and the straight path,
the true path, you have forsaken, and gone off through thorns
and briers you have wandered — mortals, stop your folly,
wandering in darkness and in the black unlit night;
quit night's shadow behind and grasp instead the radiant light.
See, this light stands clear and unerring for all.
Come, do not chase after darkness and gloom forever.
See how the sweet-gleaming light of the sun shines forth beyond all others.
Know this, and lay up wisdom in your hearts:
there is one God who sends the rains, the winds, the earthquakes,
the lightning bolts, famines, plagues, and grievous sorrows,
and snowfalls and frost. Why should I recount them one by one?
He rules the heavens, he holds the earth, he alone exists.
But if gods are begotten and yet remain immortal,
then more gods would have been born than there are men,
and there would never have been room left for mortals to stand.
But if a thing is wholly begotten, it also perishes, and no god can
be shaped out of a man's loins and a womb.
No — God is one alone, supreme above all, who made
the sky above, the sun, the glittering stars, the moon,
the fruit-bearing earth, and the surging waters of the sea,
the towering mountains, and the ever-flowing streams of springs.
And of the creatures of the water he begets a vast countless multitude,
and the creeping things that move upon the earth are given life,
and the many-colored birds, clear-voiced, warbling,
the tawny, shrill-winged, that stir the air with their pinions,
and in the mountain glens he set the wild race of beasts,
and to us mortals he subjected all the herds and flocks.
Over all he set as ruler one made by God,
and to man he subjected things intricate beyond number and past grasping.
For what creature born of flesh could ever grasp all this?
But he alone knows, who made them from the beginning,
the imperishable creator, eternal, dwelling in the sky,
bringing to the good a far greater wage of good,
but for the wicked and unjust stirring up wrath and fury,
and war, and plague, and tearful sorrows.
Men, why are you uprooted, puffed up in vain?
Be ashamed, you who make gods of weasels and vermin.
Is it not madness and raving that strips the sense from your minds,
when gods steal cooking-pots and plunder kettles?
Instead of dwelling in the golden heaven across the boundless sky,
your gods lie moth-eaten, and thick spiders' webs have caged them in;
bowing down to snakes, dogs, and cats — you fools —
you worship winged things and creeping beasts of the earth,
and stone-carved idols and images made by hands,
and heaps of stones piled up along the roadsides — these you worship,
and many other vanities, shameful even to speak of.
These are gods of men, guides by deceit of the unwitting,
and from their very mouths pours forth death-bearing venom.
But he who is life itself, and imperishable, everlasting light,
and sweeter than honey, a joy for men,
pours it forth — to him alone bow your neck,
and set your path back onto the ages of the righteous.
But you, forsaking all these things, drained the cup filled with judgment,
strong, unmixed, well-weighted, quite undiluted,
all of you, with a spirit maddened by your folly.
You are not willing to sober up and come to a sound mind,
and to know God as king, who watches over all.
Therefore the blaze of burning fire comes upon you,
you will be scorched by torches through the ages, the whole day long,
put to shame for your false and useless idols.
But those who honor the true and everlasting God
inherit life, and for the length of eternal time
they dwell alike in paradise's flourishing garden,
feasting on sweet bread sent down from the star-strewn sky.
Hear me, mortals: the eternal king reigns.
He alone is God the creator, unconquerable, existing;
he himself established the pattern of mortal form,
he himself blended the nature of all things, begetter of life.
Whenever he shall come,
there will be fire in the darkness, in the middle of the black night.
{God} unmade.
Thus the Erythraean spoke to God: 'Why, O Lord,' she said,
'do you lay upon me the necessity of prophecy, and instead not
keep me raised up from the earth, until the most blessed day
of your coming?'