The Sibyl · a new plain-English translation from the original language
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