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From Sibylline Oracles, Translated from the Greek into English Blank Verse by Milton S. Terry; New York: Hunt & Eaton, Cincinatti: Cranston & Stowe’s, 1890; pp. 69-110.
BOOK III.
[70]CONTENTS OF BOOK III.
___________
THOU blessed One, loud Thunderer of the heavens,
Who holdest in their place the cherubim,
I pray thee give me now a little rest,
Since I have uttered what is all so true.
5
For weary has my heart within me grown.
Why should my heart be quivering now again,
And my soul, lashed as with a whip, be forced
To utter forth its oracle to all?
Yet once more I will speak aloud of all things
10
Which God impels me to proclaim to men.
O men, in godlike form and image made,
Why do ye vainly wander, and not walk
The straight path, keeping ever in your mind
The immortal Maker? One God rules alone,
15
Unutterable, dwelling in the sky,
Self-constituted, and invisible,
This book contains a great variety of matter, and doubtless embodies the most ancient Sibylline verses now extant. See Introduction. Some of the manuscripts preface this book with the line:
“Again, in her third tome, these things she says.”
In some editions the first seventy-four (Greek text, sixty-two) lines are appended to the preceding book.
Line 2. Cherubim. — Allusion to such passages as 1 Sam. iv, 4; 2 Sam. vi, 2; Psa. xviii, 10; lxxx, 1; xcix, 1, where the Most High is conceived as dwelling or riding upon the cherubim.
Line 3. I pray. — Here, as at the beginning of the first and second books, we note the Sibyl’s claim to be controlled by God. In many things she assumes to be an unwilling prophetess.
Line 11. O men. — Here and in the following lines we have much that reminds us of the language of the Proem.
Line 16. Comp. Rev. i, 4, 8.
Though he himself alone beholds all things.
No sculptor’s hand formed him, nor by man’s art
Appears his image in gold or ivory;
20
But he proclaims his own eternity
As one who is, and was, and yet shall be.
For who is he, frail mortal, that with eyes
Can look on God? Or who could bear to hear
The name alone of the great God of heaven
25
Who rules the world? He by a word all things
Created, heaven, and sea, and tireless sun,
And the full moon, and stars that shed forth light,
The mighty mother Tethys, fountains, streams,
Imperishable fire, and days and nights.
30
This is the God who made four-lettered Adam,
The first one formed, whose name fills east and west
And south and north. The same is he who fixed
The type and form of man, and made the beasts,
And creeping things, and such as spread the wing.
35
Ye do not reverence or worship God,
But vainly go astray and bow the knee
To serpents, and to cats make sacrifice,
And other idols, statues made of stone,
And sit before the doors of godless shrines.
Line 28. Mother Tethys. — Wife of Oceanus, mother of the rivers and the nymphs, three thousand in number. See Hesiod, Theog., 335, ff. Comp. Homer, Iliad, xiv, 201, 302.
Line 30. Four-lettered Adam. — The ingenuity which sees in the four letters of this name the Greek initials of the words for east, west, north, and south surpasses even that noted in book i, 98, where Hades is traced in the word Adam. But Augustine adopts this, and says: “According to the Greek tongue, Adam himself signifies the whole world. For there are four letters, A, D, A, M, and in Greek speech these are the initial letters of the four quarters of the earth.” Enarratio in Psalmum, xcv, 15 [L., 37, 1236]. See also Tractatus in Joannis, ix, 14, and x, 12 [L., 35, 1465, 1473].
40
Ye guard against the God who keeps all things,
And in the wickedness of stones delight,
Forgetful of the immortal Saviour’s judgment,
Who made the heaven and earth. Woe to a race
That has delight in blood, deceitful, vile,
45
Ungodly, double-tongued, malicious men,
Unchaste, idolatrous, designing fraud,
An evil madness raving in their breasts.
They plunder, and maintain a shameless soul;
For no rich man will with another share.
50
But a dire evil shall to all men come,
Faith they will nowhere hold, and many wives
And widows will in secret others love
Because of gain, and they will not observe
Life’s sacred bond if only they get men.
55
But when Rome also over Egypt rules,
Having one end in view, then shall appear
The mighty kingdom of the immortal king
Set over men. A holy king shall come
Wielding the scepter over every land
60
Unto all ages of advancing time.
And then will the stern wrath of Latian men
Rome thrice expose to pitiable fate.
And all mankind shall perish in their homes,
When from the heavens a fiery cataract flows.
65
Ah me, unhappy! When shall that day come,
And judgment of the immortal God’s great king?
Now surely, O ye cities, ye are built
And all adorned with temples and race-grounds,
Markets, and images of precious stone,
70
All that ye may come to a bitter day.
For it will come whenever there shall pass
Line 56. One end in view. — The subjugation of all to her power.
Line 58. Holy king. — Comp. book viii, 211.
The smell of sulphur among all mankind.
But these things severally I will tell
In as many cities as men carry vice.
75
From the great Cæsars Beliar shall come
Hereafter, and shall stand on mountain height,
And stay the sea, and the great fiery sun,
And shining moon, and make the dead stand up,
And perform many miracles with men.
80
But nothing to perfection will he bring,
But many mortals he will lead astray,
Elect and faithful Hebrews; also men
Without law, such as never heard God’s word.
But when the threatenings of the mighty God
85
Shall draw near, and upon the earth shall come
The flaming power as in a billowy wave,
It shall burn Beliar too, and faithless men,
All, even as many as put their trust in him.
And then the world shall by a woman’s hands
90
Be governed and persuaded in all things,
And when o’er all the world a widow reigns,
Line 75. Beliar. — Comp. book ii, 210, note. The miracle-working antichrist is first depicted in Dan. vii, 25; viii, 23-25; xi, 36, from which Paul drew the imagery of his description in 2 Thess. ii, 8-10. This Beliar is to come from the Cæsars (not from the Samaritans — that is, Sebastenes, as Ewald, p. 89, after an old Jewish superstition imagined), and hence the wide-spread notion that Nero was the person, and that he had fled beyond the Euphrates and would again return. Comp. book iv, 150-157, 175-177; v, 38-47; viii, 88, 193-201. Some have supposed that Rev. xvii, 10, 11, refers to this legend of Nero, but the notion is more likely to have sprung from a misapprehension of that passage.
Lines 77, 78. Sun . . . moon. — Comp. Hesiod, Theog., 18 and 371.
Line 91. Widow. — This widow woman to rule all the world in the last time seems to be derived from the apocalyptic image in Rev. xvii, 3; comp, xviii, 7, and refer to Rome itself as the mistress of nations. Comp. also book viii, 249-251. Ewald’s idea, that Julia Domna, widow of Septimus Severus, is intended, seems to have nothing to support it.
And flings the gold and silver in the sea,
And brass and iron of perishable man
Flings in the flood, then all earth’s elements
95
Shall widow-like be waste and desolate.
And God who dwells on high will roll the heaven
Together, even as a scroll is rolled.
And on the noble land and on the sea
The entire multiform arch of heaven shall fall.
100
A cataract of glowing fire shall flow
Unceasing, and burn land and sea and sky;
Creation itself will he melt into one,
And take out that which tends to purity.
The luminous laughing spheres shall be no more,
105
Nor night, nor dawn, nor many days of care,
Nor spring-time, summer, winter, autumn more.
And then shall come God’s judgment, in the midst
Of a great age when all these things shall be.
* * * *
O navigable waters, and all lands
110
Wherever the sun rises and goes down,
All things shall be subjected unto him
Who comes a second time into the world;
For from the first he recognized his power.
* * * *
But when the threatenings of the mighty God
115
Had been fulfilled, which once he threatened those
Who made a tower in the Assyrian land
(And they were all one language, and resolved
To mount aloft into the starry heaven),
Lines 109-113. These lines appear to be only a fragment of a longer passage, now lost, which spoke of the second coming of the Christ.
Lines 114-126. This passage is cited in Theophilus, ad Autol., ii, 31 [G., 6, 1101]; Josephus, Ant., i, iv, 3. Comp. Eusebius, Præp. Evang.., ix, 14 [G., 21, 702, 703]. See Gen. xi, 1-9. It is one of the oldest portions of the Sibyllines, and was probably once combined with the Proem, given on pp. 24-29.
Straightway the Immortal added to the winds
120
A mighty force, and tempests from above
Hurled down the huge tower, and among mankind
Raised up confusion, wherefore mortals gave
Unto that city the name of Babylon.
But when the tower fell, and the tongues of men
125
Became discordant, all the earth was filled
With mortals, and divided among kings.
And then appeared the generation tenth
Of mortal men, from the time when the flood
Came on the earlier race. And Kronos reigned,
130
And Titan and Japetus, whom men esteemed
Fairest of Gaia and Uranus born,
And gave them also names of earth and heaven,
Because they were most excellent of men.
Into three parts divided they the earth,
135
According to the inheritance of each,
And each ruled his own portion, without strife;
For they were bound by the paternal oath,
And equal were their portions. But old age
Came on the father, and his time was full,
140
And he died; but the sons, infringing oaths,
Line 119. Winds. — “The idea that God threw down the tower by means of the winds was probably first written down by our poet, but it is really nothing but a subtile interpretation of Gen. xi, 7.” — Ewald, p. 33.
Line 127. Generation tenth. — Cited by Athenagoras, Legatio pro Christianis, xxx [G., 6, 960], and Tertul., ad Nationes, ii, 12 [L., 1, 603]. In citing this passage Tertullian thus speaks of the Sibyl: “The Sibyl was earlier than all literature, that Sibyl, I mean, who was the true prophetess of truth. In senarian verse she thus expounds the descent and exploits of Saturn.”
Line 129. Kronos. — Greek name for the more familiar Latin title Saturn. The story of the Titans in the following lines (129-183) is familiar to students of Greek mythology, but the old myth exists with numerous minor variations, and, according to Hesiod (Theog., 453-500), the birth and preservation of Dia (or Jove) were somewhat different from this story.
Contended with each other in fierce strife,
Who should hold regal honor, and bear rule
Over all mortals. Then did Kronos fight
And Titan with the rest. But Rhea, and Gaia,
145
And garland-loving Venus, Demeter,
And Vesta, and Dione golden-haired
Brought them to friendship, and a council called
Of all the kings and brothers, and near kin,
And also others of ancestral blood,
150
And they decided Kronos should be king,
For he was oldest and of noblest form.
But Titan place on Kronos mighty oaths
To rear no male posterity, that he
Himself might reign when age and fate should fall
155
On Kronos. So whenever Rhea bore,
Beside her sat the Titans, and destroyed
All the male issue; but the female lived,
And were left to the mother’s nursing care.
But when at the third birth the honored Rhea
160
Brought forth illustrious Juno, and they saw
With wondering eyes a race of females born,
The savage Titans took themselves away.
Then when a male child Rhea brought to birth
She sent him quickly into Phrygia,
165
There to be reared in secret, having bound
Three Cretans by an oath to do her will.
They called him Dia, for he was sent away.
Poseidon also secretly she sent;
And Pluto, third, by women’s helping hand
170
Did Rhea, coming to Dodona, bear
Line 170. Dodona. — The place of a most celebrated city and oracle, commonly supposed to be in Epirus, but according to this passage apparently in Thessaly. Its exact site is unknown.
78
Whence flows Eurotas’ moistened path away,
And, with Peneius mixed, pours in the sea
Its water, and men call it Stygian.
But when the Titans heard of hidden sons
175
Begotten by King Kronos and his wife,
Straightway assembled Titan sixty youths,
Bound Kronos and his wife Rhea in chains,
Hid them in earth, and kept them under guard.
And then the sons of mighty Kronos heard,
180
And they stirred up a tumultuous war,
And this was the beginning of dire war
Among all mortals, for it was indeed
With men the primal origin of war.
Then God sent evil on the Titan race,
185
And all from Titan and from Kronos sprung
Died. But as time rolled on these kingdoms rose;
Egyptian, Persian, Median, Ethiopian,
Assyrian-Babylon, and Macedon,
Egyptian yet again, then that of Rome.
190
And then a message of the mighty God
Pressed on my heart, and bade me prophecy
On all the earth, and in the minds of kings
Those things deposit which are yet to be.
Line 171. Eurotas. — Not the well-known river of Laconia in the Peloponnesus, but another name for the Titaresius, which flows into the Peneius in the vale of Tempe. Strabo (book ix, v, 19) says that the poets called the river Eurotas, which is not far from the foot of Olympus, Titaresius; that it rises in a part of Mount Olympus and enters the Peneius in the plain near Tempe. In this region he locates a Dodona, but does not specify its exact location. Comp. Homer, Iliad, ii, 750-755, who says, however, with Strabo, that this river does not mingle with Peneius, but pours over the surface like oil, for it is a broken-off portion of the terrible Styx. This latter was one of the streams of the lower world.
Line 187. Persian. — Here probably meant for the Assyrian, while the Median included in the writer’s thought the later Persian. So Ewald, p. 11.
And first the only God delivered me
195
What kingdoms of mankind shall be raised up.
And first the house of Solomon shall rule
The horsemen of Phenicia and of Asia,
And those of other islands, and the race
Of the Pamphylians, Persian, Phrygians,
200
Carians, Mysians, and Lydians famed for gold.
And then the overweening Hellenes,
Impure, another Macedonian race,
Much mixed, shall rule, and they shall bring on men
A fearful cloud of war, but the God of heaven
205
Will utterly destroy them from below.
And then another kingdom will arise,
White, many-headed from the western sea,
Which will rule many a land, and many shake,
And afterward bring terror to all kings.
210
Much gold and silver will she take by force
From many cities, yet in the vast earth
There will be gold and silver and elegance.
And they will sore afflict mankind, and then
To those same men will come a ruinous fall,
215
When they attempt unrighteous insolence.
On them will be the bond of wickedness,
Male will consort with male, and they will set
Line 196. House of Solomon. — The kingdom of Solomon is here made to rule over nations which Old Testament history never mentions as subject to Israel. Comp. 1 Kings iv, 21. But the poet wishes to magnify that realm.
Line 201. Hellenes. — The Græco-Macedonian kingdom is here evidently intended.
Line 206. Another kingdom. — The Roman.
Line 207. White. — Probably an allusion to the white toga of the Roman magistrates. Many-headed. — Having a great number and variety of rulers. Competitors for office were called candidati, because of the white robe in which they presented themselves.
Children in dens of shame. And in those days
A great affliction among men will come,
220
And vex and wound and all things with evil
Through shameful covetousness, and gain ill-gotten
In many lands, but most in Macedon.
And hatred shall spring up, and all deceit,
Until the seventh kingdom, which a king
225
Of Egypt, but of Grecian birth, shall rule.
And then the nation of the mighty God
Shall be again strong, and be guides of life
To all mankind. But wherefore now should God
Lay it upon my spirit to declare
230
What evil first, what next, what last shall be
Upon all men, an dhow they shall begin?
First on the Titans God will evil send,
For mighty Kronos’s sons will vengeance take,
Because they bound the king and mother dear.
235
Again will tyrants rule the Hellenes,
And they will be proud, haughty, vicious kings,
Adulterous, and altogether bad;
And no more will there be a rest from war.
The dreadful Phrygians shall perish all,
240
And Troy will meet misfortune in that day.
Evil will also to the Persians come,
Line 224. Seventh kingdom. — Or seventh king (comp. line 726) of the Greek-Egyptian dynasty. This would point to Ptolemy Philometer if we reckon Alexandre the Great the first king, but Ptolemy Physcon if the line of the Ptolemies alone are reckoned. Ewald adopts this latter view, Alexander the former. All the Ptolemies were of Greek (or Macedonian) origin.
Line 227. Again strong. — The writer seems in the spirit and hope of Old Testament prophets to conceive a triumph for the chosen people as following hard upon the evils of his own time.
Line 232. Here the prophetess repeats herself, as if going back to the subject of line 184.
And to the Assyrians, and all Egypt too,
And Libya and the Ethiopians,
Carians, Pamphylians, and on mortals all
245
Shall evil be imposed. Why then of each
Do I speak? When the first comes to an end
Straightway the second falls upon mankind;
And yet I will the very first sound forth.
There will an evil come to pious men
250
Who dwell by the great temple of Solomon,
And are the progeny of righteous men.
Of these I also will declare the tribe
And line of fathers, and the home of all —
Do all with skill, O mortal full of guile.
255
There is a city on the [Asian] soil,
Ur of the Chaldees, whence has come a race
Most upright, ever of good counsel fond
And noble deeds. For they seek not with care
The circling pathway of the sun and moon,
260
Nor monstrous deeds on earth, nor the blue depth
Of sea or ocean, nor the signs of sneezing,
Nor birds of augurers, nor soothsayers,
Nor wizards, nor enchanters, nor the frauds
And silly speeches of ventriloquists,
265
Nor studies of Chaldean astrologers,
Nor oracles they gather from the stars.
For all these things are errors, which vain men
Line 249. Evil. — What particular evil or calamity of the Jewish people is here intended is altogether uncertain.
Line 254. Mortal full of guile. — Comp. book i, 7.
Line 255. This passage is corrupt and the reading adopted in our version is to some extent conjectural, but has some support in manuscripts, and suits the context. The critical student should consult Alexandre’s note in his edition of 1841, p. 111. On "Ur of the Chaldees" see Gen. xi, 31. Others, however, following another conjectural reading, understand the city to be Jerusalem. So Ewald, p. 21.
Search day by day, and exercise their souls
In labors void of profit, and then teach
270
Their error unto other thoughtless men.
Hence many evils have befallen men,
And turned them from good ways and righteous
deeds.
But they do seek with care for righteousness
And virtue, and have not the avarice
275
Which breeds unnumbered ills to mortal men,
Continuous war, and famine without end.
Just measure they observe in field and town;
They steal not from each other in the night,
Nor drive off herds of oxen, sheep, and goats;
280
Nor do they neighbors’ landmarks take away;
Nor does the man of great wealth grieve the poor,
Nor oppress widows, but he rather aids,
Every imparting wheat and wine and oil,
And always happy with those that have nought;
285
And to the destitute at harvest-time
He sends a share. Thus they fulfill the word
Of the great God — a hymn enshrined in law.
For he who dwells in heaven completed earth
To be a common property for all.
290
But when the people of twelve tribes depart
From Egypt and with joy pursue their way,
With leaders sent of God, they will proceed
In a pillar of fire by night, and one of cloud
At morning of each day as they go on;
295
And for them God a leader will appoint,
A great man, Moses, whom a princess found
Beside a marsh, and carried off and reared
And called her son. But when anon he came
As leader of the people whom God brought
Lines 288, 289. Repeated in lines 308, 309.
300
Away from Egypt to the Sinai mount,
Then God delivered them the law from heaven,
And wrote upon two tables all things just,
Which he enjoined to do; and if, perchance,
One give no heed, he must unto the law
305
Make satisfaction, either at men’s hands,
Or, if man’s notice he escape, he shall
By ample satisfaction be destroyed.
For he who rules in heaven completed earth
To be a common property for all.
310
And in all bosoms placed he noblest thought.
To them alone the bounteous field yields fruit,
A hundred-fold from one, and thus completes
God’s measure. But to them shall also come
Misfortune, nor will they escape all plague.
315
And even thou, forsaking thy fair shrine,
Shalt flee away when it becomes thy lot
To leave the holy ground, and thou shalt be
Carried to the Assyrians, and shalt see
Wives and young children serving hostile men.
320
All means of life and wealth shall be destroyed,
And every land and sea be filled with thee,
And at thy customs all will take offense.
Thy land shall be all waste, and the fenced altar
And scared temple and extended walls,
325
All to the ground shall fall, because in heart
Thou hast not kept the holy law of God;
But thou hast erred and served vain images,
And hast not feared the immortal Sire of gods
And of all men, nor willed to honor him,
Line 318. Assyrians. — Assyria and Babylon seem to have been often confounded together by the Sibylline authors. Comp. the expression "Assyrian-Babylon," line 188. Here the Babylonian captivity is referred to.
330
But thou hast honored images of men.
Therefore seven decades shall thy fruitful land
And the wonders of the temple be a waste.
And yet for thee a goodly end remains,
And highest glory from the immortal God.
335
But wait thou, and confide in God’s pure laws,
When to the light he lifts thy wearied knee.
And then will God send out of heaven a king
To judge each man in blood and light of fire.
There is a royal tribe, whose progeny
340
Shall be unfailing, and in course of time
Will it rule, and God’s temple build anew.
And all the kings of Persia will assist
With gold and brass and well-wrought iron, and God
Himself will give by night the holy dream,
345
And then the temple shall be as of old,
* * * *
Now when my soul had ceased from hallowed song,
And I prayed the great Sire to be released,
Again a message of Almighty God
Line 331. Seven decades. — See Jer. xxv, 9-12.
Line 337, 338. The king here referred to is best explained of Cyrus and the description should be compared with Isa. xliv, 28; xlv, 1-4. Ewald (p. 32) understands the king to be the Messiah. See further on lines 777-781.
Line 339. Royal tribe. — Judah, which returned from Babylonian exile, and under Zerubbabel, a descendant of the house of David (Matt. i, 12; Luke iii, 27), rebuilt the temple.
Line 342. Kings . . . assist. — Comp. Ezra i, 4; vi, 8; vii, 15, 16, 22.
Line 344. The holy dream. — Perhaps alluding to the visions and prophecies of Zechariah and Haggai (comp. Ezra v, i).
Line 346. When my soul had ceased. — Comp. similar exordium in lines 1-10, 190-195, and 581-584. The passage beginning here and ending with line 580 forms a section by itself, and is regarded by Alexandre as an interpolation belonging to the times of the Antonines. Others, however, find in it evidences of a pre-Christian date.
Rose in my heart, and he commanded me
350
To prophecy o’er all the earth, and place
In royal minds the things which are to be.
And to my mind God gave me first to tell
What bitter woes for Babylon he planned,
Because they God’s great temple had destroyed.
355
Alas! alas! for thee, O Babylon,
And also for the Assyrians, when the clash
Of arms shall pass through all the sinful earth,
And shout of war shall ruin every land,
Even as the stroke of God, leader of hymns.
360
For it will come as from the air above,
O Babylon, and from the holy ones
If the high heaven it will descend on thee,
And wrath eternal shall destroy thy children.
And then wilt thou be as thou wast at first,
365
Even as things which are not, and with blood
Shalt thou be filled, as thou before didst shed
The blood of many good and righteous men,
Whose blood yet cries out to the lofty heaven.
To thee, O Egypt, a great plague shall come,
370
Dreadful to homes, and such as thou didst hope
Might never fall on thee; for through thy midst
A sword shall pass, and separation, death,
And famine shall prevail until of kings
The seventh generation, and then cease.
375
Woe, woe to thee, O land of Gog and Magog,
Line 353. Babylon. Comp. how Jeremiah (xxv, 12) passes from the Jews’ calamities to the penal visitation of Babylon.
Line 369. Plague. — The constant wars of the times of the Ptolemies.
Line 374. Seventh. See line 224, and note.
Line 375. Gog and Magog. — Names derived from Ezek. xxxviii, 2. Comp. Rev. xx, 8. Here apparently applied as symbolical names to the Ethiopians of the Upper Nile.
In the midst of the rivers of Ethiopia!
What pouring out of blood shalt thou receive,
And be called house of judgment among men!
And thy land of much dew shall drink black blood.
380
Woe, woe, to thee, O Libya, and woe, woe,
O sea and land! Ye daughters of the West
How shall ye come upon a bitter day!
And ye shall come pursued by cruel strife
Dreadful and harsh; dire judgment will set in,
385
And by force ye will all to ruin come,
Because ye marred the Immortal’s mighty house,
And with iron teeth ye chewed it terribly.
So shalt thou see thy land full of the dead,
By war, and every spirit of violence,
390
Famine, and pestilence, and barbarous foes,
Thy land all desert and the city waste.
And there shall shine at evening-time a star
Which they will call a comet, baleful sign
To mortals of dire famine, sword, and death,
395
And ruin of great leaders and chief men.
And among men great signs again shall be,
For the deep-flowing Tanais will forsake
Mæotis’ marshy lake, and the deep stream
Line 380. Libya. — The northern coast of Africa immediately west of Egypt.
Line 381. Sea and land. — Comp. Rev. xii, 12. Daughers of the West — Roman cities, lying west of Egypt, and on or near the Mediterranean Sea, naturally so called by an Alexandrian writer.
Line 386. Mighty house. — This seems most naturally to refer to the overthrow of the temple in Jerusalem by the Romans.
Line 387. Iron teeth. — Comp. Dan. vii, 7, 19.
Line 393. Baleful sign. — Among most nations the appearance of a comet has been regarded by the superstitious as an omen of evil.
Line 397. Tanais. — Ancient classic name of the Don, which empties into the modern sea of Azof, the ancient Lake Mæotis.
Shall flow along a fruitful furrow’s mark,
400
And the vast flood a neck of land shall check.
And there will be wide chasms and yawning pits,
And many cities with their men shall fall.
In Asia — Iassus, Cebren, Pandonia,
Colophon, Ephesus, Nice, Antioch,
405
Tanagra, Sinope, Smyrna, Myrina.
In Europe — Cyagra, Clitos, Basilis,
Meropeia, Antigone, Magnesia,
Mykene, Pantheia, and most happy Gaza,
Hierapolis and Astypalia.
410
Know, then, Egypt’s dread race is near its end,
And then unto the Alexandrians
Better the year gone by. Though Rome received
Line 402. Cities. . . fall. — Obviously a prophecy of a remarkable earthquake, which either overthrew or affected the cities named in the following lines. Earthquakes are not uncommon in these lands even at this day. There appears to be corruption of text and confusion in the order in which the twenty-two cities are named. The common text, followed in our translation, puts eleven in Asia, and eleven in Europe. But Gaza and Hierapolis were in Asia. Several of those here located in Europe are now unknown.
Lines 412-427. This prophecy of the subjugation of Rome by Asia is referred to by Lactantius, Div. Inst., vii, 15 [L., 6, 787-790], who declares that “the Sibyls openly say that Rome shall perish, and that too by the judgment of God, because she held his name in contempt, was an enemy of righteousness, and slew a people that was a keeper of truth.” Previously, in the same chapter, he says: “The Roman name by which the world is now ruled shall be taken from the earth, and the power will revert to Asia, and the East will again rule, and the West will be in subjection.” The “virgin” addressed in line 419, being a “child of Latin Rome,” cannot without unnatural violence be understood of “the virgin daughter of the true God, the community of Israel, which, while inflicting divine punishment also contributes to the true welfare” (Ewald, p. 19), but is rather a poetical name for Rome herself. Comp. the phrase “daughter of Zion,” book viii, 404. The “haughty mistress,” in line 424, is understood by Alexandre of the goddess Fortune, whom Horace (Od., i, 35) addresses as able “in a moment either to lift a mortal body from the lowest place, or to turn the noblest triumphs into funeral scenes.”
Tribute of Asia, thrice as many goods
Shall Asia back again receive from Rome,
415
And savage insolence return to her.
Many from Asia served Italian homes,
But the Italians, twenty times as many,
Shall serve in Asia in great poverty.
O virgin, soft, rich child of Latin Rome,
420
How oft at thy much-courted wedding-feasts,
Drunken with wine, a servant, in the world
Thou shalt not become wedded, but how oft
Will haughty mistress cut thy pretty hair,
And taking vengeance cast upon the earth
425
The things of heaven, and from the earth again
Raise heavenward, for mortals are held fast
In miserable and unrighteous life.
And Samos shall be sand, and Delos dull,
And Rome a room, but all decrees fulfilled;
430
And Smyrna falls by no avenging word,
But by base plots and cowardice of leaders.
But calm peace into Asia’s land shall go,
And Europe shall be happy — healthful air,
Full of years, strong, no winter and no hail;
435
Bearing all things, and birds and beasts of earth.
O happiest man who at that time shall be!
Or woman, free from care, in rural bliss!
For all good order from the starry heaven
Shall come on men, and justice, and with her
Lines 428, 429. These lines contain a notable play on the names Samos, Delos, and Rome. Comp. also book iv, 112, and viii, 207. Comp. also Tertullian, De Pallio, ii [L., 2, 1034]; Lactantius, vii, 25 [6, 812]; Palladius, Lausiaca, cxviii [G., 34, 1227].
Line 430. Smyrna falls. — See Herodotus’s account (i, 150) of the artful capture of Smyrna by Colophonian exiles.
Lines 432-446. This passage reads like a fragment of Messianic prophecy, and a Jewish reader could scarcely understand it otherwise.
440
The sober concord which with mortal men
Surpasses all things, and affection, faith,
And friendship for the stranger. Far from them
Are lawlessness, blame, envy, folly, wrath.
And want shall flee from men, and violence,
445
And murder, baneful strifes and bitter feuds,
And theft, and every evil, in those days.
But Macedonia shall to Asia bear
A heavy woe, and greatest suffering
Shall spring up over Europe from a birth
450
Of spurious Kronids and a race of slaves;
And she shall subjugate fenced Babylon,
And in all lands the sun looks down upon
Call herself mistress, and then come to nought
In bitter ruin, having not a law
455
For those late born, and wandering far away.
And then shall come to Asia’s happy land,
Unknown, a man with purple garment clad,
Ferocious, strange, unrighteous, fiery;
For him a thunderbolt raised into light.
460
And Asia all shall bear an evil yoke,
And many a murder will the damp soil drink.
And he will court all the invisibles
Of Hades, whose race he wills to destroy,
And from whom his own race shall be destroyed.
Lines 447-455. This passage is most naturally explained as referring to the Macedonian rule of Alexander and his successors, who endeavored to appear as haughty world-ruling sons of Kronos (Saturn), but were, as a matter of fact, of heathen origin, ignoble, and really a bastard race. Perseus, the last of them, was truly a bastard. So Ewald, p. 12.
Lines 456-464. This passage seems best to describe Antiochus Epiphanes, but Alexandre understands it of Hadrian. The "thunderbolt," in line 460 (Greek κεραυνός,) is thought by Ewald (p. 13) to be a manifest allusion to Seleucus Ceraunus, one of the predecessors of Antiochus Epiphanes.
465
But there will be one root, perversely cut
From ten horns, and set by another plant;
The warlike father of the purple race
He will cut off, and he himself then taken
By sons of like mind in the chance of war;
470
And then the horn grown by his side shall rule.
And straightway unto fruitful Phrygia
Shall be a sign, when Rhea’s blood-stained race,
Growing and blooming in the god-like earth
Continually from roots that know no thirst,
475
Shall in one night be root and branch destroyed,
In a city of Neptune, shaker of the earth,
Antandrus, which thenceforward bears the name
Dorylæum, old Phrygia’s much-wept town,
And therefore at that time Earth-shaker called.
480
It will scatter the secret places of the earth
And loosen walls. And then no signs of good
But a beginning of evil will appear.
There will come on the well-known woes of war,
Among all tribes, and furnish Æneads
Lines 465-471. Here too the exact reference is uncertain, but the imagery of being cut from ten horns is manifestly from Daniel (vii, 7, 8, 20, 24), and favors the opinion that the writer had in mind one of the Syrian kings. We must not suppose, however, that these Sibylline authors were always accurate in their knowledge, or exact in their descriptions.
Line 471. Phyrgia. — Comp. book i., 229, note.
Line 472. Rhea. — The wife of Saturn (Kronos) and mother of Jupiter, Juno, Vesta, Ceres, Pluto, and Neptune. Comp. line 155, ff.
Line 477. Antandrus. — A city of Troas on the bay of Adramyttium. This seems to be identified in the next line with Dorylæum in Phrygia, some two hundred miles east of Antandrus, which fact implies that the writer had no exact knowledge of localities in the Phrygian land. Such inaccuracy, however, is perfectly compatible with a knowledge that this whole region was injured by a fearful earthquake. Such calamities seem to have visited these regions many times.
Line 479. Earth-shaker. — A title of Neptune. Comp. book i, 220.
Line 484. Æneads. — Generations of warlike heroes like Æneas, of whom the Romans sprang.
485
Sprung from the native soil and kindred blood;
But he again is prey to men beloved.
O Ilion, I pity thee! For Erinnys
In Sparta shall spring forth most beautiful;
A noble shoot and famous, she bequeaths
490
Asia and Europe a far-spreading wave.
But to thee chiefly wailings, toils, and groans
She will bear and award; but thou shalt have
Undying fame among those yet to be.
And then a certain old man will appear.
495
False writer and of doubtful native land,
And in his eyes the light will sink away.
But he will have large mind, and song immense
Of understanding, blended with two names.
Chios, he will be called, and he will write
500
Of Ilion, not truthfully indeed,
Line 487. Ilion. — Lactantius, Div. Inst., i, 6 [L., 6, 142], cites Apollodorus as affirming that the Erythræan Sibyl was his own country-woman, and that she foretold the destruction of Ilium. Erinnys. — The Greek name for the Furies, or deities of Vengeance, here applied to Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta, who was the occasion of the Trojan War, and called in Virgil (Æn., ii, 573) “the common Erinnys of Troy and native land.” Comp. also Pausanias, Phoc., 12, and the parallel of this whole passage in book ix, 157, ff.
Line 494. Old man. — Homer, whose blindness is a well-known universal tradition, as well as the uncertainty of his birthplace.
Line 498. Two names. — If this refers to the song it may be understood of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Or does it refer to the two names so often applied to Homer: Melesigenes and Mæonides?
Line 499. Chios. — A rocky island of the Ægean Sea, which some claimed as Homer’s birthplace. So Thucydides understood the reference in the Homeric hymn, which he cites in his history, iii, 104:
“The blind old man who dwells in craggy Chios.”
Line 500. Not truthfully. — This charge against Homer is referred to in Lactantius, i, 6 [L., 6, 142], and the Sibyl’s claim that her verses would be appropriated by the great poet of the Iliad is recognized by Diodorus and other ancient writers. The charge is worthy of no serious consideration, and Gregory Nazianzen retorts on the Sibyl that she too has purloined material from various sources.
But plainly, for my verses he will seize;
For he will be first to unfold my books.
And he war’s helmed heroes will adorn,
Hector of Priam, and Achilles, son
505
Of Peleus, and the rest of warlike fame.
And with them he will make the gods to stand,
And by all arts deceive defenseless men.
And to those dying about Ilion
Shall be a glory widely spread abroad;
510
And he will celebrate their vengeful deeds.
Also to Lycia will a Locrian race
Bring many evils. And thee, Chalcedon,
When thou the passage of the narrow sea
Hast taken, an Ætolian youth will slay.
515
And, Cyzicus, from thee the sea shall tear
Vast wealth away. And thou, Byzantium,
Shalt be in love with Asia, and receive
Sad wailings and immeasurable blood.
And Lycia’s lofty mountain, riven at top
520
With rocky chasms, shall pour a murmuring stream,
Till Patara’s prophetic signs shall cease.
O Cyzicus, that dwellest by Propontis,
City of wine, around thee Rhyndacus
Line 511. Lycia. — A province on the southern coast of Asia Minor. Locrian. — Three tribes of this name were known to antiquity; one on the eastern coast of Brittium, at the southern end of Italy, and two in Greece.
Line 512. Chalcedon. — Opposite Byzantium.
Line 515. Cyzicus. — City and island in the Propontis near the northern coast of Mysia.
Line 516. Byzantium. — Ancient name of Constantinople.
Line 521. Patara was a city of Lycia, and the seat of a celebrated oracle of Apollo.
Line 523. The river Rhyndacus flowed into the Propontis some distance to the east of Cyzicus, but the poet conceives the river as joined with the roaring sea, and dashing about the city.
Shall crash his crested wave. And thou, O Rhodes,
525
Daughter of day, shalt long be unenslaved,
And of much prosperity shall yet be thine,
And on the sea thy power shall be supreme.
But later thou shalt be to greedy men
A spoil, because of beauty and of wealth,
530
And on thy neck a dreadful yoke shall come.
A Lydian earthquake shall again destroy
The things of Persia, and most horribly
Shall Europe’s tribes and Asia’s suffer woes.
And Sidon’s cruel king and shout of war
535
From others will show forth destruction dire
Beyond the sea to Samos. With the blood
Of fallen lights earth murmurs to the sea,
And wives together with the stately maids
Their ignominious insults will bewail,
540
Some for the dead, some for the fallen sons.
O sign of Cyprus, phalanxes shalt thou
By earthquake overthrow, and many souls
Shall gloomy Hades all at once receive.
And Trallis, hard by Ephesus, shall fall
545
By earthquake, and walls built by cruel men;
Boiling hot water shall rain in the earth,
Which earth weighed down shall drink — a sulphurous
smell.
And Samos, in time will royal houses build.
Line 524. Rhodes. — The famous island off the southern coast of Caria, where now, as of old, it is said there is scarcely a day of the whole year in which the sun is not visible. Not mingling in the quarrels of Alexander’s successors, Rhodes enjoyed a considerable period of peace and prosperity, and carried on extensive commerce with Egypt. Its subsequent enslavement and downfall were mainly due to the fact that it was such a tempting spoil for greedy conquerors.
Lines 531-548. This passage is best understood of the wars and woes which befell all the regions here named under the wars of Antigonus, who became master of all Asia Minor and Syria, and whose son, Demetrius Poliorcetes, conducted the famous siege of Rhodes.
O Italy, to thee no foreign war
550
Shall come, but lamentable tribal blood,
Not easily subdued, and much renowned,
Wilt thou in reckless insolence destroy.
But thou thyself, beside hot ashes stretched,
As thou in thine own spirit didst foresee,
555
Shall slay thyself. Not of the good shalt thou
The mother be, but of wild beasts the nurse.
Another man shall come from Italy,
A spoiler; then, Laodicea, thou,
Beautiful city of the Carians,
560
By Lycus’ wondrous water, creeping prone,
Shalt weep in silence for thy boastful sire.
Byzantine Thracians shall rise up on Hæmus.
To the Campanians quaking fear shall come
Because of wasting famine; Corsica
565
Weeps her old father, and Sardinia
Line 449. No foreign war. — But, as is immediately stated, terrible civil wars.
Line 557. Another man. — L. Scipio, according to some; Nero, according to others; but the reference is uncertain. “The entire picture,” says Ewald (p. 38), “is so vast and so general that we cannot think of it as referring to an event that had already taken place.”
Line 558. Laodicea. — Situated on the Lycus as here described, and on the borders of Lydia, Caria, and Phrygia. It suffered much by wars and earthquakes.
Line 561. Boastful Sire. — Antiochus Theos, who named it in honor of his wife Laodice.
Line 562. Hæmus — A mountain range bounding Thracia on the north.
Line 563. Campanians. — Campania was the district of Italy south of Latium, on the sea-coast. Vesuvius was near its central part.
Line 564. Corsica. — Well-known island west of Italy, called in Greek Cyrnus, from a hero of that name. See Herod., i, 167.
Line 565. Sardinia. — A still larger island of the Mediterranean, west of Italy and south of Corsica.
Shall by great storms of winter, and the strokes
Of a holy God, sink in the ocean depths —
Down in the waves with children of the sea.
Alas! alas! how many virgin maids
570
Will Hades marry, and the deep take charge
Of the unburied youths! Alas! alas!
Infants and vast wealth floating on the sea!
O happy land of Mysians, suddenly
Shall cease thy royal race. Not long, indeed,
575
Will Carthage stand. But bitter grief shall be
To the Galatians. And to Tenedos
The last but greatest misery shall come.
And Sicyon with strong yells, and Corinth, thee
Boasting o’er all, an equal flute shall sound.
580
Now when my soul had ceased from hallowed song,
Again a message of Almighty God
Rose in my heart, and he commanded me
To utter prophecies upon the earth.
Woe, woe, Phenician race of men and women,
Line 574. Shall cease. — Here we follow the conjectural emendation of Alexandre. Mysia and the kingdom of Pergamum were by the will of Attalus III. transferred to the Romans, B. C. 132. The mention of Carthage and Corinth in this passage, both of which cities were destroyed by the Romans B. C. 146, is thought by Ewald (pp. 16, 17) an evidence of the early date of this part of our poem. The whole passage (575-580), however, may have been based by the Sibylline writer on some compend of history without much regard for the order of time. Hence the mention of the other places in these lines. Tenedos was the name of the famous island just off the coast of Troy, though Alexandre imagines it is here meant for Rhodes. Sicyon was an ancient city some twenty miles north-west of Corinth, the ruins of which are evidence of its having suffered many times by earthquakes.
Line 580-583. Here a new section begins, and has an exordium similar to those of lines 1-10, 190-195, and 347-355.
Line 584. Phenician race. — Famed for their extensive commerce. Ewald (p. 38) sees in this oracle an evidence of the bitter feeling of the author towards Phenicia chiefly on account of commercial rivalry.
585
Also to all the cities by the sea;
No one of you shall come to the sun’s light
In common light, no longer shall there be
Number and tribe, because of unjust speech
And lawless life and base which all indulged,
590
Opening a foul mouth, uttering fearful words,
False and unrighteous; and they set themselves
In opposition to the mighty God,
And opened falsely a polluted mouth.
Therefore shall they by dreadful strokes be slain
595
In all the earth, and bitter destiny
Will God send on them, burning from the ground
Their cities and foundations manifold.
Woe, woe to thee, O Crete, burdened with pain,
On thee shall come a stroke, and terribly
600
Shalt thou be made a ruin evermore.
And every land shall see thee black with smoke,
And fire shall never leave thee, but shall burn.
Woe, woe to thee, O Thrace, for thou shalt bend
Beneath a servile yoke; when the Galatians,
605
Mixed with the Dardans, hurriedly destroy
Hellas, then will sore evil come on thee;
In a strange land thou’lt give and yet receive.
Woe, woe to thee, O Gog, and so with all,
One by one, Magog, Marson, and Aggon;
610
How many an evil lot shall fall to thee!
Line 598. Crete was subjugated by the Romans under Metellus, B. C. 67, and never after rose to independence of foreign power.
Line 604, 605. These Galatians are to be understood of those of the name in central Asia Minor, and the Dardans are probably the same as the Phrygians, who joined Galatia on the west.
Line 609. On Gog and Magog, see line 376. Marson and Aggon are unknown, unless they be a corruption of Mœsia and Dacia, provinces on both sides of the Danube. There was a tribe of Marsi in central Italy. Ewald (p. 38) reads for Aggon Dagon, and understands the Dahæ on the east of the Caspian Sea.
Many shall also fall on Lycia’s sons,
And those of Mysia and Phrygia.
And many nations of Pamphylia
And Lydia shall fall, and Maurians,
615
And Ethiopians and barbarous tribes,
And Cappadocians and Arabians.
How now may I, according to his lot,
Speak of each one? For unto all the nations,
As many as are dwelling on the earth,
620
Will the Most High send forth an evil plague.
When now a very barbarous nation comes
Against the Greeks, it will slay many chiefs
Of chosen men; and many fatted sheep
And horses shall be torn, and mules and herds
625
Of bellowing oxen, and in lawlessness
Shall they with fire the well-made houses burn.
And many shall as slaves be led by force
Into a foreign land, and children too,
And women from bed-chambers, girdled low,
630
Delicate, falling down with tender feet,
Will be seen chained and suffering all abuse
By hostile, barbarous men; nor shall they have
Helper in life, nor any help in war.
But they shall see their goods and all their wealth
635
Enriching foes; and trembling takes their knees.
A hundred fly, but one shall slay them all,
And five shall rouse an ambush heavy-armed.
But they among themselves mixed shamefully
In fearful war and tumult will bring joy
640
Unto the foes, but sorrow to the Greeks.
Line 614. Maurians. — In this name we most naturally recognize the people of Mauritania, on the west of Carthage, in northern Africa; but it seems strange to mention these and also Ethiopians and Arabians in connection, as here, with well-known provinces of Asia Minor.
Lines 636-637. Comp. Deut. xxxii, 30; Isa. xxx, 17.
Then shall a servile yoke be on all Greece,
And all at once shall war and pestilence
With mortals yet remain. And God will make
The mighty heaven on high like brass, and drought
645
On all the earth, which itself will be iron.
And then will men bitterly lament
The land uncultivated and unplowed.
And he who made the heaven and earth will place
High heaped on earth a fire, and of all men
650
The third part only shall remain alive.
O Greece, why hast thou trusted mortal men
As leaders, who cannot escape from death?
And wherefore bringest thou thy foolish gifts
Unto the dead, and sacrifice to idols?
655
Who put the wretched error in thy heart
To do these things and leave the mighty God?
Honor the All-Father’s name and let it not
Escape thee. There have been a thousand years,
Yea, and five hundred more, since haughty kings
660
Ruled o’er the Greeks, who first to mortal men
Brought evils, making many images
Of god that perish for such as are dead,
Whence ye were taught to think on vanities.
But when the anger of the mighty God
665
Shall come upon you, then will ye find out
The face of God the mighty; and all souls
Lines 641-647. This passage is best explained by the subjugation of Greece by the Romans, B. C. 146.
Line 650. Third. — Comp. Ezek. v, 2; Zech. xiii, 8; Rev. viii, 7-9. Also Lactantus, Div. Inst., vii, 16 [L., 6, 792].
Lines 651-657. Quoted (omitting one line) by Lactantius, Div. Inst., i, 15 [L., 6, 196].
Lines 658-663. Here the prophetess seems to forget her time and place as the spouse of Noah, to which she pretends in the closing lines of this book.
Of men, in great distress, will lift their hands
Up to the broad heaven and begin to call
On the great King, the Helper, and to seek
670
A rescuer from the mighty wrath to come.
But come, learn this and lodge it in your hearts,
What troubles in the rolling years shall come.
When Hellas brings her sacrifice of oxen
And bellowing bulls, a whole burnt-offering
675
Unto the temple of mighty God,
She shall escape the hateful sound of war,
And fear and famine, and go forth again
Away from underneath a slavish yoke.
But such a race of godless men shall be
680
Until that fatal day receives its end.
For ye shall not bring sacrifice to God
Till all things come to pass, whatever things
The one God wills to be not without end —
All shall be brought to pass; strong fate impels.
Of godly men there yet shall be again
A holy race, devoted to the mind
And counsels of the Highest; they shall honor
The great God’s temple with drink-offerings,
Burnt-offerings, and holy hecatombs,
690
With sacrifice of well-fed bulls, choice rams,
Firstlings of sheep, and the fat parts of lambs,
Sacredly offering whole burnt sacrifice
On the great altar. But in righteousness,
Having obtained the law of the Most High,
695
Blest shall they dwell in cities and rich fields.
And prophets shall by the immortal One
Exalted be, and bring great joy to men.
For to them only has the great God given
His kindly counsel, and put in their hearts
700
Faith and most noble thought. Through vain deceit
They do not hold in awe the works of men,
Of gold, and brass, and silver, and ivory,
And wood, and stone, clay forms of feeble gods,
Besmeared with chalk, with figures painted o’er —
705
Whatever motals with vain mind desire.
But they lift up their holy arms to heaven;
At daybreak from the couch they always cleanse
Their hands with water, and pay honors due
To God the immortal, who is ever great,
710
And then to parents. But above all men
They keep the bed of marriage undefiled,
And mix not boys with males in acts impure,
Like the Phenicians, Latins, and Egyptians,
And spacious Greece, and nations many more,
715
Persians, Galatians, and of Asia all,
Transgressing the immortal God’s pure law.
Wherefore the Immortal will inflict on men
Delusion, famine, sufferings and groans,
And war, and pestilence, and mournful woes;
720
Because the immortal Father of all men
They did not wish to honor righteously,
But honored idols made with human hands,
Which things even men themselves will cast away
In clefts of rocks, concealing them from shame,
725
When a young king of Egypt seventh shall rule
His own land, reckoned from the Grecian power
Which Macedonia’s mighty men shall rule,
Then shall there come from Asia a great king
Lines 701-710. Cited by Clem. Alex., Cohort., vi [G., 8, 176].
Line 725. Young king. — Or new king; Ptolemy Philometer, the seventh from Alexander, including the latter, as the poet evidently intends, by “reckoning from the kingdom of the Greeks.”
Line 728. Great king. — Antiochus Epiphanes, who invaded Egypt B. C. 170, and carried off Ptolemy Philometer as prisoner.
With eagle’s fire, who with his foot and horse
730
Shall cover all the land, break down all things,
And fill all things with evil; he will cast
The Egyptian kingdom down, seize on all goods,
And ride upon the broad back of the sea.
And then before the mighty God, the King
735
Immortal, they will bend the fair white knee
On the all-fostering earth, and all the works
Made with hands in a flame of fire shall fall;
And then great joy will God bestow on men.
For land, and trees, and countless flocks of sheep
740
Will yield mankind the genuine fruit of wine,
And of sweet honey, and white milk, and wheat,
Which is for men the very best of all.
But thou, O mortal versed in various arts
And evil-minded, shalt not be like this;
745
But turn back, and be reconciled to God.
Offer to God whole hecatombs of bulls
And lambs and goats, amid the circling hours.
Propitiate him, the immortal God;
Perchance he will show mercy. For himself
750
Alone is God, and other there is none.
Hold righteousness in honor, wrong no man
As by oppression, for the immortal One
Enjoins these things on miserable men.
But thou, be on thy guard against the wrath
755
Of the great God, when to all men shall come
The height of famine, and, being overpowered
They meet dire judgment. King shall seize on king
And wrest his land away, and nations waste
Line 736. All the works, etc. — Cited with slight change by Lactantius, Div. Inst., vii, 19. [L., 6, 811.]
Lines 739-742. Cited by Lactantius, Div. Inst., vii, 24 [L., 6, 811.]
Line 745-747. Cited by Clem. Alex. and ascribed to Orpheus, Cohortatio, vii [G., 8, 184].
And plunder nations, and lords plunder tribes,
760
And leaders all flee to another land,
And earth itself be changed, and barbarous rule
Ravage all Greece, and the rich land of wealth
Become exhausted, and straight into strife
Shall they because of gold and silver come
765
In a strange land. (The love of gain will be
An evil guide for cities.) And they all
Shall be unburied, and their flesh shall be
By vultures and wild beasts of earth destroyed.
And when these things are finished, the huge earth
770
Shall all the remnants of the dead consume;
And all unsown shall it be, and unplowed,
Proclaiming woefully the abomination
Of countless men through many circling years,
And shields and javelins and all sorts of arms;
775
Nor will the forest wood be cut for fire.
Then from the sunrise God will send a king,
Who will make all earth cease from evil war,
Killing some, others binding with strong oaths.
Nor yet will he by his own counsels do
780
All these things, but by excellent decrees
Of God persuaded. But again the people
Of the great God with wealth will be weighed down,
With gold and silver and purple ornament,
And of good things will earth and sea be full.
785
And then will kings begin again
To envy one another, and in heart
Line 761. Barbarous rule. — The Roman power, as line 622.
Lines 774, 775. Comp. a similar statement in Lactantius, Div. Inst., vii, 26 [L., 6, 814]. See also Isa. ix, 5, and Ezek. xxxix, 9, 10, and lines 865-869, where we have the fuller form of what seems here to be fragmentary.
Lines 777-781. This is best explained by Cyrus. See lines 338, 339.
To cherish wicked projects. Envy brings
No good to wretched mortals. But again
Shall kings of nations rush upon the land
790
In masses, bringing doom upon themselves,
For they will purpose to destroy the shrine
Of the great God, and men most excellent.
What time they reach the land, polluted kings
Will sacrifice within the city’s walls,
795
Each having his own throne and subject tribe.
And then will God speak with a mighty voice
To all rude people of an empty mind;
And judgments from the mighty God shall come
Upon them, and they all shall be destroyed
800By an immortal hand. And fiery swords
Shall fall down from heaven on earth, and mighty lights
Shall come down flaming in the midst of men.
And mother earth shall be tossed in those days
By an immortal hand, and fish of the sea,
805And all earth’s beasts, and countless flocks of birds,
And all the souls of men, and all the sea
Shall shudder at the face of the Immortal,
And there shall be dismay. High mountain peaks
And huge hills he will rend, and Erebus
810The dark and dismal will appear to all;
And misty gorges in the lofty hill
Shall be full of the dead; the rocks shall stream
With blood, and every torrent fill the plain.
Line 789. The land. — Of Judea.
Line 791. Shrine. — The Jewish temple at Jerusalem.
Lines 794, 795. Comp. Jer. i, 15.
Lines 798-828. A sublime apocalyptic passage, descriptive of the coming of God in judgment.
Line 800. Fiery swords. — Comp. Rev. xix, 15, 21, and Lactantius, Div. Inst.., vii, 19 [L., 6, 797].
And well-built walls shall all fall to the earth
815
By hostile men, for they knew not the law,
Neither God’s judgment, but with senseless soul,
All rushing to the temple, lifted spears.
God judges all by war, and sword, and fire,
And overwhelming flood; and there shall be
820
Brimstone from heaven, and stones and grievous hail;
And death shall come upon the quadrupeds.
Then shall men come to know the immortal God
Who judges these things. Lamentation too,
And uproar shall come on the boundless earth,
825
Because men perish, and in speechless woe
Shall all be bathed in blood, and earth herself
Shall drink the blood of them that are destroyed,
And the wild beasts will glut themselves with flesh.
All these things the eternal God himself
830
Gave me to prophesy; nor shall they be
Without complete fulfillment, for he put
Them only in the heart; for without guile
The Spirit of God continues in the world.
Again the children of the mighty God
835
Shall all about the temple live in peace,
Delighting in those things which he shall give
Who is Creator, righteous Judge, and King.
For he alone, and standing wondrous near,
Can shelter as a wall of flaming fire
840
From all around. And there shall be no wars
In cities or in country; not the hand
Of cruel war, but rather there shall be
Lines 834-869. A glowing picture of Jewish prosperity and happiness, modeled largely after imagery found in the Hebrew prophets and the Psalms.
Line 839. Wall of fire. — Comp. Zech. ii, 5.
Line 840. No wars. — Comp. Mic. iv, 3.
With them the immortal Champion himself,
And the hand of the Holy One. And then the isles
845
And cities all shall speak, and tell how much
The Immortal loves those men, for he with them
Shares in all conflict and delivers them.
And heaven, and sun divinely formed, and moon,
And mother earth shall tremble in those days.
850
And a sweet word shall they lead forth in hymns:
“Come, falling on the earth let us all pray
To the immortal King, great God, most high.
Let us send to the temple, since sole Lord
He is, and let us all observe the law
855
Of God most high, who above all on earth
Is the most righteous One. For we have strayed
Far from the path of the immortal One,
And have done reverence with a senseless soul
To works of human hands, to images
860
Carved out of wood, and of departed men.”
These things souls of the faithful cry aloud:
"Come, let us with God’s people, falling down
Upon our faces, gladden in our homes
With hymns God the Creator, and procure
865
The weapons of our foes in every land
For seven lengths of the revolving years —
Even shields and helmets and all sorts of arms,
And a great store of bows and harmful arrows,
For forest wood shall not be cut for fire.”
870
But, wretched Hellas, cease thy arrogance,
Line 849. Earth tremble. — In such sense as Psa. xcviii, 7-9.
Line 851. Come, etc. — Comp. Psa. xcv, 1, 6, and lines 863-865.
Lines 856-860. Cited by Justin Martyr, Chort. ad Græcos, xvi [G., 6, 273].
Lines 865-869. Comp. lines 774, 775, and note there.
Lines 870-884. The exact point and force of this exhortation to Hellas are not easily determined. Hellas is commonly believed to mean here Egypt under the Greek dominion of the Ptolemies, and if with Ewald we read a negative in line 873: "Send not to this city," etc., the passage becomes an exhortation to the Greeks of Egypt not to send to Jerusalem an army of Alexandrine Jews, who might be excited by bad counsel to mix up with the Palestinian wars so constantly raging between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies. Such ill-advised action would be "moving Camarina," or provoking a fierce leopard in his lair. Another view is that the oracle dates about the beginning of the rise of the Maccabees, and is an exhortation to the Ptolemies to send to Jerusalem Jewish forces, numerous in Alexandria, to help their brethren in the Holy Land. But all the attempts to make the passage fit particular persons and events involve so much of fancy and conjecture that one may well hesitate to adopt any of them.
So willful, and entreat the immortal One,
Magnanimous, and be upon thy watch.
Send to this city the people ill-advised
Who from the Mighty’s holy land have come.
875
Do not move Camarina, for ’tis best
She be unmoved — a leopard from the lair,
An evil which thou shouldst by no means meet.
But keep away, and do not in thy heart
Hold arrogance, an overbearing soul,
880
Ready for mighty contest. And serve God,
The mighty One, that thou mayst share with them,
Whenever this indeed shall have an end,
And on good men shall come the fatal day,
According as the mighty One ordains.
885
For earth, all-mother, shall to mortals yield
The best fruit, boundless store of wheat,
Line 875. Camarina, — The allusion is to the well-known story of draining the marsh of Camarina, a city of southern Sicily. The inhabitants, disregarding the oracle, drained the neighboring marsh which was believed to breed pestilence, and by so doing they opened a way for their enemies to come and destroy their city. Hence the proverb, "Move not Camarina," was equivalent to: Do not seek to remove one evil which is likely to bring on another and greater one. Comp. Virgil, Æn., iii, 701.
Lines 885-905. Another picture of a golden future, much like the passage 835-870.
And wine and oil. And from the heavens a drink,
Delightful of sweet honey there shall be,
And trees, and fruits of trees, and fatted sheep,
890
And oxen, and young lambs, and kids of goats.
And forth shall burst sweet fountains of white milk,
And of good things the cities shall be full,
And fat the fields, and there shall not be sword
Nor uproar on the earth, nor shall the earth
895
Groan heavily and tremble any more.
Nor war nor drought shall longer be on earth,
Nor famine, nor the fruit-destroying hail,
But great peace shall be upon all the earth.
King will be friend to king until the end
900
Of time, and a new law on all the earth
Will the Immortal in the starry heaven
Perfect for men, touching whatever things
Have been by miserable mortals done.
For he alone is God, no other is,
905
And he will burn with fire man’s grievous power.
But now being quick to keep my thoughts in heart,
Shun godless worship, serve the living God,
Against adultery be on thy guard,
And all uncleanness; thine own children rear,
910
And do no murder; for the immortal One
Is angry with such as commit these sins.
And then will he a kingdom for all time
Raise up for all men, and a holy law
Give to the pious to whom he has pledged
915
To open up the land, and the wide world,
And portals of the blessed, and all joys,
And mind immortal, and eternal bliss.
And out of every land unto the house
Lines 909-911. Cited by Lactantius, de Ira Dei, xxii [L., 7, 143].
Of the great God will they bring frankincense,
920
And gifts, and there shall be no other house
To be inquired of by men yet to be;
But whom God gave to honor faithful men,
Him mortals shall call Son of the great God.
And all paths of the field and the rough hills,
925
And lofty mountains, and the sea’s wild waves,
Shall in those days be easy to pass over,
For all peace of the good shall come on earth.
And the sword shall God’s prophets take away.
For they shall be the judges of mankind,
930
And righteous kings; for of the mighty God
This is the judgment and the sovereignty.
Be of good cheer, O maiden, and exult;
For the Eternal, who made heaven and earth,
Has given thee joy, and he will dwell in thee,
935
And for thee shall be an immortal light.
And wolves and lambs promiscuously shall eat
Grass in the mountains, and among the kids
Shall leopards graze, and wandering bears shall lodge
Among the calves, and the carnivorous lion
940
Shall eat straw in the manger like the ox,
And little children lead them with a band.
For tame will be on earth the beasts he made,
And with young babes will dragons fall asleep,
And no harm, for God’s hand will be on them.
945
Now tell I thee a sign exceeding clear,
That thou mayst know when of all things on earth
The end shall be. When in the starry heaven
Line 919. Comp. Psa. lxviii, 29; lxxii, 10.
Lines 922, 923. Cited by Lactantius, Div. Inst., iv, 6 [L., 6, 462].
Lines 932-935. Comp. Zech. ii, 10.
Lines 936-944. Comp. Isa. xi, 6-9. Cited also, with some verbal variations, by Lactantius, Div. Inst., vii, 24 [L., 6, 811].
Lines 947-957. Comp. with this section Josephus, Wars, vi, v, 3.
Swords shall be seen by night toward west or east,
Straightway shall there be a dark cloud of dust,
950
Borne downward from the heaven o’er all the earth,
And the sun’s brightness in the midst of heaven
Shall be eclipsed, and the moon’s beams appear
And come again on earth, and there shall be
The sign of blood-drops issuing from the stones,
955
And ye shall see a war of foot and horse
In a cloud, like a hunting of wild beasts,
Like a dark mist. This is the end of war
Which God who dwells in heaven shall bring to pass.
But all must sacrifice to the great King.
960
These things to thee say I, who madly left
Assyria’s long Babylonian walls,
And prophesied to all men of the fire,
God’s fury which on Hellas should be sent,
That I might unto mortals prophesy
965
Of mysteries divine. They say in Greece
That I am of a foreign fatherland,
Born of Erythres, shameless. Others say
I am a Sibyl and of Circe born
And father Gnostos, raving mad, and false.
970
But at the time when all things come to pass
Ye will make mention of me; no one more
Will call me mad, but God’s great prophetess.
For God will show me whatsoever things
Belonged at first to my progenitors,
975
Those things God laid down in his plans for me.
Line 961. Babylonian walls. — Lactantius understood the Sybil to predict that she would be called Erythræan, “although she was born in Babylon.” Div. Inst., i, 6 [L., 6, 145].
Line 969. Gnostos. — Some have thought that Glaucus is intended, the sea-god and father of Deiphobe. See Virgil Æn., vi, 36.
Lines 970-973. Cited by Lactantius, Div. Inst., iv, 15 [L., 6, 495].
All future things God stored up in my mind,
That I might prophecy of things to come,
And things that were, and tell them unto men.
For when the world was deluged with a flood
980
Of waters, and one man alone was left,
A man of honor, sailing on the waves
In wooden house, along with beasts and birds,
His bride was I, and from his blood I came.
To him the first things were, and the last things
985
Were all made known; and so from mine own mouth
All these things have I truthfully declared.
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