Preface – Book I – Book II – Book III – Book IV – Book V – Book VI – Book VII – Book VIII – Book XI – Book XII – Book XIII – Book XIV – Oracle Fragments
The Sibylline Oracles are a collection of 12 books and additional fragments (the fragments are placed in a 13th book in this LSV collection) purporting to be the oracular utterances of the Sibyls of old—ancient Gentile prophetesses, primarily active in ancient Greece. While the extant oracles show extensive Judeo-Christian recension and invention, and are generally considered pseudepigraphal, it should be noted that some portions may reflect the original utterances, particularly portions of Book III attributed to an Erythraean Sibyl (at least one of whom was actually from Chaldea and a daughter of the historian Berossus), as well as portions of Books IV and V. As it was widely believed by writers in the early Church (e.g., Theophilus and Athenagoras) that the Sibyls prophesied of Christ, the extant oracles demonstrate the possibility that as the time of the Messiah drew near, His coming was foretold even among those outside of the Jewish nation. The first Sibyl was active at Delphi as early as the 11th century BC, and at their most active point there may have been as many as 10: a Persian, Libyan, Delphic, Cimmerian, Erythraean, Samian, Cumaean, Hellespontine, Phrygian, Tiburtine, Hebrew, Chaldean, and Egyptian. Unlike the plain language often found in the Bible’s poetry and prophecy, the oracles are often cryptic and unintelligible, requiring speculative interpretation. The books are numbered I–VIII and XI–XIV; Books IX and X are merely duplicated material from I–VIII, thus there are 12 books and not 14.
[It is assumed that this Preface was prepared by the person who collected and arranged these pseudepigraphal oracles in the order in which they have come down to us. The exact time of his writing is unknown. Alexandre (Excursus ad Sibyllina, ch. xv, pp. 421–433) argues that the Preface was probably written in the 6th century, during the reign of Justinian.]
1. If the labor bestowed on the reading of the writings of the Greeks brings much advantage to them that perform it, since it is able to make those who work on these things very knowledgeable, much more is it fitting that they who are possessed of good understanding devote their leisure continually to the Holy Writings, which tell about God and the things which minister profit to the soul, therefore gaining the double benefit of ability to profit both themselves and their readers. It seemed good to me, therefore, to set forth in one connected and orderly series the so-called Sibylline Oracles, which are found scattered and in a confused condition, but which are helpful to the reading and understanding of those [Holy Writings], so that being easily brought together under the eye of the readers they may bring to these [readers] by way of reward the advantage that is to be derived from them, setting forth not a few necessary and useful things, and also rendering their study more valuable and varied. For [these oracles] also speak clearly of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: the sacred and life-originating Trinity; and of the incarnate dispensation of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ—I mean His birth from a virgin without emanation, and of the acts of healing performed by Him, as also of His life-giving passion, and of His resurrection from the dead on the third day, and of the judgment to come, and of recompense for what we all have done in this life; furthermore, [these oracles] distinctly set forth what is made known in the Mosaic writings and in the books of the prophets concerning the creation of the world, and the formation of man, and his expulsion from the Garden, and of his new formation hereafter. With regard to certain things which have [already] been or perhaps are yet to be, they prophesy in various ways; and in a word, they are able in no small measure to profit their readers.
2. Sibyl is a Latin word meaning “prophetess,” or rather “soothsayer”; hence the female soothsayers were called by one name. Now Sibyls, according to many writers, have arisen in different times and places, to the number of ten. There was first the Chaldean, or rather the Persian [Sibyl], whose proper name is Sambethe. She was of the family of the most blessed Noah and is said to have foretold the exploits of Alexander of Macedon; Nicanor, who wrote the life of Alexander, mentions her. The second was the Libyan, of whom Euripides makes mention in the preface [of his play] of the Lamia. The third was the Delphian, born at Delphi, and spoken of by Chrysippus in his book on divination. The fourth was the Italian, in Cimmerium in Italy, whose son Evander founded in Rome the shrine of Pan which is called the Lupercal. The fifth was the Erythraean, who predicted the Trojan war, and of whom Apollodorus the Erythraean bears positive testimony. The sixth was the Samian, whose proper name is Phyto, of whom Eratosthenes wrote. The seventh was the Cumman, called Amalthea, also Herophile, and in some places Taraxandra. But Vergil calls the Cumaean Sibyl Deiphobe, daughter of Glaucus. The eighth was the Hellespontine, born in the village of Marpessus near the small town of Gergithion, which, according to Heraclides of Pontus, was formerly, in the time of Solon and Cyrus, within the boundaries of the Troad. The ninth was the Phrygian, and the tenth the Tiburtine, named Albunaea.
3. It is said, moreover, that the Cumaean Sibyl once brought nine books of her oracles to Tarquinius Priscus, who was at that time king of the Romans, and demanded for them three hundred pieces of gold. But having been disdainfully treated, and not even questioned as to what they were, she committed three of them to the fire. Again, in another audience with the king she brought forward the six remaining books, and still demanded the same amount. But not being deemed worthy of attention, again she burned three more. Then a third time bringing the three that were left, and asking the same price, she said that if he would not procure them, she would burn these also. Then, it is said, the king examined them and was astonished, and gave for them a hundred pieces of gold, took them in charge and made request for the others. But she declared that neither had she the like of those that were burned nor had she any such knowledge apart from inspiration, but that certain persons from various cities and countries had at times excerpted what was esteemed by them necessary and useful, and that out of these excerpts a collection ought to be made. And this [the Romans] did as quickly as possible. For that which was given from God, though truly laid up in a corner, did not escape their search. And the books of all the Sibyls were deposited in the capitol of ancient Rome. Those of the Cumaean Sibyl, however, were hidden and not made known to many, because she proclaimed more especially and distinctly things that were to happen in Italy, while the others became known to all. But those that were written by the Erythraean Sibyl have the name that was given her from the place, while the other books are without inscription to mark who is the author of each, but are without distinction [regarding authorship].
4. Now Firmianus, being an esteemed philosopher and a priest of the aforementioned capitol, having looked to the Christ, our eternal Light, set down in his own works the things spoken of by the Sibyls concerning the ineffable glory, and ably exposed the senselessness of Hellenic error. His forcible exposition is in the Italian tongue, but the Sibylline verses were published in the Greek language. And that this may not appear incredible, I will produce the testimony of the man previously mentioned, which is after this manner:
5. “Inasmuch as the Sibylline Oracles which are found in our city not only, as being very plentiful, are held in low esteem by those of the Greeks who are cognizant of them (for it is things which are rare that are held in honor), but also since not all of the verses keep to the precision of the meter, their credit is lower. But this is the fault not of the prophetess, but of the shorthand writers who could not keep up with the rush of the Sibyl’s words, or who were uneducated; for her remembrance of the things she had spoken ceased with the spell of inspiration—which fact Plato also had in view when he said that [the prophets] treat correctly many and great matters while they know nothing of the things of which they speak.”
6. We will, accordingly, from those oracles which were brought to Rome by the ambassadors [of Tarquin], produce, as much as possible. Now, concerning the God who is without beginning, one declared these things:
One God, who rules alone, immense, unborn.
But God alone is one, highest of all,
Who made the heaven and sun and stars and moon,
Fruit-bearing earth and billows of the sea.
He only is God, Maker uncontrolled;
He fixed the pattern of the human form,
And did the nature of all mortals mix
Himself, the generator of [all] life.
7. This [the Sibyl] has said either on the ground that being joined together, [husband and wife] become one flesh, or with the thought that out of the four elements which are opposite to each other, God fashioned both the world and man.
[Announcement, 1–5. Creation of the earth and man, 6–47. First sin and penalty, 48–81. Condition of the first race, 82–107. The second race of men, 108–129. Third and fourth races, 130–148. The race of giants, 149–153. Call and preaching of Noah, 154–243. Entrance into the Ark, and the Flood, 244–281. Abatement of the waters, 282–319. Exit from the Ark, 320–343. The sixth race and the Titans, 344–386. Prophecy of Christ, 387–468. Dispersion of the Hebrews, 469–485.]
Beginning with the generation first
Of mortal men down to the very last
I’ll prophesy each thing: what once has been,
And what is now, and what will yet befall
The world through the impiety of men.
First now God urges on me to relate
Truly how into being came the world.
And you, shrewd mortal, prudently make known,
Lest ever you should my commands neglect,
The King most high, who brought into existence
The whole world, saying, “Let there be,” and there was.
For He the earth established, placing it
All around Tartarus, and He Himself
Gave the sweet light; He raised the heaven on high,
Spread out the gleaming sea, and crowned the sky
With an abundance of bright-shining stars,
And decked the earth with plants, and mingled sea
With rivers, and the air with zephyrs mixed
And watery clouds; and then, another race
Appointing, He gave fishes to the seas
And birds to the winds, and to the woods
The beasts of shaggy neck, and snakes that crawl,
And all things which now on the earth appear.
These by His word He made, and everything
Was speedily and with precision done;
For He was self-caused and from heaven looked down
And finished was the world exceedingly well.
And then thereafter fashioned He again
A living product, copying a new man
From His own image, beautiful, divine,
And bade him in ambrosial Garden dwell,
That labors beautiful might be his care.
But in that fertile field of Paradise
He longed for conversation, being alone,
And prayed that he might see another form
Such as he had. And forthwith, from man’s side
Taking a bone, God Himself made fair Eve,
A wedded spouse, and in that Paradise
Gave her to dwell with him. And, when he gazed
On her, suddenly filled with joy
Great admiration held his soul, he saw
A pattern so exact; and with wise words
Spontaneous flowing answered he in turn
For God had care for all things. For the mind
They darkened not with passion, nor concealed
Their nakedness, but with hearts far from evil
Even like wild beasts they walked with limbs exposed.
And afterward delivering them commands
God showed them not to touch a certain tree;
But the dread serpent drew them off by guile
To go away to the fate of death
And to gain knowledge of both good and evil.
But the wife then first traitress proved to God;
She gave, and urged the unknowing man to sin.
And he, persuaded by the woman’s words,
Forgot the immortal Maker utterly,
And treated plain commandments with neglect.
Therefore, instead of good, received they evil
According to their deed. And then the leaves
Of the sweet fig-tree piercing they made clothes
And put them on each other, and concealed
The sexual parts, because they were ashamed.
But on them the Immortal set His wrath
And cast them out of the immortal land.
For their abiding now in mortal land
Was brought to pass, since hearing they kept not
The word of the immortal mighty God.
And at once they, on the fruitful soil
Forthgoing, with their tears and groans were wet;
And to them then the immortal God Himself
A word more excellent spoke: “Multiply,
Increase, work constantly on the earth,
That with the sweat of labor you may have
Sufficient food.” Thus He spoke; and He made
The author of deceit to press the ground
On belly and on side, a crawling snake,
Driving him out severely; and He sent
Dire enmity between them and the one
Is on the look-out to preserve his head,
But man his heel; for death is neighbor near
Of evil-plotting vipers and of men.
And then indeed the race was multiplied
As the Almighty Himself gave command,
And there grew up one people on another
Innumerable. And houses they adorned
Of all kinds and made cities and their walls
Well and expertly; and to them was given
A day of long time for a life much-loved;
For they did not worn out with troubles die,
But as subdued by sleep; most happy men
Of great heart, whom the immortal Savior loved,
The King, God. But they also did transgress,
Stricken with folly. For with impudence
They mocked their fathers and their mothers scorned;
Kinsmen they knew not, and they formed intrigues
Against their brothers. And they were impure,
Having defiled themselves with human gore,
And they made wars. And then on them came
The last calamity sent forth from Heaven,
Which snatched the dreadful men away from life;
And Hades then received them; it was called
Hades since Adam, having tasted death,
Went first and earth encompassed him around.
And therefore, all men born on the earth
Are in abodes of Hades called to go.
But even in Hades all these when they came
Had honor, since they were the earliest race.
But when Hades received these, secondly
[[Of the surviving and most righteous men]]
God formed another very subtle race
That cared for lovely works, and noble toils,
Distinguished reverence and solid wisdom;
And they were trained in arts of every kind,
Finding inventions by their lack of means.
And one devised to till the land with plows,
Another worked in wood, another cared
For sailing, and another watched the stars
And practiced augury with winged birds;
And use of drugs had interest for one,
While for another magic had a charm;
And others were in every other are
Which men care for instructed, wide awake,
Industrious, worthy of that eponym
Because they had a sleepless mind within
And a huge body; stout with mighty form
They were; but, notwithstanding, down they went
Into Tartarean chamber terrible,
Kept in firm chains to pay full penalty
In Gehenna of strong, furious, quenchless fire.
And after these a third strong-minded race
Appeared, a race of overbearing men
And terrible, who worked among themselves
Many an evil. And fights, homicides,
And battles did continually destroy
Those men possessed of overweening heart,
And from these afterward another race
Proceeded, late-completed, youngest born,
Blood-stained, perverse in counsel; of men these
Were in the fourth race; much of blood they spilled,
Nor feared they God nor had regard for men,
For maddening wrath and sore impiety
Were sent on them. And wars, homicides,
And battles sent some into Erebus,
Since they were arrogant impious men.
But the rest did the heavenly God Himself
In anger afterward change from His world,
Casting them into mighty Tartarus
Down under the foundation of the earth.
And later yet another race much worse
[[Of men He made, to whom no good thereafter]]
The Immortal formed, since they worked many evils.
For they were much more violent than those,
Giants perverse, foul language pouring out.
Single among all men, most just and true,
Was the most faithful Noah, full of care
For noblest works. And to him God Himself
From Heaven thus spoke: “Noah, be of good cheer
In yourself and to all the people preach
Conversion, so that they may all be saved.
But if, with shameless soul, they heed Me not
The whole race I will utterly destroy
With mighty floods of waters. Quickly now
An undecaying house I bid you frame
Of planks strong and impervious to the wet.
I will put understanding in your heart,
And subtle skill, and rule of measurement
And order; and for all things will I care
That you be saved, and all who dwell with you.
And I am He who is, and in your heart
Do you discern. I clothe Me with the heavens,
And cast the sea around Me, and for Me
Earth is a footstool, and the air is poured
Around My body; and on every side
Around Me runs the chorus of the stars.
Nine letters have I; of four syllables
I am; discern Me. The first three have each
Two letters, the remaining one the rest,
And five are mates; and of the entire sum,
The hundreds are twice eight and thrice three tens
Along with seven. Now, knowing who I am,
Do not be uninitiate in My lore.”
Thus He spoke; and great trembling seized on him
At what he heard. And then, within his mind
Having contrived each matter, he besought
The people and began with words like these:
“O men insatiate, smit with madness great,
Whatever things you practiced they will not
Escape God’s notice; for He knows all things,
Immortal Savior overseeing all,
Who bade me warn you, that you perish not.
Be sober, cut off badness, do not fight
Perforce each other with blood-guilty heart,
Nor irrigate much land with human gore.
Revere, O mortals, the supremely great
And fearless heavenly Creator—God
Imperishable—whose dwelling is the sky;
And do you all entreat Him—He is kind—
For life of cities and of all the world,
And of four-footed beasts and flying birds;
Entreat Him to be gracious to all.
For when the whole unbounded world of men
Will be destroyed by waters loud you’ll raise
A fearful cry. And suddenly for you
The air will be disordered, and from Heaven
The fury of the mighty God will come
On you. And it certainly will be
That the immortal Savior against men
Will send wrath if you do not placate God
And from this time convert; and nothing more
Fretful and evil lawlessly will you
One to another do, but let there be
A guarding of one’s self by holy life.”
But when they heard him, each turned up his nose,
Calling him mad, a frenzy-stricken man.
And then again did Noah sound this strain:
“O men exceedingly wretched, base in heart,
Unstable, leaving modesty behind
And loving shamelessness, rapacious lords,
Fierce sinners, false, insatiate, mischievous,
In nothing true, stealthy adulterers,
Flippant in language, pouring forth foul words,
The wrath of God most high not fearing, kept
To the fifth generation to atone!
In no way do you wail, harsh men, but laugh;
Sardonic smile will you laugh, when will come
That which I speak—God’s dire incoming flood,
When Eve’s polluted race, in the great earth
Blooming perennial in impervious stem,
Will, root and branch, in one night disappear,
And cities, men and all, will the Earth-shaker
From the depths scatter and their walls destroy.
And then the whole world of unnumbered men
Will die. But how will I weep, how lament
In wooden house, how mingle tears with waves?
For, if this water bidden of God will come,
Earth will float, hills float, and even sky will float;
Everything will be water, and all things
Will be destroyed by waters. And the winds
Will stand still, and a second age will come.
O Phrygia, you will from the water’s crest
First rise up, and you first another race
Of men will nourish, once again anew
Beginning; and you will be nurse for all.”
But when now to the lawless generation
He had thus vainly spoken, the Most High
Appeared, and once more cried aloud and said:
“The time has now come, Noah, to proclaim
Each thing, even all which I that day to you
Did promise and confirm, and to complete,
Because of a people disobedient,
Throughout the boundless world even all the things
Which generations of a former time
Did practice, evil things innumerable.
But as for you: quickly enter with your sons
And the wives. Call as many as I bid,
Of tribes of beasts and creeping things and birds,
And in as many as I ordain for life
Will I then put a willingness to go.”
Thus He spoke; forth went [Noah] and aloud
Cried out and called. And then wife, sons and brides,
Entered the house of wood; then also went
The other things, as many as God willed
To shut in. But when fitting bolt was put
About the lid, and in its polished place
Was fitted sideways, then was brought to pass
At once the purpose of the God of Heaven.
And He massed clouds, and bid the sun’s bright disk,
And moon, and stars, and circle of the heavens,
Obscuring all things round; He thundered loud,
Terror of mortals, sending lightnings forth;
And all the winds together were aroused,
And all the veins of water were unloosed
By opening of great cataracts from Heaven,
And from earth’s caverns and the tireless deep
Appeared the myriad waters, and the whole
Illimitable earth was covered o’er.
But on the water swam that wondrous house;
And torn by many furious waves, and struck
By force of winds, it rushed on fearfully;
But with its keel it cut the mass of foam
While the loud-babbling waters dashed around.
But when God deluged all the world with rains
Then also Noah took thought to observe
By counsels of the Immortal; for he now
Had had enough of Nereus. And at once
The house he opened from the polished wall,
That crosswise was bound fast with skillful stays.
And looking out on the mighty mass
Of boundless waters Noah on all sides—
And ‘twas his fortune with his eyes to see!
Fear possessed and shook mightily his heart.
And then the air became a little calm,
Since it was weary wetting all the world
Many days; parting, then, it brought to light
How pale and blood-red was the mighty sky
And sun’s bright disk wearied; scarcely held
Noah his courage. And then forth afar
Sent he a dove alone, that he might learn
If yet firm land appeared. But with tired wing,
Flying round all things, she again returned;
For not yet had the water ebbed away;
For it was deeply filling every place.
But after resting quietly for days
He sent the dove once more, to learn if yet
Had ceased the many waters. And she flew
And flew on, and went o’er the earth and, resting
Her body lightly on the humid ground,
Again to Noah back she came and bore
An olive branch—of tidings a great sign.
Courage now filled them all, and great delight,
Because they hoped to look on the land.
But then thereafter yet another bird,
Of black wing, sent he forth as hastily;
Which, trusting to its wings, flow willingly,
And coming to the land continued there.
And Noah knew the land was nearer now.
But when on dashing waves the craft divine
Had here and there o’er ocean’s billows swum,
It was made fast on the narrow strand.
There is in Phrygia on the dark mainland
A steep, tall mountain; Ararat its name,
Because on it all were to be saved
From death, and there was great desire of heart;
Thence streams of the great river Marsyas spring.
There on a lofty peak the ark abode
When the waters ceased, and then again from Heaven
The voice divine of the great God this word
Proclaimed: “O Noah, guarded, faithful, just,
Come boldly forth, with your sons and your wife
And the three brides, and fill you all the earth,
Increasing, multiplying, rendering justice
To one another through all generations,
Until to judgment every race of men
Will come; for judgment will be to all.”
Thus spoke the voice divine. Then from his couch
Noah, encouraged, hastened on the land,
And with him went his sons and wife and brides,
And creeping things, and birds and quadrupeds,
And all things else went from the wooden house
Into one place. And then went Noah forth
As eighth, most just of men, when on the waters
He had made full twice twenty days and one
Because of counsels of the mighty God.
Then a new stock of life again arose,
Golden first, which indeed was sixth, and best,
From the time when the first-formed man appeared;
Heavenly its name, because all things to God
Will be a care. O first race of sixth age!
O mighty joy which I thereafter shared,
When I escaped sheer ruin, by the waves
Much tossed, with husband and with brothers-in-law,
Stepfather and stepmother, and with wives
Of husband’s brothers suffering terribly.
Fitting things now will I sing: There will be
On the fig-tree a many-colored flower,
And afterward the royal power and sway
Will Kronos have. For three kings of great soul,
Men most just, will distribute portions then,
And many a year rule, rendering what is just
To men who care for toil and deeds of love.
And earth will glory in her many fruits
Self-growing, yielding much corn for the race.
And the foster-fathers, ageless all their days,
Will from diseases chill and dreadful be
Far aloof; they will die as fallen on sleep,
And to Acheron in the abodes
Of Hades they will go away, and there
Will they have honor, since they were a race
Of blessed ones, fortunate heroes, whom
The Lord of Hosts gave a noble mind,
And with whom always He His counsels shared.
But blessed will they be even when they go
In Hades. And then afterward again
Oppressive, strong, another second race
Of earth-born men, the Titans. All excel
In figure, stature, growth; and there will be
One language, as of old from the first race
God in their breasts implanted. But even these,
Having a haughty heart and rushing on
To ruin, will at last resolve to fight
Against the starry heavens. And then the stream
Of the great ocean will on them pour
Its raging waters. But the mighty Lord
Of Hosts though enraged will check His wrath,
Because He promised that again no flood
Should be brought on men of evil soul.
But when the great high-thundering God will cause
The boundless swelling of the many waters—
With their waves here and there rising high—
To cease from wrath, and into other depths
Of sea their measure lessen, setting bounds
By harbors and rough headlands round the land;
Then also will a Child of the great God
Come, clothed in flesh, to men, and fashioned like
To mortals in the earth; and He does hear
Four vowels, and two consonants in Him
Are twice announced; the whole sum I will name:
For eight ones, and as many tens on these,
And yet eight hundred will reveal the name
To men insatiate; and do you discern
In your own understanding that the Christ
Is child of the immortal God most high.
And He will fulfill God’s law, not destroy,
Bearing His very image, and all things
Will He teach. To Him will priests convey
And offer gold, and myrrh, and frankincense;
For all these things He’ll also bring to pass.
But when a voice will through the desert land
Come bearing tidings to men, and to all
Will call to make straight paths, and from the heart
Cast wickedness out and illuminate
With water all the bodies of mankind,
That being born again they may no more
From what is righteous go at all astray—
And one of barbarous mind, by dances bound,
Cutting that [voice] off will bestow reward—
Then on a sudden there will be a sign
To mortals, when, watched over, there will come
Out of the land of Egypt a fair stone;
And on it will the Hebrew people stumble;
But by His guiding nations will be brought
Together; for the God who rules on high
They also will know through Him, and the way
In common light. For to chosen men
Will He show life eternal, but the fire
Will be for ages on the lawless bring.
And then will He the sickly heal, and all
Who are blameworthy who will trust in Him.
And then the blind will see, the lame will walk,
The deaf will hearken, and the dumb will speak.
Demons will He drive out, and of the dead
There will be an uprising; on the waves
Will He walk; also in a desert place
Will He five thousand satisfy with food
From five loaves and a fish out of the sea,
And with the remnants of them, for the hope
Of peoples, will He fill twelve baskets full.
And then will Israel, drunken, not discern,
Nor will they hear, oppressed with feeble cares.
But when the maddening wrath of the Most High
Will come on the Hebrews, and take faith
Away from them, because they slew the Son
Of the heavenly God; then also with foul lips
Will Israel give Him cuffs and spittle drugged.
And gall for food and vinegar unmixed
For drink will they, with evil madness stricken
In bosom and in heart, give impiously,
Not seeing with their eyes, more blind than moles,
More terrible than crawling poisonous beasts,
Fast bound by heavy sleep. But when His hands
He will spread forth and measure out all things,
And bear the crown of thorns, and they will pierce
His side with reeds, for which dark monstrous night
Will be for three hours in the midst of day,
Then also will the temple of Solomon
Bring to an end a mighty sign for men,
When He will to the house of Hades go
Proclaiming resurrection to the dead.
But when in three days He will come again
To the light, and show His form to men
And teach all things, ascending in the clouds
To the house of Heaven will He go
Leaving the world a Gospel covenant.
And in His Name will blossom a new shoot
From nations that are guided by the law
Of the Mighty One. But also after this
There will be wise guides, and then afterward
There will be a cessation of the prophets.
After that, when the Hebrew people reap
Their evil harvest, will a Roman king
Much gold and silver utterly destroy.
And afterward will other royal powers
Continuously arise as kingdoms perish,
And they will oppress mortals. But great fall
Will be for those men, when they will begin
Unrighteous arrogance. But when the temple
Of Solomon in the holy land will fall,
Cast down by barbarous men in brazen mail,
And from the land the Hebrews will be driven
Wandering and wasted, and among the wheat
They will much darnel mingle, there will be
Evil contention among, all mankind;
And the cities suffering outrage will bewail
Each other, in their breasts receiving wrath
Of the great God, since they worked evil work.
[Introduction, 1–6. A time of plagues and wickedness, 7–15. The tenth race, 16–28. A time of peace, 29–36. Great sign and contest, 37–63. A chapter of proverbs, 64–188. The contest, 189–195. Woes of the last generation, 196–222. Events of the last day, 223–263. Resurrection and judgment, 264–312. Punishment of the wicked, 313–383. Blessedness of the righteous, 384–403. Some saved from the fire, 404–415. The Sibyl’s wail, 416–427.]
Now while I much entreated God restrained
My wise song, also in my breast again
He put the charming voice of words divine.
In my whole body terror-stricken these
I follow; for I know not what I speak,
But God impels me to proclaim each thing.
But when on earth come shocks, fierce thunderbolts,
Thunders and lightnings, storms, and evil blight,
And rage of jackals and of wolves, manslaughter,
Destruction of men and of lowing cows,
Four-footed cattle and laborious mules,
And goats and sheep, then will the ample field
Be barren from neglect, and fruits will fail,
And there will be a selling of their freedom
Among most men, and robbery of temples.
And then will, after these, appear of men
The tenth race, when the earth-shaking Lightener
Will break the zeal for idols and will shake
The people of seven-hilled Rome, and riches great
Will perish, burned by Vulcan’s fiery flame.
And then will bloody signs from Heaven descend—
But yet the whole world of unnumbered men
Enraged will kill each other, and in tumult
Will God send famines, plagues, and thunderbolts
On men who, without justice, judge of rights.
And lack of men will be in all the world,
So that if anyone beheld a trace
Of man on earth, he would be wonderstruck.
And then will the great God who dwells in Heaven
Savior of pious men in all things prove.
And then will there be peace and wisdom deep,
And the fruit-bearing land will yield again
Abundant fruits, divided not in parts
Nor yet enslaved. And every harbor then,
And every haven, will be free to men
As formerly, and shamelessness will perish.
And then will God show mortals a great sign:
For like a lustrous crown will shine a star,
Bright, all-resplendent, from the radiant sky
Days not a few; and then will He display
From Heaven a crown for contest to men
Who wrestle. And then there will be again
A mighty contest of triumphal march
Into the heavenly sky, and it will be
For all men in the world, and have the fame
Of immortality. And every people
Will then in the immortal contests strive
For splendid victory. For no one there
Can shamelessly with silver buy a crown.
For to them will the pure Christ adjudge
That which is due, and crown the ones approved,
And give His martyrs an immortal prize
Who carry on the contest to death.
And to chaste men who run their race well
Will He the incorruptible reward
Of the prize give, and to all men allot
That which is due, and also to strange nations
That live a holy life and know one God.
And those who have regard for marriages
And keep themselves far from adulteries,
To them rich gifts, eternal hope, He’ll give.
For every human soul is God’s free gift,
And ‘tis not right men stain it with vile deeds.
[[Do not be rich unrighteously, but lead]]
A life of probity. Be satisfied
With what you have and keep yourself from that
Which is another’s. Speak not what is false,
But have a care for all things that are true.
Revere not idols vainly; but the God
Imperishable honor always first,
And next your parents. Render all things due,
And into unjust judgment do not come.
Do not cast out the poor unrighteously,
Nor judge by outward show; if wickedly
You judge, God hereafter will judge you.
Avoid false testimony; tell the truth.
Maintain your virgin purity, and guard
Love among all. Deal measures that are just;
For beautiful is measure full to all.
Strike not the scales one side, but draw them equal.
Forswear not ignorantly nor willingly;
God hates the perjured man in that he swore.
A gift proceeding out of unjust deeds
Never receive in hand. Do not steal seed;
Accursed through many generations he
Who took it to scattering of life.
Indulge not vile lusts, slander not, nor kill.
Give the toilworn his hire; do not afflict
The poor man. To orphans help afford
And to widows and the needy. Talk with sense;
Hold fast in heart a secret. Be unwilling
To act unjustly nor yet tolerate
Unrighteous men. Give to the poor at once
And say not, “Come tomorrow.” Of your grain
Give to the needy with perspiring hand.
He who gives alms knows how to lend to God.
Mercy redeems from death when judgment comes.
Not sacrifice, but mercy God desires
Rather than sacrifice. The naked clothe,
Share your bread with the hungry, in your house
Receive the shelterless and lead the blind.
Pity the shipwrecked; for the voyage is
Uncertain. To the fallen give a hand;
And save the man that stands without defense.
Common to all is suffering, life’s a wheel,
Riches unstable. Having wealth, reach out
To the poor your hand. Of what God gave to you
Bestow you also on the needy one.
Common is the whole life of mortal men;
But it comes out unequal. When you see
A poor man never banter him with words,
Nor harshly accost a man who may be blamed.
One’s life in death is proven; if one did
The unlawful or just, it will be decided
When he to judgment comes. Disable not
Your mind with wine nor drink excessively.
Eat not blood, and abstain from things
Offered to idols. Gird not on the sword
For slaughter, but defense; and would you might
It neither lawlessly nor justly use:
For if you kill an enemy, your hand
You do defile. Keep from your neighbor’s field,
Nor trespass on it; just is every landmark,
And trespass painful. Useful is possession
Of lawful wealth, but of unrighteous gains
‘Tis worthless. Harm not any growing fruit
Of the field. And let strangers be esteemed
In equal honor with the citizens;
For much-enduring hospitality
Will all experience as each other’s guests;
But let there not be anyone a stranger
Among you, since, you mortals, all of you
Are of one ‘blood, and no land has for men
Any sure place. Wish not nor pray for wealth;
But pray to live from few things and possess
Nothing at all unjust. The love of gain
Is mother of all evil. Do not long
For gold or silver; in them there will be
A double-edged and soul-destroying iron.
A snare to men continually are gold
And silver. Gold, of evils source, of life
Destructive, troubling all things, would that you
Were, not to mortals such a longed-for bane!
For wars, because of you, and pillaging
And murders come, and children hate their sires,
And brothers and sisters those of their own blood.
Plot no deceit, and do not arm your heart
Against a friend. Keep not concealed within
A different thought from what you speak forth;
Nor, like rock-clinging polyp, change with place.
But with all be frank, and things from the soul
Speak you forth. Whosoever willfully
Commits a wrong, an evil man is he;
But he that does it under force, the end
I tell not; but let each man’s will be right.
Pride not yourself in wisdom, power, or wealth;
God only is the wise and mighty one
And full of riches. Do not vex your heart
With evils that are past; for what is done
Can never be undone. Let not your hand
Be hasty, but ferocious passion curb;
For many times has one in striking done
Murder without design. Let suffering
Be common, neither great nor overmuch.
Excessive good has not brought forth to men
That which is helpful. And much luxury
Leads to immoderate lusts. Much wealth is prowl,
And makes one grow to wanton violence.
Passionate feeling, creeping in, effects
Destructive madness. Anger is a lust,
And when it is excessive it is wrath.
The zeal of good men is a noble thing,
But of the base is base. Of wicked men
The boldness is destructive, but renown
Follows that of the good. To be revered
Is virtuous love, but that of Cypris works
Increase of shame. A silly man is called
Very agreeable among his fellows.
With moderation eat, drink, and converse;
Of all things moderation is the best;
But trespass of its limit brings to grief.
Do not be envious, faithless, or abusive,
Or evil-minded, or a false deceiver.
Be prudent and abstain from shameless deeds.
Do not imitate what’s evil, but leave
Vengeance to justice; for persuasion is
A useful thing, but strife engenders strife.
Trust not too quickly ere you see the end.
This is the contest, these are the rewards;
These are the prizes; this the gate of life
And entrance into immortality,
Which God in Heaven to most righteous men
Appointed a reward for victory;
And through this gate will gloriously pass
Those who will then receive the victor’s crown.
But when this sign will everywhere appear—
Children with gray hair on their temples born—
And human sufferings, famines, plagues, and wars,
And change of times, and many a tearful wail,
Ah! Of how many parents in the lands
Will children mourn and piteously weep,
And with shrouds bury flesh and limbs in earth,
Mother of peoples, with the blood and dust
Themselves defiling. O you wretched men
Of the last generation, evildoers,
Terrible, childish, not perceiving this,
That when the tribes of women do not bear
The harvesttime of mortal men is come.
Near is the ruin when impostors come
Instead of prophets speaking on the earth.
And Beliar will come and many signs
Perform for men. And then of holy men,
Chosen and faithful, there will be confusion,
And pillaging of them and of the Hebrews.
And there will be on them fearful wrath
When from the east a people of twelve tribes
Will come in search of kindred Hebrew people
Whom Assyrian shoot destroyed; and over these
Will nations perish. But they afterward
Will over men exceeding mighty rule,
Chosen and faithful Hebrews, and enslave
Them as before, since their power ne’er will fail.
He that is highest of all, the all-surveying,
Dwelling in Heaven, will scatter sleep on men,
Covering the eyelids o’er. O blessed servants
Whom when the Master comes He finds awake!
And they all watch at all times and expect
With sleepless eyes. For it will be at dawn
Or eve or midday; but He sure will come,
And it will be as I say, it will be,
To them that sleep, that from the starry heavens
The stars at midday will to all appear
With the two lights as the time hastens on.
And then the Tishbite, urging from the Heaven
His chariot celestial, and on earth
Arriving, will to all the world display
Three evil signs of life to be destroyed.
Woe for all the women in that day
Who will be found with burden in the womb!
Woe for all who suckle tender babes!
Woe for all who will dwell on the waves!
Woe for women who will see that day!
For a dark mist will hide the boundless world,
East, west, and south, and north. And then will flow
A mighty stream of burning fire from Heaven
And every place consume—earth, ocean vast,
And gleaming sea, and lakes and rivers, springs,
And cruel Hades and the heavenly sky.
And heavenly lights will break up into one
And into outward form all-desolate.
For stars from the heavens will fall into all seas.
And all the souls of men will gnash their teeth
Burned both by sulfur stream and force of fire
In ravenous soil, and ashes hide all things.
And then of the world all the elements
Will be bereft—air, earth, sea, light, sky, days,
Nights; and no longer in the air will fly
Birds without number, nor will living things
That swim the sea swim any more at all,
Nor freighted vessel o’er the billows pass,
Nor cows straight-guiding plow the field, nor sound
Of furious winds; but He will fuse all things
Together, and will pick out what is pure.
But when the immortal God’s eternal messengers
Arakiel, Ramiel, Uriel, Samiel,
And Azael, they that know how many evils
Anyone did before, will from dark gloom
Then lead to judgment all the souls of men
Before the judgment-seat of the great God
Immortal; for imperishable is
One only, Himself the Almighty, One,
Who will be judge of mortals; and to them
That dwell beneath will then the Heavenly One
Give souls and spirit and voice, and also bones
Fitted with joints to all kinds of flesh,
And both the flesh and sinews, veins and skin
Around the body, and hair as before;
Divinely fashioned and with breathing moved
Will bodies of those on earth one day be raised.
And then will Uriel, mighty messenger, break
The bolts of stern and lasting adamant
Which, monstrous, bold the brazen gates of Hades,
Straight cast them down, and to judgment lead
All forms that have endured much suffering,
Chiefly the shapes of Titans born of old,
And giants, and all whom the deluge whelmed,
And all that perished in the billowy seas,
And all that furnished banquet for the beasts
And creeping things and birds, these in a mass
Will [Uriel] summon to the judgment-seat;
And also those whom flesh-devouring fire
Destroyed in flame, even these will he collect
And place before the judgment-seat of God.
And when the high-thundering Lord of Hosts
Making an end of fate will raise the dead,
Sit on His heavenly throne, and firmly fix
The mighty pillar, then amid the clouds
Christ, who Himself is incorruptible,
Will come to the Incorruptible
In glory with pure messengers, and will sit
At the right hand on the great judgment-seat
To judge the life of pious and the way
Of impious men. And Moses, the great friend
Of the Most High, will come enrobed in flesh;
Also great Abraham himself will come,
Isaac and Jacob, Joshua, Daniel,
Elijah, Habakkuk and Jonah, and
Those whom the Hebrews slew. But He’ll destroy
The Hebrews after Jeremiah, all
Who are to be judged at the judgment-seat,
That worthy recompense they may receive
And pay for all each did in mortal life.
And then will all pass through the burning stream
Of flame unquenchable; but all the just
Will be saved; and the godless furthermore
Will to all ages perish, all who did
Evils formerly, and committed murders,
And all who are accomplices therein,
Liars and thieves, and destroyers of home,
Crafty and terrible, and parasites,
And marriage-breakers pouring forth vile words,
Dread, wanton, lawless, and idolaters;
And all who left the great immortal God,
Became blasphemers did the pious harm,
Destroying faith and killing righteous men
And all that with a shamelessness deceitful
And double-faced rush in as elders
And reverend ministers, who knowingly
Give unjust judgments, yielding to false words
More hurtful than the leopards and the wolves
And more vile; and ill that are grossly proud
And usurers, who gains on gains amass
And damage orphans and widows in each thing;
And all that give to widows and to orphans
The fruit of unjust deeds, and all that cast
Reproach in giving from their own hard toils;
And all that left their parents in old age,
Not paying them at all, nor offering
To parents filial duty, and all who
Were disobedient and against their sires
Spoke a harsh word; and all that pledges took
And then denied them; and the servants all
Who were against their masters, and again
Those who licentiously defiled the flesh;
And all who loosed the girdle of the maid
For secret intercourse, and all who caused
Abortions, and all who their offspring cast
Unlawfully away; and sorcerers
And sorceresses with them, and these wrath
Of the heavenly and immortal God will drive
Against a pillar where will all around
In a circle flow a restless stream of fire;
And deathless messengers of the immortal God,
Whoever is, will bind with lasting bonds
In chains of flaming fire and from above
Punish them all by scourge most terribly;
And in Gehenna, in the gloom of night,
Will they be cast ‘neath many horrid beasts
Of Tartarus, where darkness is immense.
But when there will be many punishments
Enforced on all who had an evil heart,
Yet afterward will there a fiery wheel
From a great river circle them around,
Because they had a care for wicked deeds.
And then one here, another there, will sires,
Young children, mothers, nursing babes, in tears
Wail their most piteous fate. No fill of tears
Will be for them, nor piteous voice be heard
Of them that moan, one here, another there,
But long worn under dark, dank Tartarus
Aloud will they cry; and they will repay
In cursed places thrice as much as all
The evil work they did, burned with much fire;
And all of them, consumed by raging thirst
And hunger, will in anguish gnash their teeth
And call death beautiful, and death will flee
Away from them. For neither death nor night
Will ever give them rest. And many things in vain
Will they ask of the God that rules on high,
And then will He His face turn openly
Away from them. For He to erring men
Gave, in seven ages for conversion, signs
By the hands of a virgin undefiled.
But the others, all to whom right and fair works
And piety and thoughts most just were dear,
Will messengers, bearing through the burning stream,
Lead to light and life exempt from care,
Where comes the immortal way of the great God
And fountains three—of honey, wine, and milk.
And equal land for all, divided not
By walls or fences, more abundant fruits
Spontaneous will then bear, and the course
Of life be common and wealth unapportioned.
For there no longer will be poor nor rich,
Tyrant nor slave, nor any great nor small,
Nor kings nor leaders; all alike in common.
No more at all will one say, “night has come,”
Nor “morrow comes,” nor “yesterday has been”;
Nor will there many days of anxious care,
Nor spring, nor winter, nor the summer-heat,
Nor autumn be [[nor marriage, nor yet death,
Nor sales, nor purchases]], nor set of sun
Nor rising; for a long day will God make.
And to the pious will the Almighty God
Imperishable grant another thing,
When they will ask the imperishable God:
That He will suffer men from raging fire
And endless gnawing anguish to be saved;
And this will He do. For hereafter He
Will pluck them from the restless flame, elsewhere
Remove them, and for His own people’s sake
Send them to other and eternal life
With the immortals, in Elysian field,
Where move far-stretching billows of the lake
Of ever-flowing Acheron profound.
Ah, miserable woman that I am!
What will I be in that day? For I sinned—
Being busy foolishly about all things,
Caring for neither marriage-bond nor reason;
But even in my wealthy husband’s house
I shut the needy out; and formerly
I knowingly performed unlawful things.
But, Savior, though I shameless things performed,
Do You from my tormentors rescue me,
A shameless woman. And I pray You now
Make me to rest a little from my song,
Holy Giver of manna, King of the great realm.
[Introduction, 1–10. Unity and power of God extolled, 11–34. Oracle against idolatry and sin, 35–64. Coming and judgment of the Great King, 55–76. Coming of Beliar, 76–90. Reign of the woman and end of the world, 90–111. All things subject to Christ, 112–116. The tower of Babel, 117–132. Kronos, Titan, and Iapetus, 132–154. Kronos, Rhea, and the Titans, 155–187. End of the Titans and rise of many kingdoms, 188–196. The Sibyl’s message, 196–201. Rule of the house of Solomon, 202–207. Rule of the Hellenes, 208–212. The Western Kingdom, 213–235. The Sibyl’s burden, 236–241. Woes on the Titans and on many nations, 242–260. The righteous race, 261–303. The exodus and giving of the law, 304–325. Desolation and exile, 325–351. Restoration from exile, 352–361. The Sibyl ceases and begins again, 362–371. Woe on Babylon, 372–386. Woe on Egypt, 387–392. Woe on Gog and Magog, 393–397. Woe on Libya, 399–412. Great signs and woes on many cities, 413–433. Retributive judgment on Rome, 434–450. Doom of Smyrna, Samos, Delos, and Rome, 461–456. Peace of Asia and Europe, 457–473. The Macedonian woe, 474–482. The unnamed rulers. 483–499. The sign for Phrygia, 600–615. The fate of Ilium, 516–522. gongs of the blind old man, 523–541. Woes of Lycia, Chalcedon, Cyzicus, Byzantium, Rhodes, Lydia, Samos, Cyprus, and Trallis, 642–582. Italy’s tribal wars, 683–590. Woes of Laodicea, Campania, Corsica, and Sardinia, 591–607. Woes of Mysia, Chalcedon, Galatia, Tenedos, Sicyon, and Corinth, 608–615. The Sibyl ceases and begins again, 616–619. Woes of Phoenicia, Crete, Thrace, Gog, Magog, Maurians, Ethiopians, and provinces of Asia Minor, 620–656. Oracles against Greece, 657–723. The holy race, 724–756, Egypt subdued, 766–774. Time of blessedness, 775–783. Exhortation to worship God, 184–794. Time of judgment, 795–816. The God-sent king, 817–829. Fearful time of judgment, 830–871. The Sibyl’s testimony, 872–876. A Jewish millennium, 877–911. Exhortation to the Greek s, 912–928. Day of prosperity and peace, 928–947. Exhortation to serve God, 948–953. The Messianic day, 954–988. Signs of the end, 989–1003. The Sibyl’s account of herself, 1004–1031.]
O You high-thundering blessed Heavenly One,
Who have set in their place the cherubim,
I, who have uttered what is all too true,
Entreat You, let me have a little rest;
For my heart has grown weary from within.
But why again leaps my heart, and my soul
With a whip stricken from within constrained
To utter forth its message to all?
But yet again will I proclaim all things
Which God commands me to proclaim to men.
O men, that in your image have a form
Fashioned of God, why do you vainly stray
And walk not in the straight way, always mindful
Of the immortal Maker? God is one,
Sovereign, ineffable, dwelling in Heaven,
The self-existent and invisible,
Himself alone beholding everything;
Him sculptor’s hand did not make, nor is his form
Shown by man’s art from gold or ivory;
But He, eternal Lord, proclaims Himself
As one who is and was before and will be
Again hereafter. For who being mortal
Can see God with his eyes? Or who will bear
To hear the only Name of Heaven’s great God,
The ruler of the world? He by His word
Created all things, even heaven and sea,
And tireless sun, and full moon and bright stars,
And mighty mother Tethys, springs and rivers,
Imperishable fire, and days and nights.
This is the God who formed four-lettered Adam,
The first one formed, and filling with his Name
East, west, and south, and north. The same is He
Who fixed the pattern of the human form,
And made wild beasts, and creeping things, and birds.
You do not worship, neither do you fear God,
But vainly go astray and bow the knee
To serpents, and make offering to cats,
And idols, and stone images of men,
And sit before the doors of godless temples;
You guard Him who is God, who keeps all things,
And merry with the wickedness of stones,
Forget the judgment of the immortal Savior
Who made the heavens and earth. Woe! A race
That has delight in blood, deceitful, vile,
Ungodly, of false, double-tongued, immoral men,
Adulterous, idolatrous, designing fraud,
An evil madness raving in their hearts,
For themselves plundering, having shameless soul;
For no one who has riches will impart
To another, but dire wickedness will be
Among all mortals, and for sake of gain
Will many widows not at all keep faith,
But secretly love others, and the bond
Of life those who have husbands do not keep.
But when Rome will o’er Egypt also rule
Governing always, then will there appear
The greatest kingdom of the immortal King
Over men. And a holy Lord will come
To hold the scepter over every land
To all ages of fast-hastening time.
And then will come inexorable wrath
On Latin men; three will by piteous fate
Endamage Rome. And perish will all men,
With their own houses, when from Heaven will flow
A fiery cataract. Ah, wretched me!
When will that day and when will judgment come
Of the immortal God, the mighty King?
But just now, O you cities, you are built
And all adorned with temples and race-grounds,
Markets, and images of wood, of gold,
Of silver and of stone, that you may come
To the bitter day. For it will come,
When there will pass among all men a stench
Of brimstone. Yet each thing will I declare,
In all the cities where men suffer ills.
From the Sebastenes Beliar will come
Hereafter, and the height of hills will he
Establish, and will make the sea stand still
And the great fiery sun and the bright moon
And he will raise the dead, and many signs
Work before men: but nothing will be brought
By him to completion but deceit,
And many mortals will be lead astray
Hebrews both true and choice, and lawless men
Besides who never gave ear to God’s word.
But when the threatenings of the mighty God
Will draw near, and a flaming power will come
By billow to the earth, it will consume
Both Beliar and all the haughty men
Who put their confidence in him. And thereon
Will the whole world be governed by the hands
Of a woman and obedient everywhere.
Then when a widow will o’er all the world
Gain the rule, and cast in the mighty sea
Both gold and silver, also brass and iron
Of short-lived men into the deep will cast,
Then all the elements will be bereft
Of order, when the God who dwells on high
Will roll the heavens, even as a scroll is rolled;
And to the mighty earth and sea will fall
The entire multiform sky; and there will flow
A tireless cataract of raging fire,
And it will burn the land, and burn the sea,
And heavenly sky, and night, and day, and melt
Creation itself together and pick out
What is pure. No more laughing spheres of light,
Nor night, nor dawn, nor many days of care,
Nor spring, nor winter, nor the summertime,
Nor autumn. And then of the mighty God
The judgment midway in a mighty age
Will come, when all these things will come to pass.
O navigable waters and each land
Of the Orient and of the Occident,
Subject will all things be to Him who comes
Into the world again, and therefore He
Himself became first conscious of His power.
But when the threatenings of the mighty God
Are fulfilled, which He threatened mortals once,
When in Assyrian land they built a tower—
(And they all spoke one language, and resolved
To mount aloft into the starry heavens)—
But on the air the Immortal at once put
A mighty force; and then winds from above
Cast down the great tower and stirred mortals up
To wrangling with each other (therefore men
Gave to that city the name of Babylon);
Now when the tower fell and the tongues of men
Turned to all sorts of sounds, promptly all earth
Was filled with men and kingdoms were divided;
And then the generation tenth appeared
Of mortal men, from the time when the Flood
Came on earlier men. And Kronos reigned,
And Titan and Iapetus; and men called them
Best offspring of Gaia and of Uranus,
Giving to them names both of earth and heaven,
Since they were very first of mortal men.
So there were three divisions of the earth
According to the allotment of each man,
And each one having his own portion reigned
And fought not; for a father’s oaths were there
And equal were their portions. But the time
Complete of old age on the father came,
And he died; and the sons infringing oaths
Stirred up against each other bitter strife,
Which one should have the royal rank and rule
Over all mortals; and against each other
Kronos and Titan fought. But Rhea and Gaia,
And Aphrodite fond of crowns, Demeter,
And Hestia and Dione of fair locks
Brought them to friendship, and together called
All who were kings, both brothers and near kin,
And others of the same ancestral blood,
And they judged Kronos should reign king of all,
For he was oldest and of noblest form.
But Titan laid on Kronos mighty oaths
To rear no male posterity, that he
Himself might reign when age and fate should come
To Kronos. And whenever Rhea bore
Beside her sat the Titans, and all males
In pieces tore, but let the females live
To be reared by the mother. But when now
At the third birth the august Rhea bore,
She brought forth Hera first; and when they saw
A female offspring, the fierce Titan men
Took them to their dwellings. And then thereon
Rhea a male child bore, and having bound
Three men of Crete by oath she quickly sent
Him into Phrygia to be reared apart
In secret; therefore did they name him Zeus,
For he was sent away. And thus she sent
Poseidon also secretly away.
And Pluto, third, did Rhea yet again,
Noblest of women, at Dodona bear,
Whence flows Europus’ river’s liquid course,
And with Peneus mixed, pours in the sea
Its water, and men call it Stygian.
But when the Titans heard that there were sons
Kept secretly, whom Kronos and his wife
Rhea begot, then Titan sixty youths
Together gathered, and held fast in chains
Kronos and his wife Rhea, and concealed
Them in the earth and guarded them in bonds.
And then the sons of powerful Kronos heard,
And a great war and uproar they aroused.
And this is the beginning of dire war
Among all mortals. [[For it is indeed
With mortals the prime origin of war.]]
And then did God award the Titans evil.
And all of Titans and of Kronos born
Died. But then as time rolled around there rose
The Egyptian kingdom, then that of the Persians
And of the Medes, and Ethiopians,
And of Assyria and Babylon,
And then that of the Macedonians,
Egyptian yet again, then that of Rome.
And then a message of the mighty God
Was set within my breast, and it bade me
Proclaim through all earth and in royal hearts
Plant things which are to be. And to my mind
This God imparted first, how many kingdoms
Have been gathered together of mankind.
For first of all the house of Solomon
Will include horsemen of Phoenicia
And Syria, and of the islands too,
And the race of Pamphylians and Persians
And Phrygians, Carians, and Mysians
And the race of the Lydians rich in gold.
And then will Hellenes, proud and impure,
Then will a Macedonian nation rule,
Great, shrewd, who as a fearful cloud of war
Will come to mortals. But the God of Heaven
Will utterly destroy them from the depth.
And then will be another kingdom, white
And many-headed, from the western sea,
Which will rule much land, and shake many men,
And to all kings bring terror afterward,
And out of many cities will destroy
Much gold and silver; but in the vast earth
There will again be gold, and silver too,
And ornament. And they will oppress mortals;
And to those men will great disaster be,
When they begin unrighteous arrogance.
And forthwith in them there will be a force
Of wickedness, male will consort with male,
And children they will place in dens of shame;
And in those days there will be among men
A great affliction, and it will disturb
All things, and break all things, and fill all things
With evils by a shameful covetousness,
And by ill-gotten wealth in many lands,
But most of all in Macedonia.
And it will stir up hatred, and all guile
Will be with them even to the seventh kingdom,
Of which a king of Egypt will be king
Who will be a descendant from the Greeks.
And then the nation of the mighty God
Will be again strong and they will be guides
Of life to all men. But why did God place
This also in my mind to tell: what first,
And what next, and what evil last will be
On all men? Which of these will take the lead?
First on the Titans will God visit evil.
For they will pay to mighty Kronos’ sons
The penal satisfaction, since they bound
Both Kronos and the mother dearly loved.
Again will there be tyrants for the Greeks
And fierce kings overweening and impure,
Adulterous and altogether bad;
And for men will be no more rest from war.
And the dread Phrygians will perish all,
And to Troy will evil come that day.
And to the Persians and Assyrians
Evil will straightaway come, and to all Egypt
And Libya and the Ethiopians,
And to the Carians and Pamphylians—
Evil to pass from one place to another,
And to all mortals. Why now one by one
Do I speak forth? But when the first receive
Fulfillment, then promptly will come on men
The second. So the very first I’ll tell.
There will an evil come to pious men
Who dwell by the great temple of Solomon
And who are progeny of righteous men.
Alike of all these also I will tell
The tribe and line of fathers and homeland—
All things with care, O mortal shrewd in mind.
There is a city . . . on the earth,
Ur of the Chaldees, whence there is a race
Of men most righteous, to whom both good will
And noble deeds have ever been a care.
For they have no concern about the course
Of the sun’s revolution, nor the moon’s,
Nor wondrous things beneath the earth, nor depth
Of joy-imparting sea Oceanus,
Nor signs of sneezing, nor the wings of birds,
Nor soothsayers, nor wizards, nor enchanters,
Nor tricks of dull words of ventriloquists,
Neither do they astrologize with skill
Of the Chaldeans, nor astronomize;
Indeed, these are all deceptive, in so far
As foolish men go seeking day by day
Training their souls to no useful work;
And then did they teach miserable men
Deceptions, whence to mortals on the earth
Come many evils leading them astray
From good ways and just deeds. But they have care
For righteousness and virtue, and not greed,
Which breeds unnumbered ills to mortal men,
War and unending famine. But with them
Just measure, both in fields and cities, holds,
Nor steal they from each other in the night,
Nor drive off herds of cattle, sheep, and goats,
Nor neighbor remove landmarks of a neighbor,
Nor any man of great wealth grieve the one
Less favored, nor to widows cause distress,
But rather aids them, ever helping them
With wheat and wine and oil; and always does
The rich man in the country send a share
At the time of the harvests to them
That have not, but are needy, thus fulfilling
The saying of the mighty God, a hymn
In legal setting; for the Heavenly One
Finished the earth a common good for all.
Now when the people of twelve tribes depart
From Egypt, and with leaders sent of God
Nightly pursue their way by a pillar of fire
And during all the day by one of cloud,
For them then 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. And at the time he came
As leader for the people whom God led
From Egypt to the . . . Sinai mount,
His own law God delivered them from Heaven
Writing on two flat stones all righteous things
Which He enjoined to do; and if, perchance,
One give no heed, he must to the law
Make satisfaction, either at men’s hands
Or, if men’s notice he escape, he will
By ample satisfaction he destroyed.
[[For the Heavenly finished earth a common good
For all, and in all hearts as best gift thought.]]
To them alone the bounteous field yields fruit
A hundredfold from one, and thus completes
God’s measure. But to them will also come
Misfortune, nor do they escape from plague.
And even you, forsaking your fair shrine,
Will flee away when it becomes your lot
To leave the holy land. And you will be
Carried to the Assyrians, and will see
Young children and wives serving hostile men;
And every means of life and wealth will perish;
And every land will be filled up with you,
And every sea; and everyone will be
Offended with your customs; and your land
Will all be desert; and the altar fenced
And temple of the great God and long walls
Will all fall to the ground, since in your heart
The holy law of the immortal God
You did not keep, but, erring, you did serve
Unseemly images, and did not fear
The immortal Father, God of all mankind,
Nor will to honor Him; but images
Of mortals you honored; Therefore now
Of time, seven decades, will your fruitful land
And the wonders of your temple all be waste.
But there remains for you a wonderful end
And greatest glory, as the immortal God
Granted you. But you must wait and confide
In the great God’s pure laws, when He will lift
Your wearied knee upright to the light.
And then will God from Heaven send a king
To judge each man in blood and light of fire.
There is a royal tribe, the race of which
Will be unfailing; and as times revolve
This race will bear rule and begin to build
God’s temple new. And all the Persian kings
Will aid with bronze and gold and well-worked iron.
For God Himself will give the holy dream
By night. And then the temple will again
Be, as it was before . . .
Now when my soul had rest from inspired song,
And I prayed the great Father for a rest
From constraint; even in my heart again
Was set a message of the mighty God
And He bade me proclaim through all the earth
And plant in royal minds things yet to be.
And in my mind God put this first to say
How many lamentable sufferings
The Immortal purposed on Babylon
Because she His great temple had destroyed.
Woe, woe for you! O Babylon,
And for the offspring of the Assyrian men!
Through all the earth the rush of sinful men
Will some time come, and shout of mortal men
And stroke of the great God, who inspires songs,
Will ruin every land. For high in air to you
O Babylon, will it come from above,
And out of Heaven from holy ones to you
Will it come down, and the soul in your children
Will the Eternal utterly destroy.
And then will you be, as you were before,
As one not born; and then will you be filled
Again with blood, as you yourself before
Did shed that of good, just, and holy men,
Whose blood yet cries out to the lofty Heaven.
To you, O Egypt, will a great blow come
And dreadful, to your homes, which you did hope
Might never fall on you. For through your midst
A sword will pass, and scattering and death
And famine will prevail until of kings
The seventh generation, and then cease.
Woe for you, O land of Gog and Magog
In the midst of the rivers of Ethiopia!
What pouring out of blood will you receive,
And house of judgment among men be called,
And your land of much dew will drink black blood!
Woe for you, O Libya, and woe,
Both sea and land! O daughters of the west,
So will you come to a bitter day.
And you will come pursued by grievous strife,
Dreadful and grievous; there will be again
A dreadful judgment, and you all will come
By force to destruction, for you tore
In pieces the great house of the Immortal,
And with iron teeth you chewed it dreadfully.
Therefore will you then look on your land
Full of the dead, some of them fallen by war
And by the demon of all violence,
Famine and plague, and some by barbarous foes.
And all your land will be a wilderness,
And desolations will your cities be.
And in the west there will a star shine forth
Which they will call a comet, sign to men
Of the sword and of famine and of death,
And murder of great leaders and chief men.
And yet again there will be among men
Greatest signs; for deep-eddying Tanais
Will leave Maeotis’ lake, and there will be
Down the deep stream a fruitful, furrow’s track,
And the vast flow will hold a neck of land.
And there are hollow chasms and yawning pits;
And many cities, men and all, will fall:—
In Asia—Iassus, Cebren, Pandonia,
Colophon, Ephesus, Nicaea, Antioch,
Syagra, Sinope, Smyrna, Myrina,
Most happy Gaza, Hierapolis,
Astypalaia; and in Europe—Tanagra,
Clitor, Basilis, Meropeia, Antigone,
Magnessa, Mykene, Oiantheia.
Know then that the destructive race of Egypt
Is near destruction, and the past year then
Is better for the Alexandrians.
As much of tribute as Rome received
Of Asia, even thrice as many goods
Will Asia back again from Rome receive,
And her destructive outrage pay her back.
As many as from Asia ever served
A house of the Italians, twenty times
As many Italians will in Asia serve
In poverty, and numerous debts incur.
O virgin, soft rich child of Latin Rome,
Oft at your much-remembered marriage feasts
Drunken with wine, now will you be a slave
And wedded in no honorable way.
And oft will mistress shear your pretty hair,
And wreaking satisfaction cast you down
From sky to earth, and from the earth again
Raise you to sky, for mortals of low rank
And of unrighteous life are held fast bound.
And of avenging Smyrna overthrown
There will be no thought, but by evil plans
And wickedness of them that have command
Will Samos be sand, Delos will be dull,
And Rome a room; but the decrees of God
Will all of them be perfectly fulfilled.
And a calm peace to Asian land will go.
And Europe will be happy then, well fed,
Pure air, full of years, strong, and undisturbed
By wintry storms and hail, bearing, all things,
Even birds and creeping things and beasts of earth.
O happy on earth will that man be
Or woman; what a home unspeakable
Of happy ones! For from the starry heavens
Will all good order come on mankind,
And justice, and the prudent unity
Which of all things is excellent for men,
And kindness, confidence, and love of guests;
But far from them will lawlessness depart,
Blame, envy, wrath, and folly; poverty
Will flee away from men, and force will flee,
And murder, baneful strifes and bitter feuds,
And theft, and every evil in those days.
But Macedonia will to Asia bear
A grievous suffering, and the greatest sore
To Europe will spring up from Cronian stock,
A family of bastards and of slaves.
And she will tame fenced city Babylon,
And of each land the sun looks down on
Call herself mistress, and then come to nothing
By ruinous misfortunes, having fame
In later generations distant far.
And sometime into Asia’s prosperous land
Will come a man unheard of, shoulder-clad
With purple robe, fierce, unjust, fiery;
And this man he who wields the thunderbolt
Roused forwards; and all Asia will sustain
An evil yoke, and her soil wet with rain
Will drink much murder. But even so will Hades
Destroy the unknown king; and that man’s offspring
Will forthwith perish by the race of those
Whose offspring he himself would gladly destroy;
Producing one root which the bane of men
Will cut from ten horns, and plant by their side
Another plant. A father purple-clad
Will cut a warlike father off, and Ares,
Baneful and hostile, by a grandson’s hand
Will himself perish; and then will the horn
Planted beside them forthwith bear the rule.
And to life-sustaining Phrygia
At once will there a certain token be,
When Rhea’s blood-stained race, in the great earth
Blooming perennial in impervious roots,
Will, root and branch, in one night disappear
With a city, men and all, of the Earth-shaker
Poseidon; which place they will sometime call
Dorylaeum, of dark ancient Phrygia,
Much-bewailed. Therefore will that time be called
Earth-shaker; dens of earth will he break up
And walls demolish. And not signs of good
But a beginning of evil will be made;
The baneful violence of general war
You’ll have, sons of Aeneas, Dative blood
Of Ilus from the soil. But afterward
A spoil will you become for greedy men.
O Ilium, I pity you; for there will bloom
In Sparta an Erinys very fair,
Ever-famed, noblest scion, and will leave
On Asia and Europe a wide-spreading wave;
But to you most of all she’ll bear and cause
Wailings and toils and groans; but there will be
Undying fame with those who are to come.
And there will be an aged mortal then,
False writer and of doubtful native land;
And in his eyes the light will fade away;
Large mind and verses measured with great skill
Will he have and be blended with two names,
Will call himself a Chian and will write
Of Ilium, not truthfully, indeed,
But skillfully; for of my verse and meters
He will be master; for he first my books
Will open with his hands; but he himself
Will much embellish helmed chiefs of war,
Hector of Priam and Achilles, son
Of Peleus, and the others who have care
For warlike deeds. And also by their side
Will he make gods stand, empty-headed men,
False-writing every way. And it will be
Glory the rather, widely spread, for them
To die at Ilium; but he himself
Will also works of recompense receive.
Also to Lycia will a Locrian race
Cause many evils. And you, Chalcedon,
Holding by lot a strait of narrow sea,
Will an Aetolian youth sometime despoil.
Cyzicus, also your vast wealth the sea
Will break off. And, Byzantium of Ares,
You sometime will by Asia be laid waste,
And also groans and blood immeasurable
Will you receive. And Cragus, lofty mount
Of Lycia, from your peaks by yawning chasms
Of opened rock will babbling water flow,
Until even Patara’s oracles will cease.
O Cyzicus, that dwell by Propontis
The wine-producing, round you Rhyndacus
Will crash the crested billow. And you, Rhodes,
Daughter of day, will long be unenslaved,
And great will be your happiness hereafter,
And on the sea your power will be supreme.
But afterward a spoil will you become
For greedy men, and put on your neck
By beauty and by wealth a fearful yoke.
A Lydian earthquake will again despoil
The power of Persia, and most horribly
Will the people of Europe and Asia suffer pain.
And Sidon’s hurtful king with battle-din
Dreadful will work a mournful overthrow
To the seafaring Samians. On the soil
Will slain men’s dark blood babble to the sea;
And wives together with the noble brides
Will their outrageous insolence lament,
Some for their bridegrooms, some for fallen sons.
O sign of Cyprus, may an earthquake waste
Your phalanxes away, and many souls
With one accord will Hades bold in charge.
And Trallis near by Ephesus, and walls
Well made, and very precious wealth of men
Will be dissolved by earthquake; and the land
Will burst out with hot water; and the earth
Will swallow down those who are by the fire
And stench of brimstone heavily oppressed.
And Samos will in time build royal houses.
But to you, Italy, no foreign war
Will come, but lamentable tribal blood
Not easily exhausted, much renowned,
Will make you, impudent one, desolate.
And you yourself beside hot ashes stretched,
As you in your own heart did not foresee,
Will slay yourself. And you will not of men
Be mother, but a nurse of beasts of prey.
But when from Italy will come a man,
A spoiler, then, Laodicea, you,
Beautiful city of the Carians
By Lycus’ wondrous water, falling prone,
Will weep in silence for your boastful sire.
Thracian Crobyzi will rise up on Haemus.
Chatter of teeth to the Campanians comes
Because of wasting famine; Corsica
Weeps her old father, and Sardinia
Will by great storms of winter and the strokes
of a holy God sink down in ocean depths,
Great wonder to them of the sea.
Woe, woe, how many virgin maids
Will Hades wed, and of as many youths
Will the deep take without funeral rites!
Woe, woe, the helpless little ones
And the vast riches swimming in the sea!
O happy land of Mysians, suddenly
A royal race will be formed. Truly now
Not for a long time will Chalcedon be.
And there will be a very bitter grief
To the Galatians. And to Tenedos
Will there a last but greatest evil come.
And Sicyon, with strong yells, and Corinth, you
Will boast o’er all, but flute will sound like strain.
Now, when my soul had rest from inspired song,
Even again within my heart was set
A message of the mighty God, and He
Commanded me to prophesy on earth.
Woe, woe to the race of Phoenician men
And women, and all cities by the sea;
Not one of you will in the common light
Abide before the shining of the sun,
Nor of life will there any longer be
Number and tribe, because of unjust speech
And lawless life impure which they lived,
Opening a mouth impure, and fearful words
Deceitful and unrighteous forth,
And stood against the God, the King,
And opened loathsome mouth deceitfully;
Therefore may He subdue them terribly
By strokes o’er all the earth, and bitter fate
Will God send on them burning from the ground
Cities, and of the cities the foundations.
Woe, woe to you, O Crete! To you will come
A very painful stroke, and terribly
Will the Eternal sack you; and again
Will every land behold you black with smoke,
Fire ne’er will leave you, but you will be burned.
Woe, woe to you, O Thrace! So will you come
Beneath a servile yoke, when the Galatians
United with the sons of Dardanus
Rush on to ravage Hellas, yours will be
The evil; and to a foreign land
Much will you give, not anything receive.
Woe to you, Gog and Magog, and to all,
One after another, Mardians and Daians;
How many evils fate will bring on you!
Woe also to the soil of Lycia,
And those of Mysia and Phrygia.
And many nations of Pamphylians,
And Lydians, Carians, Cappadocians,
And Ethiopian and Arabian men
Of a strange tongue will fall. How now may I
Of each speak fitly? For on all the nations
Which dwell on earth the Highest will send dire plague.
When now again a barbarous nation comes
Against the Greeks it will slay many heads
Of chosen men; and they will tear in pieces
Many fat flocks of sheep of men, and herds
Of horses and of mules and lowing cows;
And well-made houses will they burn with fire
Lawlessly; and to a foreign land
Will they by force lead many slaves away,
And children, and deep-girded women soft
From bridal chambers creeping on before
With delicate feet; and they will be bound fast
With chains by their foes of foreign tongue,
Suffering all fearful outrage; and to them
There will not be one to supply the toil
Of battle and come to their help in life.
And they will see their goods and all their wealth
Enrich the enemy; and there will be
A trembling of the knees. And there will fly
A hundred, and one will destroy them all;
And five will rout a mighty company;
But they, among themselves mixed shamefully,
Will by war and dire tumult bring delight
To enemies, but sorrow to the Greeks.
And then on all Hellas there will be
A servile yoke; and war and pestilence
Together will on all mortals come.
And God will make the mighty heavens on high
Like brass and over all the earth a drought,
And earth itself like iron. And thereon
Will mortals all lament the barrenness
And lack of cultivation; and on earth
Will He set, who created heaven and earth,
A much-distressing fire; and of all men
The third part only will thereafter be.
O Greece, why have you trusted mortal men
As leaders, who cannot escape from death?
And therefore bring you your foolish gifts
To the dead and sacrifice to idols?
Who put the error in your heart to do
These things and leave the face of God the mighty?
Honor the All-Father’s Name, and let it not
Escape you. It is now a thousand years,
Yes, and five hundred more, since haughty kings
Ruled o’er the Greeks, who first to mortal men
Introduced evils, setting up for worship
Images many of gods that are dead,
Because of which you were taught foolish thoughts.
But when the anger of the mighty God
Will come on you, then you’ll recognize
The face of God the mighty. And all souls
Of men, with mighty groaning lifting up
Their hands to the broad heavens, will begin
To call the great King helper, and to seek
The rescuer from great wrath who is to be.
But come and learn this and store in your hearts,
What troubles in the rolling years will come.
And what as whole burnt-offering Hellas brought
Of cows and bellowing bulls to the temple
Of the great God, she from ill-sounding war
And fear and pestilence will flee away
And from the servile yoke escape again.
But until that time there will be a race
Of godless men, even when that fated day
Will reach its end. For offering to God
You should not make till all things come to pass,
Which God alone will purpose not in vain
To be all fulfilled; and strong force will urge.
And there will be again a holy race
Of godly men who, keeping to the counsels
And mind of the Most High, will honor much
The great God’s temple with drink-offerings,
Burnt-offerings, and holy hecatombs,
With sacrifices of fat bulls, choice rams,
Firstlings of sheep and the fat thighs of lambs,
Sacredly offering whole burnt-offerings
On the great altar. And in righteousness,
Having obtained the Law of the Most High,
Blessed will they dwell in cities and rich fields.
And prophets will be set on high for them
By the Immortal, bringing great delight
To all mortals. For to them alone
The mighty God His gracious counsel gave
And faith and noblest thought within their hearts;
They have not by vain things been led astray,
Nor pay they honor to the works of men
Made of gold, brass, silver, and ivory,
Nor statues of dead gods of wood and stone
[[Besmeared clay, figures of the painter’s art]],
And all that empty-minded mortals will;
But they lift up their pure arms to Heaven,
Rise from the couch at daybreak, always hands
With water cleanse, and honor only Him
Who is immortal and who ever rules,
And then their parents; and above all men
Do they respect the lawful marriage-bed;
And they have not base intercourse with boys,
As do Phoenicians, Latins, and Egyptians
And spacious Greece, and nations many more
Of Persians and Galatians and all Asia,
Transgressing the immortal God’s pure law
Which they were under. Therefore, on all men
Will the Immortal put bane, famine, pains,
Groans, war, and pestilence and mournful woes;
Because they would not honor piously
The immortal Sire of all men, but revered
And worshiped idols made with hands, which things
Mortals themselves will cast down and for shame
Conceal in clefts of rocks, when a young king,
The seventh of Egypt, will rule his own land,
Reckoned from the dominion of the Greeks,
Which countless Macedonian men will rule;
And there will come from Asia a great king,
A fiery eagle, who with foot and horse
Will cover all the land, cut up all things,
And fill all things with evils; he will cast
The Egyptian kingdom down; and taking off
All its possessions carry them away
Over the spacious surface of the sea.
And then will they before, the mighty God,
The King immortal, bend the fair white knee
On the much-nourishing earth; and all the works
Made with hands will fall by a flame of fire.
And then will God bestow great joy on men;
For land and trees and countless flocks of sheep
Their genuine fruit to men will offer—wine,
And the sweet honey, and white milk, and wheat,
Which is for mortals of all things the best.
But you, O mortal full of various wiles,
Do not delay and loiter, but indeed you,
Tossed to and fro, turn and propitiate God.
Offer to God your hecatombs of bulls
And firstling lambs and goats, as times revolve.
But Him propitiate, the immortal God,
If perhaps He show mercy. For He is
The only God, and other there is none.
And honor justice and oppress no man.
For these things the Immortal does enjoin
On miserable men. But you must heed
The cause of the wrath of the mighty God,
When on all mortals there will come the height
Of pestilence and conquered they will meet
A fearful judgment, and king will seize king
And wrest his land away, and nations bring
Ruin on nations and lords plunder tribes,
And chiefs all flee into another land,
And the land change its men, and foreign rule
Ravage all Hellas and drain the rich land.
Of its wealth, and to strife among themselves
Because of gold and silver they will come—
The love of gain an evil shepherdess
Will be for cities—in a foreign land.
And they will all be without burial,
And vultures and wild beasts of earth will spoil
Their flesh; and when these things are brought to pass,
Vast earth will waste the relics of the dead.
And all unsown will it be and unplowed,
Proclaiming sad the filth of men defiled
Many lengths of time in the revolving years,
And shields and javelins and all sorts of arms;
Nor will the forest wood be cut for fire.
And then will God send from the East a king,
Who will make all earth cease from evil war,
Killing some, others binding with strong oaths.
And he will not by his own counsels do
All these things, but obey the good decrees
Of God the mighty. And with incredible wealth,
With gold and silver and purple ornament,
The temple of the mighty God again
Will be weighed down; and the full-bearing earth
And the sea will be filled full of good things.
And kings against each other will begin
To hold ill will, in heart abetting evils.
Envy is not a good to wretched men.
But again kings of nations on this land
Will rush in masses, bringing on themselves
Destruction; for they’ll purpose to despoil
The great God’s temple and the noblest men.
What time they reach the land, polluted kings
Will set around the city each his throne
And have his people that do not obey God.
And then will God speak with a mighty voice
To all rude people of an empty mind,
And judgment from the mighty God will come
On them, and they all will be destroyed
By His immortal arm. And fiery swords
Will fall from the sky on earth; and great bright lights
Will come down flaming in the midst of men.
And in those days will earth, all-mother, reel
By His immortal arm, and shoals of fish
In the deep sea, and all wild, beasts of earth,
And countless tribes of winged bird, and all
The souls of men and every sea will tremble
Before the face of the Immortal One,
And there will be dismay. High mountain peaks
And monstrous hills will He asunder break,
And to all will dark Erebus appear.
And misty gorges in the lofty hills
Will be full of the dead; and rocks will stream
With blood and every torrent fill the plain.
And well-built walls of evil-minded men
Will all fall to the earth, since they knew not
The law nor judgment of the mighty God,
But with a senseless soul all hurried on
Against the temple and raised up their spears.
And God will judge all by war and by sword
And by fire and by overwhelming storm;
And brimstone there will be from the sky, and stones
And great and grievous hail; and death will come
On the quadrupeds. And then will they
Know God, the Immortal, who performs these things;
And wailing, and on the boundless earth
Will be at once a shout of perishing men;
And all the unholy will be bathed in blood;
And earth herself will also drink the blood
Of the perishing, and beasts be gorged with flesh.
And all these things the great eternal God
Himself bade me proclaim. And that will not
Be unaccomplished, or be unfulfilled,
Whatever only in my heart He placed;
For truthful is God’s Spirit in the world.
But children of the mighty God will all
Again around the temple live in peace,
Rejoicing in those things which He will give
Who is Creator, righteous Judge and King.
For He Himself, great, present far and wide,
Will be a shelter, as on all sides round
A wall of flaming fire. And they will be
In cities and in country without war.
For not the hand of evil war, but rather
The Immortal will Himself be their defender
And the hand of the Holy One. And then will all
The islands and the cities tell how much
The immortal God loves those men; for all things
Help them in conflict and deliver them
Heaven, and divinely fashioned sun, and moon.
[[And in those days will earth, all-mother, reel.]]
Sweet word will they send from their mouths in hymns:
“Come, falling on the earth let us all pray
The immortal King, and great eternal God.
To the temple let us in procession go,
Since He alone is Lord; and let us all
Meditate on the Law of God most high,
Which is most righteous of all [laws] on earth.
And from the path of the Immortal we
Have wandered and with senseless soul we honor
Works made by hand and wooden images
Of dead men.” These things souls of faithful men
Will cry out: “Come, having, at the house of God
Fallen on our faces, let us with our hymns
Make joy to God the Father at our homes,
Supplied through all our land with arms of foes
Seven lengths of time in the revolving years;
Even shields and helmets and all sorts of arms,
And a great store of bows and arrows barbed”;
For forest wood will not be cut for
But, wretched Hellas, stop your arrogance
And be wise; and entreat the Immortal One
Magnanimous, and be on your guard.
Send now against this city yet again
The people inconsiderate, who have come
Out of the holy land of the mighty One.
Do not move Camarina; for ‘tis better
She be unmoved; a leopard from the lair,
Do not let an evil one meet with you.
But keep off, do not hold within your breast
An arrogant and overbearing soul,
Ready for mighty contest. And serve God
The mighty, that you may share those things;
And when that fated day will reach its end,
[[And judgment of the immortal God will come
To mortals]], judgment great and power will come
On men. For all-mother earth will yield
To mortals best fruit boundless—wheat, wine, oil;
Also from Heaven a delightful drink
Of honey and trees will give their fruit,
And fatted sheep and cattle there will be,
Young lambs and kids of goats; earth will break forth
With sweet springs of white milk; and of good things
The cities will be full and fat the fields;
Nor sword nor uproar will be on the earth;
No more will earth groan heavily and quake;
Nor will war longer be on earth, nor drought,
Nor famine, nor the fruit-destroying hail;
But great peace will be on all the earth,
And king to king be friend until the end
Of the age, and o’er all earth common law
Will the Immortal in the starry heavens
Perfect for men, touching whatever things
Have been by miserable mortals done;
For He alone is God, there is no other;
And the stern rage of men He’ll burn with fire.
But change entirely the thoughts in your heart,
And flee unrighteous worship; serve the One
Who [ever] lives; guard against adultery
And deeds of lewdness; your own offspring rear
And do not murder; for the Immortal One
Is angry with him who in these things sins.
And then a kingdom over all mankind
Will He raise up for ages, who once gave
Holy law to the pious, to whom
He pledged to open every land, the world
And portals of the blessed, and all joys,
And mind immortal and eternal bliss.
And out of every land to the house
Of the great God will they bring frankincense
And gifts, and there will be no other house
To be inquired of by men yet to be,
But what God gave for faithful men to honor;
For mortal temple of the mighty God
Will call it. And all pathways of the plain
And rough hills and high mountains and wild waves
Of the deep will be easy in those days
For crossing and for sailing; for all peace
On the land of the good will come; and sword
Will prophets of the mighty God remove;
For they are judges and the righteous kings
Of mortals. And there will be righteous wealth
Among mankind; for of the mighty God
This is the judgment and also the power.
Be of good cheer, O maiden, and be glad;
For He who made the heaven and earth gave you
Joy in your age. And He will dwell in you;
And yours will be immortal and wolves
And lambs will in the mountains feed on grass
Together, and with kids will leopards graze;
And bears will lodge among the pasturing calves;
And the carnivorous lion will eat chaff
At the manger like the cow; and little children
In bonds will lead them; for He will make beasts
Helpless on earth. With babes will fall asleep
Serpents, along with asps, and do no harm;
For over them will be the hand of God.
Now I tell you a sign exceedingly clear,
That you may know when the end of all things
On earth will be. When in the starry heavens
Swords will by night point straight toward west and east,
Promptly will there be also from the heavens
A cloud of dust borne forth to all the earth,
And the sun’s brightness in the midst of the sky
Will be eclipsed, and the moon’s beams appear
And come again on earth; by drops of blood
Distilling from the rocks a sign will be;
And in the cloud, you will behold a war
Of foot and horse, like the chase of wild beasts
In the dense fog. This end of all things God
Will consummate, whose dwelling is in Heaven.
But all must sacrifice to the great King.
These things I show you, I who madly left
The long walls of Assyrian Babylon
For Hellas to proclaim to all the wrath
Of God, fire sent . . .
And that I might to mortals prophesy
Of mysteries divine. And men will say
In Hellas that I am of foreign land,
Of Erythre born, shameless; others say
That I’m a Sibyl, born of mother Circe
And father Gnostos raving mad and false;
But at that time when all things come to pass
You will remember me, and no one again
Will call me mad, the great God’s prophetess,
For He showed me what happened formerly
To my ancestors; what things were the first
Those God made known to me; and in my mind
Did God put all things to be afterward,
That I might prophesy of things to come,
And things that were, and tell them to men.
For when the world was deluged with a flood
Of waters, and one man of good repute
Alone was left and in a wooden house
Sailed o’er the waters with the beasts and birds,
In order that the world might be refilled,
I was his son’s bride and was of his race
To whom the first things happened, and the last
Were all made known; and thus from my own mouth
Let all these truthful things remain declared.
[Introduction, 1–28. Blessedness of the righteous, 29–60. The Assyrian kingdom, 61–65. The Medes and Persians, 66–82. Woes on Phrygia, Asia, and Egypt, 83–100. Sicily burned by fire of Aetna, 101–104. Strife in Greece, 105–108. Triumphs of Macedon, 109–129. Triumphs of Italy, 130–168. Italy’s punishment, 169–180. Woes of Antioch, Cyprus, and Caria, 181–197. Wrath in reserve for the impious, 198–209. Exhortations and threatening, 210–230. Resurrection, judgment, and reward, 231–248.]
People of boastful Asia and of Europe,
Hear how much, all too true, I am about,
Through a month many-toned, from my great hall
To prophesy; no oracle am I
Of lying Phoebus whom vain men called god,
And further falsified by calling seer;
But of the mighty God, whom hands of men
Formed not like speechless idols carved of stone.
For He has not for His abode a stone
Most dumb and toothless to a temple drawn,
Of immortals a dishonor very sore;
For He may not be seen from earth nor measured
By mortal eyes, nor formed by mortal hand;
He, looking down at once on all, is seen
Himself by no one; His are murky night,
And day, and sun, and stars, and moon, and seas
With fish, and land, and rivers, and the month
Of springs perennial, creatures meant for life,
And rains at once producing fruit of field
And tree and vine and oil. This God a whip
Struck through my heart within to make me tell
Truly to men what things have now befallen
And how much will befall them yet again
From the first generation to the eleventh;
For He Himself by bringing them to pass
Will prove all things. But do you in all things,
O people, to the Sibyl give all ear,
Who pours from holy mouth a truthful voice.
Blessed of men will they be on the earth
As many as will love the mighty God,
Offering Him praise before they drink and eat;
Trusting in piety. When they behold
Temples and altars, figures of dumb stones,
[[Stone images and statues made with hands]]
Polluted with the blood of living things
And sacrifices of four-footed beasts,
They will reject them all; and they will look
To the great glory of one God and not
Commit presumptuous murder nor dispose
Of stolen gain, which things most horrid are;
Nor shameful longing for another’s bed
Have they, nor vile and hateful lust of males.
Their manner, piety, and character
Will other men, that love a shameless life,
Not ever imitate; but, mocking them
With jest and joke like babes in senselessness,
They’ll falsely charge to them as many deeds
Blameful and wicked as they do themselves.
For slow is the whole race of humankind
To believe. But when judgment of the world
And mortals comes, which God Himself will bring,
Judging at once the impious and the pious,
Then indeed will He send the ungodly back
To lower darkness [[and then they will know
How much impiety they worked]]; but the pious
Will still remain on the fruitful land,
God giving to them breath and life and grace.
But these things all in the tenth generation
Will come to pass; and now what things will be
From the first generation, those I’ll tell.
First over all mortal will Assyrians rule,
And for six generations hold the power
Of the world, from the time the God of Heaven
Being angry against the cities and all men
Sea with a bursting deluge covered earth.
Them will the Medes o’erpower, but on the throne
For two generations only will exult;
In which times those events will come to pass:
Dark night will come at the mid hour of day
And from the heavens the stars and circling moon
Will disappear; and earth in tumult shaken
By a great earthquake will throw many cities
And works of men headlong; and from the deep
They will peer out the islands of the Sea.
But when the great Euphrates will with blood
Be surging, then will there be also set
Between the Medes and Persians dreadful strife
In battle; and the Medes will fall and fly
‘Neath Persian spears beyond the mighty water
Of Tigris. And the Persian power will be
Greatest in all the world, and they will have
One generation of most prosperous rule.
And there will be as many evil deeds
As men will wish away—the din of war,
And murders, and disputes, and banishments,
And overthrow of towers and waste of cities,
When Hellas very glorious will sail
Over broad Hellespont, and will convey
To Phrygia sorrow and to Asia doom.
And to Egypt, land of many furrows,
Will sorry famine come, and barrenness
Will during twenty circling years prevail,
What time the Nile, corn-nourisher, will hide
His dark wave somewhere underneath the earth.
And there will come from Asia a great king
Bearing a spear, with ships innumerable,
And he will walk the wet paths of the deep,
And will sail after he has cut the mount
Of lofty summit; him a fugitive
From battle, fearful Asia will receive.
And Sicily the wretched will a stream
Of powerful fire set all aflame while Etna
Her flame disgorges; and in the deep chasm
Down will the mighty city Croton fall.
And strife will be in Hellas; they will rage
Against each other, cast down many cities,
And fighting make an end of many men;
But equally balanced is the strife with both.
But, when the race of mortal men will come
To the tenth generation, also then
On the Persians will a servile yoke
And terror be. But when the Macedonians
Will boast the scepter there will be for Thebes
An evil conquest from behind, and Carians
Will dwell in Tyre, and Tyrians be destroyed.
And Babylon, great to see but small to fight,
Will stand with walls that were in vain hopes built.
In Bactria Macedonians will dwell;
But those from Susa and from Bactria
Will all into the land of Hellas flee.
It will take place among those yet to be,
When silver-eddying Pyramus his banks
O’erpouring, to the sacred isle will come.
And Cibyra will fall and Cyzicus,
When, earth being shaken by earthquakes, cities fall.
And sand will hide all Samos under banks.
And Delos visible no more, but things
Of Delos will all be invisible.
And to Rhodes will come evil last, but greatest.
The Macedonian power will not abide;
But from the west a great Italian war
Will flourish, under which the world will bear
A servile yoke and the Italians serve.
And you, O wretched Corinth, you will look
Sometime on your conquest. And your tower,
O Carthage, will press lowly on the ground.
Wretched Laodicea, you sometime
Will earthquake lay low, casting headlong down,
But you, a city firmly set, again
Will stand. O Lycia Myra beautiful,
You never will the agitated earth
Set fast; but falling headlong down on earth
Will you, in manner like an alien, pray
To flee away into another land,
When sometime the dark water of the sea
With thunders and earthquakes will stop the din
Of Patara for its impieties.
Also for you, Armenia, there remains
A slavish fate; and there will also come
To Solyma an evil blast of war
From Italy, and God’s great temple spoil.
But when these, trusting folly, will cast off
Their piety and murders consummate
Around the temple, then from Italy
A mighty king will like a runaway slave
Flee over the Euphrates’ stream unseen,
Unknown, who will sometime dare loathsome guilt
Of matricide, and many other things,
Having confidence in his most wicked hands.
And many for the throne with blood
Rome’s soil while he flees over Parthian land.
And out of Syria will come Rome’s foremost man,
Who having burned the temple of Solyma,
And having slaughtered many of the Jews,
Will destruction on their great broad land.
And then too will an earthquake overthrow
Both Salamis and Paphos, when dark water
Will dash o’er Cyprus washed by many a wave.
But when from deep cleft of Italian land
Fire will come flashing forth in the broad heavens,
And many cities burn and men destroy,
And much black ashes will fill the great sky,
And small drops like red earth will fall from the sky,
Then know the anger of the God of Heaven,
For that they without reason will destroy
The nation of the pious. And then strife
Awakened of war will come to the West,
Will also come the fugitive of Rome,
Bearing a great spear, having marched across
Euphrates with his many myriads.
O wretched Antioch, they will call you
No more a city when around their spears
Because of your own follies you will fall.
And then on Scyros will a pestilence
And dreadful battle-din destruction bring.
Woe, woe! O wretched Cyprus, you
Will a broad wave of the sea cover, you
Tossed on high by the whirling stormy winds.
And into Asia there will come great wealth,
Which Rome herself once, plundering, put away
In her luxurious homes; and twice as much
And more will she to Asia render back,
And then there will be an excess of war.
And Carian cities by Maeander’s waters,
Girded with towers and very beautiful,
Will by a bitter famine be destroyed,
When the Maeander his dark water hides.
But when piety will perish from mankind,
And faith and right be hidden in the world,
. . . Fickle . . . and in unholy boldness
Living will practice wanton violence,
And reckless evil deeds, and of the pious
No one will make account, but even them all
From thoughtlessness they utterly destroy
In childish folly, in their violence
Exulting and in blood holding their bands;
Then surely know God is no longer mild,
But gnashing with fury and destroying all
The race of men by conflagration great.
Ah! Miserable mortals, change these things,
Nor lead the mighty God to wrath extreme;
But giving up your swords and pointed knives,
And homicides and wanton violence,
Wash your whole body in perennial streams,
And lifting up your hands to Heaven, seek pardon
For former deeds and expiate with praise
Bitter impiety; and God will give
Conversion; He will not destroy; and wrath
Will He again restrain, if in your hearts
You all will practice honored piety.
But if, ill-disposed, you obey me not,
But with a fondness for strange lack of sense
Receive all these things with an evil ear,
There will be over all the world a fire
And greatest omen with sword and with trump
At sunrise; the whole world will hear the roar
And mighty sound. And He will burn all earth,
And destroy the whole race of men, and all
The cities and the rivers and the sea;
All things He’ll burn, and it will be black dust.
But when now all things will have been reduced
To dust and ashes, and God will have calmed
The fire unspeakable which He lit up,
The bones and ashes of men God Himself
Again will fashion, and He will again
Raise mortals up, even as they were before.
And then will be the judgment, at which God
Himself as judge will judge the world again;
And all who sinned with impious hearts, even them,
Will He again hide under mounds of earth
[[Dark Tartarus and Stygian Gehenna]].
But all who will be pious will again
Live on the earth [[and [will inherit there]
The great immortal God’s unwasting bliss,]]
God giving spirit life and joy to them
[[The pious; and they all will see themselves
Beholding the sun’s sweet and cheering light.
O happy on the earth will be that man.]]
[Introduction, 1, 2. Rome’s first emperors, 2–733. Grief of the Sibyl, 74–76. Inundation of Egypt, 77–84. Oracle against Memphis, 85–100. Idolatry and woes of Egypt, 101–147. Woes on various cities of the East and of Asia Minor, 148–169. Woe on Lycia, Phrygia, and Thessaly, 110–185. The vile and fearful king, 186–209. Oracle against Rome, 210–241. Lamentation over Egypt, 242–272. Britons and Gauls, 273–280. Ethiopians and Indians perish by conflict of the stars, 281–291. Doom of Corinth, 292–308. Oracle against Rome, 309–334. The blessed Jews, 335–345. The heavenly Joshua, 346–350. Lovely Judea, 351–382. Woe on western Asia and Ephesus, 383–398. God’s wrath on the wicked, 399–410. Woes on Smyrna, Cyme, Lesbos, Corcyra, Hierapolis, and Tripolis, 411–434. Doom of Miletus, 433–439. Prayer for the land of Judah, 440–446. Wretched Thrace, Hellespont, and Italy, 447–463. Divine judgment and majesty, 464–484. Wars and woes of the last time, 485 517. Appeal to the wicked city, 518–555. Messianic day, 556–580. Fall of Babylon, 581–600. Woes of Asia, Crete, Cyprus, and Phoenicia, 601–615. Vast armies in Egypt, Macedon, and Asia, 616–624. Destruction of the Thracians, 625–629. Mankind made few by woes, 630–639. Final darkness, 640–648. Ruin of Isis and Serapis, 649–660. The temple in Egypt, 661–676. Sin and doom of the Ethiopians, 677–687. Battle of the constellations, 688–711.]
But come, now, hear of me the mournful time
Of sons of Latium. And first of all,
After the kings of Egypt were destroyed
And the like earth had downwards borne them all,
And after Pella’s townsman, under whom
The whole East and the rich West were cast down,
whom Babylon dishonored, and stretched out
For Philip a dead body (not of Zeus,
Of Ammon not true things were prophesied),
And after that one of the race and blood
Of King Assaracus, who came from Troy,
Even he who cleft the violence of fire,
And after many lords, and after men
To Ares dear, and after the young babes,
The children of the beast that feeds on sheep,
The very first lord will be, who will sum
Twice ten with the first letter of his name;
In wars exceedingly mighty will he be;
And he will have the initial sign of ten;
And in like manner after him to reign
Is one who has the alphabet’s first letter;
Before him Thrace and Sicily will crouch,
Then Memphis, Memphis cast headlong to earth
By reason of the cowardice of rulers
And of a woman unenslaved who falls
On the wave. And laws will he ordain
For peoples and put all things under him;
But after a long time will he transmit
His power to another, who will have
Three hundred for his first initial sign,
And of a river the beloved name,
And the Persians he will rule and Babylon;
And then he will strike Medians with his spear.
Then one will rule who has the initial sign
Of the number three. And then will be a lord
Who will for first initial have twice ten;
And he will come to Ocean’s utmost water
And by Ausonia cleave the refluent tide.
And one whose mark is fifty will be lord,
A dreadful serpent breathing grievous war,
Who sometime stretching forth his hands will make
An end of his own race and stir all things,
Acting the athlete, driving chariots,
Putting to death and daring countless things;
And he will cleave the mountain of two seas
And sprinkle it with gore; but out of sight
Will also vanish the destructive man;
Then, making himself equal to God,
Will he return; but God will prove him nothing.
And after him will three kings be destroyed
By one another. Then a great destroyer
Of pious men will come, whom seven times ten
Will point out clearly. But from him a son,
Whom the first letter of three hundred proves,
Will take the power. And after him will be
A ruler, of the initial sign of four,
A life-destroyer. Then a reverend man
Of the number fifty. Next, succeeding him
Who has the first mark of the initial sign
Three hundred, will a Celtic mountaineer,
Into the strife of battle pressing on,
Escape not fate unseemly, but will be
Worn weary to death; him foreign dust,
But dust that of Nemea’s flower has name,
Will hide a corpse. And after him will rule
Another man, with silver helmet decked;
And to him will be the name of a sea;
And he will be a man the best of all
And in all things discreet. And on you,
You best of all, above all, dark-haired one,
And on your shoots will be all these days.
After him three will rule; but the third one
Will at a late time hold the royal power.
Worn out am I, thrice-miserable one,
Sister of Isis, to lay up in heart
An evil message, and an inspired song
Of oracles. First Maenades will dart
Around your much-lamented temple’s steps,
And you will be in evil hands that day
When the Nile some time will fill the whole land
Of Egypt even to sixteen cubits deep;
It will wash all the land, and water it
For mortals; and the pleasure of the land
Will be still and the glory of her face.
Memphis, you most will wail over Egypt;
For of old ruling mightily the land
You will become poor, so that out of Heaven
The Thunderer will Himself with great voice cry:
“O mighty Memphis, who did boast of old
O’er craven mortals greatly, you will wail
Full of pain and utter doom, so that you
Yourself will the eternal God perceive
Immortal in the clouds. Where among men
Is now your mighty pride? Because you did
Against My God-anointed children rave,
And did urge evil forward on good men,
You will for such things suffer penalty
In some like manner. No more openly
For you will there be right among the blessed;
Fallen from the stars, you will not rise to Heaven.”
Now these things to Egypt God bade me
Speak out for the last time, when men will be
Utterly evil. But they labor hard,
Evil men evil things awaiting, wrath
Of the immortal Thunderer in Heaven,
Worshiping stones and beasts instead of God,
And also fearing many things besides
Which have no speech, nor mind, nor power to hear;
Which things it is not right for me to mention,
Each one an idol, formed by mortal hands;
Of their own labors and presumptuous thoughts
Did men receive gods made of wood and stone
And brass, and gold and silver—foolish too,
Without life and dumb, molten in the fire
They made them, vainly trusting such things . . .
Thmois and Xois are in sore distress,
And stricken is the hall of Heracles
And Zeus and Hermes [king]. And as for you,
O Alexandria, famed nourisher
[Of cities] war will not leave, nor [plague] . . .
For your pride you will pay as many things
As you before did. Silent will you be
A long age, and the day of your return . . .
No more for you will flow luxurious drink . . .
For there will come a Persian on your dale,
And like hail will he all the land destroy,
And artful men, with blood and corpses . . .
By sacred altars one of barbarous mind,
Strong, full of blood and raging senselessly,
With countless numbers rushing to destruction.
And then will you, in cities very rich,
Be very weary. Falling on the earth
All Asia will wail on account of gifts
Crowning her head with which she was by you
Delighted. But, as he himself obtained
The Persian land by lot, he will make war
And killing every man destroy all life,
So that there will remain for wretched mortals
A third part. But with nimble leap will he
Himself speed from the West, and all the land
Besiege and waste. But when he will possess
The height of power and odious reverence,
He will come, wishing to destroy the city
Even of the blessed. And a certain king
Sent forth from God against him will destroy
All mighty kings and bravest men. And thus
Will judgment by the Immortal come to men.
Woe, woe for you, unhappy heart!
Why do you move me to declare these things,
The painful rule of Egypt over many?
Go to the East, to races of the Persians
Who lack in understanding, and show them
That which is now and that which is to be.
The river of Euphrates will bring on
A deluge, and it will destroy the Persians,
Iberians and Babylonians
And the Massagetae that relish war
And trust in bows. All Asia fire-ablaze
Will to the isles beam brightly. Pergamos,
Revered of old, will perish from its base,
And Pitane among men will appear
All-desolate. All Lesbos will sink deep
Into the deep, and thus will be destroyed.
Smyrna, whirled down her cliffs, will wail aloud,
She that was once revered and given a name
Will perish utterly. Bithynians
Will over their own country, then reduced
To ashes, wail, and o’er great Syria,
And o’er Phoenicia that has many tribes.
Woe, woe for you, O Lycia;
How many evils does the sea contrive
Against you, mounting up of its own will
On the painful land! And it will dash
With evil earthquake and with bitter streams
On the rough Lycian land that once breathed perfume.
And there will be for Phrygia fearful wrath
Because of sorrow for which Rhea came,
Mother of Zeus, and there continued long.
The sea will overthrow the Centaur race
And barbarous nation, and beneath the earth
Will tear away the Lapithaean land.
The river of deep eddies and deep flow,
Peneus, will destroy Thessalian land,
Snatching men from the earth. Eridanus
[Pretending once to bear the forms, of beasts].
Hellas thrice wretched will the poets weep,
When one from Italy will strike the neck
Of the isthmus, mighty king of mighty Rome,
A man made equal to God, whom, they say,
Zeus himself and the august Hera bore—
He, courting by his voice all-musical
Applause for his sweet songs, will put to death
With his own wretched mother many men.
From Babylon will flee the fearful lord
And shameless whom all mortals and best men
Abhor; for he slew many and laid hands
On the womb; against his wives he sinned
And of men stained with blood had he been formed.
And he will come to monarchs of the Medes
And Persians, first whom he loved and to whom
He brought renown, while with those wicked men
He lurked against a nation not desired
And on the temple made by God he seized
And citizens and people going in,
Of whom I justly sang the praise, he burned;
For when this man appeared the whole creation
Was shaken and kings perished—and yet power
Remained among them, and they quite destroyed
The mighty city and the righteous people.
But when the fourth year a great star will shine,
Which alone will the whole earth overpower
Because of honor, which was first assigned
To lord Poseidon; then a great star will come
From the sky into the dreadful sea and burn
The fathomless deep, and Babylon itself,
And the land of Italy, because, of which
There perished many holy faithful men
Among the Hebrews and a people true.
You will be among evil mortals made
To suffer evils, but you will remain
All-desolate whole ages by yourself
Hating your soil; for you did have desire
For sorcery, adulteries were with you
And lawless carnal intercourse with boys,
You evil city, womanish, unjust,
Ill-fated above all. Woe, woe!
You city of the Latin land, unclean
In all things, Maenad having joy in snakes,
Over your banks a widow will you sit
And the Tiber River will lament for you
His consort—you who have a blood-stained heart
And impious soul. Did you not understand
What God can do, and what He devises?
But you said, “I’m alone, and me no one
Will sack.” But now will God, who ever is,
You and all yours destroy, and in that land
No longer will your ensign yet remain,
As of old, when the mighty God received
Your honors. Stay, O lawless one, alone,
And mixed with burning fire, inhabit
In Hades the Tartarean lawless land.
And now again, O Egypt, I bewail
Your blind delusion; Memphis, first in toils,
You will be filled up with the dead; in you
The pyramids will speak a ruthless sound.
O Python, who were justly called of old
The double city, be for ages silent,
So that you may cease from wickedness.
Reckless in evils, treasury of toils,
Much-wailing Maenad, suffering, dire ills,
Much-weeping, you a widow will remain
Through all time. You did full of years become
While you alone were ruling o’er the world;
But when the white dress Barea round herself
Will put on over that which is defiled,
Would that I neither were nor had been born
O Thebes, where is your great strength? A fierce man
Will slay the people; but you, wretched one,
Grasping your dusky dress will wail alone,
And you will make atonement for all things
Which you formerly with a shameless soul
Did perpetrate. They also will behold
A mourning on account of lawless deeds.
And a mighty man of the Ethiopians
Will overthrow Syene; by their might
Will swarthy Indians occupy Teucheira.
Pentapolis, a man of mighty strength
Will burn you whole. All-tearful Libya,
Who will explain your follies? And Cyrene,
Of mortals, who will pitiably weep
For you? You will not even to the time
Of your destruction cease your hateful wail.
Among the Britons and among the Gauls,
Rich in gold, Ocean will be roaring loud
Filled with much blood; for evil things
Did they to God’s children, when a king
Of the Sidonians, a Phoenician, led
A mighty Gallic host from Syria;
And he will slaughter you, yourself, Ravenna,
And to slaughter he will lead the way.
O Indians and great-hearted Ethiops,
Together fear; for when with these the course
Of Capricorn and Taurus in the Twins
Will wind around the middle of the heavens,
Virgo then rising, and about his front
Fastening a belt the sun will lead all heaven,
There will be moving downwards to the earth
A mighty conflagration high in air,
And a new nature in the warlike stars,
So that the whole land of the Ethiops
Will perish in the midst of fire and groans.
And weep you, Corinth, the destruction sad
Which is ill you; for when with pliant threads
The Fates three sisters, spinning will aloft
Lead him who flees by guile against the voice
Of the isthmus, until all will look at him
Who once cut out the rock with ductile brass,
He also will destroy and strike your land,
As it has been appointed. For to him
God gave strength to accomplish that which could
No earlier of all the kings together.
And first with sickle cleaving off the roots
From three heads he will give food in excess
To others, so that kings unclean will eat
The flesh of parents. For to all men
Slaughter and terrors are laid up in store
because of the great city and just people
Saved through all time, whom Providence held high.
O you unstable one and ill-advised,
By evil fates surrounded, for mankind
Both a beginning and great end of toil—
Of suffering creation and of part
Restored again—you leader insolent
Of evils, and for men a great curse, who
Of mortals wished for you? Who has not been
Embittered from within? Cast down ill, you
A king his honored life lost. Wickedly
Have you disposed all things and washed away
All that is fair, and by you have been changed
The world’s fair folds. In strife with us perhaps
You have brought forward these unstable things;
And how do you say, “I will persuade you,”
And “If in anything you blame me, speak?”
There was once among men the sun’s bright light
The prophets’ common ray being spread abroad;
Speech dripping honey, fair drink for all men,
Appeared and grew, and day arose on all.
Because of this, you narrowminded one—
Leader of greatest evils—both a sword
And grief will come in that day. For mankind
Both a beginning and great end of toil,
Of suffering creation and of part
Restored again, hear, O you curse of men,
The bitter oracle intolerable.
But when the Persian land will keep away
From war and plague and groaning, in that day
A race divine of blessed heavenly Jews
Will offer prayer, who will dwell all around
God’s city in mid portions of the land,
And even as far as Joppa building round
A great wall they will carry it aloft
To the gloomy clouds. No more will trump
Sound battle—din nor by a foe’s mad hands
Will they be cut off; but they will set up
Their trophies for an age of evil men.
And One will come again from Heaven, a Man
Preeminent, whose hands on fruitful tree
By far the noblest of the Hebrews stretched,
Who at one time did make the sun stand still
When He spoke with fair word and holy lips,
No longer vex your soul within your breast
By reason of the sword, rich child of God,
Flower longed for by Him only, perfect light
And noble branch, a scion much beloved,
Pleasant Judea, city beautiful,
Inspired by hymns. No more will unclean foot
Of Greeks keep revel all around your land,
Who held within their breast a lawless mind;
But you will glorious children honor much
[[And be expert in songs and holy tongues]],
With sacrifices of all kinds and prayers
Honored of God. All who endure the toils
Of small affliction and the just will have
More that is altogether beautiful;
But the wicked, who to Heaven sent lawless speech,
Will cease their speaking against one another,
And hide themselves until the world is changed.
And there will be a rain of gleaming fire
From the clouds; and no longer will mortals reap
The fair corn from the earth; all things unsown
And unplowed, until mortal men will know
The Lord of all things, the immortal God
Always existing, and no longer revere
Mortal things—neither dogs nor vultures’ nests,
And what things Egypt taught to magnify
With dumb months and dull lips. But all these things
The holy land of the only pious men
Will bring forth, from the honey-dripping rock,
A stream and from a spring ambrosial milk
Will flow for all the just; for in one God,
One Father, who alone is glorious,
Having great piety and faith they hoped.
But why does the wise mind grant me these things?
And now you, wretched Asia, piteously
I mourn and the race of Ionians
And Carians and Lydians rich in gold.
Woe, woe for you, O Sardis; and woe
For Trallis much beloved; woe, woe,
Laodicea, city beautiful;
Thus will you be by earthquakes overthrown
And ruined, and also be changed to dust.
And to Asia gloomy . . .
Artemis’ temple fixed at Ephesus . . .
By chasms, and earthquakes come headlong down
Sometime into the dreadful sea, as storms
Overwhelm ships. And up-turned Ephesus
Will wail aloud, lament beside her banks,
And for her temple search which is no more.
And then incensed will be God the immortal,
Who dwells on high, hurl thunderbolts from Heaven
Down on the head of him that is impure.
And in the place of winter there will be
In that day summer. And to mortal men
Will then be great woe; for the Thunderer
Will utterly destroy all shameless men,
And with His thunders and with lightning-flames
And blazing thunderbolts [strike] men of ill-will,
And thus will He destroy the impious ones,
So that there will remain on the earth
Dead bodies more in number than the sand.
For Smyrna also, weeping her Lycurgus,
Will come [near] to the gates of Ephesus
And she herself will perish even more.
And foolish Cyme with her inspired streams
Cast down by hands of godless men unjust
And lawless, will to Heaven not so much
As a word utter; but she will remain
Dead in Cymaean streams. And then will they
Together weep, awaiting evil things.
Cyme’s rough populace and shameless tribe,
Having a sign, will know for what they toiled.
And then, when they will have bewailed their land
Reduced to ashes, by Eridanus
Will Lesbos be forever overthrown.
Woe, Corcyra, city beautiful,
Woe for you, cease from your revelry.
You also, Hierapolis, sole land
With riches mixed, what you have longed to have
You will have, even a land of many tears,
Since you were angry toward a land beside
Thermodon’s streams. Rock-clinging Tripolis,
Beside the waters of Maeander, you
Will by the nightly surges under shore
God’s wrath and foresight utterly destroy.
Take me not, willing, to the neighboring land
Of Phoebus; sometime will a thunderbolt
Dainty Miletus from above destroy,
Because she seized on Phoebus’ crafty song
And the wise care and prudent plan of men.
Father of all, be gracious to the land
Of Judah, well fed, fruit-abounding, great,
In order that Your judgments we may see.
For You, O God, in kindness regarded
This land first that it might appear to be
Your gracious gift to all mortal men
And to hold fast what God put in their charge.
The works thrice wretched of the Thracians
I yearn to see, and wall between two seas
Trailed in the dust along beneath the mist,
Even like a river for the swimming fish.
O wretched Hellespont, sometime a child
Of the Assyrians will throw a yoke
Across you; battle of the Thracians comes
And will despoil your strength. And there will rule
Over the land of Macedonia
A king of Egypt, and a barbarous clime
Will waste the strength of captains. Lydians,
And the Galatians, and Pamphylians
With the Pisidians, all equipped for war
Will in a mass bring evil strife to pass.
Thrice wretched Italy, then will remain
All-desolate, unwept, in blooming land
By deadly sting to perish utterly.
And sometime high in the broad heavens above
Like thunder-roaring will God’s voice be heard.
And the unwasting flames of the sun himself
Will be no more, nor will the brilliant light
Of the moon again be in the latest time,
When God will be the ruler. And dark gloom
Will be o’er all the earth, and blinded men
And evil beasts and woe; that day will be
A long time, so that men will see that God
Himself is Lord, the overseer of all
In front of Heaven. And then will He Himself
Not pity hostile men, who sacrifice
Their herds of lambs and sheep and calves and goats
And bellowing golden-horned bulls, offering them
To lifeless Hermae and to gods of stone.
But let the law of wisdom be your guide
And the glory of the righteous; lest sometime
The imperishable God incensed destroy
Each race of men and shameless tribe of life,
It does behoove them faithfully to love
The Father, the wise God who ever is.
In the last time, at the turning of the moon,
There will be raging through the world a war
And carried on with cunning, and in guile.
And from the limits of the earth will come
Fleeing and pondering sharp things in his mind,
A matricidal man who every land
Will overpower and over all things rule,
And see all things more wisely than all men;
And that for whose sake he himself was slain
Will he seize forthwith. And he will destroy
Many men and great tyrants and will burn
All of them, as none other ever did,
And he will raise up them that are afraid
For emulation’s sake. And from the West
Much war will come to men, and blood will flow
Downhill till it becomes deep-eddying streams.
And in the plains of Macedonia
Will wrath distill and give help from the West,
But to the king destruction. And a wind
Of winter then will blow on the earth,
And the plain be filled with evil war again.
For fire will rain down from the heavenly plains
On mortals, and therewith blood, water, flash
Of lightning, murky darkness, night in the sky,
And waste in war and o’er the slaughter mist,
And these together will destroy all kings
And noblest men. Thus will be made to cease
Then the destruction pitiable of war.
And no more will one fight with swords or iron
Or even darts, which things will not again
Be lawful. But wise people will have peace,
Who were left, having made proof of wickedness,
That they might at the last be filled with joy.
You matricides, leave off your impudence
And evil-working boldness, who of old
provided lawlessly lewd couch with boys,
And placed as harlots maidens pure before
In brothels by assault and punishment
And by much-laboring indecency.
For in you mother with her child did hold
Unlawful intercourse, and daughter was
With her own father wedded as a bride;
And in you kings have their ill-fated mouth
Polluted, and in you have wicked men
Found couch with cattle. Be in silence hushed,
You wicked city all-bewailed, possessed
Of revelry; for by you virgin maids
Will care no longer for the fire divine
Of sacred wood that fondly nourishes;
Before you was a much-loved house of old
Extinguished, when I saw the second house
Cast headlong down and overwhelmed with fire
By an unholy hand, house ever flourishing,
God’s watchful temple, brought forth of His holy ones
And being always indestructible,
By the soul hoped for and the body itself.
For not without the rites of burial
Will one praise God out of the unseen earth,
Nor did wise workman make a stone by them,
Nor had he fear of gold, cheat of the world
And of souls, but the mighty Father, God
Of all things God-inspired, did he revere
With holy offerings and fair hecatombs.
But now an unseen and unholy king
With multitude great and with men renowned
Rose into power and cast His dwelling down
And let it go unbuilt. But he himself
When he set foot on the immortal land
Destroyed the ground. And such a sign no longer
Was worked on men, so that it appeared
That others the great city should destroy.
For there came from the heavenly plains a Man,
One blessed, with a scepter in His hand,
Which God gave Him, and He ruled all things well,
And to all the good did He restore
The riches which the earlier men had seized.
And many cities with much fire He took
From their foundations, and He set on fire
The towns of mortals who before did evil,
And He did make that city, which God loved,
More radiant than stars and sun and moon,
And He set order, and a holy house
Incarnate made, pure, very fair, and formed
In many stadia a great and boundless tower
Touching the clouds themselves and seen by all,
So that all holy and all righteous men
Might see the glory of the eternal God,
A sight that has been longed for. Rising sun
And setting day hymned forth the praise of God.
For there are then no longer fearful things
For wretched mortals, nor adulteries
And lawless love of boys, nor homicide,
Nor tumult, but a righteous strife in all.
It is the last time of the holy ones when God
Accomplishes these things, high Thunderer,
Founder of temple most magnificent.
Woe, woe for you, O Babylon,
For golden throne and golden sandal famed,
Kingdom of many years and of the world
Sole ruler, who were great in ancient time
And city of all cities, you no longer
Will lie in golden mountains and by streams
Of the Euphrates; you will be laid low
By rout of earthquake. But the Parthians dire
Caused you to suffer all things. For hold fast
Your unknown speech, impure Chaldean race;
Do not ask nor be concerned how you will lead
The Persians or how you will rule the Medes;
For on account of your supremacy,
Which you had, sending hostages to Rome
And serving Asia, you that formerly
Did also think yourself a queen, will come
To the judgment of antagonists,
Because of whom you have suffered baneful things;
And you will give instead of crooked words
Bitter vexation to the enemies,
And in the last time will the sea be dry
And ships no longer sail to Italy,
And Asia the great then, utterly doomed, will
Be water, and then Crete will be a plain.
And Cyprus will endure great misery
And Paphos will bewail a dreadful fate,
So that even Salamis, great city, will
Be seen to undergo great misery;
And now the dry land will be fruitless sand
On the shore. And locusts not a few
Will utterly destroy the Cyprian land.
Looking at Tyre, doomed mortals, you will weep.
Phoenicia, dreadful wrath remains for you,
Until you to a worthless ruin fall,
So that even Sirens truly may lament.
In the fifth generation, when the ruin
Of Egypt has ceased, it will come to pass
That shameless kings will be together joined,
And races of Pamphylians will encamp
In Egypt, and in Macedonia
And in Asia and among the Libyans
Will in the dust be a world-maddening war
Exceedingly bloody, which the king of Rome
And rulers of the West will make to cease.
When wintry storm will drop down like the snow,
While frozen are great river and vast lakes,
Forthwith a barbarous race will make their way
Into the Asian land and will destroy
The race of dreadful Thracians, hard to quell.
And then will mortals feeding lawlessly
Devour their parents, being by hunger worn,
And will gulp down the entrails. And wild beasts
Will devour from all houses table-food,
And they and birds all mortals will devour.
The ocean with dead bodies will be filled
From the river and be red with flesh and blood
Of the foolish ones. Then thus a feebleness
Will be on earth, so that of men the number
May be seen and the measure of the women,
And the dire race will wail for myriad things
At last when the sun sets to rise no more,
But to remain submerged in Ocean’s waves;
For it beheld the wickedness unclean
Of many mortals. And a moonless night
Will be a fame around the mighty heavens,
And no small mist will hide the world’s ravines
A second time; then afterward God’s light
Will guide the good men, who sang praise to God.
Isis, thrice wretched goddess, you alone
Will on the waters of the Nile remain,
A Maenad out of order on the sands
Of Acheron, and no longer will remain
Remembrance of you over all the earth.
And also you, Sarapis, who are placed
On many glistening stones, a ruin vast
Will you in thrice unhappy Egypt lie.
But those whom love of Egypt led to you
Will all lament you badly; but who put
Imperishable reason in their breast,
And who praised God, will know you to be nothing.
And sometime will a linen-vested man,
A priest, say: “Come, let us raise up of God
A beautiful true temple; come, let us
The fearful law of our forefathers change,
Because of which they did not understand
That they were to gods of stone and clay
Making processions and religious rites.
Let us turn our souls, giving praise to God
The imperishable, who Himself is Father,
The everlasting One, the Lord of all,
The true One, the King, life-sustaining Father,
The mighty God existing forevermore.”
And then will there a great pure temple be
In Egypt, and the people made by God
Will into it their sacrifices bring.
And to them God will give life uncorrupted.
But when the Ethiopians, forsaking
The shameless tribes of the Triballians,
Will cultivate their Egypt, they will then
Begin their baseness, that the later things
May all occur. For they will overthrow
The mighty temple of the Egyptian land;
And God will rain down on the earth dire wrath
Among them, so that all the wicked ones
And all without sense perish. And no longer
Will there be any sparing in that land,
Because they did not keep that which God gave.
I saw the threatening of the shining sun
Among the stars, and in the lightning flash
The dire wrath of the moon; the stars travailed
With battle; and God gave them up to light.
For long fire-flames rebelled against the sun;
Morning star [(Venus)] treading on Leo’s back
Began the fight; and the moon’s double horn
Changed its shape; Capricorn struck Taurus’ neck;
And Taurus took away from Capricorn
Returning day. Orion would no longer
Abide his yoke; the lot of Gemini
Did Virgo change in Aries; no longer shone
The Pleiades; Draco disavowed his zone;
Down into Leo’s girdle Pisces went.
Cancer remained not, for he feared Orion;
Scorpio down on dire Leo backwards moved;
And from the sun’s flame Sirius slipped away;
And the strength of the mighty Shining One
Aquarius kindled. Uranus himself
Was roused, until he shook the warring ones;
And being incensed he hurled them down on earth.
Then swiftly stricken down on the baths
Of Ocean they set all the earth on fire;
And the high heavens remained without a star.
[Preexistence, incarnation, and immersion of the Son of God, 1–9. His teaching and His miracles, 10–25. Miseries in store for the guilty land, 26–32. The blessed Cross, 33–36.]
The great Son of the Immortal famed in song
I from the heart proclaim, to whom a throne,
To be held fast the most Father gave
Ere, He was brought forth; then was He raised up
According to flesh given, washed, at the mouth
Of the Jordan River, which goes rushing on
Trailing its gleaming billows, from the fire
Escaping He first will see God’s sweet Spirit
Descending with the wings of a white dove.
And a pure flower will bloom, and springs be full.
And He will show the ways to men, and show
The heavenly paths, and teach all with wise
And He will come for judgment and persuade
A disobedient people while He boasts
Descent praiseworthy from a heavenly Sire.
Billows will He tread, sickness of mankind
Will He destroy, He will raise up the dead,
And many sufferings will He drive away;
And from one scrip will be men’s fill of bread,
When the house of David will bring forth a Child;
And in His hand the whole world, earth, heaven, sea.
And He will flash on the earth, as once
The two begotten from each other’s ribs
Saw human form appearing. It will be
When earth will be glad in the hope of child.
But for you only, Sodomitic land,
Are evil woes laid up; for you yourself
Ill-disposed did not apprehend your God
Who mocks at mortal schemes; but from a thorn
Did crown Him with a crown, and fearful gall
Did mingle to insolence and spirit.
This will bring evil woes about for you.
O the Wood, O so blessed, on which
God was outstretched; the earth will not have You,
But You will look on a heavenly house,
When You, O God, will flash Your eye of fire.
[Woes of Rhodes, Delos, Cyprus, and Sicily, 1–9. The Deluge, 10–15. Ruin of Phrygia, Ethiopia, and Egypt, 16–28. Woe of Laodicea, 29–31. Signs and powers of Messiah, 32–49. The new shoot, 50–52. Persian wars, 53–67. Fall of Ilias, 68–72. Doom of Colophon, Thessaly, Corinth, and Tyre, 73–86. Coele–Syria accursed, 87–102. Rules for sacrifice and alms giving, 103–130. Doom of Sardinia, Mygdonia, the Celtic land, Rome, Syria, and Thebes, 131–161. The devouring fire, 162–190. Long night followed by a better time, 101–205. Confession and doom of the Sibyl, 206–221.]
O Rhodes, you are unhappy; for first you,
You will I mourn; and you will be the first
Of cities, and first will you be destroyed,
Bereft of men, but of the means of life
Not wholly destitute. And you will sail,
Delos, and be unstable on the water;
Cyprus, a billow of your gleaming sea
Will sometime you destroy; you, Sicily,
The fire that burns within you will consume.
Nor heed God’s terrible and foreign water.
Noah sole fugitive from all men came.
Earth will float, hills float, and even sky will float,
Everything will be water and all things
Will be destroyed by waters. And the winds
Will stand still and a second age will be.
O Phrygia, first will you flame from the crest
Of the water; and first in impiety
You will deny God Himself, courting favor
With false gods, which will utterly destroy
You, wretched one, while many years roll round.
The doomed Ethiopians under pain,
Suffering things lamentable, will by swords
Be stricken while they crouch on the ground.
Rich Egypt ever caring for her corn,
Which Nilus by his seven swimming streams
Intoxicates, will in intestine strife
Destroy; and thence men unexpectedly
Will drive out Apis, not the god for men.
Woe, woe, Laodicea! You
Not ever seeing God will lie, bold one;
And over you will dash a wave of Lycus.
He Himself who is born the mighty God,
Who will work many signs, will through Heaven hang
An axle in the midst, and place for men
A mighty terror to be seen on high,
Measuring a column with a mighty fire
Whose drops will slay the races of mankind
That have dared evils. But a common Lord
There will at some time be, and then will men
Propitiate God, but will not make an end
Of fruitless sorrows. And through David’s house
Will all things come to pass. For God Himself
Gave Him the power and put it in His hand;
Under His feet will sleep His messengers,
And some will kindle fires, and some will make
Rivers appear, and some will rescue towns,
And some will send forth winds. But furthermore
A grievous life will come on many men,
Entering their souls and changing human hearts.
But when a new shoot will out of a root
Put forth eyes, the creation, which to all
Once gave abundant food . . .
And it will with the times be full. But when
Others will rule, a tribe of warlike Persians,
Bride-chambers at once will be terrible
Because of lawless deeds. For her own son
Will mother have as husband; son will be
The ruin of his mother; and with sire
Will daughter lie down and will put to sleep
This foreign law. But to them afterward
Will Roman Ares flash from many a spear;
And they will mix much land with human blood.
But then a chief of Italy will flee
From the force of the spear. But they will leave
On the land a lance inscribed with gold,
Which as the signal ensign of their rule
The foremost fighters carry constantly.
And it will be, when evil and ill-starred
Ilias will piteously complete for all
A tomb, not marriage, then will brides sorely weep,
Because they did not know God, but always gave
By kettle-drums and cymbals boisterous sound.
Consult the oracle, O Colophon;
For a great fearful fire hangs over you.
Ill-wedded Thessaly, the earth no longer
Will see you, nor your ashes, and alone
Escaping from the mainland you will swim;
Thus, O you wretched one, will you of war
Be melancholy refuse, having fallen
By swiftly flowing rivers and by swords.
And you, O wretched Corinth, will receive
Around yourself stern Ares, ill-fated one,
And you will perish on one another.
Tyre, you, unhappy, will be left alone;
For, made a widow by the feebleness
Of pious men, you will be brought to nothing.
Ah, Coele-Syria, of Phoenician men
The last hold, on whom the briny sea
Of Berytus disgorging is poured forth,
O wretched one, you did not know your God,
Who once in the mouth of Jordan washed Himself,
—And the Spirit spread His wings in flight toward Him—
Who before both the earth and starry heavens
Was, actual Word, begotten by His Father,
And by the Holy Spirit donning flesh
He quickly flew to His Father’s house.
And for Him three towers did the mighty Heaven
Establish, in which dwell God’s noble guides:
Hope, piety, and reverence much-desired,
Not having in gold or in silver joy,
But in the reverential acts of men—
Both sacrifices and most righteous thoughts.
And you will sacrifice to the immortal
And mighty God august, not melting grains
Of frankincense in fire, nor with the sword
Slaying the shaggy-haired lamb, but with all
Who bear your blood take wild birds, offer prayer,
And fixing eyes on Heaven, send them away;
And you will sprinkle water on pure fire
Having cried: “As the Father did beget
You, the Word, Father, I sent forth a bird,
Swift messenger of words, with holy waters
Sprinkling Your immersion, O Word, through which
You did make Yourself manifest in fire.”
You will not shut your door, when there will come
A stranger to you in need to curb
His hunger which comes from his poverty,
But taking hold of that man sprinkle him
With water and pray thrice; and to your God
Do you thus cry: “I do not long for wealth;
A suppliant, I once publicly received
A suppliant; Father, You provider—hear.”
When you have prayed you will give to him;
And the man went away thereafter . . .
Do not afflict me, holy fear of God
And righteous, as to birth pure, unenslaved,
Attested . . .
Do You, O Father, make my wretched heart
Stand still; to You have I looked, to You
The undefiled, whom hands did not produce.
Sardinia, weighty now, you will be changed
To ashes. You will be no more an isle,
When the tenth time will come. Amid the waves
Will sailors seek you when you are no more,
And o’er you will kingfishers wail sad dirge.
Rugged Mygdonia, beacon of the sea
Hard to get out of, ages will you boast
And to ages will be all destroyed
With a hot wind, and rave with many woes.
O Celtic land, on mountain range so great,
Beyond impassable Alp, you deep sand
Will altogether bury; you will give
Tribute no more, nor corn, nor pasturage;
And you from peoples ever far away
Will be all-desolate, and becoming thick
With chill ice, you will for an outrage pay,
Which you did not perceive, unholy one.
Stout-hearted Rome, you to Olympus will
Flash lightning after Macedonian spears;
But God will make you utterly unknown,
When you would to the eye seem to remain
Much more firm. Then to you such things I’ll cry.
Perishing, you will then cry out and boil
In pain; a second time to you, O Rome,
Again a second time I am to speak.
And now for you, O wretched Syria,
Do I wail bitterly in pitying grief.
O Thebans ill-advised, an evil sound
Is over you while flutes speak out their tones;
For you will trumpet sound an evil noise
And you will see the entire land destroyed!
Woe, woe for you, you wretched one;
Woe, woe you evil-minded sea!
You will be wholly eaten up of fire
And people with your brine will you destroy.
For there will be such raging fire on earth
As flows like water, and it will destroy
The whole land. It will set the hills on fire,
Will burn the rivers, and exhaust the springs.
The world will be disordered while mankind
Are perishing. And then the wretched ones,
Burned badly, will look to the sky patterned
Not with stars, but with fire. Not speedily
Will they be made to perish, but dissolved
From under flesh, and burning in the spirit
For age-long years, they will know that God’s law
Is always hard to put to test and not
To be deceived; and then earth, seized by force,
Daring whatever god she did admit
To her altars, cheated, turned to smoke
Through the changed air; and they will undergo
Much suffering who for gain will prophesy
Shameful things, nourishing the evil time.
And the Hebrews who put on the shaggy skins
Of sheep will prove false, in which race
Obtained no portion by inheritance,
But talking mere words over sorrows they
Are misers, who will change their course of life
And not mislead the just, who through the heart
All-faithfully propitiate their God.
But in the third lot of revolving years,
Eighth the first, will another world appear.
Night will be all . . . long and without light.
And then will pass around the dreadful stench
Of brimstone, messenger of homicides,
When they will be by night and hunger slain.
Then a pure mind will God beget in men,
And will the race establish, as it was
Formerly; longer will not any one
Deep furrow cut with round plow, nor two oxen
Straight guiding dip the iron down; nor vines
Will be nor ears of corn; but all will eat
Together dewy manna with white teeth.
And then among them God will also be,
And He will teach them as He has taught me,
The sad one. For how many evil things
I did with knowledge once, and many things
Heedless I also wickedly performed.
Countless my couches, but no marriage-bond
Was cared for; and I, all-unfaithful, brought
To all a savage oath. I turned away
Those in need and among the foremost went
Into like glen and minded not God’s word.
Therefore, fire consumed me and will gnaw;
For I will not live always, but a time
Of evil will destroy me, when for me
Men will beside the margin of the sea
Construct a tomb, and will slay me with stones;
For lying with my father a dear son
Did I present him. Strike me, strike me all;
For thus will I live and fix eyes on Heaven.
[Introduction, 1–4. The five monarchies, 5–21. Lust of gain, 21–46. Doom of Rome, 47–63. The gray-haired prince, 61–83. The three rulers, 84–94. Misery of Rome, 95–115. Final judgment of Rome, 116–140. Dirge over Rome, 141–173. The sixth race of Latin kings, 174–182. Appearance of the Phoenix, 183–186. Fall of Rome, 187–210. Woes of Rhodes, Thebes, Egypt, Rome, Delos, Samos, and the Persians, 211–222. The Messianic King, 223–225. The day of evil and of doom, 226–251. The Sibyl’s wish, 255–260. The end of all things, 261–283. Christian acrostic concerning the last day, 284–330. Moses a type of the Messiah, 331–337. The Messianic Savior portrayed, 338–379. The Crucifixion, 380–410. Entrance into Hades and the Resurrection, 411–429. Exhortation to honor the Messianic King, 430–447. Another picture of the day of doom, 448–475. Self-declaration of the Creator through the Sibyl, 476–568. The heavenly Ruler addressed, 569–607. The incarnation of the Word, 608–641. Additional Christian precepts, 642–669.]
God’s declarations of great wrath to come
In the last age on the faithless world
I make known, prophesying to all men
According to their cities. From the time
When the great tower fell and the tongues of men
Were parted into many languages
Of mortals, first was Egypt’s royal power
Established, that of Persians and of Medes,
And also of the Ethiopians,
And of Assyria and Babylon,
Then the great pride of boasting Macedon,
Then, fifth, the famous lawless kingdom last
Of the Italians will show many evils
To all mortals and will spend the toils
Of men of every land. And it will lead
The untamed kings of nations to the West,
Make laws for peoples and subject all things.
Late do the mills of God grind the fine flour.
Fire then will destroy all things and give back
To fine dust the heads of the high-leafed hills
And of all flesh. First cause of ills to all
Are covetousness and a lack of sense.
For there will be love of deceitful gold
And silver; for than these did mortals choose
Nothing greater, neither light of sun nor heaven,
Nor sea, nor broad-backed earth whence all things grow,
Nor God who does give all things, of all things
The Father, nor yet faith and piety
Chose they before them. Of impiety
A fount, and of disorder forward guide,
An instrument of wars and foe of peace
Is lack of sense, that sets at enmity
Parents and children. And along with gold
Will marriage not be honorable at all.
And the land will have its borders and each sea
Its watchers craftily distributed
To all those that have gold; for ages thus
Will those who purpose to possess the land
That feeds many plunder laboring men,
In order that, procuring larger space,
They may enslave them by a false pretense.
And if the huge earth from the starry heavens
Held not her throne far off, there had not been
For men an equal light, but, bought with gold,
It had belonged to rich men and God must
For poor men have prepared another world.
There will come to you sometime from above
A heavenly stroke deserved, O haughty Rome.
And you will be the first to bend your neck
And be razed to the ground, and you will fire
Destructive utterly consume, cast down
On your pavements, and your wealth will perish,
And wolves and foxes dwell in your foundations.
And then will you be wholly desolate,
As if not born. Where your Palladium then?
What god will save you, whether worked of gold
Or stone or brass? Or then where your decrees
Of senate? Where will be the race of Rhea,
Of Kronos, or of Zeus, and of all those
Whom you did worship, demons without life,
Images of the worn-out dead, whose tombs
Crete the ill-starred will hold a cause of pride,
And honor the unconscious dead with thrones?
But when you will have had voluptuous kings
Thrice five, enslaving the world from the east
To the west, there will then be a lord
Gray-headed, having name of the near sea,
The world inspecting with a nimble foot,
Bringing gifts, having a large amount of gold
And plundering hateful silver even more,
And stripping it off he will pick it up.
And he will have part in all mysteries
Of Magian shrines, display his child as god,
Abolish all things sacred, and disclose
The ancient mysteries of deceit to all.
Sad then the time when he himself, sad one,
Will perish. And yet will the people say:
“Your mighty strength, O city, will fall down,”
At once perceiving that the evil day
Is coming on. And, your most piteous fate
Foreseeing, fathers and young children then
Will mourn together; they “Woe! Woe!” will wail
Beside the Tiber’s lamentable banks.
After him at the latest day of all
Will three rule, filling out a name of God
The heavenly, of whom is the power both now
And to all ages. One of them being old
The scepter long will wield, most piteous king,
Who in his houses will shut up and guard
All the goods of the world, in order that,
When from the utmost limits of the earth
That man, the matricidal fugitive,
Will come again, he may bestow these things
On all and furnish Asia with great wealth.
And then will you mourn and will put aside
The luster of the broad-striped purple robe
Of your commanders and wear mourning dress,
O haughty queen, offspring of Latin Rome;
The glory of that arrogance of yours
Will be for you no longer, nor will you,
Ill-fated, ever be raised up again,
But will lie prostrate. For the glory also
Of eagle-bearing legions will fall low.
Where then your power? What allied land will be
Subjected by your follies lawlessly?
For then in all earth will confusion be
Of mortals, when the Almighty will Himself
To the tribunal come to judge the souls
Of the living and the dead and all the world.
And parents will not be to children dear
Nor children to their parents, on account
Of their impiety and their distress
Unlooked-for. Yours thenceforth will gnashing be
And scattering and conquest, and when the fall
Of cities comes and yawnings of the earth.
When a dragon charged with fire in both his eyes
And with full belly will come on the waves
And will afflict your children, and there be
Famine and war of kinsmen, near at hand
Is the end of the world and the last day
And judgment of the immortal God for them
That are approved and chosen. And there will
Against the Romans first of all be wrath
Implacable, and there will come a time
Of drinking blood and wretched course of life.
Woe, woe for you, you reckless land—
Great barbarous nation; you did not perceive
Whence naked and unworthy you did come
To the sun’s light, that to that place again
Naked you might withdraw and afterward
Come to judgment, as unjustly judging. . . .
With hands gigantic coming from on high
Alone through all the world, you will abide
Under the earth. By naphtha and asphalt
And brimstone and much fire you utterly
Will disappear and will be burning dust
For [all] ages; and each one who sees will hear
From Hades a great mournful bellowing
And gnashing of teeth, and you noisily
Beating with your own hands your godless breast.
For all together there is equal night;
For rich and poor; and naked from the earth
Naked again to earth they haste away
And cease from life when they complete their time.
No slave is there, nor any lord, nor tyrant,
Nor king, nor leader having much conceit,
Nor speaker learned in law, nor magistrate
Judging for money; nor do they pour out
The blood of sacrifices in libations
On the altars; there sounds not a drum
Nor cymbal . . .
Nor perforated flute that has a power
To madden mind itself, nor sound of pipe
That was the likeness of a crooked snake,
Nor trumpet, harsh-toned messenger of wars;
Nor those made drunken in the lawless feasts
Of revelry, nor in the choral dance;
Nor sound of harp, nor harmful instrument;
Nor strife, nor anger manifold, nor sword
Is with the dead; but an eternity
Common to all is keeper of the key
Of the great prison before God’s judgment-seat
With images of gold and silver and stone
You are ready, that to the bitter day
You may come to see your first punishment,
O Rome, and gnashing of teeth. And no more
Will Syrian or Greek lay down his neck
Beneath your servile yoke, nor foreigner,
Nor other nation. Plundered you will be
And made to suffer what you did exact,
And in fear wailing you will give, until
You pay back all things; and you for the world
Will be a triumph and reproach of all.
Then will the sixth race of the Latin kings
End life at last and scepters leave behind
From the same race another king will reign,
Who will rule every land and scepters wield;
And having full power, and by the decrees
Of God most mighty, will his children rule,
And of unshaken children is his race;
For thus it is decreed while time moves round,
When there will be of Egypt thrice five kings.
Thereafter when the limit of the time
Of the Phoenix will come round, there will a race
Of peoples come to plunder, tribes confused,
Enemy of the Hebrews. Then will Ares
Go plundering Ares; and he will himself
Destroy the haughty threatening of the Romans.
For Rome’s power perished then while in its bloom;
An ancient queen with cities dwelling round,
No longer will the land of fertile Rome
Prevail, when out of Asia one will come
To rule with Ares. And when he has worked
All these things, to the city afterward
Will he come. And three times three hundred
And eight and forty will you make complete,
When, taking you by force, an ill-starred fate
Will come on you and complete your name.
Ah me, I the thrice wretched, will I see
Sometime that day to you destructive, Rome,
But to all Latins most? It honors him
With counsels who goes, up on Trojan car
With hidden children from the Asian land,
Having a fiery soul. But when he will
Cut through the isthmus looking wistfully,
Moving against all, passing o’er the sea,
Then will dark blood pursue the mighty beast.
And a dog chased the lion which destroys
The shepherds. And then will they take away
His scepter and to Hades he will pass.
And to Rhodes will come an evil last,
But greatest. There will also be for Thebes
An evil conquest afterward, and Egypt
Will perish by the wickedness of rulers,
And he who, being mortal, even so
Escaped headlong destruction afterward,
Thrice blessed was, even four times happy man.
And Rome will be a room, and Delos dull,
And Samos sand . . .
Later again thereafter there will come
An evil to the Persians for their pride,
And all their insolence will come to nothing.
And then a holy Lord of all the earth
Having raised up the dead will wield the scepter
To all ages. Thrice then to Rome
Will the Most High bring pitiable fate
And to all men, and by their own works
They’ll perish; but they would not be persuaded,
Which would have been much more to be desired.
But when forthwith there will increase for ill
An evil day of famine and of plague
And of intolerable battle-din,
Even then again, the former daring lord
Will, having called the senate, counsel take
How he will utterly destroy . . .
Dry land will bloom together with the leaves
Appearing; and the heavenly expanses
Will bring to light on the solid rock
Rainstorm and flame, and much wind on the land,
And over all the earth a multitude
Of poisonous sowings. But with shameless soul
Will they again act, fearing not the wrath
Of God or men, forsaking modesty,
Longing for and greedy tyrants
And violent sinners, false, insatiate,
Workers of evil and in nothing true,
Destroyers of faith, on foul speech
In false words; they will have no fill of wealth;
But shamelessly will they strip off still more;
Under the rule of tyrants they will perish.
The stars will all fall forwards in the sea,
All one by one, yet will men see in the sky
A brilliant cornet, sign of much distress
About to come, of war and battle-strife.
Let me not live when the glad woman reigns,
But then when heavenly grace will reign within,
And when the holy Child will crush with bonds
The mischievous destroyer of all men,
Opening the depth to view, and suddenly
The wooden house will cover mortals round.
But when the generation tenth will be
Within the house of Hades, afterward
The mighty sway of one of female sex;
And God Himself will increase many evils
When she with royal honor has been crowned;
And altogether then an impious age.
The sun obscurely looking shines by night;
The stars will leave the sky; and with much storm
A hurricane will desolate the earth;
And there will be a rising of the dead;
The running of the lame will be most swift,
The deaf will bear, the blind will see, and those
That talk not will talk, and to all
Will life and wealth be common. And the land
Alike for all, divided not by walls
Or fences, will bear more abundant fruits.
And fountains of sweet wine and of white milk
And honey it will give . . .
And judgment of the immortal God [(great king)].
But when God will change times . . .
Winter producing summer, then will be
[All] oracles [fulfilled] . . .
But when the world has perished . . .
And the earth will perspire, when there will be
The sign of judgment. And from Heaven will come
The King who for the ages is to be,
Present to judge all flesh and the whole world.
Faithful and faithless mortals will see God
The Most High with the holy ones at the end of time.
And of men bearing flesh He judges souls
On His throne, when sometime the whole world
Will be a desert and a place of thorns.
And mortals will their idols cast away
And all wealth. And the searching fire will burn
Earth, heavens, and sea; and it will burn the gates,
Of Hades’ prison. Then will come all flesh
Of the dead to the free light of the holy ones;
But the lawless will that fire whirl round and round.
For ages. Howsoever much one did
In secret, then will he all things declare;
For God will open dark breasts to the light.
And lamentation will there be from all
And gnashing of teeth. Brightness of the sun
Will be eclipsed and dances of the stars.
He will roll up the heavens; and of the moon
The light will perish. And He will exalt
The valleys and destroy the heights of hills,
And height no longer will appear remaining
Among men. And the hills will with the plains
Be level and no more on any sea
Will there be sailing. For the earth will then
With heat be shriveled and the dashing streams
Will with the fountains fall. The trump will send
From Heaven a very lamentable sound,
Howling the loathsomeness of wretched men
And the world’s woes. And then the yawning earth
Will show Tartarean chaos. And all kings
Will come to the judgment seat of God.
And there will out of Heaven a stream of fire
And brimstone flow. But for all mortals then
Will there a sign be, a distinguished seal—
The Wood among believers, and the horn
Fondly desired, the life of pious men—
But it will be stumbling block of the world,
Giving illumination to the chosen
By water in twelve springs; and there will rule
A shepherding iron rod. This One who now
Is in acrostics which give signs of God
Thus written openly, the Savior is:
Immortal King, who suffered for our sake;
Him Moses typified when he stretched out
Holy arms, conquering Amalek by faith,
That the people might know Him to be chosen
And honorable before His Father God,
The rod of David and the very stone
Which he indeed aid promise, and in which
He that believes will have eternal life.
For not in glory, but as mortal man
Will He come to creation, pitiable,
Unhonored, without seemly form, to give
Hope to the pitiable; and He will give
Fair form to mortal flesh, and heavenly faith
To those without faith, and He’ll give fair form
To the man who was fashioned from the first
By the holy hands of God, and whom by guile
The serpent led astray to the fate
Of death to go and knowledge to receive
Of good and evil, so that leaving God
He serves the ways of mortals. For at first
Receiving Him as fellow-counselor
From the beginning the Almighty said:
“Let both of us, O Son, make mortal tribes—
Stamping them with the impress of Our image;
I now by My hands, and You by the Word
In after time will for Our form provide
That We may jointly cause it to arise.”
Keeping in mind this purpose He will come
To the creation, to a holy virgin
Bringing the likeness antitypical,
Immersing with water by the elders’ hands,
And by the Word accomplishing all things,
And healing every sickness. By His word
The winds will He make cease, and with His foot
Will calm the raging sea, walking thereon
In peaceful faith. And from five loaves of bread
And a fish of the sea five thousand men
Will He fill in the desert; and then taking
All the remaining fragments for the hope
Of peoples, will He fill twelve baskets full.
And the souls of the blessed He will call,
And love the pitiable, who, being mocked,
Beaten, and whipped, will evil do for good
Desiring poverty. He who perceives
All things and sees all things and hears all things
Will search the heart and bare it to conviction;
For of all things is He Himself the ear
And mind and sight, and Word that makes forms
To whom all things submit, and He preserves
Them that are dead and every sickness heals.
Into the hands of lawless men, at last,
And faithless He will come, and they will give
To God ruthless beatings with impure hands
And poisonous spittle with polluted mouths.
And He to whips will openly give then
His holy back; [[for He to the world
A holy virgin will Himself commit.]]
And silent He will be when buffeted
Lest anyone should know whose Son He is
Or whence He came, that He may talk to the dead.
And He will also wear a crown of thorns;
For of thorns is the crown an ornament
Chosen, eternal. They will pierce His side
With a reed that they may fulfill their law;
For of reeds shaken by another spirit
Were nourished inclinations of the soul,
Of anger and revenge. But when these things
Will be accomplished, of the which I spoke,
Then to Him will every law be loosed
Which from the first by the decrees of men
Was given because of disobedient people.
He’ll spread His hands and measure all the world.
But gall for food and vinegar to drink
They gave Him; this inhospitable board
They’ll show Him. But the curtain of the temple
Will be asunder rent and in midday
There will be for three hours dark, monstrous night.
For it was no more pointed out again
How to serve secret temple and the law,
Which had been covered with the world’s displays,
When the Eternal came Himself on earth.
And into Hades will He come announcing
Hope to all the holy ones, the end of ages
And the last day; and having fallen asleep
The third day, He will end the lot of death;
Then from the dead departing He will come
To light, the first to show forth to the chosen
Beginning of resurrection, and wash off
By means of waters of immortal spring
Their former wickedness, that, being born
From above, they might be no more enslaved
To the unlawful customs of the world.
And first then openly to His own
Will He as Lord in flesh be visible,
As He before was, and in hands and feet
Exhibit four marks fixed in His own limbs,
Denoting east and west and south and north;
For of the world so many royal powers
Will against our Exemplar consummate
The deed so lawless and condemnable.
Daughter of Zion, holy one, rejoice,
Who have suffered many things; your King Himself
Mounted on a foal is hastening on;
Behold, meek He will come, that He may lift
Our slavish yoke, so grievous to be borne
Lying on our neck, and may annul
Our godless laws and bonds compulsory.
Know indeed your God Himself, who is God’s Son;
Him glorify and hold within your heart,
From your soul love Him and extol His Name.
Put off your former friends and wash yourself
From their blood; for He is not by your songs
Nor by your prayers appeased, nor does He give
To perishable sacrifices heed,
Being imperishable; but present
The holy hymn of understanding mouths
And know who this One is, and you will then
Behold the Father . . .
And then will all the elements of the world
Abide in solitude: air, earth, sea, light
Of gleaming fire, and heavenly sky and night
And all days into one will run together
And into outward form all-desolate.
For from the sky will the stars of light all fall.
And there will fly no longer in the air
The well-winged birds, nor stepping be on earth;
For wild beasts will all perish. Nor will be
Voices of men, nor of beasts, nor of birds.
The world will hear no serviceable sound,
Being disordered; but a mighty sound
Of threatening will the deep sea sound aloud,
And swimming trembling creatures of the sea
Will all die; and no longer on the waves
Will sail the freighted ship. And earth will groan
Blood-stained by wars; and all the souls of men
Will gnash with their teeth, [[of the lawless souls
Both by loud crying and by fear,]] dissolved
By thirst, by famine, and by plague and murders,
And they will call death beautiful and death
Will flee away from them; for death no longer
Nor night will give them rest. And many things
Will they in vain ask God who rules on high,
And then will He His face turn openly
Away from them. For He to erring men
Gave in seven ages for conversion signs
By the hands of a virgin undefiled.
All these things in my mind God Himself showed
And all that have been spoken by my mouth
Will He accomplish: “And I know the number
Of the sands and the measures of the sea,
I know the inmost places of the earth
And gloomy Tartarus, I know the numbers
Of the stars, and the trees, and all the tribes
Of quadrupeds, and of the swimming things
And flying birds, and of men who are now
And of those yet to be, and of the dead;
For I Myself the forms and mind of men
Did fashion, and right reason did I give
And knowledge taught; I who formed eyes and ears,
Who see and hear and every thought discern,
And who within am conscious of all things,
I am still; and hereafter will convict
[[And punishing what any mortal did
In secret, and on God’s judgment-seat
Coming and speaking to mortal men]].
I understand the dumb man and I hear
Him that speaks not, and how great the whole height
From earth to heaven is, and the beginning
And end I know, who made the heavens and earth.
[[For all things have proceeded from Him, things
From the beginning to the end He knows.]]
For I alone am God and other God
There is not. They My image formed of wood
Treat as divine, and shaping it by hand
They sing their praises over idols dumb
With supplications and unholy rites.
Forsaking the Creator they were slaves
To lewdness. Men possessing everything
Bestow their gifts on things which cannot aid,
As if they for My honors deemed these things
All useful, with the smell of sacrifice
Filling the feast, as if for their own dead.
For they flesh and bones full of marrow burn
Offering on altars, and they pour out blood
To demons, and they kindle lights to Me
The giver of light, and as to a god
That thirsts do mortals drunken pour out wine
In vain to idols that can give no aid.
I have no need of your burnt offerings,
Nor your libations, nor polluted smoke,
Nor blood most hateful. For in memory
Of kings and tyrants they will do these things
To dead demons, as to heavenly beings,
Performing service godless and destructive.
And godless they their images call gods,
Forsaking the Creator, having faith
That from them they derive all hope and life,
Deaf and dumb, in the evil putting trust,
But they are wholly ignorant of good.
Two ways did I Myself before them set,
Of life and of death, and before them set
Judgment to choose good life; but they themselves
Hastened to death and to eternal fire.
Man is My image, having upright reason.
For him a table pure and without blood
Make ready and with good things fill it up,
And give the hungry bread, the thirsty drink,
And to the body that is naked clothes
From your own labors with unsullied hands
Providing. Recreate the afflicted man,
And help the weary, and provide for Me,
The living One, a living sacrifice
Sowing piety, that also I to you
Sometime may give immortal fruits, and light
Eternal you will have and fadeless life
When I will prove all by fire. For all things
I will fuse and will pick out what is pure;
Heaven will I roll up and the depths of earth
Lay open, and then will I raise the dead
Making an end of fate and sting of death,
And afterward for judgment will I come
Judging the manner both of pious men
And impious; I will set ram close to ram,
Shepherd to shepherd, calf to calf, for test,
Close to each other; whosoever were
Exalted, proven by trial, and who stopped
The mouth of everyone, that they themselves
Vying with them that lead a holy life
May likewise bring them into slavery,
Enjoining silence, urged by love of gain,
Not proved before Me, then will all withdraw.
No longer henceforth will you grieving say,
Tomorrow will be, nor, Yesterday has been;
Not many days of care, nor spring, nor winter,
Nor summer then, nor autumn, nor sunset
Nor sunrise; for a long day I will make.
And to ages there will be the light
Longed for of the great . . .”
[[Christ Jesus, of ages]] . . .
You who are self-begotten, undefiled,
True and eternal, measuring by Your power
From Heaven the fiery blast, and with rough torch
From clashing does the scepter keep, and calm
The crashings of the heavy-sounding thunders,
And driving earth into confusion do
Hold back the rushing noises. . . .
And the fire-blazing scourges You do blunt
Of lightnings, and the vast outpour of storms
And of autumnal hail, and chilling stroke
Of clouds and shock of winter. For of these
Each one indeed is marked out in Your mind,
Whatever seems good to Yourself to do
Your Son nods His assent to, having been
Begotten in Your bosom before all
Creation, fellow-counselor with You,
Former of mortals and creator of life.
Him with the first sweet utterance of mouth
You did address: “Behold, let Us make man
In a form altogether like Our own,
And let Us give him life-sustaining breath;
Him being yet mortal all things of the world
Will serve, and to him formed out of clay
We will subject all things.” And You did speak
These things by word, and all things came to pass
According to Your heart; and Your command
Together all the elements obeyed,
And an eternal creature was arranged
In mortal figure, also heavens, air, fire,
And earth and water of the sea, sun, moon,
Chorus of stars, hills . . .
Both night and day, sleeping and waking up,
Spirit and passion, soul and understanding,
Are, might and strength, and the wild tribes
Of living things both swimming things and birds,
And of those walking, and amphibia,
And those that creep and those of double nature;
For acting in accord with His own will
Under Your leading He arranged all things.
But in the latest times the earth He passed,
And coming late from the virgin Mary’s womb
A new light rose, and going forth from Heaven
Put on a mortal form. First then did Gabriel show
His strong pure form; and bearing his own news,
He next addressed the maiden with his voice:
“O virgin, in your bosom undefiled
Receive you God.” Thus speaking he inbreathed
God’s grace on the sweet maiden; and at once
Alarm and wonder seized her as she heard,
And she stood trembling; and her mind was wild
With flutter of excitement while at heart
She quivered at the unlooked-for things she heard.
But she again was gladdened and her heart
Was cheered by the voice, and the maiden laughed
And her cheek reddened with a sense of joy,
And spell-bound was her heart with sense of shame.
And confidence came to her. And the Word
Flew into the womb, and in course of time
Having become flesh and endued with life
Was made a human form and came to be
A Boy distinguished by His virgin birth;
For this was a great wonder to mankind,
But it was no great wonder to God
The Father, nor was it to God the Son.
And the glad earth received the newborn babe,
The heavenly throne laughed and the world rejoiced.
And the prophetic new-appearing star
Was honored by the wise men, and the babe
Born was shown in a manger to them
That obeyed God, and keepers of the herds,
And goatherds and to shepherds of the lambs;
And Bethlehem called by God the fatherland
Of the Word was chosen . . .
And in heart practice lowliness of mind
And cruel deeds hate, and your neighbor love
Wholly, even as yourself; and from your soul
Love God and do Him service. Therefore we
Sprung from the holy race of the heavenly Christ
Are called of common blood, and we restrain
In worship recollection of good cheer,
And walk the paths of piety and truth.
Not ever are we suffered to approach
The inmost sanctuary of the temples,
Nor pour libations to carved images,
Nor honor them with prayers, nor with the smells
Much-pleasing of flowers, nor with light of lamps,
Nor yet with shining votive offerings
Adorn them, nor with smoke of frankincense
That sends forth flame of altars; nor do you,
Adding to the sacrifice of bulls
And taking pleasure in defilement send
Blood of sheep-slaughtering outrage, thus to give
Ransom for penalty beneath the earth;
Nor by the smoke of flesh-consuming pyre
And odors foul pollute the light of the sky;
But joyful with pure minds and cheerful soul,
With love abounding and with generous hands,
With soothing psalms and songs that honor God,
We are commanded to sing praise to You,
The imperishable and without deceit,
All-father God, of understanding mind . . .
[Introduction, 1–6. From the Flood to the Tower of Babel, 7–22. Egyptian kings and judges, 23–40. The Exodus and giving of the Law, 41–47. A notable Egyptian king, 48–53. The Persian domination, 54–68. Woes of many nations, 69–89. Rule of the Indian prince, 90–105. The great Assyrian king Solomon, 106–123. Many and mighty kings, 124–136. Alexander’s fierce wars, 137–143. Origin of Rome, 144–160. The fall of Ilium, 161–189. Escape of Aeneas and founding of the Latin race, 190–216. The wise old minstrel, 217–227. Wars of the nations, 228–236. The terrible invader of Greece, 237–248. Philip of Macedon, 249–259. Alexander the Conqueror, 260–298. The kings of Egypt, 299–315. Egypt an asylum for the Jews, 316–320. The eight kings and treacherous queen of Egypt, 321–344. Reign of the Roman Caesars, 345–365. Fall of Cleopatra, 366–394. Subjection of Egypt, 395–416. The Sibyl’s testimony of herself, 417–429.]
O world of men wide-scattered, and long walls,
The cities huge and nations numberless,
Throughout the east and west and south and north,
Divided off by various languages
And kingdoms; other things, the very worst,
Against you I am now about to speak.
For from the time when on the earlier men
The Flood came and the Almighty One Himself
Destroyed that race by many waters, then
Brought He in yet another race of men
Untiring; and they, setting themselves up
Against Heaven, built to height unspeakable
A tower; and tongues of all were loosed again;
And on them hurled came wrath of God Most High,
By which the tower unutterably great
Fell; and against each other they stirred up
An evil strife. And then of mortal men
Was the tenth race since these things came to pass;
And the whole earth was among foreign men
And various languages distributed,
Whose numbers I will tell and in acrostics
Of the initial letter show the name.
And first will Egypt royal power receive
Preeminent and just; and then in her
Will many-counseling men be governors;
Moreover, then a fearful man will rule,
Close-fighter very strong; and he will have
This letter of the acrostic of his name:
Sword will he stretch out against pious men.
And while this one is ruler there will be
A fearful sign in the Egyptian land,
Which, gladdening very greatly, will with corn
Souls perishing with famine then supply;
The law-giver, himself a prisoner,
The East and offspring of Assyrian men
Will nourish; and his name know you . . .
. . . of the measure of the number ten.
But when there will come from the radiant Heaven
Ten strokes of judgment on Egypt, then
Will I again proclaim these things to you.
Memphis, woe, woe for you! Woe,
Great royal one! the Erythraean Sea
Will your much people utterly destroy.
Then when the people of twelve tribes will leave
The fruitful land of ruin by command
Of the Immortal, the Lord God Himself
Will also give a law to mankind.
And o’er the Hebrews then a mighty king
Magnanimous will rule, and have a name
Derived from sandy Egypt, Theban man
Of doubtful native land; and Memphis he,
Dread serpent, will show outward signs of love,
And he will watch o’er many things in wars.
Now the tenth kingdom being twelve times complete
Seven besides and even to the tenth hundred,
Others being altogether left behind,
Then will arise the Persian sovereignty.
And then calamity will befall the Jews,
Famine and pestilence intolerable
They do not make escape from in that day.
But when a Persian will rule, and a son
Of his son’s son will lay the scepter down,
While years roll round to five fours, and to these
A hundred more, and you a hundred nines
Will finish and all things will you repay;
And then to the Persians and the Medes
Will you be given over as a slave,
Destroyed with blows by reason of hard fights.
At once to Persians and Assyrians
And to all Egypt will an evil come,
And to Libya and the Ethiopians,
And to the Carians and Pamphylians
And to all other mortals. And he then
Will to the grandsons give the royal power,
Who again snatching the whole earth away
Will plunder races for their many spoils,
Not having fellow-feeling. Mournful dirges
Will the sad Persians by the Tigris wail,
And Egypt water many a land with tears.
And then to you, O Median land, a man
Of wealth abundant and of Indian birth
Will many evils do, till you repay
All things which you, possessed of shameless soul,
Have done before. Woe, woe for you,
You Median nation; you will afterward
Be servant to Ethiopian men
Beyond the land of Meroe; wretched you
Will from the first seven and a hundred years
Complete, and put your neck beneath the yoke.
And then an Indian of dark countenance
And gray hair and great soul will afterward
Become lord, who will many evils bring
On the East by reason of hard fights;
And he will treat you much more spitefully
And will destroy all your men. But when he
The twentieth and the tenth year will be king,
Among them, also seven and the tenth,
Then every nation of a royal power
Will be mad and declare their liberty,
And during three years leave their servile blood.
But he will come again and every nation
Of valiant men will put their neck again
Under the yoke, serve the king as before,
And of its own free will again obey.
There will be great peace throughout all the world.
And then o’er the Assyrians there will rule
A mighty king, a man preeminent,
And will persuade all to speak pleasing things,
Which God ordained according to the Law;
Then all kings arrogant with pointed spears
Timid and speechless will before him quail,
And him will very powerful rulers serve
Because of counsels of the mighty God;
For he will carry all things in detail
By reason, and all things will he subject,
And he the temple of the mighty God
And lovely altar will himself erect
In his might, and will hurl the idols down;
And gathering tribes together, both the race
Of fathers and the helpless little ones,
He will encompass the inhabitants;
His name will have two hundred for its number,
And of the eighteenth letter show the sign.
But when for rolling decades two and five
He will rule, going forwards toward the end
Of his time, there will be as many kings
As there are tribes of men, as there are clans,
As there are cities, and as isles and coasts,
And fields and lands that bring forth pleasant fruit.
But one of these will be a mighty king,
A leader among men; and many kings
Of lofty spirit will submit to him,
And to his sons and grandsons opulent
Give portions on account of royal power.
Decades of decades, eight ones on these
Of years will they rule, and at last will end.
But when with cruel Ares there will come
A powerful wild beast, even then for you,
O queenly land, will wrath spring forth again.
Woe, woe for you, then Persian land;
What an outpouring of the blood of men
Will you receive when that stronger-minded man
Comes to you; then I’ll shout these things again.
But when Italian soil will generate,
Great wonder to mortals, there will be
Moans of young children by a fountain pure,
In shady cavern offspring of wild beast
That feeds on sheep, who to manhood grown
Will on seven strong hills with reckless soul
Hurl many headlong down, in numbers both
Having a hundred, and their names will show
A great sign to them that are yet to be;
And they will build on the seven hills
Strong walls and wage around them grievous war.
And then again will there be growing up
Revolt of men around you, then great land
Of fine ears, high-souled Egypt; but again
I’ll cry these things. And yet then will receive
A great stroke in your houses; and again
Will there be a revolt of your own men.
Now over you, O wretched Phrygia,
I weep in pity; for to you from Greece,
Tamer of horses, there will conquest come
And war and plague by reason of hard fights.
Ilium, I pity you; for there will come
From Sparta an Erinys to your halls
Mixed with a deadly sting; and most of all
Will she bring you toils, troubles, groans, and wails,
When well-skilled men the battle will begin,
By far the noblest heroes of the Greeks
Who are to Ares dear. And one of these
Will be a strong brave king; of foulest deeds
He for his brother’s sake will go in quest.
And they will overthrow the famous walls
Of Phrygian Troy; when of the rolling years
Twice five will be filled with the bloody deeds
Of savage war, a wooden artifice
Will sudden cover men, and on your knees
You will receive this, not perceiving it
To be an ambush pregnant with the Greeks,
O cause of grievous woe. Woe, woe,
How much in one night Hades will receive,
And what spoils of the old man weeping much
Will he bear off! But with those yet to come
Will be undying fame. And the great king,
A hero sprung from Zeus, will have his name
Of the first letter of the alphabet;
Homewards will he in order go. And then
Will he fall by a treacherous woman’s hand.
And there will rule a child sprung from the race
And the blood of Assaracus, renowned
Of heroes, both a strong and valiant man.
And he will come out of the mighty fire
Of ravaged Troy, fleeing from fatherland
By reason of the fearful toil of war;
Bearing his aged father on his shoulders
And also holding his son by the hand
He will perform a pious work of law,
Who, looking cautiously around him, cleft
The onset of the fire of burning Troy,
And hurrying through the multitude in dread
He will pass over land and fearful sea.
And he will have a trisyllabic name,
For the beginning of the alphabet
Points out this highest man as not unknown.
And then a city for the powerful Latins
He will raise up. And in his fifteenth year,
Destroyed by waters in the depths of sea,
Will he lay hold on the event of death.
But him though dead the nations of mankind
Will not forget; for his race over all
Will rule hereafter even to Euphrates
And River Tigris, throughout the middle land
Of the Assyrians, where the Parthians
Extended. For those who are yet to come
It will be, when all these things come to pass.
And there will be an old man, minstrel wise,
Whom all will among mortals call most wise,
By whose good understanding the whole world
Will be instructed; for his chapters he
According to their power of thoughts will write.
And wisely will he write most marvelous things,
At times appropriating words of my
Measures and verses; for he will the first
My books unfold and after these things bide them
And to men bring them to light no more
Until the end of baneful death and life.
But when quickly these things have been fulfilled
Which I spoke, yet again the Greeks will fight
With one another; and Assyrians,
Arabians and the quiver-bearing Medes,
And Persians and Sicilians will rise up,
And Lydians, Thracians and Bithynians,
And they who dwell in the land of fair corn
Beside the streams of Nile; and among all
Will God the imperishable put at once
Confusion. But exceedingly terrible
Will an Assyrian base-born fiery man
Come suddenly, possessed of beastly soul,
And looking cautiously around him cut
Through every isthmus, going against all,
And sailing o’er the sea. Then, faithless Greece,
To you will happen very many things.
Woe, woe for you, O wretched Greece,
How many things you are obliged to wail!
And during seven and eighty rolling years
You will the miserable refuse be
Of fearful battle among all the tribes.
Then will a Macedonian man again
Bring forth for Hellas woe and will destroy
All Thrace, and toil of Ares on the isles
And coasts and the war-loving Triballi.
He will among the foremost fighters be,
And he will share that name which shows the sign
Of numbers ten times fifty. And short-lived
Will he be; but behind him he will leave
The greatest kingdom on the boundless earth.
But by base spearman he himself will fall
While thought to live in quiet as none else.
And afterward will a great-hearted child
Of this one rule, beginning with his name
The alphabet; but his race will pass out.
Not of Zeus, not of Amnion will they call
This one true son, yet still a bastard son
Of Kronos as they all imagine him.
And cities he of many mortal men
Will plunder; and for Europe will shoot up
The greatest sore. And also terribly
Will he abuse the city Babylon,
And every land the sun looks down on,
And he alone will sail both east and west.
Woe, woe for you, O Babylon,
You will serve triumphs, who were called a queen;
Down on Asia Ares comes, he comes
Surely and will your many children slay.
And then will you send forth your royal man
Named by the number four, expert with spear
Among the mighty warriors, terrible,
Shooting with bow and arrow. And then famine
And war will hold possession of the midst
Of the Cilicians and Assyrians;
But kings of lofty spirit will embrace
The dreadful state of heart-consuming strife.
But you, fleeing, leaving the former king,
Be neither willing to remain nor fear
To be unhappy; for on you will come
A dreadful lion, a flesh-eating beast,
Wild, strange to justice, wearing on his shoulders
A mantle. Flee the thunder-striking man.
And Asia all will bear an evil yoke,
And many a murder will the wet earth drink.
But when a mighty city prosperous
Ares of Pella will in Egypt found,
And it will be named from him, fate and death,
By his companions treacherously betrayed
For barbarous murder will destroy this man
Around the tables when he will have left
The Indians and will come to Babylon.
Thereafter other kings, in a few years,
Devourers of the people, arrogant
And faithless, will rule each by his own tribe;
But a great-hearted hero, who will glean
All fenced Europe, from the time each land
Will drink the blood of all tribes, will quickly
Abandon life, unloosing his own fate.
And other kings there will be, twice four men
Of his race, and the same name to them all.
And there will be a bride of Egypt then
Commanding and a noble city great
Of Macedonian lord, Queen Alexandria,
Famed nourisher of cities, shining fair
She alone will be the metropolis.
Let Memphis then upbraid them that command.
And peace will be deep throughout all the world;
Then will the land of black soil have more fruits.
And then there will come evil to the Jews,
Nor will they in that day make their escape
From famine and intolerable plague;
But the new world of black soil and fair corn,
Divine land, will receive much-wandering men.
But marshy Egypt’s eight kings will fill up
The numbers of two hundred years and three
And thirty. Yet will offspring perish not
Of all of them, but there will issue forth
A female root, a bane of mortal men,
Betrayer of her kingdom. But they will
According to their evil deeds perform
Their wickedness thereafter, and one here
Another there will perish; son that wears
The purple will cut off his warlike sire,
And he himself in turn by his own son,
And ere he will put forth another shoot—
He will cease; but a root will sprout again
Thereafter of itself; and there will be
A race beside him growing. For a queen
There will be of the land by Nilus’ streams
Which comes down through seven mouths into the sea,
And her name very lovely will be that
Of the number twenty; and she will demand
Numberless things and gather up all goods
Of gold and silver; but from her own men
Will treachery befall her. Then again
For you, O dusky land, will there be wars
And battles and great slaughter of mankind.
When many over fertile Rome will rule,
Examples not at all of happy men,
But tyrants, and there be of thousands chiefs
And of ten thousands, and the overseers
Of popular assemblies under law,
Then will the mightiest Caesars bear the rule
Ill-fated all their days; and of these last
Will for initial have the number ten,
Last Caesar stretching on the earth his limbs,
Struck by dire Ares by a hostile man,
Whom carrying in their hands the youth of Rome
Will bury piously, and over him
Pour out their token for his friendship’s sake
Rendering a tribute to his memory.
But when you will come to an end of time
And have completed twice three hundred years
And twice ten, from the time when he will rule
Who is your founder, child of the wild beast,
There will no longer a dictator be
Ruling a measured period; but a lord
Will become king, man equal to the gods.
Then, Egypt, know the king that comes to you;
And dreadful Ares of the glittering helm
Will surely come. For there will be for you,
O widowed one, a capture afterward;
For round the walls of your land there will be
Terrible raging mischief-working wars.
But having suffered misery in wars
You, wretched, will yourself flee from above
Those lately wounded; and then to the couch
Will you come to the dreadful man himself;
The wedlock, sharing one bed, is the end.
Woe, woe for you, ill-wedded bride,
Your royal power to the Roman king
Will you give, and you will repay all things,
Which you formerly did with masculine hands;
You will give the whole land by way of dower
As far as Libya and the dark-skinned men
To the resistless man. And you will be
No more a widow, but you will cohabit
With a man-eating lion terrible,
A furious warrior. And then will you be
Unhappy and among all men unknown;
For you will leave possessed of shameless soul;
And you, the stately, will the encircling tomb
Receive . . . is gone . . . living within . . .
Adapted at the summits, beautiful,
Worked curiously, and a great multitude
Will mourn you and the dreadful king will make
A piteous lamentation over you.
And then will Egypt be the toiling slave
Who many years against the Indians bears
Her trophies; and she will serve shamefully,
And with the river, the fruit-bearing Nile,
her tears, for haying gathered wealth
And store of all good things, a nourisher
Of cities, she will feed sheep-eating race
Of fearful men. All, to how many beasts,
O very wealthy Egypt, you will be
Booty and spoil, but giving peoples laws;
And formerly delighting in great kings
You will to peoples be a wretched slave
On account of that people, whom of old
Piously living you led to much woe
Of toils and wailings, and did put a plow
On their neck and irrigate the fields
With mortal tears. Therefore, the Lord Himself,
The imperishable God who dwells in Heaven,
Will utterly destroy and send you on
To wailing; and you will make recompense
For what you did unlawfully of old,
And know at last that God’s wrath came to you.
But I to Python and to Panopeus
Of pleasant towers will go; and then will all
Declare that I am a true prophetess—
Oracle-singing, yet a messenger
With maddened soul . . .
And when you will come forward to the books
You will not tremble, and all things to come
And things that were you will know from our words;
Then none will call the God-seized prophetess
An oracle-singer of necessity.
But now, Lord, end my very lovely strain,
Driving off frenzy and real voice inspired
And fearful madness, and give charming song.
[Introduction, 1, 2. The first Caesars, 3–46. The mighty warrior, 47–61. The guileful king, 62–87. The king of wide sway, 88–100. The dreadful and contemptible king, 101–125. The three kings, 126–130. The royal destroyer of pious men, 131–153. The princes famed for filial devotion, 154–161. The peaceful king, 162–183. The venerable king, 184–189. Another warrior king, 190–204. The Celtic warrior, 205–210. The king with the name of a sea, 211–227. The three rulers, 228–242. The wise and pious king, 243–270. The king that sought to rival Hercules, 271–289. Period of Roman dominion, 290–303. The twentieth king, 303–314. The short-lived king, 315–320. The ruler from the East, 321–328. The crafty ruler from the West, 329–344. The youthful Caesar, 345–354. A time of woes, 356–368. Only those who honor God attain happiness, 369–373. The Sibyl’s prayer, 374–382.]
But come now, hear of me the mournful time
Of sons of Latium; and first of all
After the kings of Egypt were destroyed,
And the like earth had downwards borne them all,
And after Pella’s townsman, under whom
The whole East and the rich West were cast down,
Whom Babylon dishonored, and stretched out
For Philip a dead body (not of Zeus,
Of Ammon not true things were prophesied),
And after that one of the race and blood
Of King Assaracus, who came from Troy,
Even he who cleft the violence of fire,
And after many lords, and after men
To Ares dear, and after the young babes,
The children of the beast that feeds on sheep,
And after the passing of six hundred years
And decades two of Rome’s dictatorship,
The very first lord, from the western sea,
Will be of Rome the ruler, very strong
And warlike, the initial of whose name
Begins the letters, and fast binding you,
O you of abundant fruit, he will be full
Of man-destroying Ares; you will pay
The outrage which you, willing, did force on;
For he, great soul, will be the best in wars;
Before him Thrace and Sicily will crouch,
With Memphis, Memphis cast headlong to earth
By reason of the wickedness of rulers
And of a woman unenslaved who falls
Under the spear. And laws will he ordain
For peoples and put all things under him;
Having great fame, he will wield scepter long;
For no short time will he last nor will ever
Be other greater scepter-bearing king
Than this one, o’er the Romans, not one hour,
For God did lavish all things on him,
And also in the noble earth he showed
Great marvelous seasons, and with them showed signs.
But when a radiant star all like the sun
Will shine forth out of the sky in the middays,
Then will the secret Word of the Most High
Come clothed in flesh like mortals; but with Him
The might of Rome and of the illustrious Latins
Will increase. But the mighty king himself
Will under his appointed lot expire,
Transmitting to another royal power.
But after him a man, a warrior strong,
Wearing the purple mantle on his shoulders,
Will bear rule, and with his initial be
Numbers three hundred, and he will destroy
The Medes and arrow-hurling Parthians;
And he himself by his power will subvert
The high-gate city; and again will come
Evil to Egypt and the Assyrians,
And to the Colchian Heniochi,
And to those by the waters of the Rhine,
The Germans dwelling o’er the sandy shores.
And he himself will ravage afterward
The high-gate city near Eridanus
Which is devising evils. And then he
Will quickly fall down, struck by gleaming iron.
And afterward will rule another man
Weaving guile, and the initial of his name
Will show the number three; and he much gold
Will gather; and with him there will not be
Satiety of wealth, but plundering more
Recklessly he’ll put all things in the earth.
But peace will come, and Ares will desist
From wars; and he will make known many things
In divination of the greatest things,
Inquiring for the sake of means of life;
Yet there will be on him the greatest sign:
From the sky down on the king while perishing
There will flow many little drops of blood.
And many lawless things will he perform,
And put around the neck of Romans pain
Trusting in divination; and the heads
Of the assembly he will also slay.
And famine will seize Cappadocians,
And Thracians, Macedonians, and Italians.
And Egypt will alone feed numerous tribes;
And the king himself beguiling secretly
Will craftily destroy the virgin maid;
But her the citizens in tearful grief
Will bury; and against the king they all
Holding wrath will abuse him craftily.
While strong Rome blossoms, the strong man will perish.
And again, there will rule another lord
Of the number of twice ten; and then will come
To the Sauromatians and to Thrace
And the Triballi, famed for hurling darts,
Wars and sad cares; and Roman Ares will
Tear all in pieces. And a fearful sign
Will there be when this man will rule the land
Of the Italians and Pannonians;
And there will be at the mid hour of day
Dark night around them and then from the heavens
A shower of stones; and thereon the lord
And vigorous judge of the Italians
Will go in Hades’ halls by his own fate.
Again, another fearful man will come
And dreadful, numbering fifty; and from all
The cities many noblest citizens
Born to wealth he will utterly destroy,
A dreadful serpent breathing grievous war,
Who sometime stretching forth his hands will make
An end of his own race and stir all things,
Acting the athlete, driving chariots,
Putting to death and daring countless things;
And he will cleave the mountain of two seas,
And sprinkle it with gore. And out of sight
Will also vanish the destructive man;
Then making himself equal to God
Will he return, but God will prove him nothing.
And while he rules there will be peace profound
And not the fears of men; and from the ocean
Flowing, and cleaving by Ausonia,
Will come untrodden water; and around
Looking with anxious care he will appoint
His very many contests for the people,
And he himself an actor will contend
With voice and cithara, and sing a song
Along with harp-string; later he will flee
And leave the royal power, and perishing
Gravely will he repay the harm he worked.
After him three will rule and two of them
Will have the number seventy by their names,
And in addition to these will be one
Of the third letter; and one here, one there,
Will perish by strong Ares’ sturdy hands.
Then will a mighty ruler of men come,
Destroyer of the pious, strong-minded man,
Spear-wielding Ares, whom seven times the tenth
Will point out clearly; he will overthrow
Phoenicia and destroy Assyria.
A sword will come on the sacred land
Of Solyma even to the utmost bend
Of the Tiberian Sea. Woe, woe,
Phoenicia, O how much will you endure,
Grief-laden with your trophies tightly bound,
And every nation will on you tread.
Woe, woe! Over to the Assyrians
Will you come and will see young children serve
Among unfriendly men and with the wives,
And every means of life and wealth will perish;
For on you God’s wrath causing grievous woe
Will come, because they did not keep His law,
But served all idols with unseemly arts.
And many wars and fights and homicides,
Famines, and pestilences, and confusion
Of cities will be. But the reverend king
Of mighty soul will at the end of life
Himself fall by a strong necessity.
Then will two other chief men, cherishing
The memory of their father, great king, rule,
And in contending warriors glory much.
And [one] of these will be a noble man
And lordly, whose name will three hundred hold;
Yet he will also fall by treachery,
Not in the warring companies stretched out,
But struck in Rome’s plain by the two-edged brass.
And after him a powerful warlike man
Of the letter four will rule the mighty realm,
Whom all men on the boundless earth will love,
And then will there be over all the world
A rest from war. Yet all, from west to east,
Will serve him willingly, not by constraint,
And cities will be under his control
And of themselves be subject. For to him
Will heavenly Hosts much glory bring,
The imperishable God who dwells on high.
And then will famine waste Pannonia
And all the Celtic land, and will destroy
One here, another there. And there will be
For the Assyrians, whom Orontes leaves,
Structures and ornament and what may seem
Yet greater anywhere. And the great king
Will have a fondness for these and love them
Above the others far (and there are many);
But he himself will in mid breast receive
A great wound, and seized at the end of life
Craftily, by a friend, in holy house
Of the great royal hall will he fall down
Wounded; and after him will be a ruler
Numbering fifty, venerable man,
Who above measure will destroy from Rome
Many inhabitants and citizens;
But he will rule few; for in Hades’ halls
For a former king’s sake he will wounded go.
But then another king, a warrior strong,
Who has three hundred for initial sign,
Will bear rule and lay waste the Thracians’ land
Which is much varied, and he will destroy
The powerful Germans dwelling by the Rhine
And the Iberians that shoot the arrow.
Moreover, there will be to the Jews
Another greatest evil, and with them
Bedewed with murder will Phoenicia drink;
And the walls of the Assyrians will fall
By many warriors. And again, a man
Destroying life will waste them utterly.
And then will threatenings of the mighty God,
Earthquakes, and great plagues be on every land,
Untimely snow-storms, and strong thunderbolts.
And then the great king, mountain-roaming Celt,
Will for the toil of Ares not escape
A fate unseemly, hastening eagerly
After the strife of battle, but worn out
Will he be; foreign dust will hide his corpse,
But dust that of Nemea’s flower has name.
And after him another will arise,
A silver-headed man, and of the sea
Will be his name, and of four syllables,
Ares himself first of the alphabet
Presenting. Temples he will dedicate
In all the cities, watching o’er the world
By his own foot, and bringing gifts away,
Both gold and amber much will he supply
For many; and magicians’ mysteries
All will he from the sanctuaries keep;
And what is much more excellent for men
Will he place . . . ruling . . . thunderbolt;
And great peace will be when he will be lord;
And he will be a minstrel of rich voice
And a participant in lawful things,
And a just minister of what is right;
But he will fall, unloosing his own fate.
After him three will rule, and the third late
Will rule, three decades keeping; yet again
Of the first unit will another king
Bear the rule; and another after him
Will be commander, of tens numbering seven;
And their names will be honored; and they will
Themselves destroy men marked by many a spot,
Britons and mighty Moors and Dacians
And the Arabians. But when the last
Of these will perish, fearful Ares then,
He that before was wounded, will again
Against the Parthians come, and utterly
Will he destroy them. And then will the king
Himself fall by a treacherous wild beast
Training his hands—excuse itself of death.
And after him another man will rule,
In many wise things skilled, and he will have
Himself the name of the first mighty king
Of the first unit; and he will be good
And mighty; and for the illustrious Latins
Will this strong one accomplish many things
In memory of his father; and at once
Will he adorn the walls of Rome with gold
And silver and ivory; and he will go
Within the marketplaces and the temples
With a strong man. And sometime direst wound
Will shoot up like ears in the Roman wars;
And he will sack the whole land of the Germans,
When a great sign of God will be displayed
From the sky, and will for the king’s piety
Save men in brazen armor and distress;
For God who is in Heaven and hears all things
Will wet him with unseasonable rain
When he prays. But when these things are fulfilled
Of which I spoke, then with the rolling years
Will also the renowned dominion cease
Of the great pious king; and at the end
Of his life, having then proclaimed his son
Succeeding to the kingdom, he will die
By his own lot and leave the royal power
To the ruler with the golden hair,
Who with two tens in his name, born a king
From the race of his father, will receive
Dominion. This man with superior powers
Of mind will grasp all things; and he will rival
Great-hearted overweening Hercules,
And be the best in mighty arms and have
The greatest fame in chase and horsemanship;
But he will live in peril all alone.
And while this man is ruler there will be
A fearful sign: there will be a great mist
Then in the plain of Rome, so that a man
May not discern his neighbor. And then wars
Will come to pass along with mournful cares,
When the king himself, overly mad with love,
And weakly, will come in the marriage-bed
Shaming his youthful offspring, infamous
For inconsiderate wedding-songs impure.
And then, in helpless loneliness concealed,
The mighty baneful man held under wrath
Will in a bathhouse suffer evil plight,
Manslaying Ares bound by treacherous fate.
Know then the fatal lot of Rome is near
Because of zeal for power; and by the hands
Of Ares many in Palladian halls
Will perish. And then Rome will be bereft
And will repay all things, which she alone
Before accomplished by her many wars.
My heart laments, my heart within me mourns;
For from the time when your first king, proud Rome,
Gave good law to you and to men on earth,
And the Word of the great immortal God
Came to the earth, until the nineteenth reign
Will have been finished, Kronos will complete
Two hundred years, twice twenty and twice two,
With six months added; then the twentieth king,
When stricken with sharp brass he with the sword
Will in your houses pour out blood, will make
Your race a widow, having in his name
The letter which the number eighty shows,
And burdened with old age; but he will make
A widow of you in a little time,
When many warriors, many overthrows,
And murders, homicides, and deadly feuds
And miseries of conquests there will be,
And in confusion many a horse and man
Will, cleft by force of hands, fall in the plain.
And then another man will rule, and have
The sign of his name in the number ten;
And many sorrows will he bring to pass,
And groans, and he will plunder many men;
But he himself will be short-lived and fall
By mighty Ares, struck by gleaming iron.
Another, numbering fifty, then will come,
A warrior roused up by the East for rule;
A warlike Ares he will come to Thrace;
And he will flee thereafter and will come
Into the land of the Bithynians
And the Cilician plain; but brazen Ares
The life-destroyer will with speedy stroke
Utterly spoil him in the Assyrian fields.
And then again there will rule craftily
A man skilled in fraud, full of various wiles,
Roused up by the West, and his name will have
The number of two hundred. And again
Another sign: he will contrive a war
For royal power against Assyrian men,
Raise a whole army and subject all things.
And he will rule the Romans with his might;
But there is much contrivance in his heart,
Impulse of baleful Ares; serpent dire,
And violent in war, who will [then] destroy
All high-born men on the earth, and slay
The noble for their wealth, and, robber-like,
Stripping all earth while men are perishing,
He will go to the East; and all deceit
Will be to him . . .
Then will a youthful Caesar reign with him,
Having the name of a potent lord
Of Macedon, by the first letter known;
Bringing in broils around him he will flee
The hard deception of the coming king
In the bosom of the army; but the one
Who rules by his barbaric usages,
A temple-guard, will perish suddenly,
Slain by strong Ares with the gleaming iron;
Him even dead will people tear in pieces.
And then the kings of Persia will rise up;
And . . . Roman Ares Roman lord.
And Phrygia will with earthquakes groan again
Wretched. Woe, woe, Laodicea;
Woe, woe, sad Hierapolis;
For you first once the yawning earth received.
Of Rome . . . immense Aus . . .
All things as many . . .
Will wail . . . while men are perishing
In the hands of Ares; and the lot of men
Will be bad; but then by the eastern way
Hastening to look down on Italy,
Stripped naked he will fall by gleaming iron,
Acquiring hatred for his mother’s sake.
For seasons are of all sorts; each holds back
The other . . . gleaming and this not at once all know;
For all things will not be [the lot] of all,
But only those will be for happiness
Who honor God and shun idolatry.
And now, Lord of the world, of every realm
Unfeigned immortal King—for You did put
Into my heart the oracle divine—
Make the word now cease; for I do not know
What things I say; for You are in me He
That speaks all these things. Now let me rest
A little and put from my heart aside
The charming song; for weary is my heart
Foretelling with divine words royal power.
[Introduction, 1–8. A time of wars and woes, 9–16. Persian insurrection and the Roman soldier king, 17–28. The warrior out of Syria and his son, 29–47. Persian war and the grain-producing land of Nile, 48–65. Another song for Alexandrians announced, 66–71. Wrath on Assyrians and Aegeans, 72–78. Wretched Antioch, 79–84. Cities of Arabia admonished, 85–97. Wars and treachery, 98–106. Roman ruler from Dacia, 107–116. The Syrian robber, 117–135. The Gallic king and dreadful woes, 136–156. Wretched Syria, 157–165. Wretched Antioch, 165–171. Woes on many cities of Asia, 172–189. Murders and wars, 190–208. Allegory of the bull, dragon, stag, lion, and goat, 209–230. Prayer of the Sibyl, 231–232.]
Great word divine He bids me sing again—
The immortal holy God imperishable,
Who gives to kings their power and takes away,
And who determined for them time both ways,
Both that of life and that of baneful death.
And these the heavenly God enjoins on me,
Unwilling to bring tidings to kings
Concerning royal power . . .
And spear impetuous Ares; and by him
All perish, child and the old man who gives
To the assemblies laws; and many wars
And battles there will be, and homicides,
Famines and pestilences, earthquake-shocks
And mighty thunderbolts, and many ways
Of the Assyrians over all the world,
And pillaging and robbery of temples.
And then an insurrection there will be
Of the industrious Persians, and with them
Indians, Armenians, and Arabians;
And to these again a Roman king
Insatiate in war and leading on
His spearmen against the Assyrians
Will draw near, a young Ares, and as far
As the deep-flowing silvery Euphrates
Will warlike Ares stretch his deadly spear
Because of . . .
For by his friend betrayed he will fall down
In the ranks stricken by the gleaming iron.
And at once coming out of Syria
There will a purple-loving warrior rule,
Terror of Ares, and also his son,
A Caesar, will even all the earth oppress;
And the one name is to both of them:
On first and twentieth there are to be placed
Five hundred. But when these in wars will rule,
And laws will be enacted, there will be
A little rest from war, not for a long time;
But when a wolf will to a flock of sheep
Pledge solemn oaths against the white-toothed dogs,
Then, having misled, he will tear in pieces
The woolly sheep, and cast his oaths aside;
And then will there be an unlawful strife
Of haughty kings in wars, and Syrians
Will perish terribly, and Indians
And the Armenians and Arabians,
The Persians and the Babylonians
Will one another by hard fights destroy.
But when a Roman Ares will destroy
A German Ares ruinous of life
Triumphing on the ocean, then is war
Of many years for haughty Persian men,
But for them there will not be victory;
For as a fish swims not on the point
Of a high many-ridged and windy rock
Precipitant, nor does a tortoise fly,
Nor does an eagle into water come,
So also are the Persians in that day
Far off from victory, while the fond nurse
Of the Italians, in the plain of Nile
Reposing by the sacred water’s side,
Sends forth the appointed lot to seven-hilled Rome.
Now these things are; and while the name of Rome
Will hold in numbers of revolving time,
So many years will the great noble city
Of Macedon’s lord, willing, deal out corn.
Another much-distressing pain I’ll sing
For Alexandrians who are destroyed
By reason of the strife of shameful men.
Strong men who were formerly terrible
Being then impotent will pray for peace
By reason of the wickedness of chiefs.
And there will come wrath of the mighty God
On the Assyrians and a mountain stream
Will utterly destroy them, which will come
To Caesar’s city and harm Canaanites.
The Pyramus will irrigate the city
Of Mopsus; then will the Aegaeans fall
Because of strife of very mighty men.
You, wretched Antioch, will Ares strong
Leave not when round you an Assyrian war
Is pressing, for a chief of men will dwell
Within your houses who will fight with all
The arrow-hurling Persians, he himself
Having obtained of Romans royal power.
Now, cities of Arabians, deck yourselves
With temples and with places for the race,
And with broad markets and with splendid wealth,
With images, gold, silver, ivory;
And you who are of all most fond of learning,
Bostra and Philippopolis, that you may come
Into great sorrow; and the laughing spheres
Of the zodiacal vault, Aries,
Taurus, and Gemini, and as many stars
Ruling hours as with them in the sky appear
Will benefit you not; you, wretched one,
Have trusted many when that very man
Will afterward bring near that which is yours.
And now for Alexandrians loving war
Will I sing wars most dreadful; and much people
Will perish while their cities are destroyed
By citizens against each other matched
And fighting for the sake of hateful strife,
And round them horrid Ares, rushing on,
Will cease from war. And then one of great soul
Along with his own mighty son will fall
By treachery on the older king’s account.
And after him there will rule powerfully
O’er fertile Rome another great-souled lord
Versed in war, coming from the Dacians
And numbering three hundred; he will have
Also the letter of the number four,
And many will he slay, and then the king
Will all his brothers and his friends destroy
Even while the kings are cut off, and at once
Will there be fights and pillagings and murders
Suddenly on the older king’s account.
Then, when a cunning man will summoned come,
A robber and a Roman not well known
From Syria appearing, he by guile
Into a race of Cappadocian men
Will drive through and, besieging, will press hard,
Insatiate of war. And then for you,
Tyana and Mazaka, there will be
A capture; you will be enslaved and put
On your neck again a fearful yoke.
Arid Syria will mourn for men destroyed
And then Selenian goddess will not guard
Her holy city. But when he by flight
From Syria will before the Romans come,
And will pass over the Euphrates’ streams,
No longer like the Romans, but like fierce
Dart-shooting Persians, then, fulfilling fate,
Down will the ruler of the Italians fall
In the ranks stricken by the gleaming iron;
And close on him will his children perish.
But when another king of Rome will reign,
Then also to the Romans there will come
Unstable nations, on the walls of Rome
Destructive Ares with his bastard son;
Then also will be famines, pestilence,
And mighty thunderbolts, and dreadful wars,
And anarchy in cities suddenly;
And the Syrians will perish fearfully;
For there will come on them the great wrath
Of the Most High and promptly an uprising
of the industrious Persians, and mixed up
With Persians will the Syrians destroy
The Romans, but by the divine decree
They will not make a conquest of their laws.
Woe, how many with their goods will flee
From the East to men of other tongues!
Woe, the dark blood of how many men
The land will drink! For that will be a time
In which the living uttering o’er the dead
A blessing will by word of mouth pronounce
Death beautiful and death will flee from them.
And now for you, O wretched Syria,
I weep in sorrow; for to you will come
A dreadful blow from arrow-shooting men,
Which you did never think would come to you.
Also, the fugitive of Rome will come
Bearing a great spear, Crossing on his way
Euphrates with his many myriads,
And he will burn you, and dispose all things
In a bad way. O wretched Antioch,
And you a city they will never call,
When by your lack of prudence you will fall
Under the spears; and stripping off all things
And making naked, he will leave you thus
Coverless, homeless; and when anyone
Sees he will immediately weep for you.
And you will be, O Hierapolis,
A triumph, also you, Beroea; weep
At Chalcis over lately wounded sons.
Woe, how many by the steep high mount
Of Casius will dwell and by Amanus
How many, and how many Lycus leaves,
And Marsyas as many and Pyramus
The silver-eddying; for even to the bounds
Of Asia they will treasure up their spoils,
Make cities naked, and bear idols off
And cast down temples on much-nourishing earth.
And sometime to Gauls and Pannonians,
To Mysians and Bithynians there will be
Great sorrow when a warrior will have come.
O Lycians, Lycians, there will come a wolf
To lick your blood, when Sannians will come
With city-wasting Ares and the Carpians
Will draw near with Ausonians to fight.
And then by his own shameless recklessness
The bastard son will put the king to death,
And he himself for his impiety
Will promptly perish. And again will rule
After him yet another whose name shows
First letter; but he too will quickly fall
By mighty Ares, struck by gleaming iron.
And yet again the world will be confused,
Men perishing by pestilence and war.
And the Persians maddened by the Ausonians
Will in the toil of Ares yet again
Force their way. And then there will be a flight
Of Romans; and thereafter there will come
The priest heard of all around, sent by the sun,
From Syria appearing and by guile
Will he accomplish all things. And then too
The city of the sun will offer prayer;
And all around her will the Persians dare
The fearful threatenings of the Phoenicians.
But when two chiefs, men swift in war, will rule
The very mighty Romans, one of whom
Will have the number seventy, and the other
The number three, even then the stately bull,
That digs the earth with his hoofs and stirs up
The dust with his two horns, will many ills
On a dark-skinned reptile perpetrate—
Which draws a trail with his scales; and besides,
Himself will perish. And yet after him
Again will come another fair-horned stag,
Hungry on the mountains, striving hard
To feed on the venom-shedding beasts
Then will a dread and fearful lion come,
Sent from the sun and breathing forth much flame.
And then too by his shameless recklessness
Will he destroy the well-horned rapid stag,
And the mightiest venom-shedding beast
So dread, that sends forth many piping sounds,
And the male goat that sideways moves along,
And after him fame follows; he himself
Sound, unhurt, unapproachable, will rule
The Romans, and the Persians will be weak.
But, Lord, King of the world, O God, restrain
The song of our words and give charming song.
[Warning against the lust of power, 1–14. The bull-destroyer, 16–22. The man known by the number one, 23–27. Two rulers of the number forty, 28–34. Young ruler of the number seventy, 115–55. Ruler of the number forty, 66–61. Wolf from the West, 62–65. Ruler known by the letter A, 66–73. Three kings of haughty soul, of the numbers one, thirty, and three hundred, 74–93. King known by the number three, 94–98. The old king of the number four, 99–101. Wars and woes on various peoples, 102–120. The venerable king of the number five, 121–134. Two kings of the numbers three hundred and three, 115–147. The king of many schemes, 148–159. King of the number three hundred, 160–172. King like a wild beast, of the number thirty, 173–188. Ruler of the number four, 189–200. A great sign from Heaven, 201–205. Ruler out of Asia, of the number fifty, 206–216. Ruler out of Egypt, 217–223. The man of potent signs and the peaceful king of the number five, 224–245. Many tyrants and the holy king known by the letter A, 246–261. Burning and restoration of Rome, 262–271. Woe for various Greeks, 272–278. The fratricide, 279–283. The fierce king of the number eighty and the terrors of his time, 284–508. Many obtain royal power, 309–312. Three kings and their destruction, 313–329. Many spearmen, 330–335. God’s judgment on the shameless, 336–343. Rome’s wretched plight and the last race of Latin kings, 344–358. Egypt and her prudent king, 359–375. The Alexandrians, 376–381. Fearful nameless woe, 382–398. The Sicilians, 399–406. The lion and lioness, 407–418. The dragon and the ram, 419–425. Second war in Egypt, 426–433. Destructive slaughter, 434–447. The Messianic era, 448–468.]
O men, why do you vainly think on things
Too lofty, as if you were immortal?
And you are ruling but a little time,
And over mortals all desire to reign,
Not understanding that God Himself hates
The lust of rule, and most of all things hates
Insatiate kings fearful in wickedness,
And over them He stirs up what is dark;
Therefore, instead of good works and just thoughts,
You all choose for your garments purple robes,
Desiring wretched fights and homicides!
Them God imperishable who dwells in Heaven
Will make short-lived, destroy them utterly,
And overthrow one here, another there.
But when there will a bull-destroyer come
Trusting in his own might, thick-haired and grim,
And will destroy all, he will also tear
Shepherds in pieces, and no victory
Will be theirs unless soon, with speed of feet
Pursuing eagerly through wooded glens,
Young dogs will meet in conflict; for a dog
Pursued the lion which destroys the shepherds.
And then there will be a lord confident
In his might, and named with four syllables,
And shown forth clearly from the number one;
But him will brazen Ares quickly slay
Because of conflict with insatiate men.
Then will two other princely men bear rule,
Both of the number forty; and with them
Will great peace be in the world and to all
The people law and right; but them in turn
Will men with gleaming helmet, needing gold
And silver, impiously put to death
For these things, catching them by their deft plans.
And then again a dreadful lord will rule,
Young, fighting hand to hand, whose name will show
The number seventy, life-destroying, fierce,
Who to the army basely will betray
The people of Rome, slain by wickedness
Because of wrath of kings, and he will hurl
Down every city and hut of the Latins.
And Rome is no more to be seen or heard,
Such as of late another traveler saw;
For all these things will in the ashes lie,
Nor will there be a sparing of her works;
For vengeful He Himself will come from Heaven,
God the immortal from the sky will send
Lightnings and thunderbolts on mankind;
And some He will destroy by lightnings burned,
And others with His mighty thunderbolts.
And Rome’s strong children and the famous Latins
Will then the shameless dreadful ruler slay.
Around him dead the dust will not lie light,
But he will be a sport for dogs and birds
And wolves, for he a martial people spoiled.
After him, numbering forty, there will rule
Another, famous Parthian-destroyer,
German-destroyer, putting down dread beasts
That kill men, which on the ocean’s streams
And the Euphrates press constantly on.
And then will Rome again be as before.
But when there comes a great wolf in your plains,
A ruler marching onward from the West,
Then will he under powerful Ares die,
Being cleft asunder by the piercing brass.
And o’er the very mighty Romans then
Will there rule yet again another man
Of great heart, from Assyria brought to light,
Of the first letter, and he will himself
By means of wars put all things under him,
And by his armies at once power display
And lay down laws; but him will brazen Ares
Quickly destroy by treacherous armies falling.
After him three of haughty heart will rule,
One having the first number, one three tens,
And the other with three hundred will partake,
Cruel, who gold and silver in much fire
Will melt in statues of gods made with hands,
And to the armies they, equipped for war,
Will, for the sake of victory, moneys give,
Dividing many costly things and goods;
And in like manner, striving eagerly
After power, they will purge disastrously
The arrow-shooting Parthians of the deep
And swift Euphrates, and the hostile Medes,
And the soft-haired warlike Massagetae
And Persians also, quiver-bearing men.
But when the king will his own fate unloose,
Leaving to his sons more fit for arms
The royal scepter and entreating right,
Then they, forgetful of their father’s words
And having their hands all prepared for war,
Will rush in conflict for the royal power.
And then another lord, of the third number,
Will rule alone, and stricken by a sword,
Will quickly see his fate. Then after him
Will many perish at each other’s hands,
Being very valiant for the royal power.
Moreover, a great-hearted one will rule
The very mighty Romans, an old lord,
Of the number four, and manage all things well.
And then on Phoenicia will come war
And conflict when there will come nations near
Of arrow-shooting Persians; ah, how many
Will before men of barbarous speech fall down!
Sidon and Tripolis and Berytus
The loudly-boasting will behold each other
Amid the blood and bodies of the dead.
Wretched Laodicea, around yourself
You will a great and unsuccessful war
Stir up through the impiety of men;
Ah, hapless Tyrians, you will gather in
An evil harvest; when in the daytime
The sun that lightens mortals will withdraw,
And his disk not appear, and drops of blood
Thick and abundant will flow down from the sky
On the earth. And then the king will die,
Betrayed by his companions. After him
Will many shameless leaders still promote
The wicked strife and one another kill.
And then will there a reverend ruler be,
Of much skill, with a name that numbers five,
Confiding in great armies, whom mankind
Will fondly love because of royal power;
And having the good name he will thereto
Add by good deeds. But while he reigns there will
‘Twixt Taurus and snow-clad Amanus be
A fearful sign. From the Cilician land
A city new and beautiful and strong
Will by the deep strong rivers be destroyed.
And in Propontis and in Phrygia
Will there be many earthquakes. And the king
Of great renown will under his own lot
By wasting deadly sickness lose his life.
And after him will rule two lordly kings,
One numbering three hundred, and one three;
And many will he utterly destroy
In defense of the seven-hill city Rome,
And for the sake of powerful sovereignty.
And then will evil to the senate come,
Nor will it from the angry king escape
While he holds wrath against it. And a sign
Will then appear to all men on earth;
And fuller will the rains be, snow and hail
Will ruin field-fruits o’er the boundless earth.
But they will fall in wars, slain by strong Ares
In behalf of the war for the Italians.
And then again, another king will rule,
Full of devices, gathering all the army,
And for the sake of war distributing
Money to those with brazen breastplate clad;
But thereon will Nilus, abundant in corn,
Beyond the Libyan mainland irrigate
For two years the dark soil and fruitful land
Of Egypt; but all things will famine seize
And war and robbers, murders, homicides.
And many cities will by warlike men
Be thrown down headlong by the army’s hands;
And he, betrayed, will fall by gleaming iron.
After him one whose number is three hundred
Will rule the Romans, very mighty men;
He will stretch forth a life-destroying spear
Against the Armenians and the Parthians,
The Assyrians and the Persians firm in war.
And then anew will a creation be
Of splendidly built Rome with gold and amber
And silver and ivory in order raised;
And in her many people will abide
From all the East and from the prosperous West;
And the king will make other laws for her;
But then will death destructive and strong fate
In turn receive him in a boundless isle.
And there will rule another, of ten triads,
A man like a wild beast, fair-haired and grim,
Who will be a descendant of the Greeks.
And then a city of Molossian Phthia
Feeding much, and Larissa will be bent
Down on Peneus’ overhanging brows;
And then too in horse-feeding Scythia
Will be an insurrection. And dire war
Will be hard by the waters of the lake
Maeotis, at streams by the utmost mouth
Of the fount of watery Phasis on the mead
Of asphodel; and there will many fall
By powerful warriors. Ah, how many men
Will Ares with strong brass receive! And then,
Having destroyed a Scythian race, the king
Will die in his own lot unloosing life.
And yet another of the number four
Will rule thereafter, openly made known
A dreadful man, whom all Armenians,
Who drink the best ice of the flowing stream
Araxes, and the Persians of great soul
Will fear in wars. And between Colchians
And very strong Pelasgi there will be
Wars, fights, and homicides. And those who hold
The cities of the land of Phrygia
And those of the Propontis, and make bare
From out their scabbards the two-edged swords,
Will strike each other through sore impiousness.
And then will God to mortal men display
From the sky a great sign with the rolling years,
A bat, the portent of bad war to come.
And then the king will not escape stern fate,
But die by hand, slain by the gleaming iron.
After him, numbering fifty, there will rule
Again another coming out of Asia,
A dreadful terror, fighting hand to hand;
And he will set war on Rome’s stately walls,
And among Colchians, and Heniochi,
And the milk-drinking Agathyrsians
By Euxine Sea, at Thracia’s sandy bay.
And then the king will not escape stern fate,
And they will tear in pieces his dead corpse.
And then, the king slain, man-ennobling Rome
Will be a desert, and much people perish.
And then again one terrible and dread
From mighty Egypt will rule, and destroy
Great-hearted Parthians and Medes and Germans,
And Agathyrsians of the Bosporus,
Iernians, Britons, and Iberians
That bear the quiver, bent Massagetae,
And Persians thinking themselves more than men.
And then a famous man will look on
All Hellas, acting as an enemy
To Scythia and windy Caucasus.
And there will be a dread sign while he rules:
Crowns altogether like the shining stars
Will from the sky in the south and north appear.
And then will he impart the royal power
To his son whose initial letter heads
The alphabet, when in the halls of Hades
The manly king in his own lot will go.
But when the son of this man in the land
Of Rome will rule, shown by the number one,
There will be over all the earth great peace
Much longed for, and the Latins will love him
As king because of his own father’s worth;
Him, eager to go both to East and West,
The Roman people will against his will
Retain at home and in command of Rome,
For among all there is a friendly heart
Felt for their royal and illustrious lord.
But baneful death will snatch him out of life,
Short-lived, abandoned to his destiny.
But others afterward again will strike
Each other, powerful warriors, carrying on
An evil strife, not holding kingly power,
But being tyrants. And in all the world
Will they bring many evil things to pass,
But chiefly for the Romans till the time
Of the third Dionysus, until armed
With helmet Ares will from Egypt come,
Whom they will surname Dionysus lord.
But when the famous royal purple cloak
A murderous lion and murderous lioness
Will rend, together they will grasp the lungs
Of the changed kingdom; then a holy king,
Whose name has the first letter, pressing hard
For victory, will cast down hostile chiefs
To be the food of dogs and birds of prey.
Woe for you, O city burned with fire,
O powerful Rome! How many things must you
Need to suffer when all these things come to pass!
But the great far-famed king will afterward
Raise you all up again with gold and amber
And silver and ivory, and in the world
You will in your possessions foremost be,
Also in temples, marketplaces, wealth,
And race-grounds; and then will you be again
A light for all, even as you were before.
Ah, wretched Cecropes and Cadmeans
And the Laconians, who are positioned
Around Peneus and Molossian stream
Thick grown with rushes, Tricca and Dodona,
And high-built Ithome, Pierian ridge
Around the summit of Olympian mount,
Ossa, Larissa, and high-gate Calydon.
But when God will for mortals bring to pass
A great sign, day dark twilight round the world,
Even then to you, O king, the end will come,
Nor is it possible that you escape
A brother’s piercing dart against you hurled.
And then again will rule a life-destroyer,
A fiery eagle from the royal race,
Who will of Egypt’s offspring take fast hold,
Younger, but than his brother much stronger,
Who has for his first sign the number eighty.
And then the whole world will for honor’s sake
Bear in its lap the soul-distressing wrath
Of the immortal God; and there will come
On mortal men, the creatures of a day,
Famines and plagues and wars and homicides,
And an incessant darkness o’er the earth,
Mother of peoples, and relentless wrath
From Heaven, and disorder of the times,
And earthquake shocks, and flaming thunderbolts,
And stones and storms of rain and squalid drops.
And the high summits of the Phrygian land
Feel the shock, bases of the Scythian hills
Feel the shock, cities tremble, and all earth
Trembles at the cliffs of the land of Greece.
And many cities, God being very angry,
Will fall prone under burning thunderbolts
And with lamenting, and to shun the wrath
And make escape is not even possible.
And then the king will by a strong hand fall,
Struck as if he were no one by his men.
After him of the Latins many men
Wearing the purple mantle on their shoulders
Will be again raised up, who will by lot
Desire to lay hold on the royal power.
And then on the stately walls of Rome
Will be three kings, two having the first number,
And one the eponym of victory
Bearing as no one else. They will love Rome
And all the world, concerned for mortal men;
But they will not accomplish anything;
For God has not been gracious to the world
Neither will He be gentle with mankind,
Because they have done many evil things.
Therefore, to kings will He a mean soul bring
Still worse than that of leopards and of wolves;
For harshly seizing them with their own hands,
Like feeble women who are idly slain,
Will men in brazen breastplate utterly
Destroy the kings together with their scepters.
Ah, wretched lofty men of glorious Rome,
Trusting in false oaths you will be destroyed.
And then will many masters with the spear,
Men rushing disordered [and] franticly on,
Take away offspring of the firstborn men
In their blood . . . Therefore thrice
Will the Most High then bring on dreadful doom,
And all men with their works will He destroy.
But into judgment yet again will God
Cause them to come that have a shameless soul,
As many as determined evil things;
And they themselves are fenced in, falling one
On another, and given over there
Into that condemnation of wickedness.
All one by one, yet a brilliant comet
Of much to come, of war and battle strife,
But at the time when one around the isles
Will gather many oracles that speak
To strangers of fight and of battle strife,
And grievous harm of temples, he will bid
One in great haste to gather in Rome’s halls
For twelve months wheat and barley in abundance,
And this most quickly. And in wretched plight
The city will be those days, and promptly
Will it again be prosperous not a little;
And rest will be when that rule is destroyed.
And then the last race of the Latin kings
Will be, and after it again will grow
Dominion, children and the children’s race
Will be unshaken; for it will be known,
Since of a surety God Himself is King.
There is a land dear, nourisher of men,
Positioned in a plain, and round it Nile
Marks off the boundary and separates
All Libya and Ethiopia.
And Syrians short-lived, one from one place,
Another from another, from that land
Will snatch away all movable effects;
A great and careful lord will be their king,
Training up youth and sending off for men,
And planning something fearful about those
Most fearful, above all he will send forth
A powerful helper of all Italy
The lofty-minded. And when he will come
To the dark sea of Assyria
He will despoil Phoenicians in their homes,
And fastening evil war and battle dire
Will be one lord of the two lords of earth.
And now will I for Alexandrians sing
Their grievous end; woe, barbarians
Will possess sacred Egypt, land unharmed,
Unshaken, when wrath from the gods will come.
. . . making winter summer,
Then will the oracles be all fulfilled.
But when three youths in the Olympian games
Will conquer, and you will bid them that know
The oracles that call on God to cleanse
First by the blood of sucking quadruped,
Thrice therefore will the Most High then bring on
A fearful lot, and he will over all
Brandish the mournful long spear; then much blood
Barbarian will be poured out in the dust
When the city will be plundered utterly
By inhospitable strangers. Happy he
Who is dead, also happy anyone
Who is without a child; for he who once
Was leader surnamed for them that are free,
Far-famed in song, no longer in his mind
Revolving earlier plans, will place their neck
Under a servile yoke; such slavery,
Cause of much weeping, will a lord impose.
And then promptly an army of Sicilians
Ill-fated will come, carrying dismay,
When a barbarian nation will again
Come suddenly; and the fruit, when it grows,
They from the field will sever. On them
Will God the lofty Thunderer bestow
Evil instead of good; continually
Will stranger pluck from stranger hateful gold.
But now when all will look on the blood
Of the flesh-eating lion and there comes
On the body a murderous lioness,
Down from his head will be the scepter cast
Away from him. And as in friendly feast
In Egypt when the people all partake,
They perform valiant deeds, and one restrains
Another, and among them there is much
Shouting aloud; so also will there be
On mankind the fear of furious strife,
And many will be utterly destroyed
And others kill each other by hard fights.
And then one, covered with dark scales will come;
Two others will come acting in concert
With one another, and with them a third—
A great ram from Cyrene, whom before
I spoke of as a fugitive in war
Beside the streams of Nile; but in no wise
An unsuccessful way do all complete.
And then the lengths of the revolving years
Will be exceedingly quiet; yet again
Thereafter will a second war for them
In Egypt be stirred up, and there will be
A battle on the sea, but victory
Will not be theirs. Ah, wretched ones, there will
A conquest of the famous city be,
And it will be a spoil of war not long.
And then men having common boundaries
Of much land will flee wretched, and will lead
Their wretched parents. And they will again,
Having great victory, descend on a land,
And will destroy the Jews, men staunch in war,
Wasting by wars far as the hoary deep,
On both sides, fighting in the foremost ranks
For fatherland and parents. And a race
Of trophy-bearing men will for the dead
Be reckoned. Ah, how many men will swim
Along the waves! For on the sandy beach
Many will lie; and heads of golden hair
Will fall beneath Egyptian winged birds.
And then for the Arabians mortal blood
Will go in quest. But when wolves will with dogs
Pledge in a sea-girt island solemn oaths,
Then will there be the raising of a tower,
And the city that suffered very many things
Men will inhabit. For deceitful gold
Will no more be nor silver, nor acquiring
Of the earth, nor much-laboring servitude;
But one fast friendship and one mode of life
With cheerful soul; and all things will be common
And equal light among the means of life.
And wickedness will sink down from the earth
Into the vast sea. And then near at hand
Has come the harvesttime of mortal men.
There is imposed a strong necessity
That these things be fulfilled. And at that time
There will not any other traveler say,
In this conjecturing, that the race of men
Though perishable will ever cease to be.
And then a holy nation will prevail
And hold the sovereignty of all the earth
To all ages with their mighty sons.
[There are a number of fragments from the Sibylline Oracles that cannot be clearly placed. There may be justification for placing the first of these at the beginning of Book III.]
You mortal men of flesh, who are nothing,
How quickly are you puffed up, not seeing
The end of life! Do you not tremble now
And fear God—Him who watches over you,
The one who is most high, the one who knows,
The all-observant witness of all things,
All-nourishing Creator, who has put
In all things His sweet Spirit and has made
Him leader of all mortals? God is one,
Who rules alone, supremely great, unborn,
Almighty and invisible, Himself
Alone beholding all things, but not seen
Is He Himself by any mortal flesh.
For what flesh is there able to behold
With eyes the heavenly and true God divine,
Who has His habitation in the sky?
Not even before the bright rays of the sun
Can men stand still, men who are mortal born,
Existing but as veins and flesh on bones.
Him who alone is ruler of the world,
Who alone is forever and has been
From everlasting, give reverence to Him,
The self-existent unbegotten one
Who rules all things through all time, dealing out
To all mortals in a common light
The judgment. And the merited reward
Of evil counseling will you receive,
For ceasing the true and eternal God
To glorify, and holy hecatombs
To offer him, you made your sacrifice
To the demons that in Hades dwell.
And you in self-conceit and madness walk,
And having left the true, straightforward path
You went away and roamed about through thorns
And thistles. O you foolish mortals, cease
Roving in darkness and black night obscure,
And leave the darkness of night, and lay hold
On the Light. Behold, He is clear to all
And cannot err; come, do not always chase
Darkness and gloom. Behold, the sweet-looking light
Of the sun shines with a surpassing glow.
Now, treasuring wisdom in your hearts, know
That God is one, who sends forth rains and winds,
Earthquakes and lightnings, famines, pestilence,
And mournful cares, and storms of snow, and ice.
But why do I thus speak them one by one?
He guides Heaven, rules earth, over Hades reigns.
Now if gods beget offspring and remain
Immortal there had been more gods than men,
And there had never been sufficient room
For mortals to stand.
Now if all that is born must also perish,
It is not possible for God to be
Formed from the thighs of man and from a womb;
But God alone is one and all-supreme,
Who made Heaven and the sun and stars and moon,
Fruit-bearing earth and billows of the sea,
And lofty hills and mouth of lasting springs.
He also brings forth great multitudes
Of creatures that amid the waters live
Innumerable, and the creeping things
That move on earth He sustains with life,
And dappled, delicate, shrill-twittering birds,
That ply the air shrill-whirring with their wings.
And in the glens of mountains wild be placed
The race of beasts, and to us mortals made
All cattle subject, and the God-formed one
He constituted ruler of all things,
And to man all variegated things
Made subject, things incomprehensible.
For all these things what mortal flesh can know?
For He Himself alone, who made these things
At the beginning, knows, the incorrupt
Eternal Maker, dwelling in the Heaven,
Bringing to the good good recompense
Much more abundant, but awakening wrath
And anger for the evil and unjust,
And war and pestilence, and tearful woes.
O men, why, vainly puffed up, do you root
Yourselves out? Be ashamed to deify
Polecats and monsters. Is it not a craze
And frenzy, taking sense of mind away,
If gods steal plates and carry off earthen pots?
Instead of dwelling in the golden Heaven
In plenty, see them eaten by the moth
And woven over with thick spider-webs!
O fools, that bow to serpents, dogs, and cats,
And reverence birds and creeping beasts of earth,
Stone images and statues made with bands,
And stone-heaps by the roads—these you revere,
And also many other idle things
Which it would even be a shame to tell;
These are the baneful gods of senseless men,
And from their mouth is deadly poison poured.
But of Him is life and eternal light
Imperishable, and He sheds a joy
Sweeter than honey sweet on righteous men,
And to Him only do you bow your neck,
And among pious lives incline your way.
Forsaking all these, in a spirit mad
With folly you did all drain off the cup
Of judgment that was filled full, very pure,
Closely pressed, weighed down, and also unmixed.
And you will not wake from your drunken sleep
And come to sober reason, and know God
To be the King who oversees all things.
Therefore, on you the flash of gleaming fire
Is coming, you will be with torches burned
The livelong day through an eternal age,
At your false useless idols feeling shame.
But they who fear the true eternal God
Inherit life, and they forever dwell
Alike in fertile field of Paradise,
Feasting on sweet bread from the starry heavens.
Hear me, O men, the King eternal reigns.
He only is God, Maker uncontrolled;
He fixed the pattern of the human form,
And did the nature of all mortals mix
Himself, the generator of [all] life.
Whenever He will come
A smoky fire will be in mid-night dark.
The Erythraean Sibyl, addressing God, says: “Why do you, O Lord, enjoin on me the necessity of prophesying, and not rather take me aloft from the earth and preserve me to the most blessed day of Your coming?”