The Sibylline Oracles 5

1BUT come, now, hear of me the mournful time

2Of sons of Latium. And first of all,

3After the kings of Egypt were destroyed

4And the like earth had downwards borne them all,

5And after Pella's townsman, under whom

6The whole East and the rich West were cast down,

7whom Babylon dishonored, and stretched out

8For Philip a dead body (not of Zeus,

9Of Ammon not true things were prophesied),

10And after that one of the race and blood

11Of king Assaracus, who came from Troy,

12Even he who cleft the violence of fire,

13And after many lords, and after men

14To Ares dear, and after the young babes,

15The children of the beast that feeds on sheep,

16The very first lord shall be, who shall sum

17Twice ten with the first letter of his name;

18In wars exceeding powerful shall he be;

19And he shall have the initial sign of ten;

20And in like manner after him to reign

21Is one who has the alphabet's first letter;

22Before him Thrace and Sicily shall crouch,

23Then Memphis, Memphis cast headlong to earth

24By reason of the cowardice of rulers

25And of a woman unenslaved who falls

26Upon the wave. And laws will he ordain

27For peoples and put all things under him;

28But after a long time shall he transmit

29His power unto another, who shall have

30Three hundred for his first initial sign,

31And of a river the beloved name,

32And the Persians he shall rule and Babylon;

33And then shall he smite Medians with his spear.

34Then shall one rule who has the initial sign

35Of the number three. And then shall be a lord

36Who shall for first initial have twice ten;

37And he shall come to Ocean's utmost water

38And by Ausonia cleave the refluent tide.

39And one whose mark is fifty shall be lord,

40A dreadful serpent breathing grievous war,

41Who sometime stretching forth his hands shall make

42An end of his own race and stir all things,

43Acting the athlete, driving chariots,

44Putting to death and daring countless things;

45And he shall cleave the mountain of two seas

46And sprinkle it with gore; but out of sight

47Shall also vanish the destructive man;

48Then, making himself equal unto God,

49Shall he return; but God will prove him naught.

50And after him shall three kings be destroyed

51By one another. Then a great destroyer

52Of pious men shall come, whom seven times ten

53Shall point out clearly. But from him a son,

54Whom the first letter of three hundred proves,

55Shall take the power. And after him shall be

56A ruler, of the initial sign of four,

57A life-destroyer. Then a reverend man

58Of the number fifty. Next, succeeding him

59Who has the first mark of the initial sign

60Three hundred, shall a Celtic mountaineer,

61Into the strife of battle pressing on,

62(28-43.)

63Escape not fate unseemly, but shall be

64Worn weary unto death; him foreign dust,

65But dust that of Nemea's flower has name,

66Shall hide a corpse. And after him shall rule

67Another man, with silver helmet decked;

68And unto him shall be the name of a sea;

69And he shall be a man the best of all

70And in all things discreet. And upon thee,

71Thou best of all, above all, dark-haired one,

72And upon thy shoots shall be all these days.

73After him three shall rule; but the third one

74Shall at a late time hold the royal power.

75Worn out am I, thrice-miserable one,

76Sister of Isis, to lay up in heart

77An evil message, and an inspired song

78Of oracles. First Maenades shall dart

79(44-54.)

80Around thy much-lamented temple's steps,

81And thou shalt be in evil hands that day

82When the Nile some time shall fill the whole land

83Of Egypt even to sixteen cubits deep;

84It shall wash all the land, and water it

85For mortals; and the pleasure of the land

86Shall be still and the glory of her face.

87Memphis, thou most shalt over Egypt wail;

88For of old ruling mightily the land

89Thou shalt become poor, so that out of heaven

90The Thunderer shall himself with great voice cry:

91"O mighty Memphis, who didst boast of old

92O'er craven mortals greatly, thou shalt wail

93Full of pain and all-hapless, so that thou

94Thyself shalt the eternal God perceive

95Immortal in the clouds. Where among men

96Is now thy mighty pride? Because thou didst

97Against my God-anointed children rave,

98And didst urge evil forward on good men,

99Thou shalt for such things suffer penalty

100In some like manner. No more openly

101For thee shall there be right among the blessed;

102Fallen from the stars, thou shalt not rise to heaven."

103Now these things unto Egypt God bade me

104Speak out for the last time, when men shall be

105Utterly evil. But they labor hard,

106Evil men evil things awaiting, wrath

107Of the immortal Thunderer in heaven,

108Worshiping stones and beasts instead of God,

109And also fearing many things besides

110Which have no speech, nor mind, nor power to hear;

111Which things it is not right for me to mention,

112Each one an idol, formed by mortal hands;

113Of their own labors and presumptuous thoughts

114Did men receive gods made of wood and stone

115And brass, and gold and silver, foolish too,

116Without life and dumb, molten in the fire

117They made them, vainly trusting such things. . . .

118Thmois and Xois are in sore distress,

119And smitten is the hall of Heracles

120And Zeus and Hermes (king). And as for thee,

121O Alexandria, famed nourisher

122(Of cities) war shall not leave, nor (plague) . . .

123For thy pride thou shalt pay as many things

124As thou before didst. Silent shalt thou be

125A long age, and the day of thy return . . .

126No more for thee shall flow luxurious drink . . .

127For there shall come a Persian on thy dale,

128And like hail shall he all the land destroy,

129And artful men, with blood and corpses. . . .

130By sacred altars one of barbarous mind,

131Strong, full of blood and raging senselessly,

132With countless numbers rushing to destruction.

133And then shalt thou, in cities very rich,

134Be very weary. Falling on the earth

135All Asia shall wail on account of gifts

136Crowning her head with which she was by thee

137Delighted. But, as he himself obtained

138The Persian land by lot, he shall make war

139And killing every man destroy all life,

140So that there shall remain for wretched mortals

141A third part. But with nimble leap shall he

142Himself speed from the West, and all the land

143Besiege and waste. But when he shall possess

144The height of power and odious reverence,

145He shall come, wishing to destroy the city

146Even of the blessed. And a certain king

147Sent forth from God against him shall destroy

148All mighty kings and bravest men. And thus

149Shall judgement by the Immortal come to men.

150Alas, alas for thee, unhappy heart!

151Why dost thou move me to declare these things,

152The painful rule of Egypt over many?

153Go to the East, to races of the Persians

154Who lack in understanding, and show them

155That which is now and that which is to be.

156The river of Euphrates shall bring on

157A deluge, and it shall destroy the Persians,

158Iberians and Babylonians

159And the Massagetae that relish war

160And trust in bows. All Asia fire-ablaze

161Shall to the isles beam brightly. Pergamos,

162Revered of old, shall perish from its base,

163And Pitane among men shall appear

164All-desolate. All Lesbos shall sink deep

165Into the deep, and thus shall be destroyed.

166Smyrna, whirled down her cliffs, shall wail aloud,

167She that was once revered and given a name

168Shall perish utterly. Bithynians

169Shall over their own country, then reduced

170To ashes, wail, and o'er great Syria,

171And o'er Phœnicia that bas many tribes.

172Alas, alas for thee, O Lycia;

173How many evils does the sea contrive

174Against thee, mounting up of its own will

175Upon the painful land! And it shall dash

176With evil earthquake and with bitter streams

177On the rough Lycian land that once breathed perfume.

178And there shall be for Phrygia fearful wrath

179Because of sorrow for which Rhea came,

180Mother of Zeus, and there continued long.

181The sea shall overthrow the Centaur race

182And barbarous nation, and beneath the earth

183Shall tear away the Lapithaean land.

184The river of deep eddies and deep flow,

185Peneus, shall destroy Thessalian land,

186Snatching men from the earth. Eridanus

187(Pretending once to bear the forms, of beasts).

188Hellas thrice wretched shall the poets weep,

189When one from Italy shall smite the neck

190Of the isthmus, mighty king of mighty Rome,

191A man made equal to God, whom, they say,

192Zeus himself and the august Hera bore

193He, courting by his voice all-musical

194Applause for his sweet Songs, shall put to death

195With his own wretched mother many men.

196From Babylon shall flee the fearful lord

197And shameless whom all mortals and best men

198Abhor; for he slew many and laid hands

199Upon the womb; against his wives he sinned

200And of men stained with blood had he been formed.

201And he shall come to monarchs of the Medes

202And Persians, first whom he loved and to whom

203He brought renown, while with those wicked men

204He lurked against a nation not desired

205And on the temple made by God he seized

206And citizens and people going in,

207Of whom I justly sang the praise, he burned;

208For when this man appeared the whole creation

209Was shaken and kings perished--and yet power

210Remained among them, and they quite destroyed

211The mighty city and the righteous people.

212But when the fourth year a great star shall shine,

213Which alone shall the whole earth overpower

214Because of honor, which was first assigned

215To lord Poseidon; then a great star shall come

216From heaven into the dreadful sea and burn

217The vasty deep, and Babylon itself,

218And the land of Italy, because, of which

219There perished many holy faithful men

220Among the Hebrews and a people true.

221Thou shalt be among evil mortals made

222To suffer evils, but thou shalt remain

223All-desolate whole ages by thyself

224Hating thy soil; for thou didst have desire

225For sorcery, adulteries were with thee

226And lawless carnal intercourse with boys,

227Thou evil city, womanish, unjust,

228Ill-fated above all. Alas, alas!

229Thou city of the Latin land, unclean

230In all things, Maenad having joy in snakes,

231Over thy banks a widow shalt thou sit

232And the river Tiber shall lament for thee,

233His consort thee, who hast a blood-stained heart

234And impious soul. Didst thou not understand

235What God can do, and what he doth devise?

236But thou saidst, "I'm alone, and me no one

237Shall sack." But now shall God, who ever is,

238Thee and all thine destroy, and in that land

239No longer shall thy ensign yet remain,

240As of old, when the mighty God received

241Thy honors. Stay, O lawless one, alone,

242And mixed with burning fire inhabit thou

243In Hades the Tartarean lawless land.

244And now again, O Egypt, I bewail

245Thy blind delusion; Memphis, first in toils,

246Thou shalt be filled up with the dead; in thee

247The pyramids shall speak a ruthless sound.

248O Python, who wast justly called of old

249The double city, be for ages silent,

250So that thou mayest cease from wickedness.

251Reckless in evils, treasury of toils,

252Much-wailing Maenad, suffering, dire ills,

253Much-weeping, thou a widow shalt remain

254Through all time. Thou didst full of years become

255While thou alone wast ruling o'er the world;

256But when the white dress Barea round herself

257Shall put on over that which is defiled,

258Would that I neither were nor had been born

259O Thebes, where is thy great strength? A fierce man

260Shall slay the people; but thou, wretched one,

261Grasping thy dusky dress shalt wail alone,

262And thou shalt make atonement for all things

263Which thou aforetime with a shameless soul

264Didst perpetrate. They also shall behold

265A mourning on account of lawless deeds.

266And a mighty man of the Ethiopians

267Shall overthrow Syene; by their might

268Shall swarthy Indians occupy Teucheira.

269Pentapolis, a man of mighty, strength

270Shall burn thee whole. All-tearful Libya,

271Who shall explain thy follies? And Cyrene,

272Of mortals who shall pitiably weep

273For thee? Thou shalt not even to the time

274Of thy destruction cease thy hateful wail.

275Among the Britons and among the Gauls,

276Rich in gold, Ocean shall be roaring loud

277Filled with much blood; for evil things

278Did they unto God's children, when a king

279Of the Sidonians, a Phœnician, led

280A mighty Gallic host from Syria;

281And he shall slaughter thee, thyself, Ravenna,

282And unto slaughter shall he lead the way.

283O Indians and great-hearted Ethiops,

284Together fear; for when with these the course

285Of Capricorn and Taurus in the Twins

286Shall wind about the middle of the heaven,

287Virgo then rising, and about his front

288Fastening a belt the sun shall lead all heaven,

289There shall be moving downwards to the earth

290A mighty conflagration high in air,

291And a new nature in the warlike stars,

292'so that the whole land of the Ethiops

293Shall perish in the midst of fire and groans.

294And weep thou, Corinth, the destruction sad

295Which is ill thee; for when with pliant threads

296The Fates three sisters, spinning shall aloft

297Lead him who flees by guile against the voice

298Of the isthmus, until all shall look at him

299Who once cut out the rock with ductile brass,

300He also shall destroy and smite thy land,

301As it hath been appointed. For to him

302God gave strength to accomplish that which could

303No earlier of all the kings together.

304And first with sickle cleaving off the roots

305From three heads he shall give food in excess

306To others, so that kings unclean shall eat

307The flesh of parents. For unto all men

308Slaughter and terrors are laid up in store

309because of the great city and just people

310Saved through all time, whom Providence held high.

311O thou unstable one and ill-advised,

312By evil fates surrounded, for mankind

313Both a beginning and great end of toil,--

314Of suffering creation and of part

315Restored again,--thou leader insolent

316Of evils, and for men a great curse, who

317Of mortals wished for thee? Who has not been

318Embittered from within? Cast down ill thee

319A king his honored life lost. Evilly

320Hast thou disposed all things and washed away

321All that is fair, and by thee have been changed

322The world's fair folds. In strife with us perhaps

323Thou hast brought forward these unstable things;

324And how dost thou say, "I will thee persuade,"

325And "If in any thing thou blame me, speak?"

326There was once among men the sun's bright light

327The prophets' common ray being spread abroad;

328Speech dripping honey, fair drink for all men,

329Appeared and grew, and day arose on all.

330Because of this, thou narrow-minded one

331Leader of greatest evils, both a sword

332And grief shall come in that day. For mankind

333Both a beginning and great end of toil,--

334Of suffering creation and of part

335Restored again,--hear, O thou curse of men,

336The bitter oracle intolerable.

337But when the Persian land shall keep away

338From war and plague and groaning, in that day

339A race divine of blessed heavenly Jews

340Shall offer prayer, who shall dwell round about

341God's city in mid portions of the land,

342And even as far as Joppa building round

343A great wall they shall carry it aloft

344Unto the gloomy clouds. No more shall trump

345Sound battle--din nor by a foe's mad hands

346Shall they be cut off; but they shall set up

347Their trophies for an age of evil men.

348And one shall come again from heaven, a man

349Preeminent, whose hands on fruitful tree

350By far the noblest of the Hebrews stretched,

351Who at one time did make the sun stand still

352When he spoke with fair word and holy lips,

353No longer vex thy soul within thy breast

354By reason of the sword, rich child of God,

355Flower longed for by him only, goodly light

356And noble branch, a scion much beloved,

357Pleasant Judea, city beautiful,

358Inspired by hymns. No more shall unclean foot

359Of Greeks keep revel round about thy land,

360Who held within their breast a lawless mind;

361But thee shall glorious children honor much

362[And be expert in songs and holy tongues],

363With sacrifices of all kinds and prayers

364Honored of God. All who endure the toils

365Of small affliction and the just shall have

366More that is altogether beautiful;

367But the wicked, who to heaven sent lawless speech,

368Shall cease their speaking one against another,

369And hide themselves until the world be changed.

370And there shall be a rain of gleaming fire

371From the clouds; and no more shall mortals reap

372The fair corn from the earth; all things unsown

373And unplowed, until mortal men shall know

374The Lord of all things, the immortal God

375Always existing, and no more revere

376Mortal things, neither dogs nor vultures' nests,

377And what things Egypt taught to magnify

378With dumb months and dull lips. But all these things

379The holy land of the only pious men

380Shall bring forth, from the honey-dripping rock

381A stream and from a spring ambrosial milk

382Shall flow for all the just; for in one God,

383One Father, who alone is glorious,

384Having great piety and faith they hoped.

385But why does the wise mind grant me these things?

386And now thee, wretched Asia, piteously

387I mourn and the race of Ionians

388And Carians and Lydians rich in gold.

389Alas, alas for thee, O Sardis; and alas

390For Trallis much beloved; alas, alas,

391Laodicea, city beautiful;

392Thus shalt thou be by earthquakes overthrown

393And ruined, and be also changed to dust.

394And to Asia gloomy. . . .

395Artremis' temple fixed at Ephesus . . .

396By chasms, and earthquakes come headlong down

397Sometime into the dreadful sea, is storms

398Overwhelm ships. And up-turned Ephesus

399Shall wail aloud, lament beside her banks,

400And for her temple search which is no more.

401And then incensed shall God the imperishable,

402Who dwells on high, hurl thunderbolts from heaven

403Down on the head of him that is impure.

404And in the place of winter there shall be

405In that day summer. And to mortal men

406Shall then be great woe; for the Thunderer

407Shall utterly destroy all shameless men

408And with his thunders and with lightning-flames

409And blazing thunderbolts men of ill-will,

410And thus shall he destroy the impious ones,

411So that there shall remain upon the earth

412Dead bodies more in number than the sand.

413For Smyrna also, weeping her Lycurgus,

414Shall come unto the gates of Ephesus

415And she herself shall perish even more.

416And foolish Cyme with her inspired streams

417Cast down by hands of godless men unjust

418And lawless, shall to heaven not so much

419As a word utter; but she shall remain

420Dead in Cymaean streams. And then shall they

421Together weep, awaiting evil things.

422Cyme's rough populace and shameless tribe,

423Having a sign, shall know for what they toiled.

424And then, when they shall have bewailed their land

425Reduced to ashes, by Eridanus

426Shall Lesbos be forever overthrown.

427Alas, Corcyra, city beautiful,

428Alas for thee, cease from thy revelry.

429Thou also, Hierapolis, sole land

430With riches mixed, what thou hast longed to have

431Thou shalt have, even a land of many tears,

432Since thou wast angry towards a land beside

433Thermodon's streams. Rock-clinging Tripolis,

434Beside the waters of Maeander, thee

435Shall by the nightly surges under shore

436God's wrath and foresight utterly destroy.

437Take me not, willing, to the neighboring land

438Of Phœbus; sometime shall a thunderbolt

439Dainty Miletus from above destroy,

440Because she seized on Phœbus' crafty song

441And the wise care and prudent plan of men.

442Father of all, be gracious to the land

443Of Judah, well fed, fruit-abounding, great,

444In order that thy judgments we may see.

445For thou, O God, in kindness didst regard

446This land first that it might appear to be

447Thy gracious gift unto all mortal men

448And to hold fast what God put in their charge.

449The works thrice wretched of the Thracians

450I yearn to see, and wall between two seas

451Trailed in the dust along beneath the mist,

452Even like a river for the swimming fish.

453O wretched Hellespont, sometime a child

454Of the Assyrians shall throw a yoke

455Across thee; battle of the Thracians comes

456And shall despoil thy strength. And there shall rule

457Over the land of Macedonia

458A king of Egypt, and a barbarous clime

459Shall waste the strength of captains. Lydians,

460And the Galatians, and Pamphylians

461With the Pisidians, all equipped for war

462Shall in a mass bring evil strife to pass.

463Thrice wretched Italy, then shalt remain

464All-desolate, unwept, in blooming land

465By deadly sting to perish utterly.

466And sometime high in the broad heaven above

467Like thunder-roaring shall God's voice be heard.

468And the unwasting flames of the sun himself

469Shall be no more, nor shall the brilliant light

470Of the moon again be in the latest time,

471When God shall bc the ruler. And dark gloom

472Shall be o'er all the earth, and blinded men

473And evil beasts and woe; that day shall be

474A long time, so that men shall see that God

475Himself is Lord, the overseer of all

476In front of heaven. And then will he himself

477Not pity hostile men, who sacrifice

478Their herds of lambs and sheep and calves and goats

479And bellowing golden-horned bulls, offering them

480To lifeless Hermae and to gods of stone.

481But let the law of wisdom be your guide

482And the glory of the righteous; lest sometime

483The imperishable God incensed destroy

484Each race of men and shameless tribe of life,

485It doth behoove them faithfully to love

486The Father, the wise God who ever is.

487In the last time, at the turning of the moon,

488There shall be raging through the world a war

489And carried on with cunning, and in guile.

490And from the limits of the earth shall come

491Fleeing and pondering sharp things in his mind,

492A matricidal man who every land

493Shall overpower and over all things rule,

494And see all things more wisely than all men;

495And that for whose sake he himself was slain

496Shall he seize forthwith. And he shall destroy

497Many men and great tyrants and shall burn

498All of them, as none other ever did,

499And he shall raise up them that are afraid

500For emulation's sake. And from the West

501Much war shall come to men, and blood shall flow

502Down hill till it becomes deep-eddying streams.

503And in the plains of Macedonia

504Shall wrath distil and give help from the West,

505But to the king destruction. And a wind

506Of winter then shall blow upon the earth,

507And the plain be filled with evil war again.

508For fire shall rain down from the heavenly plains

509On mortals, and therewith blood, water, flash

510Of lightning, murky darkness, night in heaven,

511And waste in war and o'er the slaughter mist,

512And these together shall destroy all kings

513And noblest men. Thus shall be made to cease

514Then the destruction pitiable of war.

515And no more shall one fight with swords or iron

516Or even darts, which things shall not again

517Be lawful. But wise people shall have peace,

518Who were left, having made proof of wickedness,

519That they might at the last be filled with joy.

520(365-385.)

521Ye matricides, leave off your impudence

522And evil-working boldness, who of old

523provided lawlessly lewd couch with boys,

524And placed as harlots maidens pure before

525In brothels by assault and punishment

526And by much-laboring indecency.

527For in thee mother with her child did hold

528Unlawful intercourse, and daughter was

529With her own father wedded as a bride;

530And in thee kings have their ill-fated mouth

531Polluted, and in thee have wicked men

532Found couch with cattle. Be in silence hushed,

533Thou wicked city all-bewailed, possessed

534Of revelry; for by thee virgin maids

535Shall care no longer for the fire divine

536Of sacred wood that fondly nourisheth;

537Before thee was a much-loved house of old

538Extinguished, when I saw the second house

539Cast headlong down and overwhelmed with fire

540By an unholy hand, house ever flourishing,

541God's watchful temple, brought forth of his saints

542And being always indestructible,

543By the soul hoped for and the body itself.

544For not without the rites of burial

545Shall one praise God out of the unseen earth,

546Nor did wise workman make a stone by them,

547Nor had he fear of gold, cheat of the world

548And of souls, but the mighty Father, God

549Of all things God-inspired, did he revere

550With holy offerings and fair hecatombs.

551But now an unseen and unholy king

552With multitude great and with men renowned

553Rose into power and cast his dwelling down

554And let it go unbuilt. But he himself

555When he set foot on the immortal land

556Destroyed the ground. And such a sign no more

557Was wrought upon men, so that it appeared

558That others the great city should destroy.

559For there came from the heavenly plains a man,

560One blessed, with a scepter in his hand,

561Which God gave him, and he ruled all things well,

562And unto all the good did he restore

563The riches which the earlier men had seized.

564And many cities with much fire he took

565From their foundations, and he set on fire

566The towns of mortals who before did evil,

567And he did make that city, which God loved,

568More radiant than stars and sun and moon,

569And he set order, and a holy house

570Incarnate made, pure, very fair, and formed

571In many stades a great and boundless tower

572Touching the clouds themselves and seen by all,

573So that all holy and all righteous men

574Might see the glory of the eternal God,

575A sight that has been longed for. Rising sun

576And setting day hymned forth the praise of God.

577For there are then no longer fearful things

578For wretched mortals, nor adulteries

579And lawless love of boys, nor homicide

580Nor tumult, but a righteous strife in all.

581It is the last time of the saints when God

582Accomplisheth these things, high Thunderer,

583Founder of temple most magnificent.

584Alas, alas for thee, O Babylon,

585For golden throne and golden sandal famed,

586Kingdom of many years and of the world

587Sole ruler, who wast great in olden time

588And city of all cities, thou no more

589Shalt lie in golden mountains and by streams

590Of the Euphrates; thou shalt be laid low

591By rout of earthquake. But the Parthians dire

592Caused thee to stiffer all things. Hold thou fast

593Thy unknown speech, impure Chaldean race;

594Ask not nor be concerned how thou shalt lead

595The Persians or how thou shalt rule the Medes;

596For on account of thy supremacy,

597Which thou hadst, sending hostages to Rome

598And serving Asia, thou that formerly

599Didst also think thyself a queen, shalt come

600Unto the judgment of antagonists,

601Because of whom thou hast suffered baneful things;

602And thou shalt give instead of crooked words

603Bitter vexation to the enemies,

604And in the last time shall the sea be dry

605And ships no longer sail to Italy,

606And Asia the great then, all-hapless, shall

607Be water, and then Crete shall be a plain.

608And Cyprus shall endure great misery

609And Paphos shall bewail a dreadful fate,

610So that even Salamis, great city, shall

611Be seen to undergo great misery;

612And now the dry land shall be fruitless sand

613Upon the shore. And locusts not a few

614Shall utterly destroy the Cyprian land.

615Looking at Tyre, doomed mortals, ye shall weep.

616Phœnicia, dreadful wrath remains for thee,

617Until thou to a worthless ruin fall,

618So that even Sirens truly may lament.

619In the fifth generation, when the ruin

620Of Egypt has ceased, it shall come to pass

621That shameless kings shall be together joined,

622And races of Pamphylians shall encamp

623In Egypt, and in Macedonia

624And in Asia and among the Libyans

625Shall in the dust be a world-maddening war

626Exceeding bloody, which the king of Rome

627And rulers of the West shall make to cease.

628When wintry storm shall drop down like the snow,

629While frozen are great river and vast lakes,

630Forthwith a barbarous race shall make their way

631Into the Asian land and shall destroy

632The race of dreadful Thracians, hard to quell.

633And then shall mortals feeding lawlessly

634Devour their parents, being by hunger worn,

635And shall gulp down the entrails. And wild beasts

636Shall devour from all houses table-food,

637And they and birds all mortals shall devour.

638The ocean with dead bodies shall be filled

639From the river and be red with flesh and blood

640Of the foolish ones. Then thus a feebleness

641Shall be on earth, so that of men the number

642May be seen and the measure of the women,

643And the dire race shall wail for myriad things

644At last when the sun sets to rise no more,

645But to remain submerged in Ocean's waves;

646For it beheld the wickedness unclean

647Of many mortals. And a moonless night

648Shall be a fame around the mighty heaven,

649And no small mist shall hide the world's ravines

650A second time; then afterwards God's light

651Shall guide the good men, who sang praise to God.

652Isis, thrice wretched goddess, thou alone

653Shalt on the waters of the Nile remain,

654A Maenad out of order on the sands

655Of Acheron, and no longer shall remain

656Remembrance of thee over all the earth.

657And also thou, Sarapis, who art placed

658On many glistening stones, a ruin vast

659Shalt thou in thrice unhappy Egypt lie.

660But those whom love of Egypt led to thee

661Shall all lament thee badly; but who put

662Imperishable reason in their breast,

663And who praised God, shall know thee to be naught.

664And sometime shall a linen-vested man,

665A priest, say: "Come, let us raise up of God

666A beautiful true temple; come, let us

667The fearful law of our forefathers change,

668Because of which they did not understand

669That they were unto gods of stone and clay

670Making processions and religions rites.

671Let us turn our souls, giving praise to God

672The imperishable, who himself is Father,

673The everlasting One, the Lord of all,

674The true One, the King, life-sustaining Father,

675The mighty God existing evermore."

676And then shall there a great pure temple be

677In Egypt, and the people made by God

678Shall into it their sacrifices bring.

679And to them God shall give life incorrupt.

680But when the Ethiopians, forsaking

681The shameless tribes of the Triballians,

682Shall cultivate their Egypt, they will then

683Begin their baseness, that the later things

684May all occur. For they shall overthrow

685The mighty temple of the Egyptian land;

686And God shall rain down on the earth dire wrath

687Among them, so that all the wicked ones

688And all without sense perish. And no more

689Shall there be any sparing in that land,

690Because they did not keep that which God gave.

691I saw the threatening of the shining Sun

692Among the stars, and in the lightning flash

693The dire wrath of the Moon; the stars travailed

694With battle; and God gave them up to light.

695For long fire-flames rebelled against the Sun;

696Lucifer treading upon Leo's back

697Began the fight; and the Moon's double horn

698Changed its shape; Capricorn smote Taurus' neck;

699And Taurus took away from Capricorn

700Returning day. Orion would no more

701Abide his yoke; the lot of Gemini

702Did Virgo change in Aries; no more shone

703The Pleiads; Draco disavowed his zone;

704Down into Leo's girdle Pisces went.

705Cancer remained not, for he feared Orion;

706Scorpio down on dire Leo backwards moved;

707And from the Sun's flame Sirius slipped away;

708And the strength of the mighty Shining One

709Aquarius kindled. Uranus himself

710Was roused, until he shook the warring ones;

711And being incensed he hurled them down on earth.

712Then swiftly smitten down upon the baths

713Of Ocean they set all the earth on fire;

714And the high heaven remained without a star.