The Sibylline Oracles 7

1O RHODES, thou art unhappy; for first thee,

2Thee will I mourn; and thou shalt be the first

3Of cities, and first shalt thou be destroyed,

4Bereft of men, but of the means of life

5Not wholly destitute. And thou shalt sail,

6Delos, and be unstable on the water;

7Cyprus, a billow of thy gleaming sea

8Shall sometime thee destroy; thee, Sicily,

9The fire that burns within thee shall consume.

10Nor heed God's terrible and foreign water.

11Noah sole fugitive from all men came.

12Earth shall float, hills float, and even sky shall float,

13Everything shall be water and all things

14Shall be destroyed by waters. And the winds

15Shall stand still and a second age shall be.

16O Phrygia, first shalt thou flame from the crest

17Of the water; and first in impiety

18Thou shalt deny God himself, courting favor

19With false gods, which shall utterly destroy

20Thee, wretched one, while many years roll round.

21The hapless Ethiopians under pain,

22Suffering things lamentable, shall by swords

23Be smitten whilst they crouch upon the ground.

24Rich Egypt ever caring for her corn,

25Which Nilus by his seven swimming streams

26Intoxicates, shall in intestine strife

27Destroy; and thence men unexpectedly

28Shall drive out Apis, not the god for men.

29Alas, alas, Laodicea! thou

30Not ever seeing God shalt lie, bold one;

31And over thee shall dash a wave of Lycus.

32He himself who is born the mighty God,

33Who shall work many signs, shall through heaven hang

34An axle in the midst, and place for men

35A mighty terror to be seen on high,

36Measuring a column with a mighty fire

37Whose drops shall slay the races of mankind

38That have dared evils. But a common Lord

39There shall at some time be, and then shall men

40Propitiate God, but shall not make an end

41Of fruitless sorrows. And through David's house

42Shall all things come to pass. For God himself

43Gave him the power and put it in his hand;

44Under his feet shall sleep his messengers,

45And some shall kindle fires, and some shall make

46Rivers appear, and some shall rescue towns,

47And some shall send forth winds. But furthermore

48A grievous life shall come on many men,

49Entering their souls and changing human hearts.

50But when a new shoot shall out of a root

51Put forth eyes, the creation, which to all

52Once gave abundant food . . .

53And it shall with the times be full. But when

54Others shall rule, a tribe of warlike Persians,

55Bride-chambers straightway shall be terrible

56Because of lawless deeds. For her own son

57Will mother have as husband; son will be

58The ruin of his mother; and with sire

59Shall daughter lie down and shall put to sleep

60This foreign law. But to them afterwards

61Shall Roman Ares flash from many a spear;

62And they shall mix much land with human blood.

63But then a chief of Italy shall flee

64From the force of the spear. But they shall leave

65Upon the land a lance inscribed with gold,

66Which as the signal ensign of their rule

67The foremost fighters carry constantly.

68And it shall be, when evil and ill-starred

69Ilias shall piteously complete for all

70A tomb, not marriage, then shall brides weep sore,

71Because they knew not God, but always gave

72By kettle-drums and cymbals boisterous sound.

73Consult the oracle, O Colophon;

74For a great fearful fire hangs over thee.

75Ill-wedded Thessaly, the earth no more

76Shall see thee, nor thy ashes, and alone

77Escaping from the mainland thou shalt swim;

78Thus, O thou wretched one, shalt thou of war

79Be melancholy refuse, having fallen

80By swiftly flowing rivers and by swords.

81And thou, O wretched Corinth, shalt receive

82Around thyself stern Ares, hapless one,

83And ye shall perish one upon another.

84Tyre, thou, unhappy, shalt be left alone;

85For, made a widow by the feebleness

86Of pious men, thou shalt be brought to naught.

87Ah, Cœle-Syria, of Phœnician men

88The last hold, upon whom the briny sea

89Of Berytus disgorging is poured forth,

90O wretched one, thou didst not know thy God,

91Who once in the mouth of Jordan washed himself,

92--And the Spirit spread his wings in flight towards him--

93Who before both the earth and starry heaven

94Was, actual Word, begotten by his Father,

95And by the Holy Spirit donning flesh

96He quickly flew unto his Father's house.

97And for him three towers did the mighty heaven

98Establish, in which dwell God's noble guides,

99Hope, piety, and reverence much-desired,

100Not having in gold or in silver joy,

101But in the reverential acts of men--

102Both sacrifices and most righteous thoughts.

103And thou shalt sacrifice to the immortal

104And mighty God august, not melting grains

105Of frankincense in fire, nor with the sword

106Slaying the shaggy-haired lamb, but with all

107Who bear thy blood take wild fowls, offer prayer,

108And fixing eyes on heaven send them away;

109And thou shalt sprinkle water on pure fire

110Having cried: "As the Father did beget

111Thee, the Word, Father, I sent forth a bird,

112Swift messenger of words, with holy waters

113Besprinkling thy baptism, O Word, through which

114Thou didst make thyself manifest in fire."

115Thou shalt not shut thy door, when there shall come

116A stranger unto thee in need to curb

117His hunger which comes from his poverty,

118But taking hold of that man sprinkle him

119With water and pray thrice; and to thy God

120Do thou thus cry: "I do not long for wealth;

121A suppliant I once publicly received

122A suppliant; Father, thou provider, hear."

123When thou hast prayed thou shalt give unto him;

124And the man went away thereafter. . . .

125Do not afflict me, holy fear of God

126And righteous, as to birth pure, unenslaved,

127Attested. . . .

128Do thou, O Father, make my wretched heart

129Stand still; to thee have I looked, unto thee,

130The undefiled, whom hands did not produce.

131Sardinia, weighty now, thou shalt be changed

132To ashes. Thou shalt be no more an isle,

133When the tenth time shall come. Amid the waves

134Shall sailors seek thee when thou art no more,

135And o'er thee shall kingfishers wail sad dirge.

136Rugged Mygdonia, beacon of the sea

137Hard to get out of, ages shalt thou boast

138And unto ages shalt be all destroyed

139With a hot wind, and rave with many woes.

140O Celtic land, on mountain range so great,

141Beyond impassable Alp, thee deep sand

142Shall altogether bury; thou shalt give

143Tribute no more, nor corn, nor pasturage;

144And thou from peoples ever far away

145Shalt be all-desolate, and becoming thick

146With chill ice thou shalt for an outrage pay,

147Which thou didst not perceive, unholy one.

148Stout-hearted Rome, thou to Olympus shalt

149Flash lightning after Macedonian spears;

150But God shall make thee utterly unknown,

151When thou wouldst to the eye seem to remain

152Much more firm. Then to thee such things I'll cry.

153Perishing thou shalt then cry out and boil

154In pain; a second time to thee, O Rome,

155Again a second time I am to speak.

156And now for thee, O wretched Syria,

157Do I wail bitterly in pitying grief.

158O Thebans ill-advised, an evil sound

159Is over you while flutes speak out their tones;

160For you shall trumpet sound an evil sound

161And ye shall see the entire land destroyed

162Alas, alas for thee, thou wretched one;

163Alas, alas thou evil-minded sea!

164Thou shalt be wholly eaten up of fire

165And people with thy brine shalt thou destroy.

166For there shall be such raging fire on earth

167As flows like water, and it shall destroy

168The whole land. It shall set the hills on fire,

169Shall burn the rivers, and exhaust the springs.

170The world shall be disordered whilst mankind

171Are perishing. And then the wretched ones,

172Burned badly, shall look unto heaven inwrought

173Not with stars, but with fire. Not speedily

174Shall they be made to perish, but dissolved

175From under flesh, and burning in the spirit

176For age-long years, they shall know that God's law

177Is always hard to put to test and not

178To be deceived; and then earth, seized by force,

179Daring whatever god she did admit

180Unto her altars, cheated, turned to smoke

181Through the changed air; and they shall undergo

182Much suffering who for gain shall prophesy

183Shameful things, nourishing the evil time.

184And the Hebrews who put on the shaggy skins

185Of sheep shall prove false, in which race

186Obtained no portion by inheritance,

187But talking mere words over sorrows they

188Are misers, who shall change their course of life

189And not mislead the just, who through the heart

190All-faithfully propitiate their God.

191But in the third lot of revolving years,

192Eighth the first, shall another world appear.

193Night shall be all . . . long and without light.

194And then shall pass around the dreadful stench

195Of brimstone, messenger of homicides,

196When they shall be by night and hunger slain.

197Then a pure mind shall God beget in men,

198And shall the race establish, as it was

199Aforetime; longer shall not any one

200Deep furrow cut with round plow, nor two oxen

201Straight guiding dip the iron down; nor vines

202Shall be nor ears of corn; but all shall eat

203Together dewy manna with white teeth.

204And then among them God shall also be,

205And he shall teach them as he has taught me,

206The sad one. For how many evil things

207I did with knowledge once, and many things

208Heedless I also wickedly performed.

209Countless my couches, but no marriage-bond

210Was cared for; and I, all-unfaithful, brought

211To all a savage oath. I turned away

212Those in need and among the foremost went

213Into like glen and minded not God's word.

214Therefore did fire consume me and shall gnaw;

215For I shall not live always, but a time

216Of evil shall destroy me, when for me

217Men shall beside the margin of the sea

218Construct a tomb, and shall slay me with stones;

219For lying with my father a dear son

220Did I present him. Smite me, smite me all;

221For thus shall I live and fix eyes on heaven.