Date: 2026-08-15T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Second Temple & Jewish Background

The Sibylline Oracles

The Sibyl

Translator: Milton S. Terry

Royal Archives

2026

Copyright

The source text and this English translation are in the public domain.

The cover design is © 2026 Royal Archives.

Published by Royal Archives

First published 2026

Translated by Milton S. Terry

Source: Milton S. Terry, The Sibylline Oracles, Translated from the Greek into English Blank Verse (2nd ed., revised and enlarged; New York: Eaton & Mains, 1899); transcription via English Wikisource.

Edition identifier: urn:royalarchives:sibylline_oracles:en:1

Book 1

1 Beginning With the generation first

2 Of mortal men down to the very last

3 I’ll prophesy each thing: what erst has been,

4 And what is now, and what shall yet befall

5 The world through the impiety of men.

6 First now God urges on me to relate

7 Truly how into being came the world.

8 And thou, shrewd mortal, prudently make known,

9 Lest ever thou should’st my commands neglect,

10 The King most high, who brought into existence

11 The whole world, saying, “Let there be,” and there was.

12 For he the earth established, placing it

13 Round about Tartarus, and he himself

14 Gave the sweet light; he raised the heaven on high,

15 Spread out the gleaming sea, and crowned the sky

16 With an abundance of bright-shining stars,

17 And decked the earth with plants, and mingled sea

18 With rivers, and the air with zephyrs mixed

19 And watery clouds; and then, another race

20 Appointing, he gave fishes to the seas

21 And birds unto the winds, and to the woods

22 The beasts of shaggy neck, and snakes that crawl,

23 And all things which now on the earth appear.

24 These by his word he made, and every thing

25 Was speedily and with precision done;

26 For he was self-caused and from heaven looked down,

27 And finished was the world exceeding well.

28 And then thereafter fashioned he again

29 A living product, copying a new man

30 From his own image, beautiful, divine,

31 And bade him in ambrosial garden dwell,

32 That labors beautiful might be his care.

33 But in that fertile field of Paradise

34 He longed for conversation, being alone,

35 And prayed that he might see another form

36 Such as he had. And forthwith, from man’s side

37 Taking a bone, God himself made fair Eve,

38 A wedded spouse, and in that Paradise

39 Gave her to dwell with him. And, when he gazed

40 Upon her, on a sudden filled with joy

41 Great admiration held his soul, he saw

42 A pattern so exact; and with wise words

43 Spontaneous flowing answered he in turn;

44 For God had care for all things. For the mind

45 They darkened not with passion, nor concealed

46 Their nakedness, but with hearts far from evil

47 Even like wild beasts they walked with limbs exposed.

48 And afterwards delivering them commands.

49 God showed them not to touch a certain tree;

50 But the dread serpent drew them off by guile

51 To go away unto the fate of death

52 And to gain knowledge of both good and evil

53 But the wife then first traitress proved to God;

54 She gave, and urged the unknowing man to sin.

55 And he, persuaded by the woman’s words,

56 Forgot the immortal Maker utterly,

57 And treated plain commandments with neglect.

58 Therefore, instead of good, received they evil

59 According to their deed. And then the leaves

60 Of the sweet fig-tree piercing they made clothes

61 And put them on each other, and concealed

62 The sexual parts, because they were ashamed.

63 But on them the Immortal set his wrath

64 And cast them out of the immortal land,

65 For their abiding now in mortal land

66 Was brought to pass, since hearing they kept not

67 The word of the immortal mighty God.

68 And straightway they, upon the fruitful soil

69 Forthgoing, with their tears and groans were wet;

70 And to them then the immortal God himself

71 A word more excellent spoke: “Multiply,

72 Increase, work constantly upon the earth,

73 That with the sweat of labor ye may have

74 Sufficient food.” Thus he spoke; and he made

75 The author of deceit to press the ground

76 On belly and on side, a crawling snake,

77 Driving him out severely; and he sent

78 Dire enmity between them; and the one

79 Is on the look-out to preserve his head,

80 But man his heel; for death is neighbor near

81 Of evil-plotting vipers and of men.

82 And then indeed the race was multiplied

83 As the Almighty himself gave command,

84 And there grew up one people on another

85 Innumerable. And houses they adorned

86 Of all kinds and made cities and their walls

87 Well and expertly; and to them was given

88 A day of long time for a life much-loved;

89 For they did not worn out with troubles die,

90 But as subdued by sleep; most happy men

91 Of great heart, whom the immortal Saviour loved,

92 The King, God. But they also did transgress,

93 Smitten with folly. For with impudence

94 They mocked their fathers and their mothers scorned;

95 Kinsmen they knew not, and they formed intrigues

96 Against their brothers. And they were impure,

97 Having defiled themselves with human gore,

98 And they made wars. And then upon them came

99 The last calamity sent forth from heaven,

100 Which snatched the dreadful men away from life;

101 And Hades then received them; it was called

102 Hades since Adam, having tasted death,

103 Went first and earth encompassed him around.

104 And therefore all men born upon the earth

105 Are in abodes of Hades called to go.

106 But even in Hades all these when they came

107 Had honor, since they were the earliest race.

108 But when Hades received these, secondly

109 [Of the surviving and most righteous men]

110 God formed another very subtile race

111 That cared for lovely works, and noble toils,

112 Distinguished reverence and solid wisdom;

113 And they were trained in arts of every kind,

114 Finding inventions by their lack of means.

115 And one devised to till the land with plows,

116 Another worked in wood, another cared

117 For sailing, and another watched the stars

118 And practiced augury with winged fowls;

119 And use of drugs had interest for one,

120 While for another magic had a charm;

121 And others were in every other art

122 Which men care for instructed, wide awake,

123 Industrious, worthy of that eponym

124 Because they bad a sleepless mind within

125 And a huge body; stout with mighty form

126 They were; but, notwithstanding, down they went

127 Into Tartarean chamber terrible,

128 Kept in firm chains to pay full penalty

129 In Gehenna of strong, furious, quenchless fire.

130 And after these a third strong-minded race

131 Appeared, a race of overbearing men

132 And terrible, who wrought among themselves

133 Many an evil. And fights, homicides,

134 And battles did continually destroy

135 Those men possessed of overweening heart.

136 And from these afterward another race

137 Proceeded, late-completed, youngest born,

138 Blood-stained, perverse in counsel; of men these

139 Were in the fourth race; much the blood they spilled,

140 Nor feared they God nor had regard for men,

141 For maddening wrath and sore impiety

142 Were sent upon them. And wars, homicides,

143 And battles sent some into Erebus,

144 Since they were overweening impious men.

145 But the rest did the heavenly God himself

146 In anger afterwards change from his world,

147 Casting them into mighty Tartarus

148 Down under the foundation of the earth.

149 And later yet another race much worse

150 [Of men he made, to whom no good thereafter]

151 The Immortal formed, since they wrought many evils.

152 For they were much more violent than those,

153 Giants perverse, foul language pouring out.

154 Single among all men, most just and true,

155 Was the most faithful Noah, full of care

156 For noblest works. And to him God himself

157 From heaven thus spoke: “Noah, be of good cheer

158 In thyself and to all the people preach

159 Repentance, so that they may all be saved.

160 But if, with shameless soul, they heed me not

161 The whole race I will utterly destroy

162 With mighty floods of waters. Quickly now

163 An undecaying house I bid thee frame

164 Of planks strong and impervious to the wet.

165 I will put understanding in thy heart,

166 And subtile skill, and rule of measurement

167 And order; and for all things will I care

168 That thou be saved, and all who dwell with thee.

169 And I am He who is, and in thy heart

170 Do thou discern. I clothe me with the heaven,

171 And cast the sea around me, and for me

172 Earth is a footstool, and the air is poured

173 Around my body; and on every side

174 Around me runs the chorus of the stars.

175 Nine letters have I; of four syllables

176 I am discern me. The first three have each

177 Two letters, the remaining one the rest,

178 And five are mutes; and of the entire sum

179 The hundreds are twice eight and thrice three tens

180 Along with seven. Now, knowing who I am,

181 Be thou not uninitiate in my lore.”

182 Thus he spoke; and great trembling seized on him

183 At what he heard. And then, within his mind

184 Having contrived each matter, he besought

185 The people and began with words like these:

186 “O men insatiate, smit with madness great,

187 Whatever things ye practiced they shall not

188 Escape God’s notice; for he knows all things,

189 Immortal Saviour overseeing all,

190 Who bade me warn you, that ye perish not.

191 Be sober, cut off badness, do not fight

192 Perforce each other with blood-guilty heart,

193 Nor irrigate much land with human gore.

194 Revere, O mortals, the supremely great

195 And fearless heavenly Creator, God

196 Imperishable, whose dwelling is the sky;

197 And do ye all entreat him—he is kind—

198 For life of cities and of all the world,

199 And of four-footed beasts and flying fowls;

200 Entreat him to be gracious unto all.

201 For when the whole unbounded world of men

202 Shall be destroyed by waters loud ye’ll raise

203 A fearful cry. And suddenly for you

204 The air shall be disordered, and from heaven

205 The fury of the mighty God shall come

206 Upon you. And it certainly shall be

207 That the immortal Saviour against men

208 Will send wrath if ye do not placate God

209 And from this time repent; and nothing more

210 Fretful and evil lawlessly shall ye

211 One to another do, but let there be

212 A guarding of one’s self by holy life.”

213 But when they heard him each turned up his nose,

214 Calling him mad, a frenzy-smitton man.

215 And then again did Noah sound this strain:

216 “O men exceeding wretched, base in heart,

217 Unstable, leaving modesty behind

218 And loving shamelessness, rapacious lords,

219 Fierce sinners, false, insatiate, mischievous,

220 In nothing true, stealthy adulterers,

221 Flippant in language, pouring forth foul words,

222 The wrath of God most high not fearing, kept

223 To the fifth generation to atone!

224 In no way do ye wail, harsh men, but laugh;

225 Sardonic smile shall ye laugh, when shall come

226 That which I speak—God’s dire incoming flood,

227 When Eve’s polluted race, in the great earth

228 Blooming perennial in impervious stem,

229 Shall, root and branch, in one night disappear,

230 And cities, men and all, shall the Earth-shaker

231 From the depths scatter and their walls destroy.

232 And then the whole world of annumbered men

233 Shall die. But how shall I weep, how lament

234 In wooden house, how mingle tears with waves?

235 For, if this water bidden of God shall come,

236 Earth shall float, bills float, and even sky shall float;

237 Everything shall be water, and all things

238 Shall be destroyed by waters. And the winds

239 Shall stand still, and a second age shall come.

240 O Phrygia, thou shalt from the water’s crest

241 First rise up, and thou first another race

242 Of men shalt nourish, once again anew

243 Beginning; and thou shalt be nurse for all.”

244 But when now to the lawless generation

245 He had thus vainly spoken, the Most High

246 Appeared, and once more cried aloud and said:

247 “The time is now come, Noah, to proclaim

248 Each thing, even all which I that day to thee

249 Did promise and confirm, and to complete,

250 Because of a people disobedient,

251 Throughout the boundless world even all the things

252 Which generations of a former time

253 Did practice, evil things innumerable.

254 But do thou quickly enter with thy sons

255 And the wives. Call as many as I bid,

256 Of tribes of beasts and creeping things and birds,

257 And in as many as I ordain for life

258 Will I then put a willingness to go.”

259 Thus spoke he; forth went (Noah) and aloud

260 Cried out and called. And then wife, sons and brides,

261 Entered the house of wood; then also went

262 The other things, as many as God willed

263 To shut in. But when fitting bolt was put

264 About the lid, and in its polished place

265 Was fitted sideways, then was brought to pass

266 Forthwith the purpose of the God of heaven.

267 And he massed clouds, and hid the sun’s bright disk,

268 And moon, and stars, and circle of the heaven,

269 Obscuring all things round; he thundered loud,

270 Terror of mortals, sending lightnings forth;

271 And all the winds together were aroused,

272 And all the veins of water were unloosed

273 By opening of great cataracts from heaven,

274 And from earth’s caverns and the tireless deep

275 Appeared the myriad waters, and the whole

276 limitable earth was covered o’er.

277 But on the water swam that wondrous house;

278 And torn by many furious waves, and struck

279 By force of winds, it rushed on fearfully;

280 But with its keel it cut the mass of foam

281 While the loud-babbling waters dashed around.

282 But when God deluged all the world with rains

283 Then also Noah took thought to observe

284 By counsels of the Immortal; for he now

285 Had had enough of Nereus. And straightway

286 The house he opened from the polished wall,

287 That crosswise was bound fast with skillful stays.

288 And looking out upon the mighty mass

289 Of boundless waters Noah on all sides—

290 And ‘twas his fortune with his eyes to see!—

291 Fear possessed and shook mightily his heart.

292 And then the air became a little calm,

293 Since it was weary wetting all the world.

294 Many days; parting, then, it brought to light

295 How pale and blood-red was the mighty sky

296 And sun’s bright disk awearied; scarcely held

297 Noah his courage. And then forth afar

298 Sent he a dove alone, that he might learn

299 If yet firm land appeared. But with tired wing,

300 Flying round all things, she again returned;

301 For not yet had the water ebbed away;

302 For it was deeply filling every place.

303 But after resting quietly for days

304 He sent the dove once more, to learn if yet

305 Had ceased the many waters. And she flew

306 And flew on, and went o’er the earth and, resting

307 Her body lightly on the humid ground,

308 Again to Noah back she came and bore

309 An olive branch—of tidings a great sign.

310 Courage now filled them all, and groat delight,

311 Because they hoped to look upon the land.

312 But then thereafter yet another bird,

313 Of black wing, sent he forth as hastily;

314 Which, trusting to its wings, flew willingly,

315 And coming to the land continued there.

316 And Noah knew the land was nearer now.

317 But when on dashing waves the craft divine

318 Had here and there o’er ocean’s billows swum,

319 It was made fast upon the narrow strand.

320 There is in Phrygia on the dark mainland

321 A steep, tall mountain; Ararat its name,

322 Because upon it all were to be saved

323 From death, and there was great desire of heart;

324 Thence streams of the great river Marsyas spring.

325 There on a lofty peak the ark abode

326 When the waters ceased, and then again from heaven

327 The voice divine of the great God this word

328 Proclaimed: “O Noah, guarded, faithful, just,

329 Come boldly forth, with thy sons and thy wife

330 And the three brides, and fill ye all the earth,

331 Increasing, multiplying, rendering justice

332 To one another through all generations,

333 Until to judgment every race of men

334 Shall come; for judgment shall be unto all.”

335 Thus spoke the voice divine. Then from his couch

336 Noah, encouraged, hastened on the land,

337 And with him went his sons and wife and brides,

338 And creeping things, and birds and quadrupeds,

339 And all things else went from the wooden house

340 Into one place. And then went Noah forth

341 As eighth, most just of men, when on the waters

342 He had made full twice twenty days and one

343 Because of counsels of the mighty God,

344 Then a new stock of life again arose,

345 Golden first, which indeed was sixth, and best,

346 From the time when the first-formed man appeared;

347 Heavenly its name, because all things to God

348 Shall be a care. O first race of sixth age!

349 O mighty joy which I thereafter shared,

350 When I escaped sheer ruin, by the waves

351 Much tossed, with husband and with brothers-in-law,

352 Stepfather and stepmother, and with wives

353 Of husband’s brothers suffering terribly.

354 Fitting things now will I sing: There shall be

355 On the fig-tree a many-colored flower,

356 And afterward the royal power and sway

357 Shall Cronos have. For three kings of great soul,

358 Men most just, shall distribute portions then,

359 And many a year rule, rendering what is just

360 To men who care for toil and deeds of love.

361 And earth shall glory in her many fruits

362 Self-growing, yielding much corn for the race.

363 And the foster-fathers, ageless all their days,

364 Shall from diseases chill and dreadful be

365 Far aloof; they shall die as fallen on sleep,

366 And unto Acheron in the abodes

367 Of Hades they shall go away, and there

368 Shall they have honor, since they were a race

369 Of blessed ones, fortunate heroes, whom

370 The Lord of Sabaoth gave a noble mind,

371 And with whom always he his counsels shared.

372 But blessed shall they be even when they go

373 In Hades. And then afterward again

374 Oppressive, strong, another second race

375 Of earth-born men, the Titans. All excel

376 In figure, stature, growth; and there shall be

377 One language, as of old from the first race

378 God in their breasts implanted. But even these,

379 Having a haughty heart and rushing on

380 To ruin, shall at last resolve to fight

381 Against the starry heaven. And then the stream

382 Of the great ocean shall upon them pour

383 Its raging waters. But the mighty Lord

384 Of Sabaoth though enraged shall check his wrath,

385 Because he promised that again no flood

386 Should be brought upon men of evil soul.

387 But when the great high-thundering God shall cause

388 The boundless swelling of the many waters—

389 With their waves hither and thither rising high—

390 To cease from wrath, and into other depths

391 Of sea their measure lessen, setting bounds

392 By harbors and rough headlands round the land;

393 Then also shall a child of the great God

394 Come, clothed in flesh, to men, and fashioned like

395 To mortals in the earth; and he doth bear

396 Four vowels, and two consonants in him

397 Are twice announced; the whole sum I will name:

398 For eight ones, and as many tens on these,

399 And yet, eight hundred will reveal the name

400 To men insatiate; and do thou discern

401 In thine own understanding that the Christ

402 Is child of the immortal God most high.

403 And he shall fulfill God’s law, not destroy,

404 Bearing his very image, and all things.

405 Shall he teach. Unto him shall priests convey

406 And offer gold, and myrrh, and frankincense;

407 For all these things he’ll also bring to pass.

408 But when a voice shall through the desert land

409 Come bearing tidings to men, and to all

410 Shall call to make straight paths, and from the heart

411 Cast wickedness out and illuminate

412 With water all the bodies of mankind,

413 That being born again they may no more

414 From what is righteous go at all astray—

415 And one of barbarous mind, by dances bound,

416 Cutting that (voice) off shall bestow reward—

417 Then on a sudden there shall be a sign

418 To mortals, when, watched over, there shall come

419 Out of the land of Egypt a fair stone;

420 And on it shall the Hebrew people stumble;

421 But by his guiding nations shall be brought

422 Together; for the God who rules on high

423 They also shall know through him, and the way

424 In common light. For unto chosen men

425 Will he show life eternal, but the fire

426 Will he for ages on the lawless bring.

427 And then shall he the sickly heal, and all

428 Who are blameworthy who shall trust in him.

429 And then the blind shall see, the lame shall walk,

430 The deaf shall hearken, and the dumb shall speak.

431 Demons shall he drive out, and of the dead

432 There shall be an uprising; on the waves

433 Shall he walk; also in a desert place

434 Shall he five thousand satisfy with food.

435 From five loaves and a fish out of the sea,

436 And with the remnants of them, for the hope

437 Of peoples, shall he fill twelve baskets full.

438 And then shall Israel, drunken, not discern,

439 Nor shall they hear, oppressed with feeble ears.

440 But when the maddening wrath of the Most High

441 Shall come upon the Hebrews, and take faith

442 Away from them, because they slew the Son.

443 Of the heavenly God; then also with foul lips

444 Shall Israel give him cuffs and spittle drugged.

445 And gall for food and vinegar unmixed

446 For drink will they, with evil madness smitten

447 In bosom and in heart, give impiously,

448 Not seeing with their eyes, more blind than moles,

449 More terrible than crawling poisonous beasts,

450 Fast bound by heavy sleep. But when his hands

451 He shall spread forth and measure out all things,

452 And bear the crown of thorns, and they shall pierce

453 His side with reeds, for which dark monstrous night

454 Shall be for three hours in the midst of day,

455 Then also shall the temple of Solomon

456 Bring to an end a mighty sign for men,

457 When he shall to the house of Hades go

458 Proclaiming resurrection to the dead.

459 But when in three days he shall come again

460 Unto the light, and show his form to men

461 And teach all things, ascending in the clouds

462 Unto the house of heaven shall he go

463 Leaving the world a Gospel convenant.

464 And in his name shall blossom a new shoot

465 From nations that are guided by the law

466 Of the Mighty One. But also after this

467 There shall be wise guides, and then afterward

468 There shall be a cessation of the prophets.

469 After that, when the Hebrew people reap

470 Their evil harvest, shall a Roman king

471 Much gold and silver utterly destroy.

472 And afterward shall other royal powers

473 Continuously arise as kingdoms perish,

474 And they will oppress mortals. But great fall

475 Shall be for those men, when they shall begin

476 Unrighteous arrogance. But when the temple

477 Of Solomon in the holy land shall fall,

478 Cast down by barbarous men in brazen mail,

479 And from the land the Hebrews shall be driven

480 Wandering and wasted, and among the wheat

481 They shall much darnel mingle, there shall be

482 Evil contention among all mankind;

483 And the cities suffering outrage shall bewail

484 Each other, in their breasts receiving wrath

485 Of the great God, since they wrought evil work.

Book 2

1 Now while I much entreated God restrained

2 My wise song, also in my breast again

3 He put the charming voice of words divine.

4 In my whole body terror-stricken these

5 I follow; for I know not that I speak,

6 But God impels me to proclaim each thing.

7 But when on earth come shocks, fierce thunderbolts,

8 Thunders and lightnings, storms, and evil blight,

9 And rage of jackals and of wolves, manslaughter,

10 Destruction of men and of lowing kine,

11 Four-footed cattle and laborious mules,

12 And goats and sheep, then shall the ample field

13 Be barren from neglect, and fruits shall fail,

14 And there shall be a selling of their freedom

15 Among most men, and robbery of temples.

16 And then shall, after these, appear of men

17 The tenth race, when the earth-shaking Lightener

18 Shall break the zeal for idols and shall shake

19 The people of seven-hilled Rome, and riches great

20 Shall perish, burned by Vulcan’s fiery flame.

21 And then shall bloody signs from heaven descend—

22 .mw-parser-output .wst-asterisks{display:block;margin:auto;text-align:center}……

23 But yet the whole world of unnumbered men

24 Enraged shall kill each other, and in tumult

25 Shall God send famines, plagues, and thunderbolts

26 On men who, without justice, judge of rights.

27 And lack of men shall be in all the world,

28 So that if anyone beheld a trace

29 Of man on earth, he would be wonderstruck.

30 And then shall the great God who dwells in heaven

31 Saviour of pious men in all things prove.

32 And then shall there be peace and wisdom deep,

33 And the fruit-bearing land shall yield again

34 Abundant fruits, divided not in parts

35 Nor yet, enslaved. And every harbor then,

36 And every haven, shall be free to men

37 As formerly, and shamelessness shall perish.

38 And then will God show mortals a great sign:

39 For like a lustrous crown shall shine a star,

40 Bright, all-resplendent, from the radiant heaven

41 Days not a few; and then will he display

42 From heaven a crown for contest unto men

43 Who wrestle. And then there shall be again

44 A mighty contest of triumphal march

45 Into the heavenly sky, and it shall be

46 For all men in the world, and have the fame

47 Of immortality. And every people

48 Shall then in the immortal contests strive

49 For splendid victory. For no one there

50 Can shamelessly with silver buy a crown.

51 For unto them will the pure Christ adjudge

52 That which is due, and crown the ones approved,

53 And give his martyrs an immortal prize

54 Who carry on the contest unto death.

55 And unto chaste men who run their race well

56 Will he the incorruptible reward

57 Of the prize give, and to all men allot

58 That which is due, and also to strange nations

59 That live a holy life and know one God.

60 And those who have regard for marriages

61 And keep themselves far from adulteries,

62 To them rich gifts, eternal hope, he’ll give.

63 For every human soul is God’s free gift,

64 And ‘tis not right men stain it with vile deeds.

65 [Do not be rich unrighteously, but lead

66 A life of probity. Be satisfied

67 With what thou hast and keep thyself from that

68 Which is another’s. Speak not what is false,

69 But have a care for all things that are true.

70 Revere not idols vainly; but the God

71 Imperishable honor always first,

72 And next thy parents. Render all things due,

73 And into unjust judgment come thou not.

74 Do not cast out the poor unrighteously,

75 Nor judge by outward show; if wickedly

76 Thou judgest, God hereafter will judge thee.

77 Avoid false testimony; tell the truth.

78 Maintain thy virgin purity, and guard

79 Love among all. Deal measures that are just;

80 For beautiful is measure full to all.

81 Strike not the scales oneside, but draw them equal.

82 Forswear not ignorantly nor willingly;

83 God hates the perjured man in that he swore.

84 A gift proceeding out of unjust deeds

85 Never receive in hand. Do not steal seed;

86 Accursed through many generations he

87 Who took it unto scattering of life.

88 Indulge not vile lusts, slander not, nor kill.

89 Give the toil worn his hire; do not afflict

90 The poor man. Unto orphans help afford.

91 And to widows and the needy. Talk with sense;

92 Hold fast in heart a secret. Be unwilling

93 To act unjustly nor yet tolerate

94 Unrighteous men. Give to the poor at once

95 And say not, “Come to-morrow.” Of thy grain

96 Give to the needy with perspiring hand.

97 He who gives alms knows how to lend to God.

98 Mercy redeems from death when judgment comes.

99 Not sacrifice, but mercy God desires

100 Rather than sacrifice. The naked clothe,

101 Share thy bread with the hungry, in thy house

102 Receive the shelterless and lead the blind.

103 Pity the shipwrecked; for the voyage is

104 Uncertain. To the fallen give a hand;

105 And save the man that stands without defense.

106 Common to all is suffering, life’s a wheel,

107 Riches unstable. Having wealth, reach out

108 To the poor thy hand. Of what God gave to thee

109 Bestow thou also on the needy one.

110 Common is the whole life of mortal men;

111 But it comes out unequal. When thou seest

112 A poor man never banter him with words,

113 Nor harshly accost a man who may be blamed.

114 One’s life in death is proven; if one did.

115 The unlawful or just, it shall be decided

116 When he to judgment comes. Disable not

117 Thy mind with wine nor drink excessively.

118 Eat not blood, and abstain from things

119 Offered to idols. Gird not on the sword

120 For slaughter, but defense; and would thou might

121 It neither lawlessly nor justly use:

122 For if thou kill an enemy thy band

123 Thou dost defile. Keep from thy neighbor’s field,

124 Nor trespass on it; just is every landmark,

125 And trespass painful. Useful is possession

126 Of lawful wealth, but of unrighteous gains

127 ‘Tis worthless. Harm not any growing fruit

128 Of the field. And let strangers be esteemed

129 In equal honor with the citizens;

130 For much-enduring hospitality

131 Shall all experience as each other’s guests;

132 But let there not be anyone a stranger

133 Among you, since, ye mortals, all of you

134 Are of one blood, and no land has for men

135 Any sure place. Wish not nor pray for wealth;

136 But pray to live from few things and possess

137 Nothing at all unjust. The love of gain

138 Is mother of all evil. Do not long

139 For gold or silver; in them there will be

140 A double-edged and soul-destroying iron.

141 A snare to men continually are gold.

142 And silver. Gold, of evils source, of life

143 Destructive, troubling all things, would that thou

144 Wert not to mortals such a longed-for bane!

145 For wars, because of thee, and pillaging

146 And murders come, and children hate their sires,

147 And brothers and sisters those of their own blood.

148 Plot no deceit, and do not arm thy heart

149 Against a friend. Keep not concealed within

150 A different thought from what thou speakest forth;

151 Nor, like rock-clinging polyp, change with place.

152 But with all be frank, and things from the soul

153 Speak thou forth. Whosoever willfully

154 Commits a wrong, an evil man is he;

155 But he that does it under force, the end

156 I tell not; but lot each man’s will be right.

157 Pride not thyself in wisdom, power, or wealth;

158 God only is the wise and mighty one

159 And full of riches. Do not vex thy heart

160 With evils that are past; for what is done

161 Can never be undone. Let not thy hand

162 Be hasty, but ferocious passion curb;

163 For many times has one in striking done

164 Murder without design. Let suffering

165 Be common, neither great nor overmuch.

166 Excessive good has not brought forth to men

167 That which is helpful. And much luxury

168 Leads to immoderate lusts. Much wealth is proud,

169 And makes one grow to wanton violence.

170 Passionate feeling, creeping in, effects

171 Destructive madness. Anger is a lust,

172 And when it is excessive it is wrath.

173 The zeal of good men is a noble thing,

174 But of the base is base. Of wicked men

175 The boldness is destructive, but renown

176 Follows that of the good. To be revered

177 Is virtuous love, but that of Cypris works

178 Increase of shame. A silly man is called

179 Very agreeable among his fellows.

180 With moderation eat, drink, and converse;

181 Of all things moderation is the best;

182 But trespass of its limit brings to grief.

183 Be not thou envious, faithless, or abusive,

184 Or evil-minded, or a false deceiver.

185 Be prudent and abstain from shameless deeds.

186 Imitate not what’s evil, but leave thou

187 Vengeance to justice; for persuasion is

188 A useful thing, but strife engenders strife.

189 Trust not too quickly ere thou see the end.]

190 This is the contest, these are the rewards;

191 These are the prizes; this the gate of life

192 And entrance into immortality,

193 Which God in heaven unto most righteous men

194 Appointed a reward for victory;

195 And through this gate shall gloriously pass

196 Those who shall then receive the victor’s crown.

197 But when this sign shall everywhere appear—

198 Children with gray hair on their temples born—

199 And human sufferings, famines, plagues, and wars,

200 And change of times, and many a tearful wail,

201 Ah! of how many parents in the lands

202 Will children mourn and piteously weep,

203 And with shrouds bury flesh and limbs in earth,

204 Mother of peoples, with the blood and dust

205 Themselves defiling. O ye wretched men

206 Of the last generation, evil doers,

207 Terrible, childish, not perceiving this,

208 That when the tribes of women do not bear

209 The harvest time of mortal men is come.

210 Near is the ruin when impostors come

211 Instead of prophets speaking on the earth.

212 And Beliar shall come and many signs

213 Perform for men. And then of holy men,

214 Elect and faithful, there shall be confusion,

215 And pillaging of them and of the Hebrews.

216 And there shall be upon them fearful wrath

217 When from the east a people of twelve tribes

218 Shall come in search of kindred Hebrew people

219 Whom Assyrian shoot destroyed; and over these

220 Shall nations perish. But they afterwards

221 Shall over men exceeding mighty rule,

222 Elect and faithful Hebrews, and enslave

223 Them as before, since their power ne’er shall fail,

224 He that is highest of all, the all-surveying,

225 Dwelling in heaven, will scatter sleep on men,

226 Covering the eyelids o’er. O blessed servants

227 Whom when the Master comes he finds awake!

228 And they all watch at all times and expect

229 With sleepless eyes. For it will be at dawn

230 Or eve or midday; but he sure shall come,

231 And it shall be as I say, it shall be,

232 To them that sleep, that from the starry heaven

233 The stars at midday will to all appear

234 With the two lights as the time hastens on.

235 And then the Tishbite, urging from the heaven

236 His chariot celestial, and on earth

237 Arriving, shall to all the world display

238 Three evil signs of life to be destroyed.

239 Alas for all the women in that day

240 Who shall be found with burden in the womb!

241 Alas for all who suckle tender babes!

242 Alas for all who shall dwell on the waves!

243 Alas for women who shall see that day!

244 For a dark mist shall hide the boundless world,

245 East, west, and south, and north. And then shall flow

246 A mighty stream of burning fire from heaven.

247 And every place consume, earth, ocean vast,

248 And gleaming sea, and lakes and rivers, springs,

249 And cruel Hades and the heavenly sky.

250 And heavenly lights shall break up into one

251 And into outward form all-desolate.

252 For stars from heaven shall fall into all seas.

253 And all the souls of men shall gnash their teeth

254 Burned both by sulphur stream and force of fire

255 In ravenous soil, and ashes hide all things.

256 And then of the world all the elements

257 Shall be bereft, air, earth, sea, light, sky, days,

258 Nights; and no longer in the air shall fly

259 Birds without number, nor shall living things

260 That swim the sea swim any more at all,

261 Nor freighted vessel o’er the billows pass,

262 Nor kine straight-guiding plow the field, nor sound

263 Of furious winds; but he shall fuse all things

264 Together, and shall pick out what is pure.

265 But when the immortal God’s eternal angels

266 Arakiel, Ramiel, Uriel, Samiel,

267 And Azael, they that know how many evils

268 Anyone did before, shall from dark gloom.

269 Then lead to judgment all the souls of men

270 Before the judgment-seat of the great God

271 Immortal; for imperishable is

272 One only, himself the almighty One,

273 Who shall be judge of mortals; and to them

274 That dwell beneath will then the heavenly One

275 Give souls and spirit and voice, and also bones

276 Fitted with joints unto all kinds of flesh,

277 And both the flesh and sinews, veins and skin

278 About the body, and hair as before;

279 Divinely fashioned and with breathing moved

280 Shall bodies of those on earth one day be raised.

281 And then shall Uriel, mighty angel, break

282 The bolts of stern and lasting adamant

283 Which, monstrous, hold the brazen gates of Hades,

284 Straight cast them down, and unto judgment lead

285 All forms that have endured much suffering,

286 Chiefly the shapes of Titans born of old,

287 And giants, and all whom the deluge whelmed,

288 And all that perished in the billowy seas,

289 And all that furnished banquet for the beasts

290 And creeping things and fowls, these in a mass

291 Shall (Uriel) summon to the judgment-seat;

292 And also those whom flesh-devouring fire

293 Destroyed in flame, even these shall he collect

294 And place before the judgment-seat of God,

295 And when the high-thundering Lord of Sabaoth

296 Making an end of fate shall raise the dead,

297 Sit on his heavenly throne, and firmly fix

298 The mighty pillar, then amid the clouds

299 Christ, who himself is incorruptible,

300 Shall come unto the Incorruptible

301 In glory with pure angels, and shall sit

302 At the right hand on the great judgment-seat

303 To judge the life of pious and the way

304 Of impious men. And Moses, the great friend

305 Of the Most High, shall come enrobed in flesh;

306 Also great Abraham himself shall come,

307 Isaac and Jacob, Joshua, Daniel,

308 Elijah, Habakkuk and Jonab, and

309 Those whom the Hebrews slow. But he’ll destroy

310 The Hebrews after Jeremiah, all

311 Who are to be judged at the judgment-seat,

312 That worthy recompense they may receive

313 And pay for all each did in mortal life.

314 And then shall all pass through the burning stream

315 Of flame unquenchable; but all the just

316 Shall be saved; and the godless furthermore

317 Shall to all ages perish, all who did

318 Evils aforetime, and committed murders,

319 And all who are accomplices therein,

320 Liars and thieves, and ruiners of home,

321 Crafty and terrible, and parasites,

322 And marriage-breakers pouring forth vile words,

323 Dread, wanton, lawless, and idolaters;

324 And all who left the great immortal God,

325 Became blasphemers, did the pious harm,

326 Destroying faith and killing righteous men;

327 And all that with a shamelessness deceitful

328 And double-faced rush in as presbyters

329 And reverend ministers, who knowingly

330 Give unjust judgments, yielding to false words .mw-parser-output .nowrap,.mw-parser-output .nowrap a:before,.mw-parser-output .nowrap .selflink:before{white-space:nowrap}. .

331 More hurtful than the leopards and the wolves

332 And more vile; and all that are grossly proud;

333 And usurers, who gains on gains amass

334 And damage orphans and widows in each thing;

335 And all that give to widows and to orphans

336 The fruit of unjust deeds, and all that cast

337 Reproach in giving from their own hard toils;

338 And all that left their parents in old age,

339 Not paying them at all, nor offering

340 To parents filial duty, and all who

341 Were disobedient and against their sires

342 Spoke a harsh word; and all that pledges took

343 And then denied them; and the servants all

344 Who were against their masters, and again

345 Those who licentiously defiled the flesh;

346 And all who loosed the girdle of the maid

347 For secret intercourse, and all who caused

348 Abortions, and all who their offspring cast

349 Unlawfully away; and sorcerers

350 And sorceresses with them, and these wrath

351 Of the heavenly and immortal God shall drive

352 Against a pillar, where shall all around.

353 In a circle flow a restless stream of fire;

354 And deathless angels of the immortal God,

355 Who ever is, shall bind with lasting bonds

356 In chains of flaming fire and from above

357 Punish them all by scourge most terribly;

358 And in Gehenna, in the gloom of night,

359 Shall they be cast ‘neath many horrid beasts

360 Of Tartarus, where darkness is immense.

361 But when there shall be many punishments

362 Enforced on all who had an evil heart,

363 Yet afterward shall there a fiery wheel

364 From a great river circle them around,

365 Because they had a care for wicked deeds.

366 And then one here, another there, shall sires,

367 Young children, mothers, nursing babes, in tears

368 Wail their most piteous fate. No fill of tears

369 Shall be for them, nor piteous voice be heard

370 Of them that moan, one here, another there,

371 But long worn under dark, dank Tartarus

372 Aloud shall they cry; and they shall repay

373 In cursed places thrice as much as all

374 The evil work they did, burned with much fire;

375 And all of them, consumed by raging thirst

376 And hunger, shall in anguish gnash their teeth

377 And call death beautiful, and death shall flee

378 Away from them. For neither death nor night

379 Shall ever give them rest. And many things in vain

380 Will they ask of the God that rules on high,

381 And then will he his face turn openly

382 Away from them. For he to erring men

383 Gave, in seven ages for repentance, signs

384 By the hands of a virgin undefiled.

385 But the others, all to whom right and fair works

386 And piety and thoughts most just were dear,

387 Shall angels, bearing through the burning stream,

388 Lead unto light and life exempt from care,

389 Where comes the immortal way of the great God

390 And fountains thrce—of honey, wine, and milk.

391 And equal land for all, divided not

392 By walls or fences, more abundant fruits

393 Spontaneous shall then bear, and the course

394 Of life be common and wealth unapportioned,

395 For there no longer will be poor nor rich,

396 Tyrant nor slave, nor any great nor small,

397 Nor kings nor leaders; all alike in common.

398 No more at all will one say, “night has come,”

399 Nor “morrow comes,” nor “yesterday has been;”

400 Nor shall there many days of anxious care,

401 Nor spring, nor winter, nor the summer-heat,

402 Nor autumn he [nor marriage, nor yet death,

403 Nor sales, nor purchases], nor set of sun

404 Nor rising; for a long day will God make.

405 And to the pious will the almighty God

406 Imperishable grant another thing,

407 When they shall ask the imperishable God:

408 That he will suffer men from raging fire

409 And endless gnawing anguish to be saved;

410 And this will he do. For hereafter he

411 Will pluck them from the restless flame, elsewhere

412 Remove them, and for his own people’s sake

413 Send them to other and eternal life

414 With the immortals, in Elysian field,

415 Where move far-stretching billows of the lake

416 Of ever-flowing Acheron profound.

417 Ah, miserable woman that I am!

418 What shall I be in that day? for I sinned—

419 Being busy foolishly about all things,

420 Caring for neither marriage-bond nor reason;

421 But even in my wealthy husband’s house

422 I shut the needy out; and formerly

423 I knowingly performed unlawful things,

424 But, Saviour, though I shameless things performed,

425 Do thou from my tormentors rescue me,

426 A shameless woman. And I pray thee now

427 Make me to rest a little from my song,

428 Holy Giver of manna, King of the great realm.

429 False manifestly; for the ponal fire

430 Shall never cease from those who are condemned.

431 For also I might pray to have it thus,

432 Branded with greatest scars of trespasses,

433 Which need more kindness. But let Origen

434 Of his presumptuous babble be ashamed,

435 Saying there shall be end of punishments.

Book 3

1 O thou high-thundering blessed heavenly One,

2 Who hast set in their place the cherubim,

3 I, who have uttered what is all too true,

4 Entreat thee, let me have a little rest;

5 For my heart has grown weary from within.

6 But why again leaps my heart, and my soul

7 With a whip smitten from within constrained

8 To utter forth its message unto all?

9 But yet again will I proclaim all things

10 Which God commands me to proclaim to men,

11 O men, that in your image have a form

12 Fashioned of God, why do ye vainly stray

13 And walk not in the straight way, always mindful

14 Of the immortal Maker? God is one,

15 Sovereign, ineffable, dwelling in heaven,

16 The self-existent and invisible,

17 Himself alone beholding everything;

18 Him sculptor’s hand made not, nor is his form

19 Shown by man’s art from gold or ivory;

20 But he, eternal Lord, proclaims himself

21 As one who is and was erst and shall be

22 Again hereafter. For who being mortal

23 Can see God with his eyes? Or who shall bear

24 To hear the only name of heaven’s great God,

25 The ruler of the world? He by his word

26 Created all things, even heaven and sea,

27 And tireless sun, and full moon and bright stars,

28 And mighty mother Tethys, springs and rivers,

29 Imperishable fire, and days and nights.

30 This is the God who formed four-lettered Adam,

31 The first one formed, and filling with his name

32 East, west, and south, and north. The same is he

33 Who fixed the pattern of the human form,

34 And made wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls.

35 Ye do not worship neither fear ye God,

36 But vainly go astray and bow the knee

37 To serpents, and make offering to cats,

38 And idols, and stone images of men,

39 And sit before the doors of godless temples;

40 Ye guard him who is God, who keeps all things,

41 And merry with the wickedness of stones

42 Forget the judgment of the immortal Saviour

43 Who made the heaven and earth. Alas! a race

44 That has delight in blood, deceitful, vile,

45 Ungodly, of false, double-tongued, immoral men,

46 Adulterous, idolous, designing fraud,

47 An evil madness raving in their hearts,

48 For themselves plundering, having shameless soul;

49 For no one who has riches will impart

50 To another, but dire wickedness shall be

51 Among all mortals, and for sake of gain

52 Will many widows not at all keep faith,

53 But secretly love others, and the bond

54 Of life those who have husbands do not keep.

55 But when Rome shall o’er Egypt also rule

56 Governing always, then shall there appear

57 The greatest kingdom of the immortal King

58 Over men. And a holy Lord shall come

59 To hold the scepter over every land

60 Unto all ages of fast-hastening time.

61 And then shall come inexorable wrath

62 On Latin men; three shall by piteous fate

63 Endamage Rome. And perish shall all men,

64 With their own houses, when from heaven shall flow

65 A fiery cataract. Ah, wretched me!

66 When shall that day and when shall judgment come

67 Of the immortal God, the mighty King?

68 But just now, O ye cities, ye are built

69 And all adorned with temples and race-grounds,

70 Markets, and images of wood, of gold,

71 Of silver and of stone, that ye may come

72 Unto the bitter day. For it shall come,

73 When there shall pass among all men a stench

74 Of brimstone. Yet each thing will I declare,

75 In all the cities where men suffer ills.

76 .mw-parser-output .wst-asterisks{display:block;margin:auto;text-align:center}…….

77 From the Sebastenes Beliar shall come

78 Hereafter, and the height of hills shall he

79 Establish, and shall make the sea stand still

80 And the great fiery sun and the bright moon;

81 And he shall raise the dead, and many signs

82 Work before men: but nothing shall be brought

83 By him unto completion but deceit,

84 And many mortals shall he lead astray—

85 Hebrews both true and choice, and lawless men

86 Besides who never gave ear to God’s word.

87 But when the threatenings of the mighty God

88 Shall draw near, and a flaming power shall come

89 By billow to the earth, it shall consume

90 Both Beliar and all the haughty men

91 Who put their trust in him. And thereupon

92 Shall the whole world be governed by the hands

93 Of a woman and obedient everywhere.

94 Then when a widow shall o’er all the world

95 Gain the rule, and east in the mighty sea

96 Both gold and silver, also brass and iron

97 Of short-lived men into the deep shall east,

98 Then all the elements shall be bereft

99 Of order, when the God who dwells on high

100 Shall roll the heaven, even as a scroll is rolled;

101 And to the mighty earth and sea shall fall

102 The entire multiform sky; and there shall flow

103 A tireless cataract of raging fire,

104 And it shall burn the land, and burn the sea,

105 And heavenly sky, and night, and day, and melt

106 Creation itself together and pick out

107 What is pure. No more laughing spheres of light,

108 Nor night, nor dawn, nor many days of care,

109 Nor spring, nor winter, nor the summer-time,

110 Nor autumn. And then of the mighty God

111 The judgment midway in a mighty age

112 Shall come, when all these things shall come to pass.

113 …….

114 O navigable waters and each land

115 Of the Orient and of the Occident,

116 Subject shall all things be to him who comes

117 Into the world again, and therefore he

118 Himself became first conscious of his power.

119 …….

120 But when the threatenings of the mighty God

121 Are fulfilled, which he threatened mortals once,

122 When in Assyrian land they built a tower;—

123 (And they all spoke one language, and resolved

124 To mount aloft into the starry heaven;

125 But on the air the Immortal straightway put

126 A mighty force; and then winds from above

127 Cast down the great tower and stirred mortals up

128 To wrangling with each other; therefore men

129 Gave to that city the name of Babylon);—

130 Now when the tower fell and the tongues of men

131 Turned to all sorts of sounds, straightway all earth

132 Was filled with men and kingdoms were divided;

133 And then the generation tenth appeared

134 Of mortal men, from the time when the flood

135 Came upon earlier men. And Cronos reigned,

136 And Titan and Iapetus; and men called them

137 Best offspring of Gaia and of Uranus,

138 Giving to them names both of earth and heaven,

139 Since they were very first of mortal men.

140 So there were three divisions of the earth

141 According to the allotment of each man,

142 And each one having his own portion reigned

143 And fought not; for a father’s oaths were there

144 And equal were their portions. But the time

145 Complete of old age on the father came,

146 And he died; and the sons infringing oaths

147 Stirred up against each other bitter strife,

148 Which one should have the royal rank and rule

149 Over all mortals; and against each other

150 Cronos and Titan fought. But Rhea and Gaia,

151 And Aphrodite fond of crowns, Demeter,

152 And Hestia and Dione of fair locks

153 Brought them to friendship, and together called

154 All who were kings, both brothers and near kin,

155 And others of the same ancestral blood,

156 And they judged Cronos should reign king of all,

157 For he was oldest and of noblest form.

158 But Titan laid on Cronos mighty oaths

159 To rear no male posterity, that he

160 Himself might reign when age and fate should come

161 To Cronos. And whenever Rhea bore

162 Beside her sat the Titans, and all males

163 In pieces tore, but let the females live

164 To be reared by the mother. But when now

165 At the third birth the august Rhea bore,

166 She brought forth Hera first; and when they saw.

167 A female offspring, the fierce Titan men

168 Betook them to their homes. And thereupon

169 Rhea a male child bore, and having bound

170 Three men of Crete by oath she quickly sent

171 Him into Phrygia to be reared apart

172 In secret; therefore did they name him Zeus,

173 For be was sent away. And thus she sent

174 Poseidon also secretly away.

175 And Pluto, third, did Rhea yet again,

176 Noblest of women, at Dodona bear,

177 Whence flows Europus’ river’s liquid course,

178 And with Pencus mixed pours in the sea

179 Its water, and men call it Stygian.

180 But when the Titans heard that there were sons

181 Kept secretly, whom Cronos and his wife

182 Rhea begat, then Titan sixty youths

183 Together gathered, and held fast in chains

184 Cronos and his wife Rhea, and concealed

185 Them in the earth and guarded them in bonds,

186 And then the sons of powerful Cronos heard,

187 And a great war and uproar they aroused.

188 And this is the beginning of dire war

189 Among all mortals. [For it is indeed

190 With mortals the prime origin of war.]

191 And then did God award the Titans evil.

192 And all of Titans and of Cronos born

193 Died. But then as time rolled around there rose

194 The Egyptian kingdom, then that of the Persians

195 And of the Medes and Ethiopians,

196 And of Assyria and Babylon,

197 And then that of the Macedonians,

198 Egyptian yet again, then that of Rome.

199 And then a message of the mighty God

200 Was set within my breast, and it bade me

201 Proclaim through all earth and in royal hearts

202 Plant things which are to be. And to my mind

203 This God imparted first, how many kingdoms

204 Have been together gathered of mankind.

205 For first of all the house of Solomon

206 Shall include horsemen of Phoenicia

207 And Syria, and of the islands too,

208 And the race of Pamphylians and Persians

209 And Phrygians, Carians, and Mysians

210 And the race of the Lydians rich in gold.

211 And then shall Hellenes, proud and impure,

212 Then shall a Macedonian nation rule,

213 Great, shrewd, who as a fearful cloud of war

214 Shall come to mortals. But the God of heaven

215 Shall utterly destroy them from the depth.

216 And then shall be another kingdom, white

217 And many-headed, from the western sea,

218 Which shall rule much land, and shake many men,

219 And to all kings bring terror afterwards,

220 And out of many cities shall destroy

221 Much gold and silver; but in the vast earth

222 There will again be gold, and silver too,

223 And ornament. And they will oppress mortals;

224 And to those men shall great disaster be,

225 When they begin unrighteous arrogance.

226 And forthwith in them there shall be a force

227 Of wickedness, male will consort with male,

228 And children they will place in dens of shame;

229 And in those days there shall be among men

230 A great affliction, and it shall disturb

231 All things, and break all things, and fill all things

232 With evils by a shameful covetousness.

233 And by ill-gotten wealth in many lands,

234 But most of all in Macedonia.

235 And it shall stir up hatred, and all guile

236 Shall be with them even to the seventh kingdom,

237 Of which a king of Egypt shall be king

238 Who shall be a descendant from the Greeks.

239 And then the nation of the mighty God

240 Shall be again strong, and they shall be guides

241 Of life to all men. But why did God place

242 This also in my mind to tell: what first,

243 And what next, and what evil last shall be

244 On all men? Which of these shall take the lead?

245 First on the Titans will God visit evil.

246 For they shall pay to mighty Cronos’s sons

247 The penal satisfaction, since they bound

248 Both Cronos and the mother dearly loved.

249 Again shall there be tyrants for the Greeks

250 And fierce kings overweening and impure,

251 Adulterous and altogether bad;

252 And for men shall be no more rest from war.

253 And the dread Phrygians shall perish all,

254 And unto Troy shall evil come that day.

255 And to the Persians and Assyrians

256 Evil shall straightway come, and to all Egypt

257 And Libya and the Ethiopians,

258 And to the Carians and Pamphylians—

259 Evil to pass from one place to another,

260 And to all mortals. Why now one by one

261 Do I speak forth? But when the first receive

262 Fulfillment, then straightway shall come on men

263 The second. So the very first I’ll tell.

264 There shall an evil come to pious men

265 Who dwell by the great temple of Solomon

266 And who are progeny of righteous men.

267 Alike of all these also I will tell

268 The tribe and line of fathers and homeland—

269 All things with care, O mortal shrewd in mind,

270 There is a city .mw-parser-output .nowrap,.mw-parser-output .nowrap a:before,.mw-parser-output .nowrap .selflink:before{white-space:nowrap}… on the earth,

271 Ur of the Chaldees, whence there is a race

272 Of men most righteous, to whom both good will

273 And noble deeds have ever been a care.

274 For they have no concern about the course

275 Of the sun’s revolution, nor the moon’s,

276 Nor wondrous things beneath the earth, nor depth

277 Of joy-imparting sea Oceanus,

278 Nor signs of sneezing, nor the wings of birds,

279 Nor soothsayers, nor wizards, nor enchanters,

280 Nor tricks of dull words of ventriloquists,

281 Neither do they astrologize with skill

282 Of the Chaldeans, nor astronomize;

283 For these are all deceptive, in so far

284 As foolish men go seeking day by day

285 Training their souls unto no useful work;

286 And then did they teach miserable men

287 Deceptions, whence to mortals on the earth

288 Come many evils leading them astray

289 From good ways and just deeds. But they have care

290 For righteousness and virtue, and not greed,

291 Which breeds unnumbered ills to mortal men,

292 War and unending famine. But with them

293 Just measure, both in fields and cities, holds,

294 Nor steal they from each other in the night,

295 Nor drive off herds of cattle, sheep, and goats,

296 Nor neighbor remove landmarks of a neighbor,

297 Nor any man of great wealth grieve the one

298 Less favored, nor to widows cause distress,

299 But rather aids them, ever helping them

300 With wheat and wine and oil; and always does

301 The rich man in the country send a share

302 At the time of the harvests unto them

303 That have not, but are needy, thus fulfilling

304 The saying of the mighty God, a hymn

305 In legal setting; for the Heavenly One

306 Finished the earth a common good for all.

307 Now when the people of twelve tribes depart

308 From Egypt, and with leaders sent of God

309 Nightly pursue their way by a pillar of fire.

310 And during all the day by one of cloud,

311 For them then God a leader will appoint—

312 A great man, Moses, whom a princess found

313 Beside a marsh, and carried off and reared

314 And called her son. And at the time he came

315 As leader for the people whom God led

316 From Egypt unto the steep Sinai mount,

317 His own law God delivered them from heaven

318 Writing on two flat stones all righteous things

319 Which he enjoined to do; and if, perchance,

320 One give no heed, he must unto the law

321 Make satisfaction, either at men’s hands

322 Or, if men’s notice he escape, he shall

323 By ample satisfaction be destroyed.

324 [For the Heavenly finished earth a common good

325 For all, and in all hearts as best gift thought.].

326 To them alone the bounteous field yields fruit

327 A hundredfold from one, and thus completes

328 God’s measure. But to them shall also come

329 Misfortune, nor do they escape from plague.

330 And even thou, forsaking thy fair shrine,

331 Shalt flee away when it becomes thy lot

332 To leave the holy land. And thon shalt be

333 Carried to the Assyrians, and shalt sec

334 Young children and wives serving hostile men;

335 And every means of life and wealth shall perish;

336 And every land shall be filled up with thee,

337 And every sea; and everyone shall be

338 Offended with thy customs; and thy land

339 Shall all be desert; and the altar fenced

340 And temple of the great God and long walls

341 Shall all fall to the ground, since in thy heart

342 The holy law of the immortal God

343 Thou didst not keep, but, erring, thou didst serve

344 Unseemly images, and didst not fear

345 The immortal Father, God of all mankind,

346 Nor will to honor him; bat images

347 Of mortals thou didst honor. Therefore now

348 Of time seven decades shall thy fruitful land

349 And the wonders of thy temple all be waste.

350 But there remains for thee a goodly end

351 And greatest glory, as the immortal God

352 Granted thee. But do thou wait and confide

353 In the great God’s pure laws, when he shall lift

354 Thy wearied knee upright unto the light.

355 And then will God from heaven send a king

356 To judge each man in blood and light of fire.

357 There is a royal tribe, the race of which

358 Shall be unfailing; and as times revolve

359 This race shall bear rule and begin to build

360 God’s temple new. And all the Persian kings

361 Shall aid with bronze and gold and well-wrought iron.

362 For God himself will give the holy dream

363 By night. And then the temple shall again

364 Be, as it was before…

365 Now when my soul had rest from inspired song,

366 And I prayed the great Father for a rest

367 From constraint; even in my heart again

368 Was set a message of the mighty God

369 And he bade me proclaim through all the earth

370 And plant in royal minds things yet to be.

371 And in my mind God put this first to say:

372 How many lamentable sufferings

373 The Immortal purposed upon Babylon

374 Because she his great temple had destroyed.

375 Alas, alas for thee! O Babylon,

376 And for the offspring of the Assyrian men!

377 Through all the earth the rush of sinful men

378 Shall some time come, and shout of mortal men

379 And stroke of the great God, who inspires songs,

380 Shall ruin every land. For high in air to thee,

381 O Babylon, shall it come from above,

382 And out of heaven from holy ones to thee

383 Shall it come down, and the soul in thy children.

384 Shall the Eternal utterly destroy.

385 And then shalt thou be, as thou wast before,

386 As one not born; and then shalt thou be filled

387 Again with blood, as thou thyself before

388 Didst shed that of good, just, and holy men,

389 Whose blood yet cries out to the lofty heaven.

390 To thee, O Egypt, shall a great blow come

391 And dreadful, to thy homes, which thou didst hope

392 Might never fall on thee. For through thy midst

393 A sword shall pass, and scattering and death

394 And famine shall prevail until of kings

395 The seventh generation, and then cease.

396 Alas for thee, O land of Gog and Magog

397 In the midst of the rivers of Ethiopia!

398 What pouring out of blood shalt thou receive,

399 And house of judgment among men be called,

400 And thy land of much dew shall drink black blood!

401 Alas for thee, O Libya, and alas,

402 Both sea and land! O daughters of the west,

403 So shall ye come unto a bitter day.

404 And ye shall come pursued by grievous strife,

405 Dreadful and grievous; there shall be again

406 A dreadful judgment, and ye all shall come

407 By force unto destruction, for ye tore

408 In pieces the great house of the Immortal,

409 And with iron teeth ye chewed it dreadfully.

410 Therefore shalt thou then look upon thy land

411 Full of the dead, some of them fallen by war

412 And by the demon of all violence,

413 Famine and plague, and some by barbarous foes.

414 And all thy land shall be a wilderness,

415 And desolations shall thy cities be.

416 And in the west there shall a star shine forth

417 Which they will call a comet, sign to men

418 Of the sword and of famine and of death,

419 And murder of great leaders and chief men,

420 And yet again there shall be among men

421 Greatest signs; for deep-eddying Tanais

422 Shall leave Mæotis’s lake, and there shall be

423 Down the deep stream a fruitful furrow’s track,

424 And the vast flow shall hold a neck of land.

425 And there are hollow chasms and yawning pits;

426 And many cities, men and all, shall fall:—

427 In Asia—Iassus, Cebren, Pandonia,

428 Colophon, Ephesus, Nicæa, Antioch,

429 Syagra, Sinope, Smyrna, Myrina,

430 Most happy Gaza, Hierapolis,

431 Astypalaia; and in Europe—Tanagra,

432 Clitor, Basilis, Meropeia, Antigone,

433 Magnessa, Mykene, Oiantheia.

434 Know then that the destructive race of Egypt

435 Is near destruction, and the past year then

436 Is better for the Alexandrians.

437 As much of tribute as Rome did receive

438 Of Asia, even thrice as many goods

439 Shall Asia back again from Rome receive,

440 And her destructive outrage pay her back.

441 As many as from Asia ever served

442 A house of the Italians, twenty times

443 As many Italians shall in Asia serve

444 In poverty, and numerous debts incur.

445 O virgin, soft rich child of Latin Rome,

446 Oft at thy much-remembered marriage feasts

447 Drunken with wine, now shalt thou be a slave

448 And wedded in no honorable way.

449 And oft shall mistress shear thy pretty hair,

450 And wreaking satisfaction cast thee down

451 From heaven to earth, and from the earth again

452 Raise thee to heaven, for mortals of low rank

453 And of unrighteous life are held fast bound.

454 And of avenging Smyrna overthrown

455 There shall be no thought, but by evil plans

456 And wickedness of them that have command

457 Shall Samos be sand, Delos shall be dull,

458 And Rome a room; but the decrees of God

459 Shall all of them be perfectly fulfilled.

460 And a calm peace to Asian land shall go.

461 And Europe shall be happy then, well fed,

462 Pure air, full of years, strong, and undisturbed.

463 By wintry storms and hail, bearing all things,

464 Even birds and creeping things and beasts of earth.

465 O happy upon earth shall that man be

466 Or woman; what a home unspeakable

467 Of happy ones! For from the starry heaven

468 Shall all good order come upon mankind,

469 And justice, and the prudent unity

470 Which of all things is excellent for men,

471 And kindness, confidence, and love of guests;

472 But far from them shall lawlessness depart,

473 Blame, envy, wrath, and folly; poverty

474 Shall flee away from men, and force shall flee,

475 And murder, baneful strifes and bitter feuds,

476 And theft, and every evil in those days.

477 But Macedonia shall to Asia bear

478 A grievous suffering, and the greatest sore

479 To Europe shall spring up from Cronian stock,

480 A family of bastards and of slaves.

481 And she shall tame fenced city Babylon,

482 And of each land the sun looks down upon

483 Call herself mistress, and then come to naught

484 By ruinous misfortunes, having fame

485 In later generations distant far.

486 And sometime into Asia’s prosperous land

487 Shall come a man unheard of, shoulder-clad

488 With purple robe, fierce, unjust, fiery;

489 And this man he who wields the thunderbolt

490 Roused forwards; and all Asia shall sustain

491 An evil yoke, and her soil wet with rain

492 Shall drink much murder. But even so shall Hades

493 Destroy the unknown king; and that man’s offspring

494 Shall forthwith perish by the race of those

495 Whose offspring he himself would fain destroy;

496 Producing one root which the bane of men

497 Shall cut from ten horns, and plant by their side

498 Another plant. A father purple-clad

499 Shall ent a warlike father off, and Ares,

500 Baneful and hostile, by a grandson’s hand.

501 Shall himself perish; and then shall the horn

502 Planted beside them forthwith bear the rule.

503 And unto life-sustaining Phrygia

504 Straightway shall there a certain token be,

505 When Rhea’s blood-stained race, in the great earth

506 Blooming perennial in impervious roots,

507 Shall, root and branch, in one night disappear

508 With a city, men and all, of the Earth-shaker

509 Poseidon; which place they shall sometime call

510 Dorylæum, of dark ancient Phrygia

511 Much-bewailed. Therefore shall that time be called

512 Earth-shaker; dens of earth shall he break up

513 And walls demolish. And not signs of good

514 But a beginning of evil shall be made;

515 The baneful violence of general war

516 Ye’ll have, sons of Æneas, native blood

517 Of Ilus from the soil. But afterwards

518 A spoil shalt thou become for greedy men.

519 O Ilium, I pity thee; for there shall bloom

520 In Sparta an Erinys very fair,

521 Ever-famed, noblest seion, and shall leave

522 On Asia and Europe a wide-spreading wave;

523 But to thee most of all she’ll bear and cause

524 Wailings and toils and groans; but there shall be

525 Undying fame with those who are to come.

526 And there shall be an aged mortal then,

527 False writer and of doubtful native land;

528 And in his eyes the light shall fade away;

529 Large mind and verses measured with great skill

530 Shall he have and be blended with two names,

531 Shall call himself a Chian and shall write

532 Of Ilium, not truthfully, indeed,

533 But skillfully; for of my verse and meters

534 He will be master; for he first my books

535 Will open with his hands; but he himself

536 Will much embellish helmed chiefs of war,

537 Hector of Priam and Achilles, son

538 Of Peleus, and the others who have care

539 For warlike deeds. And also by their side.

540 Will he make gods stand, cmpty-headed men,

541 False-writing every way. And it shall be

542 Glory the rather, widely spread, for them

543 To die at Ilium; but he himself

544 Shall also works of recompense receive.

545 Also to Lycia shall a Locrian race

546 Cause many evils. And thee, Chalcedon,

547 Holding by lot a strait of narrow sea,

548 Shall an Ætolian youth sometime despoil.

549 Cyzicus, also thy vast wealth the sea

550 Shall break off. And, Byzantium of Ares,

551 Thou some time shalt by Asia be laid waste,

552 And also groans and blood immeasurable

553 Shalt thou receive. And Cragus, lofty mount

554 Of Lycia, from thy peaks by yawning chasms

555 Of opened rock shall babbling water flow,

556 Until even Patara’s oracles shall cease.

557 O Cyzicus, that dwellest by Propontis

558 The wine-producing, round thee Rhyndacus

559 Shall crash the crested billow. And thou, Rhodes,

560 Daughter of day, shalt long be unenslaved,

561 And great shall be thy happiness hereafter,

562 And on the sea thy power shall be supreme.

563 But afterwards a spoil shalt thou become

564 For greedy men, and put upon thy neck

565 By beauty and by wealth a fearful yoke.

566 A Lydian earthquake shall again despoil

567 The power of Persia, and most horribly

568 Shall the people of Europe and Asia suffer pain.

569 And Sidon’s hurtful king with battle-din

570 Dreadful shall work a mournful overthrow

571 To the seafaring Samians. On the soil

572 Shall slain men’s dark blood babble to the sea;

573 And wives together with the noble brides.

574 Shall their outrageous insolence lament,

575 Some for their bridegrooms, some for fallen sons.

576 O sign of Cyprus, may an earthquake waste

577 Thy phalanxes away, and many souls

578 With one accord shall Hades hold in charge.

579 And Trallis near by Ephesus, and walls

580 Well made, and very precious wealth of men

581 Shall be dissolved by earthquake; and the land

582 Shall burst out with hot water; and the earth

583 Shall swallow down those who are by the fire

584 And stench of brimstone heavily oppressed.

585 And Samos shall in time build royal houses.

586 But to thee, Italy, no foreign war

587 Shall come, but lamentable tribal blood

588 Not easily exhausted, much renowned,

589 Shall make thee, impudent one, desolate.

590 And thou thyself beside hot ashes stretched,

591 As thou in thine own heart didst not foresee,

592 Shalt slay thyself. And thou shalt not of men

593 Be mother, but a nurse of beasts of prey.

594 But when from Italy shall come a man,

595 A spoiler, then, Laodicea, thon,

596 Beautiful city of the Carians

597 By Lycus’s wondrous water, falling prone,

598 Shalt weep in silence for thy boastful sire.

599 Thracian Crobyzi shall rise up on Hæmus.

600 Chatter of teeth to the Campanians comes

601 Because of wasting famine; Corsica

602 Weeps her old father, and Sardinia

603 Shall by great storms of winter and the strokes

604 Of a holy God sink down in ocean depths,

605 Great wonder to the children of the sea.

606 Alas, alas, how many virgin maids

607 Will Hades wed, and of as many youths

608 Will the deep take charge without funeral rites!

609 Alas, alas, the helpless little ones

610 And the vast riches swimming in the sea!

611 O happy land of Mysians, suddenly

612 A royal race shall be formed. Truly now

613 Not for a long time shall Chalcedon be.

614 And there shall be a very bitter grief

615 To the Galatians. And to Tenedos

616 Shall there a last but greatest evil come.

617 And Sicyon, with strong yells, and Corinth, thou

618 Shalt boast o’er all, but flute shall sound like strain.

619 …….

620 Now, when my soul had rest from inspired song,

621 Even again within my heart was set

622 A message of the mighty God, and he

623 Commanded me to prophesy on earth.

624 Woe, woe to the race of Phœnician men

625 And women, and all cities by the sea;

626 Not one of you shall in the common light

627 Abide before the shining of the sun,

628 Nor of life shall there any longer be

629 Number and tribe, because of unjust speech

630 And lawless life impure which they all lived,

631 Opening a mouth impure, and fearful words

632 Deceitful and unrighteous they put forth,

633 And stood against the mighty God, the King,

634 And opened loathsome mouth deceitfully.

635 Therefore may he subdue them terribly

636 By strokes o’er all the earth, and bitter fate

637 Shall God send on them, burning from the ground

638 Cities and of the cities the foundations.

639 Woe, woe to thee, O Crete! To thee shall come

640 A very painful stroke, and terribly

641 Shall the Eternal sack thee; and again

642 Shall every land behold thee black with smoke,

643 Fire ne’er shall leave thee, but thou shalt be burned.

644 Woe, woe to thee, O Thrace! So shalt thou come

645 Beneath a servile yoke, when the Galatians

646 United with the sons of Dardanus

647 Rush on to ravage Hellas, thine shall be

648 The evil; and unto a foreign land

649 Much shalt thou give, not anything receive.

650 Woe to thee, Gog and Magog, and to all,

651 One after another, Mardians and Daians;

652 How many evils fate shall bring on thee!

653 Woe also to the sons of Lycia,

654 And those of Mysia and Phrygia.

655 And many nations of Pamphylians

656 And Lydians, Carians, Cappadocians,

657 And Ethiopian and Arabian men

658 Of a strange tongue shall fall. How now may I

659 Of each speak fitly? For on all the nations

660 Which dwell on earth the Highest shall send dire plague.

661 When now again a barbarous nation comes

662 Against the Greeks it shall slay many heads

663 Of chosen men; and they shall tear in pieces

664 Many fat flocks of sheep of men, and herds

665 Of horses and of mules and lowing kine;

666 And well-made houses shall they bum with fire

667 Lawlessly; and unto a foreign land

668 Shall they by force lead many slaves away,

669 And children, and deep-girded women soft

670 From bridal chambers creeping on before.

671 With delicate feet; and they shall be bound fast

672 With fetters by their foes of foreign tongue,

673 Suffering all fearful outrage; and to them

674 There shall not be one to supply the toil

675 Of battle and come to their help in life.

676 And they shall see their goods and all their wealth

677 Enrich the enemy; and there shall be

678 A trembling of the knees. And there shall fly

679 A hundred, and one shall destroy them all;

680 And five shall rout a mighty company;

681 But they, among themselves mixed shamefully,

682 Shall by war and dire tumult bring delight

683 To enemies, but sorrow to the Greeks.

684 And then upon all Hellas there shall be

685 A servile yoke; and war and pestilence

686 Together shall upon all mortals come.

687 And God will make the mighty heaven on high

688 Like brass and over all the earth a drought,

689 And earth itself like iron. And thereupon

690 Shall mortals all lament the barrenness

691 And lack of cultivation; and on earth

692 Shall he set, who created heaven and earth,

693 A much-distressing fire; and of all men.

694 The third part only shall thereafter be.

695 O Greece, why hast thou trusted mortal men.

696 As leaders, who cannot escape from death?

697 And wherefore bringest thou thy foolish gifts

698 Unto the dead and sacrifice to idols?

699 Who put the error in thy heart to do

700 These things and leave the face of God the mighty?

701 Honor the All-Father’s name, and let it not

702 Escape thee. It is now a thousand years,

703 Yea, and five hundred more, since haughty kings

704 Ruled o’er the Greeks, who first to mortal men

705 Introduced evils, setting up for worship

706 Images many of gods that are dead,

707 Because of which ye were taught foolish thoughts.

708 But when the anger of the mighty God

709 Shall come upon you, then ye’ll recognize.

710 The face of God the mighty. And all souls

711 Of men, with mighty groaning lifting up

712 Their hands to the broad heaven, shall begin

713 To call the great King helper, and to seek

714 The rescuer from great wrath who is to be.

715 But come and learn this and store in your hearts

716 What troubles in the rolling years shall come.

717 And what as whole burnt-offering Hellas brought

718 Of cows and bellowing bulls unto the temple

719 Of the great God, she from ill-sounding war

720 And fear and pestilence shall flee away

721 And from the servile yoke escape again.

722 But until that time there shall be a race

723 Of godless men, even when that fated day

724 Shall reach its end. For offering to God

725 Ye should not make till all things come to pass,

726 Which God aloue shall purpose not in vain

727 To be all fulfilled; and strong force shall urge.

728 And there shall be again a holy race.

729 Of godly men who, keeping to the counsels

730 And mind of the Most High, shall honor much

731 The great God’s temple with drink-offerings,

732 Burnt-offerings, and holy hecatombs,

733 With sacrifices of fat bulls, choice rams,

734 Firstlings of sheep and the fat thighs of lambs,

735 Sacredly offering whole burnt-offerings

736 On the great altar. And in righteousness,

737 Having obtained the law of the Most High,

738 Blest shall they dwell in cities and rich fields.

739 And prophets shall be set on high for them

740 By the Immortal, bringing great delight

741 Unto all mortals. For to them alone

742 The mighty God his gracious counsel gave

743 And faith and noblest thought within their hearts;

744 They have not by vain things been led astray,

745 Nor pay they honor to the works of men

746 Made of gold, brass, silver, and ivory,

747 Nor statues of dead gods of wood and stone

748 [Besmeared clay, figures of the painter’s art],

749 And all that empty-minded mortals will;

750 But they lift up their pure arms unto heaven,

751 Rise from the couch at daybreak, always hands

752 With water cleanse, and honor only Him

753 Who is immortal and who ever rules,

754 And then their parents; and above all men

755 Do they respect the lawful marriage-bed;

756 And they have not base intercourse with boys,

757 As do Phoenicians, Latins, and Egyptians

758 And spacious Greece, and nations many more

759 Of Persians and Galatians and all Asia,

760 Transgressing the immortal God’s pure law

761 Which they were under. Therefore on all men

762 Will the Immortal put bane, famine, pains,

763 Groans, war, and pestilence and mournful woes;

764 Because they would not honor piously

765 The immortal Sire of all men, but revered

766 And worshiped idols made with hands, which things

767 Mortals themselves will cast down and for shame

768 Conceal in clefts of rocks, when a young king,

769 The seventh of Egypt, shall rule his own land,

770 Reckoned from the dominion of the Greeks,

771 Which countless Macedonian men shall rule;

772 And there shall come from Asia a great king,

773 A fiery eagle, who with foot and horse

774 Shall cover all the land, cut up all things,

775 And fill all things with evils; he will cast

776 The Egyptian kingdom down; and taking off

777 All its possessions carry them away

778 Over the spacious surface of the sea.

779 And then shall they before the mighty God,

780 The King immortal, bend the fair white knee

781 On the much-nourishing earth; and all the works

782 Made with hands shall fall by a flame of fire.

783 And then will God bestow great joy on men;

784 For land and trees and countless flocks of sheep

785 Their genuine fruit to men shall offer-wine,

786 And the sweet honey, and white milk, and wheat,

787 Which is for mortals of all things the best.

788 But thou, O mortal full of various wiles,

789 Do not delay and loiter, but do thou,

790 Tossed to and fro, turn and propitiate God.

791 Offer to God your hecatombs of bulls

792 And firstling lambs and goats, as times revolve.

793 But him propitiate, the immortal God,

794 If haply he show mercy. For he is

795 The only God, and other there is none,

796 And honor justice and oppress no man,

797 For these things the Immortal doth enjoin

798 On miserable men. But do thon heed

799 The cause of the wrath of the mighty God,

800 When on all mortals there shall come the height

801 Of pestilence and conquered they shall meet.

802 A fearful judgment, and king shall seize king

803 And wrest his land away, and nations bring

804 Ruin on nations and lords plunder tribes,

805 And chiefs all flee into another land,

806 And the land change its men, and foreign rule

807 Ravage all Hellas and drain the rich land

808 Of its wealth, and to strife among themselves

809 Because of gold and silver they shall come—

810 The love of gain an evil shepherdess

811 Will be for cities—in a foreign land.

812 And they shall all be without burial,

813 And vultures and wild beasts of earth shall spoil

814 Their flesh; and when these things are brought to pass,

815 Vast earth shall waste the relics of the dead.

816 And all unsown shall it be and unplowed,

817 Proclaiming sad the filth of men defiled.

818 Many lengths of time in the revolving years,

819 And shields and javelins and all sorts of arms;

820 Nor shall the forest wood be cut for fire.

821 And then shall God send from the East a king,

822 Who shall make all earth cease from evil war,

823 Killing some, others binding with strong oaths.

824 And he will not by his own counsels do

825 All these things, but obey the good decrees

826 Of God the mighty. And with goodly wealth,

827 With gold and silver and purple ornament,

828 The temple of the mighty God again

829 Shall be weighed down; and the full-bearing earth

830 And the sea shall be filled full of good things.

831 And kings against each other shall begin

832 To hold ill will, in heart abetting evils.

833 Envy is not a good to wretched men.

834 But again kings of nations on this land

835 Shall rush in masses, bringing on themselves

836 Destruction; for they’ll purpose to despoil

837 The great God’s temple and the noblest men.

838 What time they reach the land, polluted kings

839 Shall set around the city each his throne

840 And have his people that obey not God.

841 And then shall God speak with a mighty voice

842 To all rude people of an empty mind,

843 And judgment from the mighty God shall come

844 Upon them, and they all shall be destroyed

845 By his immortal arm. And fiery swords

846 Shall fall from heaven on earth; and great bright lights

847 Shall come down flaming in the midst of men.

848 And in those days shall earth, all-mother, reel

849 By his immortal arm, and shoals of fish

850 In the deep sea, and all wild beasts of earth,

851 And countless tribes of winged fowl, and all

852 The souls of men and every sea shall tremble

853 Before the face of the Immortal One,

854 And there shall be dismay. Iligh mountain peaks

855 And monstrous hills shall he asunder break,

856 And to all shall dark Erebus appear.

857 And misty gorges in the lofty bills

858 Shall be full of the dead; and rocks shall stream

859 With blood and every torrent fill the plain.

860 And well-built walls of evil-minded men

861 Shall all fall to the earth, since they knew not

862 The law nor judgment of the mighty God,

863 But with a senseless soul all hurried on

864 Against the temple and raised up their spears.

865 And God shall judge all by war and by sword

866 And by fire and by overwhelming storm;

867 And brimstone there shall be from heaven, and stones

868 And great and grievous hail; and death shall come.

869 Upon the quadrupeds. And then shall they

870 Know God, the Immortal, who performs these things;

871 And wailing, and upon the boundless earth

872 Shall be at once a shout of perishing men;

873 And all the unholy shall be bathed in blood;

874 And earth herself shall also drink the blood

875 Of the perishing, and beasts be gorged with flesh.

876 And all these things the great eternal God

877 Himself bade me proclaim. And that shall not

878 Be unaccomplished, or be unfulfilled,

879 Whatever only in my heart he put;

880 For truthful is God’s spirit in the world.

881 But children of the mighty God shall all

882 Again around the temple live in peace,

883 Rejoicing in those things which he shall give

884 Who is Creator, righteous Judge and King.

885 For he himself, great, present far and wide,

886 Shall be a shelter, as on all sides round

887 A wall of flaming fire. And they shall be

888 In cities and in country without war.

889 For not the hand of evil war, but rather

890 The Immortal shall himself be their defender

891 And the hand of the Holy One. And then shall all

892 The islands and the cities tell how much

893 The immortal God loves those men; for all things

894 Help them in conflict and deliver them—

895 Heaven, and divinely fashioned sun, and moon.

896 [And in those days shall carth, all-mother, reel.]

897 Sweet word shall they send from their mouths in hymns:

898 “Come, falling on the earth let us all pray

899 The immortal King, and great eternal God.

900 To the temple let us in procession go,

901 Since he alone is Lord; and let us all

902 Meditate on the law of God most high,

903 Which is most righteous of all (laws) on earth.

904 And from the path of the Immortal we

905 Have wandered and with senseless soul we honor

906 Works made by hand and wooden images

907 Of dead men.” These things souls of faithful meu

908 Shall cry out: “Come, having at the house of God

909 Fallen on our faces, let us with our hymns

910 Make joy to God the Father at our homes,

911 Supplied through all our land with arms of foes

912 Seven lengths of time in the revolving years;

913 Even shields and helmets and all sorts of arms,

914 And a great store of bows and arrows barbed;

915 For forest wood shall not be cut for fire.”

916 But, wretched Hellas, stop thy arrogance.

917 And be wise; and entreat the Immortal One

918 Magnanimous, and be upon thy guard.

919 Send now against this city yet again

920 The people inconsiderate, who are come

921 Out of the holy land of the mighty One.

922 Do not move Camarina; for ‘tis better

923 She be unmoved; a leopard from the lair,

924 Do thou not let an evil meet with thee.

925 But keep off, do not hold within thy breast

926 An arrogant and overbearing soul,

927 Ready for mighty contest. And serve God

928 The mighty, that thou mayest share those things;

929 And when that fated day shall reach its end

930 [And judgment of the immortal God shall come

931 To mortals], judgment great and power shall come

932 Upon men. For all-mother earth shall yield

933 To mortals best fruit boundless, wheat, wine, oil;

934 Also from heaven a delightful drink

935 Of honey sweet, and trees shall give their fruit,

936 And fatted sheep and cattle there shall be,

937 Young lambs and kids of goats; earth shall break forth

938 With sweet springs of white milk; and of good things

939 The cities shall be full and fat the fields;

940 Nor sword nor uproar shall be on the earth;

941 No more shall earth groan heavily and quake;

942 Nor shall war longer be on earth, nor drought,

943 Nor famine, nor the fruit-destroying hail;

944 But great peace shall be upon all the earth,

945 And king to king be friend until the end

946 Of the age, and o’er all earth common law

947 Will the Immortal in the starry heaven

948 Perfect for men, touching whatever things

949 Have been by miserable mortals done;

950 For he alone is God, there is no other;

951 And the stern rage of men he’ll burn with fire.

952 But change entirely the thoughts in thy heart,

953 And flee unrighteous worship; serve the One

954 Who liveth; guard against adultery

955 And deeds of lewdness; thine own offspring rear

956 And do not murder; for the Immortal One

957 Is angry with him who in these things sins.

958 And then a kingdom over all mankind

959 Shall he raise up for ages, who once gave

960 Holy law to the pious, unto whom

961 He pledged to open every land, the world.

962 And portals of the blessed, and all joys,

963 And mind immortal and eternal bliss.

964 And out of every land unto the house

965 Of the great God shall they bring frankincense

966 And gifts, and there shall be no other house

967 To be inquired of by men yet to be,

968 But what God gave for faithful men to honor;

969 For mortals temple of the mighty God

970 Shall call it. And all pathways of the plain

971 And rough hills and high mountains and wild waves

972 Of the deep shall be easy in those days

973 For crossing and for sailing; for all peace

974 On the land of the good shall come; and sword

975 Shall prophets of the mighty God remove;

976 For they are judges and the righteous kings

977 Of mortals. And there shall be righteous wealth

978 Among mankind; for of the mighty God

979 This is the judgment and also the power.

980 Be of good cheer, O maiden, and be glad;

981 For he who made the heaven and earth gave thee

982 Joy in thy age. And he will dwell in thee;

983 And thine shall be immortal light; and wolves

984 And lambs shall in the mountains feed on grass

985 Together, and with kids shall leopards graze;

986 And bears shall lodge among the pasturing calves;

987 And the carnivorous lion shall eat chaff

988 At the manger like the cow; and little children

989 In bonds shall lead them; for he will make beasts

990 Helpless on earth. With babes shall fall asleep

991 Serpents, along with asps, and do no harm;

992 For over them shall be the hand of God.

993 Now tell I thee a sign exceeding clear,

994 That thou may’st know when the end of all things

995 On earth shall be. When in the starry heaven

996 Swords shall by night point straight toward west and cast,

997 Straightway shall there be also from the heaven

998 A cloud of dust borne forth to all the earth,

999 And the sun’s brightness in the midst of heaven

1000 Shall be eclipsed and the moon’s beams appear

1001 And come again on earth; by drops of blood

1002 Distilling from the rocks a sign shall be;

1003 And in the cloud shall ye behold a war

1004 Of foot and horse, like the chase of wild beasts

1005 In the dense fog. This end of all things God

1006 Shall consummate, whose dwelling is in heaven.

1007 But all must sacrifice to the great King.

1008 These things I show thee, I who madly left

1009 The long walls of Assyrian Babylon

1010 For Hellas to proclaim to all the wrath

1011 Of God, fire sent…

1012 …….

1013 And that I might to mortals prophesy

1014 Of mysteries divine. And men shall say

1015 In Hellas that I am of foreign land,

1016 Of Erythre born, shameless; others say

1017 That I’m a Sibyl, born of mother Circe

1018 And father Gnostos, raving mad and false;

1019 But at that time when all things come to pass

1020 Ye shall remember me, and no one more

1021 Shall call me mad, the great God’s prophetess.

1022 For he showed me what happened formerly

1023 To my ancestors; what things were the first

1024 Those God made known to me; and in my mind

1025 Did God put all things to be afterwards,

1026 That I might prophesy of things to come,

1027 And things that were, and tell them unto men,

1028 For when the world was deluged with a flood

1029 Of waters, and one man of good repute

1030 Alone was left and in a wooden house

1031 Sailed o’er the waters with the beasts and birds,

1032 In order that the world might be refilled,

1033 I was his son’s bride and was of his race

1034 To whom the first things happened, and the last

1035 Were all made known; and thus from mine own mouth

1036 Let all these truthful things remain declared.

Book 4

1 People of boastful Asia and of Europe,

2 Hear how much, all too true, I am about,

3 Through a mouth many-toned, from my great hall

4 To prophesy; no oracle am I

5 Of lying Phœbus, whom vain men called god,

6 And further falsified by calling seer;

7 But of the mighty God, whom hands of men

8 Formed not like speechless idols carved of stone.

9 For he has not for his abode a stone

10 Most dumb and toothless to a temple drawn,

11 Of mortals a dishonor very sore;

12 For he may not be seen from earth nor measured

13 By mortal eyes, nor formed by mortal hand;

14 He, looking down at once on all, is seen

15 Himself by no one; his are murky night,

16 And day, and sun, and stars, and moon, and seas

17 With fish, and land, and rivers, and the mouth

18 Of springs perennial, creatures meant for life,

19 And rains at once producing fruit of field

20 And tree and vine and oil. This God a whip

21 Struck through my heart within to make me tell

22 Truly to men what things have now befallen

23 And how much shall befall them yet again

24 From the first generation to the eleventh;

25 For he himself by bringing them to pass

26 Will prove all things. But do thou in all things,

27 O people, to the Sibyl give an ear,

28 Who pours from hallowed mouth a truthful voice.

29 Blessed of men shall they be on the earth

30 As many as shall love the mighty God,

31 Offering him praise before they drink and eat;

32 Trusting in piety. When they behold

33 Temples and altars, figures of dumb stones,

34 [Stone images and statues made with hands]

35 Polluted with the blood of living things

36 And sacrifices of four-footed beasts,

37 They will reject them all; and they will look

38 To the great glory of one God and not

39 Commit presumptuous murder nor dispose

40 Of stolen gain, which things most horrid are;

41 Nor shameful longing for another’s bed

42 Have they, nor vile and hateful lust of males.

43 Their manner, piety, and character

44 Shall other men, that love a shameless life,

45 Not ever imitate; but, mocking them

46 With jest and joke like babes in senselessness,

47 They’ll falsely charge to them as many deeds

48 Blameful and wicked as they do themselves.

49 For slow is the whole race of human kind

50 To believe. But when judgment of the world

51 And mortals comes, which God himself shall bring

52 Judging at once the impious and the pious,

53 Then indeed shall he send the ungodly back

54 To lower darkness [and then they shall know

55 How much impiety they wrought]; but the pious

56 Shall still remain upon the fruitful land,

57 God giving to them breath and life and grace.

58 But these things all in the tenth generation

59 Shall come to pass; and now what things shall be

60 From the first generation, those I’ll tell.

61 First over all mortals shall Assyrians rule,

62 And for six generations hold the power

63 Of the world, from the time the God of heaven

64 Being wroth against the cities and all men

65 Sea with a bursting deluge covered earth.

66 Them shall the Medes o’erpower, but on the throne

67 For two generations only shall exult;

68 In which times these events shall come to pass:

69 Dark night shall come at the mid hour of day;

70 And from the heaven the stars and circling moon

71 Shall disappear; and earth in tumult shaken

72 By a great earthquake shall throw many cities

73 And works of men headlong; and from the deep

74 Then shall peer out the islands of the sea.

75 But when the great Euphrates shall with blood

76 Be surging, then shall there be also set

77 Between the Medes and Persians dreadful strife

78 In battle; and the Medes shall fall and fly

79 ‘Neath Persian spears beyond the mighty water

80 Of Tigris. And the Persian power shall be

81 Greatest in all the world, and they shall have

82 One generation of most prosperous rule.

83 And there shall be as many evil deeds.

84 As men shall wish away—the din of war,

85 And murders, and disputes, and banishments,

86 And overthrow of towers and waste of cities,

87 When Hellas very glorious shall sail

88 Over broad Hellespont, and shall convey

89 To Phrygia sorrow and to Asia doom.

90 And unto Egypt, land of many furrows,

91 Shall sorry famine come, and barrenness

92 Shall during twenty circling years prevail,

93 What time the Nile, corn-nourisher, shall hide

94 His dark wave somewhere underneath the earth.

95 And there shall come from Asia a great king

96 Bearing a spear, with ships innumerable,

97 And he shall walk the wet paths of the deep,

98 And shall sail after he has cut the mount

99 Of lofty summit; him a fugitive

100 From battle fearful Asia shall receive.

101 And Sicily the wretched shall a stream

102 Of powerful fire set all aflame while Etna

103 Her flame disgorges; and in the deep chasm

104 Down shall the mighty city Croton fall.

105 And strife shall be in Hellas; they shall rage

106 Against each other, cast down many cities,

107 And fighting make an end of many men;

108 But equally balanced is the strife with both.

109 But, when the race of mortal men shall come

110 To the tenth generation, also then

111 Upon the Persians shall a servile yoke

112 And terror be. But when the Macedonians

113 Shall boast the scepter there shall be for Thebes

114 An evil conquest from behind, and Carians

115 Shall dwell in Tyre, and Tyrians be destroyed.

116 And Babylon, great to see but small to fight,

117 Shall stand with walls that were in vain hopes built.

118 In Bactria Macedonians shall dwell;

119 But those from Susa and from Bactria

120 Shall all into the land of Hellas flee.

121 It shall take place among those yet to be,

122 When silver-eddying Pyramus his banks.

123 O’erpouring to the sacred isle shall come.

124 And Cibyra shall fall and Cyzicus,

125 When, earth being shaken by earthquakes, cities fall.

126 And sand shall hide all Samos under banks.

127 And Delos visible no more, but things

128 Of Delos shall all be invisible.

129 And to Rhodes shall come evil last, but greatest.

130 The Macedonian power shall not abide;

131 But from the west a great Italian war

132 Shall flourish, under which the world shall bear

133 A servile yoke and the Italians serve.

134 And thou, O wretched Corinth, thou shalt look

135 Sometime upon thy conquest. And thy tower,

136 O Carthage, shall press lowly on the ground.

137 Wretched Laodicea, thee sometime

138 Shall earthquake lay low, casting headlong down,

139 But then, a city firmly set, again

140 Shalt stand. O Lycian Myra beautiful,

141 Thee never shall the agitated earth

142 Set fast; but falling headlong down on earth

143 Shalt thon, in manner like an alien, pray

144 To flee away into another land,

145 When sometime the dark water of the sea

146 With thunders and earthquakes shall stop the din

147 Of Patara for its impieties.

148 Also for thee, Armenia, there remains

149 A slavish fate; and there shall also come

150 To Solyma an evil blast of war

151 From Italy, and God’s great temple spoil.

152 But when these, trusting folly, shall cast off.

153 Their piety and murders consummate

154 Around the temple, then from Italy

155 A mighty king shall like a runaway slave

156 Flee over the Euphrates’ stream unseen,

157 Unknown, who shall some time dare loathsome guilt

158 Of matricide, and many other things,

159 Having confidence in his most wicked hands.

160 And many for the throne shall stain with blood

161 Rome’s soil while he flees over Parthian land.

162 And out of Syria shall come Rome’s foremost man,

163 Who having burned the temple of Solyma,

164 And having slaughtered many of the Jews,

165 Shall bring destruction on their great broad land.

166 And then too shall an earthquake overthrow

167 Both Salamis and Paphos, when dark water

168 Shall dash o’er Cyprus washed by many a wave.

169 But when from deep cleft of Italian land

170 Fire shall come flashing forth in the broad heaven,

171 And many cities burn and men destroy,

172 And much black ashes shall fill the great sky,

173 And small drops like red earth shall fall from heaven,

174 Then know the anger of the God of heaven,

175 For that they without reason shall destroy

176 The nation of the pious. And then strife

177 Awakened of war shall come to the West,

178 Shall also come the fugitive of Rome,

179 Bearing a great spear, having marched across

180 Euphrates with his many myriads.

181 O wretched Antioch, they shall call thee

182 No more a city when around their spears

183 Because of thine own follies thou shalt fall.

184 And then on Scyros shall a pestilence

185 And dreadful battle-din destruction bring,

186 Alas, alas! O wretched Cyprus, thee

187 Shall a broad wave of the sea cover, thee

188 Tossed on high by the whirling stormy winds.

189 And into Asia there shall come great wealth,

190 Which Rome herself once, plundering, put away

191 In her luxurious homes; and twice as much

192 And more shall she to Asia render back,

193 And then there shall be an excess of war.

194 And Carian cities by Meander’s waters,

195 Girded with towers and very beautiful,

196 Shall by a bitter famine be destroyed,

197 When the Meander his dark water hides.

198 But when piety shall perish from mankind,

199 And faith and right be hidden in the world,

200 .mw-parser-output .nowrap,.mw-parser-output .nowrap a:before,.mw-parser-output .nowrap .selflink:before{white-space:nowrap}… Fickle … and in unhallowed boldness

201 Living shall practice wanton violence,

202 And reckless evil deeds, and of the pious

203 No one shall make account, but even them all

204 From thoughtlessness they utterly destroy

205 In childish folly, in their violence

206 Exulting and in blood holding their hands;

207 Then know thou that God is no longer mild,

208 But gnashing with fury and destroying all

209 The race of men by conflagration great.

210 Ah! miserable mortals, change these things,

211 Nor lead the mighty God to wrath extreme;

212 But giving up your swords and pointed knives,

213 And homicides and wanton violence,

214 Wash your whole body in perennial streams,

215 And lifting up your hands to heaven seek pardon

216 For former deeds and expiate with praise

217 Bitter impiety; and God will give

218 Repentance; he will not destroy; and wrath

219 Will he again restrain, if in your hearts

220 Ye all will practice honored piety.

221 But if, ill-disposed, ye obey me not,

222 But with a fondness for strange lack of sense

223 Receive all these things with an evil ear,

224 There shall be over all the world a fire

225 And greatest omen with sword and with trump

226 At sunrise; the whole world shall hear the roar

227 And mighty sound. And he shall burn all earth,

228 And destroy the whole race of men, and all

229 The cities and the rivers and the sea;

230 All things he’ll burn, and it shall be black dust.

231 But when now all things shall have been reduced

232 To dust and ashes, and God shall have calmed

233 The fire unspeakable which he lit up,

234 The bones and ashes of men God himself

235 Again will fashion, and he will again

236 Raise mortals up, even as they were before.

237 And then shall be the judgment, at which God

238 Himself as judge shall judge the world again;

239 And all who sinned with impious hearts, even them

240 Shall he again hide under mounds of earth

241 [Dark Tartarus and Stygian Gehenna].

242 But all who shall be pious shall again

243 Live on the earth [and (shall inherit there)

244 The great immortal God’s unwasting bliss,]

245 God giving spirit life and joy to them

246 [The pious; and they all shall see themselves.

247 Beholding the sun’s sweet and cheering light.

248 O happy on the earth shall be that man].

Book 5

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

2 Of sons of Latium. And first of all,

3 After the kings of Egypt were destroyed

4 And the like earth had downwards borne them all,

5 And after Pella’s townsman, under whom

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

7 Whom Babylon dishonored, and stretched out

8 For Philip a dead body (not of Zeus,

9 Of Ammon not true things were prophesied),

10 And after that one of the race and blood

11 Of king Assaracus, who came from Troy,

12 Even he who cleft the violence of fire,

13 And after many lords, and after men

14 To Ares dear, and after the young babes,

15 The children of the beast that feeds on sheep,

16 The very first lord shall be, who shall sum

17 Twice ten with the first letter of his name;

18 In wars exceeding powerful shall he be;

19 And he shall have the initial sign of ten;

20 And in like manner after him to reign

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

22 Before him Thrace and Sicily shall crouch,

23 Then Memphis, Memphis east headlong to earth

24 By reason of the cowardice of rulers

25 And of a woman unenslaved who falls

26 Upon the wave. And laws will be ordain

27 For peoples and put all things under him;

28 But after a long time shall he transmit

29 His power unto another, who shall have

30 Three hundred for his first initial sign,

31 And of a river the beloved name,

32 And the Persians he shall rule and Babylon;

33 And then shall he smite Medians with his spear.

34 Then shall one rule who has the initial sign

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

36 Who shall for first initial have twice ten;

37 And he shall come to Ocean’s utmost water

38 And by Ansonia cleave the refluent tide.

39 And one whose mark is fifty shall be lord,

40 A dreadful serpent breathing grievous war,

41 Who sometime stretching forth his hands shall make

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

43 Acting the athlete, driving chariots,

44 Putting to death and daring countless things;

45 And he shall cleave the mountain of two seas

46 And sprinkle it with gore; but out of sight

47 Shall also vanish the destructive man;

48 Then, making himself equal unto God,

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

50 And after him shall three kings be destroyed

51 By one another. Then a great destroyer

52 Of pious men shall come, whom seven times ten

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

54 Whom the first letter of three hundred proves,

55 Shall take the power. And after him shall be

56 A ruler, of the initial sign of four,

57 A life-destroyer. Then a reverend man

58 Of the number fifty. Next, succeeding him

59 Who has the first mark of the initial sign

60 Three hundred, shall a Celtic mountaineer,

61 Into the strife of battle pressing on,

62 Escape not fate unseemly, but shall be

63 Worn weary unto death; him foreign dust,

64 But dust that of Nemea’s flower has name,

65 Shall hide a corpse. And after him shall rule

66 Another man, with silver helmet decked;

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

68 And he shall be a man the best of all

69 And in all things discreet. And upon thee,

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

71 And upon thy shoots shall be all these days.

72 After him three shall rule; but the third one

73 Shall at a late time hold the royal power.

74 Worn out am I, thrice-miserable one,

75 Sister of Isis, to lay up in heart

76 An evil message, and an inspired song

77 Of oracles. First Mænades shall dart

78 Around thy much-lamented temple’s steps,

79 And thou shalt be in evil hands that day

80 When the Nile some time shall fill the whole land

81 Of Egypt even to sixteen cubits deep;

82 It shall wash all the land, and water it

83 For mortals; and the pleasure of the land

84 Shall be still and the glory of her face.

85 Memphis, thou most shalt over Egypt wail;

86 For of old ruling mightily the land

87 Thou shalt become poor, so that out of heaven

88 The Thunderer shall himself with great voice cry:

89 “O mighty Memphis, who didst boast of old

90 O’er craven mortals greatly, thou shalt wail

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

92 Thyself shalt the eternal God perceive

93 Immortal in the clouds. Where among men

94 Is now thy mighty pride? Because thou didst

95 Against my God-anointed children rave,

96 And didst urge evil forward on good men,

97 Thou shalt for such things suffer penalty

98 In some like manner. No more openly

99 For thee shall there be right among the blessed;

100 Fallen from the stars, thou shalt not rise to heaven.”

101 Now these things unto Egypt God bade me

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

103 Utterly evil. But they labor hard,

104 Evil men evil things awaiting, wrath

105 Of the immortal Thunderer in heaven,

106 Worshiping stones and beasts instead of God,

107 And also fearing many things besides

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

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

110 Each one an idol, formed by mortal hands;

111 Of their own labors and presumptuous thoughts

112 Did men receive gods made of wood and stone

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

114 Without life and dumb, molten in the fire

115 They made them, vainly trusting such things.mw-parser-output .nowrap,.mw-parser-output .nowrap a:before,.mw-parser-output .nowrap .selflink:before{white-space:nowrap}…

116 Thmois and Xois are in sore distress,

117 And smitten is the hall of Heracles

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

119 O Alexandria, famed nourisher

120 (Of cities) war shall not leave, nor (plague) …

121 For thy pride thou shalt pay as many things

122 As thou before didst. Silent shalt thou be

123 A long age, and the day of thy return …

124 .mw-parser-output .wst-asterisks{display:block;margin:auto;text-align:center}…….

125 No more for thee shall flow luxurious drink …

126 …….

127 For there shall come a Persian on thy dale,

128 And like hail shall he all the land destroy,

129 And artful men, with blood and corpses…

130 By sacred altars one of barbarous mind,

131 Strong, full of blood and raging senselessly,

132 With countless numbers rushing to destruction,

133 And then shalt thou, in cities very rich,

134 Be very weary. Falling on the earth

135 All Asia shall wail on account of gifts

136 Crowning her head with which she was by thee

137 Delighted. But, as he himself obtained

138 The Persian land by lot, he shall make war

139 And killing every man destroy all life,

140 So that there shall remain for wretched mortals

141 A third part. But with nimble leap shall he

142 Himself speed from the West, and all the land

143 Besiege and waste. But when he shall possess

144 The height of power and odious reverence,

145 He shall come, wishing to destroy the city

146 Even of the blessed. And a certain king

147 Sent forth from God against him shall destroy

148 All mighty kings and bravest men. And thus

149 Shall judgment by the Immortal come to men,

150 Alas, alas for thee, unhappy heart!

151 Why dost thou move me to declare these things,

152 The painful rule of Egypt over many?

153 Go to the East, to races of the Persians

154 Who lack in understanding, and show them

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

156 The river of Euphrates shall bring on

157 A deluge, and it shall destroy the Persians,

158 Iberians and Babylonians

159 And the Massagetæ that relish war

160 And trust in bows. All Asia fire-ablaze

161 Shall to the isles beam brightly. Pergamos,

162 Revered of old, shall perish from its base,

163 And Pitane among men shall appear

164 All-desolate. All Lesbos shall sink deep

165 Into the deep, and thus shall be destroyed.

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

167 She that was once revered and given a name

168 Shall perish utterly. Bithynians

169 Shall over their own country, then reduced

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

171 And o’er Phoenicia that has many tribes.

172 Alas, alas for thee, O Lycia;

173 How many evils does the sea contrive

174 Against thee, mounting up of its own will

175 Upon the painful land! And it shall dash

176 With evil earthquake and with bitter streams

177 On the rough Lycian land that once breathed perfume.

178 And there shall be for Phrygia fearful wrath

179 Because of sorrow for which Rhea came,

180 Mother of Zeus, and there continued long.

181 The sea shall overthrow the Centaur race

182 And barbarous nation, and beneath the earth

183 Shall tear away the Lapithæan land.

184 The river of deep eddies and deep flow,

185 Peneus, shall destroy Thessalian land,

186 Snatching men from the earth. Eridanus

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

188 Hellas thrice wretched shall the poets weep,

189 When one from Italy shall smite the neck

190 Of the isthmus, mighty king of mighty Rome,

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

192 Zeus himself and the august Hera bore;

193 He, courting by his voice all-musical

194 Applause for his sweet songs, shall put to death

195 With his own wretched mother many men.

196 From Babylon shall flee the fearful lord

197 And shameless whom all mortals and best men

198 Abhor; for he slew many and laid hands

199 Upon the womb; against his wives he sinned

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

201 And he shall come to monarchs of the Medes

202 And Persians, first whom he loved and to whom

203 He brought renown, while with those wicked men

204 He lurked against a nation not desired;

205 And on the temple made by God he seized

206 And citizens and people going in,

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

208 For when this man appeared the whole creation

209 Was shaken and kings perished—and yet power

210 Remained among them, and they quite destroyed

211 The mighty city and the righteous people.

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

213 Which alone shall the whole earth overpower

214 Because of honor, which was first assigned

215 To lord Poseidon; then a great star shall come

216 From heaven into the dreadful sea and burn

217 The vasty deep, and Babylon itself,

218 And the land of Italy, because of which

219 There perished many holy faithful men

220 Among the Hebrews and a people true.

221 Thou shalt be among evil mortals made

222 To suffer evils, but thou shalt remain

223 All-desolate whole ages by thyself,

224 Hating thy soil; for thou didst have desire

225 For sorcery, adulteries were with thee

226 And lawless carnal intercourse with boys,

227 Thou evil city, womanish, unjust,

228 Ill-fated above all. Alas, alas!

229 Thou city of the Latin land, unclean

230 In all things, Mænad having joy in snakes,

231 Over thy hanks a widow shalt thou sit

232 And the river Tiber shall lament for thee,

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

234 And impious soul. Didst thou not understand

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

236 But thou saidst, “I’m alone, and me no one

237 Shall sack,” But now shall God, who ever is,

238 Thee and all thine destroy, and in that land

239 No longer shall thy ensign yet remain,

240 As of old, when the mighty God received

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

242 And mixed with burning fire inhabit thou

243 In Hades the Tartarean lawless land.

244 And now again, O Egypt, I bewail

245 Thy blind delusion; Memphis, first in toils,

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

247 The pyramids shall speak a ruthless sound.

248 O Python, who wast justly called of old

249 The double city, be for ages silent,

250 So that thou mayest cease from wickedness.

251 Reckless in evils, treasury of toils,

252 Much-wailing Mænad, suffering dire ills,

253 Much-weeping, thou a widow shalt remain

254 Through all time. Thou didst full of years become

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

256 But when the white dress Barca round herself

257 Shall put on over that which is defiled,

258 Would that I neither were nor had been born!

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

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

261 Grasping thy dusky dress shalt wail alone,

262 And thou shalt make atonement for all things.

263 Which thou aforetime with a shameless soul

264 Didst perpetrate. They also shall behold.

265 A mourning on account of lawless deeds.

266 And a mighty man of the Ethiopians

267 Shall overthrow Syene; by their might

268 Shall swarthy Indians occupy Teucheira.

269 Pentapolis, a man of mighty strength

270 Shall burn thee whole. All-tearful Libya,

271 Who shall explain thy follies? And Cyrene,

272 Of mortals who shall pitiably weep

273 For thee? Thou shalt not even to the time

274 Of thy destruction cease thy hateful wail.

275 Among the Britons and among the Gauls,

276 Rich in gold, Ocean shall be roaring loud

277 Filled with much blood; for evil things

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

279 Of the Sidonians, a Phoenician, led

280 A mighty Gallic host from Syria;

281 And he shall slaughter thee, thyself, Ravenna,

282 And unto slaughter shall he lead the way.

283 O Indians and great-hearted Ethiops,

284 Together fear; for when with these the course

285 Of Capricorn and Taurus in the Twins

286 Shall wind about the middle of the heaven,

287 Virgo then rising, and about his front.

288 Fastening a belt the sun shall lead all heaven,

289 There shall be moving downwards to the earth

290 A mighty conflagration high in air,

291 And a new nature in the warlike stars,

292 So that the whole land of the Ethiops

293 Shall perish in the midst of fire and groans.

294 And weep thou, Corinth, the destruction sad

295 Which is in thee; for when with pliant threads

296 The Fates, three sisters, spinning shall aloft

297 Lead him who flees by guile against the voice

298 Of the isthmus, until all shall look at him

299 Who once cut out the rock with ductile brass,

300 He also shall destroy and smite thy land,

301 As it bath been appointed. For to him

302 God gave strength to accomplish that which could

303 No earlier of all the kings together.

304 And first with sickle cleaving off the roots

305 From three heads he shall give food in excess

306 To others, so that kings unclean shall eat

307 The flesh of parents. For unto all men

308 Slaughter and terrors are laid up in store

309 Because of the great city and just people

310 Saved through all time, whom Providence held high.

311 O thou unstable one and ill-advised,

312 By evil fates surrounded, for mankind

313 Both a beginning and great end of toil,—

314 Of suffering creation and of part

315 Restored again,—thou leader insolent

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

317 Of mortals wished for thee? Who has not been

318 Embittered from within? Cast down in thee

319 A king his honored life lost. Evilly

320 Hast thou disposed all things and washed away

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

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

323 Thou hast brought forward these unstable things;

324 And how dost thou say, “I will thee persuade,”

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

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

327 The prophets’ common ray being spread abroad;

328 Speech dripping honey, fair drink for all men,

329 Appeared and grew, and day arose on all.

330 Because of this, thou narrow-minded one

331 Leader of greatest evils, both a sword

332 And grief shall come in that day. For mankind

333 Both a beginning and great end of toil,—

334 Of suffering creation and of part

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

336 The bitter oracle intolerable.

337 But when the Persian land shall keep away

338 From war and plague and groaning, in that day

339 A race divine of blessed heavenly Jews

340 Shall offer prayer, who shall dwell round about

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

342 And even as far as Joppa building round

343 A great wall they shall carry it aloft

344 Unto the gloomy clouds. No more shall trump

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

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

347 Their trophies for an age of evil men.

348 And one shall come again from heaven, a man

349 Preeminent, whose hands on fruitful tree

350 By far the noblest of the Hebrews stretched,

351 Who at one time did make the sun stand still

352 When he spoke with fair word and holy lips.

353 No longer vex thy soul within thy breast

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

355 Flower longed for by him only, goodly light

356 And noble branch, a scion much beloved,

357 Pleasant Judea, city beautiful,

358 Inspired by hymns, No more shall unclean foot

359 Of Greeks keep revel round about thy land,

360 Who held within their breast a lawless mind;

361 But thee shall glorious children honor much

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

363 With sacrifices of all kinds and prayers

364 Honored of God. All who endure the toils

365 Of small affliction and the just shall have

366 More that is altogether beautiful;

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

368 Shall cease their speaking one against another,

369 And hide themselves until the world be changed.

370 And there shall be a rain of gleaming fire

371 From the clouds; and no more shall mortals reap

372 The fair corn from the earth; all things unsown

373 And unplowed, until mortal men shall know

374 The Lord of all things, the immortal God

375 Always existing, and no more revere

376 Mortal things, neither dogs nor vultures’ nests,

377 And what things Egypt taught to magnify

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

379 The holy land of the only pious men

380 Shall bring forth, from the honey-dripping rock

381 A stream and from a spring ambrosial milk

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

383 One Father, who alone is glorious,

384 Having great piety and faith they hoped.

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

386 And now thee, wretched Asia, piteously

387 I mourn and the race of Ionians

388 And Carians and Lydians rich in gold.

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

390 For Trallis much beloved; alas, alas,

391 Laodicea, city beautiful;

392 Thus shalt thou be by earthquakes overthrown

393 And ruined, and be also changed to dust.

394 And to Asia gloomy…

395 Artemis’ temple fixed at Ephesus …

396 By chasms and earthquakes shall come headlong down.

397 Sometime into the dreadful sea, as storms

398 Overwhelm ships. And up-turned Ephesus

399 Shall wail aloud, lament beside her banks,

400 And for her temple search which is no more.

401 And then ineensed shall God the imperishable,

402 Who dwells on high, burl thunderbolts from heaven

403 Down on the head of him that is impure.

404 And in the place of winter there shall be

405 In that day summer. And to mortal men

406 Shall then be great woe; for the Thunderer

407 Shall utterly destroy all shameless men

408 And with his thunders and with lightning-flames

409 And blazing thunderbolts men of ill-will,

410 And thus shall he destroy the impious ones,

411 So that there shall remain upon the earth

412 Dead bodies more in number than the sand.

413 For Smyrna also, weeping her Lycurgus,

414 Shall come unto the gates of Ephesus

415 And she herself shall perish even more.

416 And foolish Cyme with her inspired streams

417 Cast down by hands of godless men unjust

418 And lawless, shall to heaven not so much

419 As a word utter; but she shall remain

420 Dead in Cymæan streams. And then shall they

421 Together weep, awaiting evil things.

422 Cyme’s rough populace and shameless tribe,

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

424 And then, when they shall have bewailed their land

425 Reduced to ashes, by Eridanus

426 Shall Lesbos be forever overthrown.

427 Alas, Corcyra, city beautiful,

428 Alas for thee, cease from thy revelry.

429 Thon also, Hierapolis, sole land

430 With riches mixed, what thou hast longed to have

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

432 Since thou wast angry towards a land beside

433 Thermodon’s streams. Rock-clinging Tripolis,

434 Beside the waters of Meander, thee

435 Shall by the nightly surges under shore

436 God’s wrath and foresight utterly destroy.

437 Take me not, willing, to the neighboring land

438 Of Phœbus; sometime shall a thunderbolt

439 Dainty Miletus from above destroy,

440 Because she seized on Phœbus’ crafty song

441 And the wise care and prudent plan of men.

442 Father of all, be gracious to the land

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

444 In order that thy judgments we may see.

445 For thou, O God, in kindness didst regard

446 This land first that it might appear to be

447 Thy gracious gift unto all mortal men

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

449 The works thrice wretched of the Thracians

450 I yearn to see, and wall between two seas

451 Trailed in the dust along beneath the mist,

452 Even like a river for the swimming fish.

453 O wretched Hellespont, sometime a child

454 Of the Assyrians shall throw a yoke

455 Across thee; battle of the Thracians comes

456 And shall despoil thy strength. And there shall rule

457 Over the land of Macedonia

458 A king of Egypt, and a barbarous clime

459 Shall waste the strength of captains. Lydians

460 And the Galatians, and Pamphylians

461 With the Pisidians, all equipped for war

462 Shall in a mass bring evil strife to pass.

463 Thrice wretched Italy, thou shalt remain

464 All-desolate, unwept, in blooming land

465 By deadly sting to perish utterly.

466 And sometime high in the broad heaven above

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

468 And the unwasting flames of the sun himself

469 Shall be no more, nor shall the brilliant light

470 Of the moon again be in the latest time,

471 When God shall be the ruler. And dark gloom

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

473 And evil beasts and woe; that day shall be

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

475 Himself is Lord, the overseer of all

476 In front of heaven. And then will he himself

477 Not pity hostile men, who sacrifice

478 Their herds of lambs and sheep and calves and goats

479 And bellowing golden-horned bulls, offering them

480 To lifeless Hermæ and to gods of stone.

481 But let the law of wisdom be your guide

482 And the glory of the righteous; lest sometime

483 The imperishable God incensed destroy

484 Each race of men and shameless tribe of life,

485 It doth behoove them faithfully to love.

486 The Father, the wise God who ever is.

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

488 There shall be raging through the world a war

489 And carried on with cunning and in guile.

490 And from the limits of the earth shall come

491 Fleeing, and pondering sharp things in his mind,

492 A matricidal man who every land

493 Shall overpower and over all things rule,

494 And see all things more wisely than all men;

495 And that for whose sake he himself was slain

496 Shall he seize forthwith. And he shall destroy

497 Many men and great tyrants and shall burn

498 All of them, as none other ever did,

499 And he shall raise up them that are afraid

500 For emulation’s sake. And from the West

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

502 Down hill till it becomes deep-eddying streams.

503 And in the plains of Macedonia

504 Shall wrath distil and give help from the West,

505 But to the king destruction. And a wind

506 Of winter then shall blow upon the earth,

507 And the plain be filled with evil war again.

508 For fire shall rain down from the heavenly plains.

509 On mortals, and therewith blood, water, flash

510 Of lightning, murky darkness, night in heaven,

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

512 And these together shall destroy all kings

513 And noblest men. Thus shall be made to cease

514 Then the destruction pitiable of war.

515 And no more shall one fight with swords or iron

516 Or even darts, which things shall not again

517 Be lawful. But wise people shall have peace,

518 Who were left, having made proof of wickedness,

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

520 Ye matricides, leave off your impudence

521 And evil-working boldness, who of old

522 Provided lawlessly lewd couch with boys,

523 And placed as harlots maidens pure before

524 In brothels by assault and punishment

525 And by much-laboring indecency.

526 For in thee mother with her child did hold

527 Unlawful intercourse, and daughter was

528 With her own father wedded as a bride;

529 And in thee kings have their ill-fated mouth

530 Polluted, and in thee have wicked men

531 Found couch with cattle. Be in silence hushed,

532 Thou wicked city all-bewailed, possessed

533 Of revelry; for by thee virgin maids

534 Shall care no longer for the fire divine

535 Of sacred wood that fondly nourisheth;

536 Before thee was a much-loved house of old

537 Extinguished, when I saw the second house

538 Cast headlong down and overwhelmed with fire

539 By an unholy hand, house ever flourishing,

540 God’s watchful temple, brought forth of his saints

541 And being always indestructible,

542 By the soul hoped for and the body itself.

543 For not without the rites of burial

544 Shall one praise God out of the unseen earth,

545 Nor did wise workman make a stone by them,

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

547 And of souls, but the mighty Father, God

548 Of all things God-inspired, did he revere

549 With holy offerings and fair hecatombs.

550 But now an unseen and unholy king

551 With multitude great and with men renowned

552 Rose into power and cast his dwelling down

553 And let it go unbuilt. But he himself

554 When he set foot on the immortal land

555 Destroyed the ground. And such a sign no more

556 Was wrought upon men, so that it appeared

557 That others the great city should destroy.

558 For there came from the heavenly plains a man,

559 One blessed, with a scepter in his hand,

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

561 And unto all the good did he restore

562 The riches which the earlier men had seized.

563 And many cities with much fire he took

564 From their foundations, and he set on fire.

565 The towns of mortals who before did evil,

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

567 More radiant than stars and sun and moon,

568 And he set order, and a holy house.

569 Incarnate made, pure, very fair, and formed

570 In many stades a great and boundless tower

571 Touching the clouds themselves and seen by all,

572 So that all holy and all righteous men

573 Might see the glory of the eternal God,

574 A sight that has been longed for. Rising sun

575 And setting day hymned forth the praise of God.

576 For there are then no longer fearful things

577 For wretched mortals, nor adulteries

578 And lawless love of boys, nor homicide

579 Nor tumult, but a righteous strife in all,

580 It is the last time of the saints when God

581 Accomplisheth these things, high Thunderer,

582 Founder of temple most magnificent.

583 Alas, alas for thee, O Babylon,

584 For golden throne and golden sandal famed,

585 Kingdom of many years and of the world

586 Sole ruler, who wast great in olden time

587 And city of all cities, thou no more

588 Shalt lie in golden mountains and by streams

589 Of the Euplirates; thou shalt be laid low

590 By rout of earthquake. But the Parthians dire

591 Caused thee to suffer all things. Hold thon fast

592 Thy unknown speech, impure Chaldean race;

593 Ask not nor be concerned how thou shalt lead

594 The Persians or how thou shalt rule the Medes;

595 For on account of thy supremacy,

596 Which thou hadst, sending hostages to Rome

597 And serving Asia, thou that formerly

598 Didst also think thyself a queen, shalt come

599 Unto the judgment of antagonists,

600 Because of whom thou hast suffered baneful things;

601 And thou shalt give instead of crooked words

602 Bitter vexation to the enemies.

603 And in the last time shall the sea be dry

604 And ships no longer sail to Italy,

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

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

607 And Cyprus shall endure great misery

608 And Paphos shall bewail a dreadful fate,

609 So that even Salamis, great city, shall

610 Be seen to undergo great misery;

611 And now the dry land shall be fruitless sand

612 Upon the shore. And locusts not a few

613 Shall utterly destroy the Cyprian land.

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

615 Phœnicia, dreadful wrath remains for thee,

616 Until thou to a worthless ruin fall,

617 So that even Sirens truly may lament.

618 In the fifth generation, when the ruin

619 Of Egypt has ceased, it shall come to pass

620 That shameless kings shall be together joined,

621 And races of Pamphylians shall encamp

622 In Egypt, and in Macedonia

623 And in Asia and among the Libyans

624 Shall in the dust be a world-maddening war

625 Exceeding bloody, which the king of Rome

626 And rulers of the West shall make to cease.

627 When wintry storm shall drop down like the snow,

628 While frozen are great river and vast lakes,

629 Forthwith a barbarous race shall make their way

630 Into the Asian land and shall destroy

631 The race of dreadful Thracians, hard to quell.

632 And then shall mortals feeding lawlessly

633 Devour their parents, being by hunger worn,

634 And shall gulp down the entrails. And wild beasts

635 Shall devour from all houses table-food,

636 And they and birds all mortals shall devour.

637 The ocean with dead bodies shall be filled

638 From the river and be red with flesh and blood

639 Of the foolish ones. Then thus a feebleness

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

641 May be seen and the measure of the women.

642 And the dire race shall wail for myriad things

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

644 But to remain submerged in Ocean’s waves;

645 For it beheld the wickedness unclean

646 Of many mortals. And a moonless night

647 Shall be a fame around the mighty heaven,

648 And no small mist shall hide the world’s ravines

649 A second time; then afterwards God’s light

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

651 Isis, thrice wretched goddess, thou alone.

652 Shalt on the waters of the Nile remain,

653 A Mænad out of order on the sands

654 Of Acheron, and no longer shall remain

655 Remembrance of thee over all the earth.

656 And also thou, Sarapis, who art placed

657 On many glistening stones, a ruin vast

658 Shalt thou in thrice unhappy Egypt lie.

659 But those whom love of Egypt led to thee

660 Shall all lament thee badly; but who put

661 Imperishable reason in their breast,

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

663 And sometime shall a linen-vested man,

664 A priest, say: “Come, let us raise up of God

665 A beautiful true temple; come, let us

666 The fearful law of our forefathers change,

667 Because of which they did not understand

668 That they were unto gods of stone and clay

669 Making processions and religious rites.

670 Let us turn our souls, giving praise to God

671 The imperishable, who himself is Father,

672 The everlasting One, the Lord of all,

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

674 The mighty God existing evermore.”

675 And then shall there a great pure temple be

676 In Egypt, and the people made by God

677 Shall into it their sacrifices bring.

678 And to them God shall give life incorrupt.

679 But when the Ethiopians, forsaking

680 The shameless tribes of the Triballians,

681 Shall cultivate their Egypt, they will then

682 Begin their baseness, that the later things

683 May all occur. For they shall overthrow

684 The mighty temple of the Egyptian land;

685 And God shall rain down on the earth dire wrath

686 Among them, so that all the wicked ones

687 And all without sense perish. And no more

688 Shall there be any sparing in that land,

689 Because they did not keep that which God gave.

690 I saw the threatening of the shining Sun

691 Among the stars, and in the lightning flash

692 The dire wrath of the Moon; the stars travailed

693 With battle; and God gave them up to fight.

694 For long fire-flames rebelled against the Sun;

695 Lucifer treading upon Leo’s back

696 Began the fight; and the Moon’s double horn

697 Changed its shape; Capricorn smote Taurus’ neck;

698 And Taurus took away from Capricorn

699 Returning day. Orion would no more.

700 Abide his yoke; the lot of Gemini

701 Did Virgo change in Aries; no more shone

702 The Pleiads; Draco disavowed his zone;

703 Down into Leo’s girdle Pisces went.

704 Cancer remained not, for he feared Orion;

705 Scorpio down on dire Leo backwards moved;

706 And from the Sun’s flame Sirius slipped away;

707 And the strength of the mighty Shining One

708 Aquarius kindled. Uranus himself

709 Was roused, until he shook the warring ones;

710 And being incensed he hurled them down on earth.

711 Then swiftly smitten down upon the baths

712 Of Ocean they set all the earth on fire;

713 And the high heaven remained without a star.

Book 6

1 The great Son of the Immortal famed in song

2 I from the heart proclaim, to whom a throne

3 To be held fast the most high Father gave

4 Ere he was brought forth; then was he raised up

5 According to flesh given, washed at the mouth

6 Of the river Jordan, which goes rushing on

7 Trailing its gleaming billows, from the fire

8 Escaping he first shall see God’s sweet Spirit

9 Descending with the wings of a white dove.

10 And a pure flower shall bloom, and springs be full.

11 And he shall show the ways to men, and show

12 The heavenly paths, and teach all with wise words.

13 And he shall come for judgment and persuade

14 A disobedient people while he boasts

15 Descent praiseworthy from a heavenly Sire.

16 Billows shall he tread, sickness of mankind

17 Shall he destroy, he shall raise up the dead,

18 And many sufferings shall he drive away;

19 And from one scrip shall be men’s fill of bread,

20 When the house of David shall bring forth a child;

21 And in his hand the whole world, earth, heaven, sea.

22 And he shall flash upon the earth, as once

23 The two begotten from each other’s ribs

24 Saw human form appearing. It shall be

25 When earth shall be glad in the hope of child.

26 But for thee only, Sodomitic land,

27 Are evil woes laid up; for thou thyself

28 Ill-disposed didst not apprehend thy God.

29 Who mocks at mortal schemes; but from a thorn

30 Didst crown him with a crown, and fearful gall

31 Didst mingle unto insolence and spirit.

32 This shall bring evil woes about for thee.

33 O the Wood, O so blessed, upon which

34 God was outstretched; the earth shall not have thee,

35 But thou shalt look upon a heavenly house,

36 When thou, O God, shalt flash thine eye of fire.

Book 7

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

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

3 Of cities, and first shalt thou be destroyed,

4 Bereft of men, but of the means of life

5 Not wholly destitute. And thou shalt sail,

6 Delos, and be unstable on the water;

7 Cyprus, a billow of thy gleaming sea

8 Shall sometime thee destroy; thee, Sicily,

9 The fire that burns within thee shall consume.

10 .mw-parser-output .wst-asterisks{display:block;margin:auto;text-align:center}…….

11 Nor heed God’s terrible and foreign water.

12 …….

13 Noah sole fugitive from all men came.

14 …….

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

16 Everything shall be water and all things

17 Shall be destroyed by waters. And the winds

18 Shall stand still and a second age shall be.

19 O Phrygia, first shalt thou flame from the crest

20 Of the water; and first in impiety

21 Thou shalt deny God himself, courting favor

22 With false gods, which shall utterly destroy

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

24 The hapless Ethiopians under pain,

25 Suffering things lamentable, shall by swords.

26 Be smitten whilst they crouch upon the ground.

27 Rich Egypt ever caring for her corn,

28 Which Nilus by his seven swimming streams

29 Intoxicates, shall an intestine strife

30 Destroy; and thence men unexpectedly

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

32 Alas, alas, Laodicea! thou

33 Not ever seeing God shalt lie, bold one;

34 And over thee shall dash a wave of Lycus.

35 …….

36 He himself who is born the mighty God,

37 Who shall work many signs, shall through heaven hang

38 An axle in the midst, and place for men

39 A mighty terror to be seen on high,

40 Measuring a column with a mighty fire

41 Whose drops shall slay the races of mankind

42 That have dared evils. But a common Lord

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

44 Propitiate God, but shall not make an end

45 Of fruitless sorrows. And through David’s house

46 Shall all things come to pass. For God himself

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

48 Under his feet shall sleep his messengers,

49 And some shall kindle fires, and some shall make

50 Rivers appear, and some shall rescue towns,

51 And some shall send forth winds. But furthermore

52 A grievous life shall come on many men,

53 Entering their souls and changing human hearts.

54 But when a new shoot shall out of a root

55 Put forth eyes, the creation, which to all

56 Once gave abundant food .mw-parser-output .nowrap,.mw-parser-output .nowrap a:before,.mw-parser-output .nowrap .selflink:before{white-space:nowrap}…

57 …….

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

59 Others shall rule, a tribe of warlike Persians,

60 Bride-chambers straightway shall be terrible

61 Because of lawless deeds. For her own son

62 Will mother have as husband; son will be

63 The ruin of his mother; and with sire

64 Shall daughter lie down and shall put to sleep

65 This foreign law. But to them afterwards

66 Shall Roman Ares flash from many a spear;

67 And they shall mix much land with human blood.

68 But then a chief of Italy shall flee

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

70 Upon the land a lance inscribed with gold,

71 Which as the signal ensign of their rule

72 The foremost fighters carry constantly.

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

74 Ilias shall piteously complete for all

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

76 Because they knew not God, but always gave

77 By kettle-drums and cymbals boisterous sound.

78 Consult the oracle, O Colophon;

79 For a great fearful fire hangs over thee.

80 Ill-wedded Thessaly, the earth no more.

81 Shall see thee, nor thy ashes, and alone

82 Escaping from the mainland thou shalt swim;

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

84 Be melancholy refuse, having fallen

85 By swiftly flowing rivers and by swords.

86 And thou, O wretched Corinth, shalt receive

87 Around thyself stern Ares, hapless one,

88 And ye shall perish one upon another.

89 Tyre, thon, unhappy, shalt be left alone;

90 For, made a widow by the feebleness

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

92 Ah, Cœle-Syria, of Phœnician men

93 The last hold, upon whom the briny sea

94 Of Berytus disgorging is poured forth,

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

96 Who once in the mouth of Jordan washed himself,

97 —And the Spirit spread his wings in flight towards him—

98 Who before both the earth and starry heaven

99 Was, actual Word, begotten by his Father,

100 And by the Holy Spirit donning flesh

101 He quickly flew unto his Father’s house.

102 And for him three towers did the mighty heaven

103 Establish, in which dwell God’s noble guides,

104 Hope, piety, and reverence much-desired,

105 Not having in gold or in silver joy,

106 But in the reverential acts of men—

107 Both sacrifices and most righteous thoughts.

108 And thou shalt sacrifice to the immortal

109 And mighty God august, not melting grains

110 Of frankincense in fire, nor with the sword

111 Slaying the shaggy-haired lamb, but with all

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

113 And fixing eyes on heaven send them away;

114 And thou shalt sprinkle water on pure fire

115 Having cried: “As the Father did beget

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

117 Swift messenger of words, with holy waters.

118 Besprinkling thy baptism, O Word, through which

119 Thou didst make thyself manifest in fire.”

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

121 A stranger unto thee in need to curb

122 His hunger which comes from his poverty,

123 But taking hold of that man sprinkle him

124 With water and pray thrice; and to thy God

125 Do thou thus cry: “I do not long for wealth;

126 A suppliant I once publicly received

127 A suppliant; Father, thou provider, hear.”

128 When thou hast prayed thou shalt give unto him;

129 And the man went away thereafter…

130 …….

131 Do not afflict me, holy fear of God.

132 And righteous, as to birth pure, unenslaved,

133 Attested…

134 Do thou, O Father, make my wretched heart

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

136 The undefiled, whom hands did not produce.

137 Sardinia, weighty now, thou shalt be changed

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

139 When the tenth time shall come. Amid the waves

140 Shall sailors seek thee when thou art no more,

141 And o’er thee shall kingfishers wail sad dirge.

142 Rugged Mygdonia, beacon of the sea

143 Hard to get out of, ages shalt thou boast

144 And unto ages shalt be all destroyed

145 With a hot wind, and rave with many woos.

146 O Celtic land, on mountain range so great,

147 Beyond impassable Alp, thee deep sand

148 Shall altogether bury; thou shalt give

149 Tribute no more, nor corn, nor pasturage;

150 And thou from peoples ever far away

151 Shalt be all-desolate, and becoming thick

152 With chill ice thou shalt for an outrage pay,

153 Which thou didst not perceive, unholy one.

154 Stout-hearted Rome, thou to Olympus shalt

155 Flash lightning after Macedonian spears;

156 But God shall make thee utterly unknown,

157 When thou wouldst to the eye seem to remain

158 Much more firm. Then to thee, such things I’ll cry.

159 Perishing thou shalt then cry out and boil

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

161 Again a second time I am to speak.

162 And now for thee, O wretched Syria,

163 Do I wail bitterly in pitying grief.

164 O Thebans ill-advised, an evil sound

165 Is over you while flutes speak out their tones;

166 For you shall trumpet sound an evil sound

167 And ye shall see the entire land destroyed.

168 Alas, alas for thee, thou wretched one;

169 Alas, alas thou evil-minded sea!

170 Thou shalt be wholly eaten up of fire

171 And people with thy brine shalt thou destroy.

172 For there shall be such raging fire on earth

173 As flows like water, and it shall destroy

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

175 Shall burn the rivers, and exhaust the springs.

176 The world shall be disordered whilst mankind

177 Are perishing. And then the wretched ones,

178 Burned badly, shall look unto heaven inwrought

179 Not with stars, but with fire. Not speedily

180 Shall they be made to perish, but dissolved

181 From under flesh, and burning in the spirit

182 For age-long years, they shall know that God’s law

183 Is always hard to put to test and not

184 To be deceived; and then earth, seized by foree,

185 Daring whatever god she did admit

186 Unto her altars, cheated, turned to smoke

187 Through the changed air; and they shall undergo

188 Much suffering who for gain shall prophesy

189 Shameful things, nourishing the evil time.

190 And the Hebrews who put on the shaggy skins

191 Of sheep shall prove false, in which race themselves

192 Obtained no portion by inheritance,

193 But talking mere words over sorrows they

194 Are misers, who shall change their course of life

195 And not mislead the just, who through the heart

196 All-faithfully propitiate their God.

197 But in the third lot of revolving years,

198 Eighth the first, shall another world appear.

199 Night shall be all … long and without light.

200 And then shall pass around the dreadful stench

201 Of brimstone, messenger of homicides,

202 When they shall be by night and hunger slain.

203 Then a pure mind shall God beget in men,

204 And shall the race establish, as it was

205 Aforetime; longer shall not any one

206 Deep furrow cut with round plow, nor two oxen

207 Straight guiding dip the iron down; nor vines

208 Shall be not ears of corn; but all shall eat

209 Together dewy manna with white teeth.

210 And then among them God shall also be,

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

212 The sad one. For how many evil things

213 I did with knowledge onee, and many things

214 Heedless I also wickedly performed.

215 Countless my couches, but no marriage-bond

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

217 To all a savage oath. I turned away

218 Those in need and among the foremost went

219 Into like glen and minded not God’s word.

220 Therefore did fire consume me and shall gnaw;

221 For I shall not live always, but a time

222 Of evil shall destroy me, when for me

223 Men shall beside the margin of the sea

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

225 For lying with my father a dear son

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

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

Book 8

1 God’s declarations of great wrath to come

2 In the last age upon the faithloss world

3 I make known, prophesying to all men

4 According to their cities. From the time

5 When the great tower fell and the tongues of men

6 Were parted into many languages

7 Of mortals, first was Egypt’s royal power

8 Established, that of Persians and of Medes

9 And also of the Ethiopians

10 And of Assyria and Babylon,

11 Then the great pride of boasting Macedon,

12 Then, fifth, the famous lawless kingdom last

13 Of the Italians shall show many evils

14 Unto all mortals and shall spend the toils

15 Of men of every land. And it shall lead

16 The untamed kings of nations to the West,

17 Make laws for peoples and subject all things.

18 Late do the mills of God grind the fine flour.

19 Fire then shall destroy all things and give back

20 To fine dust the heads of the high-leafed hills

21 And of all flesh. First cause of ills to all

22 Are covetousness and a lack of sense.

23 For there shall be love of deceitful gold

24 And silver; for than these did mortals choose

25 Naught greater, neither light of sun, nor heaven,

26 Nor sea, nor broad-backed earth whence all things grow,

27 Nor God who giveth all things, of all things

28 The Father, nor yet faith and piety

29 Chose they before them. Of impiety

30 A fount, and of disorder forward guide,

31 An instrument of wars and foe of peace

32 Is lack of sense, that sets at enmity

33 Parents and children. And along with gold

34 Shall marriage not be honorable at all.

35 And the land shall have its borders and each sea

36 Its watchers craftily distributed

37 To all those that have gold; for ages thus

38 Shall those who purpose to possess the land

39 That feedeth many plunder laboring men,

40 In order that, procuring larger space,

41 They may enslave them by a false pretense.

42 And if the huge earth from the starry heaven

43 Held not her throne far off there had not been

44 For men an equal light, but, bought with gold,

45 It had belonged to rich men and God must

46 For poor men have prepared another world.

47 There shall come to thee sometime from above

48 A heavenly stroke deserved, O haughty Rome.

49 And thou shalt be the first to bend thy neck

50 And be rased to the ground, and thee shall fire

51 Destructive utterly consume, cast down

52 Upon thy pavements, and thy wealth shall perish,

53 And wolves and foxes dwell in thy foundations.

54 And then shalt thou be wholly desolate,

55 As if not born. Where thy Palladium then?

56 What god shall save thee, whether wrought of gold

57 Or stone or brass? Or then where thy decrees

58 Of senate? Where shall be the race of Rhea,

59 Of Cronus, or of Zeus, and of all those

60 Whom thou didst worship, demons without life,

61 Images of the worn-out dead, whose tombs

62 Crete the ill-starred shall hold a cause of pride,

63 And honor the unconscious dead with thrones?

64 But when thou shalt have had voluptuous kings

65 Thrice five, enslaving the world from the east

66 Unto the west, there shall be then a lord

67 Gray-headed, having name of the near sea,

68 The world inspecting with a nimble foot,

69 Bringing gifts, having large amount of gold.

70 And plundering hateful silver even more,

71 And stripping it off he shall pick it up.

72 And he shall have part in all mysteries

73 Of Magian shrines, display his child as god,

74 Abolish all things sacred, and disclose

75 The ancient mysteries of deceit to all.

76 Sad then the time when he himself, sad one,

77 Shall perish. And yet shall the people say:

78 “Thy mighty strength, O city, shall fall down,”

79 At once perceiving that the evil day

80 Is coming on. And, thy most piteous fate

81 Foreseeing, fathers and young children then

82 Shall mourn together; they alas, alas! shall wail

83 Beside the Tiber’s lamentable banks.

84 After him at the latest day of all

85 Shall three rule, filling out a name of God

86 The heavenly, of whom is the power both now

87 And to all ages. One of them being old

88 The scepter long shall wield, most piteous king,

89 Who in his houses shall shut up and guard

90 All the goods of the world, in order that,

91 When from the utmost limits of the earth

92 That man, the matricidal fugitive,

93 Shall come again, he may bestow these things

94 On all and furnish Asia with great wealth.

95 And then shalt thou mourn and shalt put aside

96 The luster of the broad-striped purple robe

97 Of thy commanders and wear mourning dress,

98 O haughty queen, offspring of Latin Rome;

99 The glory of that arrogance of thine

100 Shall be for thee no longer, nor shalt thou,

101 Ill-fated, ever be raised up again,

102 But shalt lie prostrate. For the glory also.

103 Of eagle-bearing legions shall fall low.

104 Where then thy power? What allied land shall be

105 Subjected by thy follies lawlessly?

106 For then in all earth shall confusion be

107 Of mortals, when the Almighty shall himself

108 To the tribunal come to judge the souls

109 Of the living and the dead and all the world.

110 And parents shall not be to children dear

111 Nor children to their parents, on account

112 Of their impiety and their distress

113 Unlooked-for. Thine thenceforth shall gnashing be

114 And scattering and conquest, when the fall

115 Of cities comes and yawnings of the earth.

116 When a dragon charged with fire in both his eyes

117 And with full belly shall come on the waves

118 And shall afflict thy children, and there be

119 Famine and war of kinsmen, near at hand

120 Is the end of the world and the last day

121 And judgment of the immortal God for them

122 That are approved and chosen. And there shall

123 Against the Romans first of all be wrath.

124 Implacable, and there shall come a time

125 Of drinking blood and wretched course of life.

126 Alas, alas for thee, thou reckless land,

127 Great barbarous nation; thou didst not perceive

128 Whence naked and unworthy thou didst come

129 To the sun’s light, that to that place again

130 Naked thou mightest withdraw and afterwards

131 Come unto judgment, as unjustly judging.mw-parser-output .nowrap,.mw-parser-output .nowrap a:before,.mw-parser-output .nowrap .selflink:before{white-space:nowrap}…

132 With hands gigantic coming from on high

133 Alone through all the world thou shalt abide

134 Under the earth. By naphtha and asphalt

135 And brimstone and much fire thou utterly

136 Shalt disappear and shalt be burning dust

137 For ages; and each one who sees shall hear

138 From Hades a great mournful bellowing

139 And gnashing of teeth, and thee noisily

140 Beating with thine own hands thy godless breast.

141 For all together there is equal night;

142 For rich and poor; and naked from the earth

143 Naked again to earth they haste away

144 And cease from life when they complete their time.

145 No slave is there, nor any lord, nor tyrant,

146 Nor king, nor leader having much conceit,

147 Nor speaker learned in law, nor magistrato

148 Judging for money; nor do they pour out

149 The blood of sacrifices in libations

150 Upon the altars; there sounds not a drum

151 Nor cymbal…

152 Nor perforated flute that has a power

153 To madden mind itself, nor sound of pipe

154 That bears the likeness of a crooked snake,

155 Nor trumpet, harsh-toned messenger of wars;

156 Nor those made drunken in the lawless feasts

157 Of revelry, nor in the choral dance;

158 Nor sound of harp, nor harmful instrument;

159 Nor strife, nor anger manifold, nor sword.

160 Is with the dead; but an eternity

161 Common to all is keeper of the key

162 Of the great prison before God’s judgment-seat.

163 .mw-parser-output .wst-asterisks{display:block;margin:auto;text-align:center}…….

164 With images of gold and silver and stone

165 Ye are ready, that unto the bitter day

166 Ye may come to see your first punishment,

167 O Rome, and gnashing of teeth. And no more

168 Shall Syrian or Greek lay down his neck

169 Beneath thy servile yoke, nor foreigner,

170 Nor other nation. Plundered thou shalt be

171 And made to suffer what thou didst exact,

172 And in fear wailing thon shalt give, until

173 Thou pay back all things; and thou for the world

174 Shalt he a triumph and reproach of all.

175 Then shall the sixth race of the Latin kings

176 End life at last and scepters leave behind.

177 From the same race another king shall reign,

178 Who shall rule every land and scepters wield;

179 And having full power, and by the decrees.

180 Of God most mighty, shall his children rule,

181 And of unshaken children is his race;

182 For thus it is decreed while time moves round,

183 When there shall be of Egypt thrice five kings.

184 Thereafter when the limit of the time

185 Of the Phenix shall come round, there shall a race

186 Of peoples come to plunder, tribes confused,

187 Enemy of the Hebrews. Then shall Ares

188 Go plundering Ares; and he shall himself

189 Destroy the haughty threatening of the Romans.

190 For Rome’s power perished then while in its bloom;

191 An ancient queen with cities dwelling round.

192 No longer shall the land of fertile Rome

193 Prevail, when out of Asia one shall come

194 To rule with Ares. And when he has wrought

195 All these things, to the city afterwards

196 Shall he come. And three times three hundred years

197 And eight and forty shalt thou make complete,

198 When, taking thee by force, an ill-starred fate

199 Shall come upon thee and complete thy name.

200 Ah me, I the thrice wretched, shall I see.

201 Sometime that day to thee destructive, Rome,

202 But to all Latins most? It honors him

203 With counsels who goes up on Trojan car

204 With hidden children from the Asian land,

205 Having a fiery soul. But when he shall

206 Cut through the isthmus looking wistfully,

207 Moving against all, passing o’er the sea,

208 Then shall dark blood pursue the mighty beast.

209 And a dog chased the lion which destroys.

210 The shepherds. And then shall they take away

211 His scepter and to Hades he shall pass.

212 And unto Rhodes shall come an evil last,

213 But greatest. There shall also be for Thebes

214 An evil conquest afterwards. And Egypt

215 Shall perish by the wickedness of rulers.

216 And he who, being mortal, even so

217 Escaped headlong destruction afterwards,

218 Thrice blessed was, even four times happy man.

219 And Rome shall be a room, and Delos dull,

220 And Samos sand…

221 Later again thereafter there shall come

222 An evil to the Persians for their pride,

223 And all their insolence shall come to naught.

224 And then a holy Lord of all the earth

225 Having raised up the dead shall wield the scepter

226 Unto all ages. Thrice then unto Rome

227 Will the Most High bring pitiable fate

228 And unto all men, and by their own works

229 They’ll perish; but they would not be persuaded,

230 Which would have been much more to be desired.

231 But when forthwith there shall increase for all

232 An evil day of famine and of plague

233 And of intolerable battle-din,

234 Even then again the former daring lord

235 Shall, having called the senate, counsel take

236 How he shall utterly destroy…

237 …….

238 Dry land shall bloom together with the leaves

239 Appearing; and the heavenly firmament

240 Shall bring to light upon the solid rock

241 Rainstorm and flame, and much wind on the land,

242 And over all the earth a multitude

243 Of poisonous sowings. But with shameless soul

244 Shall they again aet, fearing not the wrath

245 Of God or men, forsaking modesty,

246 Longing for shamelessness, and greedy tyrants

247 And violent sinners, false, insatiate,

248 Workers of evil and in nothing true,

249 Destroyers of faith, pouring out foul speech.

250 In false words; they shall have no fill of wealth;

251 But shamelessly will they strip off still more;

252 Under the rule of tyrants they shall perish.

253 The stars shall all fall forwards in the sea,

254 All one by one, yet shall men see in heaven

255 A brilliant comet, sign of much distress

256 About to come, of war and battle-strife.

257 Let me not live when the gay woman reigns

258 But then when heavenly grace shall reign within,

259 And when the holy child shall crash with bonds

260 The mischievous destroyer of all men,

261 Opening the depth to view, and suddenly

262 The wooden house shall cover mortals round.

263 But when the generation tenth shall be

264 Within the house of Hades, afterwards

265 The mighty sway of one of female sex;

266 And God himself shall increase many evils

267 When she with royal honor has been crowned;

268 And altogether then an impious age.

269 The sun obscurely looking shines by night;

270 The stars shall leave the sky; and with much storm

271 A hurricane shall desolate the earth;

272 And there shall be a rising of the dead;

273 The running of the lame shall be most swift,

274 The deaf shall hear, the blind shall see, and those

275 That talk not shall talk, and to all

276 Shall life and wealth be common. And the land

277 Alike for all, divided not by walls

278 Or fences, shall bear more abundant fruits.

279 And fountains of sweet wine and of white milk

280 And honey it shall give…

281 …….

282 And judgment of the immortal God (great king).

283 But when God shall change times …

284 Winter producing summer, then shall be

285 Oracles (all fulfilled) …

286 But when the world has perished …

287 .mw-parser-output .wst-asc{font-variant:all-small-caps}.mw-parser-output .wst-asc-initials{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .wst-asc-initials>span:not(:first-child){padding-left:0.16em}.mw-parser-output .wst-asc-initials.wst-asc-initials-nospace>span:not(:first-child){padding-left:0}Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour, Cross.

288 And the earth shall perspire, when there shall be

289 The sign of judgment. And from heaven shall come.

290 The King who for the ages is to be,

291 Present to judge all flesh and the whole world.

292 Faithful and faithless mortals shall see God

293 The Most High with the saints at the end of time.

294 And of men bearing flesh he judges souls

295 Upon his throne, when sometime the whole world

296 Shall be a desert and a place of thorns.

297 And mortals shall their idols cast away

298 And all wealth. And the searching fire shall burn

299 Earth, heaven, and sea; and it shall burn the gates

300 Of Hades prison. Then shall come all flesh

301 Of the dead to the free light of the saints;

302 But the lawless shall that fire whirl round and round

303 For ages. Howsoever much one did

304 In secret, then shall be all things declare;

305 For God shall open dark breasts to the light.

306 And lamentation shall there be from all

307 And gnashing of teeth. Brightness of the sun

308 Shall be eclipsed and dances of the stars.

309 He shall roll up the heaven; and of the moon

310 The light shall perish. And he shall exalt

311 The valleys and destroy the heights of hills,

312 And height no longer shall appear remaining

313 Among men. And the hills shall with the plains

314 Be level and no more on any sea

315 Shall there be sailing. For the earth shall then

316 With heat be shriveled and the dashing streams

317 Shall with the fountains fail. The trump shall send

318 From heaven a very lamentable sound,

319 Howling the loathsomeness of wretched men

320 And the world’s woes. And then the yawning earth

321 Shall show Tartarean chaos. And all kings

322 Shall come unto the judgment seat of God.

323 And there shall out of heaven a stream of fire

324 And brimstone flow. But for all mortals then

325 Shall there a sign be, a distinguished seal,

326 The Wood among believers, and the horn

327 Fondly desired, the life of pious men,

328 But it shall be a stumbling-block of the world,

329 Giving illumination to the elect

330 By water in twelve springs; and there shall rule

331 A shepherding iron rod. This one who now

332 Is in acrostics which give signs of God

333 Thus written openly, the Saviour is,

334 Immortal King, who suffered for our sake;

335 Him Moses typified when he stretched out

336 Holy arms, conquering Amalek by faith,

337 That the people might know him to be elect

338 And honorable before his Father God,

339 The rod of David and the very stone

340 Which he indeed did promise, and in which

341 He that believes shall have eternal life.

342 For not in glory, but as mortal man

343 Shall he come to creation, pitiable,

344 Unhonored, without seemly form, to give

345 Hope to the pitiable; and he will give

346 Fair form to mortal flesh, and heavenly faith

347 To those without faith, and he’ll give fair form

348 To the man who was fashioned from the first

349 By the holy hands of God, and whom by guile

350 The serpent led astray unto the fate

351 Of death to go and knowledge to receive

352 Of good and evil, so that leaving God

353 He serves the ways of mortals. For at first

354 Receiving him as fellow-counsellor

355 From the beginning the Almighty said:

356 “Let both of us, O Son, make mortal tribes—

357 Stamping them with the impress of our image;

358 I now by my hands, and thou by the Word

359 In after time shalt for our form provide

360 That we may jointly cause it to arise.”

361 Keeping in mind this purpose he shall come

362 To the creation, to a holy virgin

363 Bringing the likeness antitypical,

364 Baptizing with water by the elders’ hands,

365 And by the Word accomplishing all things,

366 And healing every sickness. By his word

367 The winds shall he make cease, and with his foot

368 Shall calm the raging sea, walking thereon

369 In peaceful faith. And from five loaves of bread

370 And a fish of the sea five thousand men

371 Shall be fill in the desert, and then taking

372 All the remaining fragments for the hope

373 Of peoples shall he fill twelve baskets full.

374 And the souls of the blessed he shall call,

375 And love the pitiable, who, being mocked,

376 Beaten, and whipped, shall evil do for good

377 Desiring poverty. He who perceives

378 All things and sees all things and hears all things

379 Shall search the heart and bare it to conviction;

380 For of all things is he himself the ear

381 And mind and sight, and Word that maketh forms,

382 To whom all things submit, and he preserves

383 Them that are dead and every sickness heals.

384 Into the hands of lawless men, at last,

385 And faithless he shall come, and they will give

386 To God rude buffetings with impure hands

387 And poisonous spittle with polluted mouths.

388 And he to whips will openly give then

389 His holy back; [for he unto the world

390 A holy virgin shall himself commit.]

391 And silent he will be when buffeted,

392 Lest anyone should know whose son he is

393 Or whence he came, that he may talk to the dead.

394 And be shall also wear a crown of thorns;

395 For of thorns is the crown an ornament

396 Elect, eternal. They shall pierce his side.

397 With a reed that they may fulfill their law;

398 For of reeds shaken by another spirit

399 Were nourished inclinations of the soul,

400 Of anger and revenge. But when these things

401 Shall be accomplished, of the which I spoke,

402 Then unto him shall every law be loosed

403 Which from the first by the decrees of men

404 Was given because of disobedient people.

405 He’ll spread his hands and measure all the world.

406 But gall for food and vinegar to drink

407 They gave him; this inhospitable board

408 They’ll show him. But the curtain of the temple

409 Shall be asunder rent and in midday

410 There shall be for three hours dark, monstrous night.

411 For it was no more pointed out again

412 How to serve secret temple and the law,

413 Which had been covered with the world’s displays,

414 When the Eternal came himself on earth.

415 And into Hades shall he come announcing

416 Hope unto all the saints, the end of ages.

417 And the last day, and having fallen asleep

418 The third day he shall end the lot of death;

419 Then from the dead departing he shall come

420 To light, the first to show forth to the elect

421 Beginning of resurrection, and wash off

422 By means of waters of immortal spring

423 Their former wickedness, that, being born.

424 From above, they might be no more enslaved

425 To the unlawful customs of the world.

426 And first then openly unto his own

427 Shall be as Lord in flesh be visible,

428 As he before was, and in hands and feet

429 Exhibit four marks fixed in his own limbs,

430 Denoting east and west and south and north;

431 For of the world so many royal powers

432 Shall against our Exemplar consummate

433 The deed so lawless and condemnable.

434 Daughter of Zion, holy one, rejoice,

435 Who hast suffered many things; thy king himself

436 Mounted upon a foal is hastening on;

437 Behold, meek he shall come, that he may lift

438 Our slavish yoke, so grievous to be borne

439 Lying upon our neck, and may annul

440 Our godless laws and bonds compulsory.

441 Know thou thy God himself, who is God’s Son;

442 Him glorify and hold within thy heart,

443 From thy soul love him and extol his name.

444 Put off thy former friends and wash thyself

445 From their blood; for he is not by thy songs

446 Nor by thy prayers appeased, nor does he give

447 To perishable sacrifices heed,

448 Being imperishable; but present

449 The holy hymn of understanding mouths

450 And know who this one is, and thou shalt then

451 Behold the Father…

452 …….

453 And then shall all the elements of the world

454 Abide in solitude, air, earth, sea, light

455 Of gleaming fire; and heavenly sky and night

456 And all days into one shall run together

457 And into outward form all-desolate.

458 For from heaven shall the stars of light all fall.

459 And there shall fly no longer in the air

460 The well-winged birds, nor stepping be on earth;

461 For wild beasts shall all perish. Nor shall be

462 Voices of men, nor of beasts, nor of birds.

463 The world shall hear no serviceable sound,

464 Being disordered; but a mighty sound

465 Of threatening shall the deep sea sound aloud,

466 And swimming trembling creatures of the sea

467 Shall all die; and no longer on the waves.

468 Shall sail the freighted ship. And earth shall groan

469 Blood-stained by wars; and all the souls of men

470 Shall gnash with their teeth, [of the lawless souls

471 Both by loud crying and by fear,] dissolved

472 By thirst, by famine, and by plague and murders,

473 And they shall call death beautiful and death

474 Shall flee away from them; for death no more

475 Nor night shall give them rest. And many things

476 Will they in vain ask God who rules on high,

477 And then will he his face turn openly

478 Away from them. For he to erring men

479 Gave in seven ages for repentance signs

480 By the hands of a virgin undefiled.

481 All these things in my mind God himself showed

482 And all that have been spoken by my mouth

483 Will he accomplish; and I know the number

484 Of the sands and the measures of the sea,

485 I know the inmost places of the earth

486 And gloomy Tartarus, I know the numbers

487 Of the stars, and the trees, and all the tribes

488 Of quadrupeds, and of the swimming things

489 And flying birds, and of men who are now

490 And of those yet to be, and of the dead;

491 For I myself the forms and mind of men

492 Did fashion, and right reason did I give

493 And knowledge taught; I who formed eyes and ears,

494 Who see and hear and every thought discern,

495 And who within am conscious of all things,

496 I am still; and hereafter will convict

497 [And punishing what any mortal did

498 In secret, and upon God’s judgment seat

499 Coming and speaking unto mortal men].

500 I understand the dumb man and I hear

501 Him that speaks not, and how great the whole height

502 From earth to heaven is, and the beginning

503 And end I know, who made the heaven and earth.

504 [For all things have proceeded from him, things

505 From the beginning to the end he knows.]

506 For I alone am God and other God

507 There is not. They my image formed of wood

508 Treat as divine, and shaping it by hand

509 They sing their praises over idols dumb

510 With supplications and unholy rites.

511 Forsaking the Creator they were slaves

512 To lewdness. Men possessing everything

513 Bestow their gifts on things which cannot aid,

514 As if they for my honors deemed these things

515 All useful, with the smell of sacrifice

516 Filling the feast, as if for their own dead.

517 For they flesh and bones full of marrow burn

518 Offering on altars, and they pour out blood

519 To demons, and they kindle lights to me

520 The giver of light, and as to a god.

521 That thirsts do mortals drunken pour out wine

522 For nought to idols that can give no aid.

523 I have no need of your burnt offerings,

524 Nor your libations, nor polluted smoke,

525 Nor blood most hateful. For in memory

526 Of kings and tyrants they will do these things.

527 Unto dead demons, as to heavenly beings,

528 Performing service godless and destructive.

529 And godless they their images call gods,

530 Forsaking the Creator, having faith

531 That from them they derive all hope and life,

532 Deaf and dumb, in the evil putting trust,

533 But they are wholly ignorant of good.

534 Two ways did I myself before them set,

535 Of life and of death, and before them set

536 Judgment to choose good life; but they themselves

537 Hastened to death and to eternal fire.

538 Man is my image, having upright reason.

539 For him a table pure and without blood

540 Make ready and with good things fill it up,

541 And give the hungry bread, the thirsty drink,

542 And to the body that is naked clothes

543 From thine own labors with unsullied hands

544 Providing. Recreate the afflicted man,

545 And help the weary, and provide for me

546 The living One a living sacrifice

547 Sowing piety, that also I to thee

548 Sometime may give immortal fruits, and light

549 Eternal thou shalt have and fadeless life

550 When I shall prove all by fire. For all things

551 I shall fuse and shall pick out what is pure,

552 Heaven will I roll up and the depths of earth

553 Lay open, and then will I raise the dead

554 Making an end of fate and sting of death,

555 And afterward for judgment will I come

556 Judging the manner both of pious men

557 And impious; I will set ram close to ram,

558 Shepherd to shepherd, calf to calf, for test,

559 Close to each other; whosoever were

560 Exalted, proven by trial, and who stopped

561 The mouth of every one, that they themselves

562 Vieing with them that lead a holy life.

563 May likewise bring them into slavery,

564 Enjoining silence, urged by love of gain,

565 Not proved before me, then shall all withdraw.

566 No longer henceforth shalt thou grieving say

567 “Morrow shall be,” nor “yesterday has been;”

568 Not many days of care, nor spring, nor winter,

569 Nor summer then, nor autumn, nor sunset

570 Nor sunrise; for a long day I will make.

571 And unto ages there shall be the light

572 Longed for of the great…

573 (Christ Jesus, of ages)…

574 …….

575 …….

576 Thou who art self-begotten, undefiled,

577 True and eternal, measuring by thy power

578 From heaven the fiery blast, and with rough torch

579 From clashing doth the scepter keep, and calm

580 The crashings of the heavy-sounding thunders,

581 And driving earth into confusion dost

582 Hold back the rushing noises, …

583 And the fire-blazing scourges thou dost blunt

584 Of lightnings, and the vast outponr of storms

585 And of autumnal hail, and chilling stroke

586 Of clouds and shock of winter. For of these

587 Each one indeed is marked out in thy mind,

588 Whatever seems good to thyself to do

589 Thy Son node his assent to, having been

590 Begotten in thy bosom before all

591 Creation, fellow-counselor with thee,

592 Former of mortals and creator of life.

593 Him with the first sweet utterance of mouth

594 Thou didst address: “Behold, let us make man

595 In a form altogether like our own,

596 And let us give him life-sustaining breath;

597 Him being yet mortal all things of the world

598 Shall serve, and unto him formed out of clay

599 We will subject all things.” And thou didst speak

600 These things by word, and all things came to pass

601 According to thy heart; and thy command

602 Together all the elements obeyed,

603 And an eternal creature was arranged

604 In mortal figure, also heaven, air, fire,

605 And earth and water of the sea, sun, moon,

606 Chorus of stars, hills …

607 Both night and day, sleeping and waking up,

608 Spirit and passion, soul and understanding,

609 Art, might and strength, and the wild tribes

610 Of living things both swimming things and fowls,

611 And of those walking, and amphibia,

612 And those that creep and those of double nature;

613 For acting in accord with his own will

614 Under thy leading he arranged all things.

615 But in the latest times the earth he passed,

616 And coming late from the virgin Mary’s womb

617 A new light rose, and going forth from heaven.

618 Put on a mortal form. First then did Gabriel show

619 His strong pure form; and bearing his own news

620 He next addressed the maiden with his voice:

621 “O virgin, in thy bosom undefiled

622 Receive thou God.” Thus speaking he inbreathed

623 God’s grace on the sweet maiden; and straightway

624 Alarm and wonder seized her as she heard,

625 And she stood trembling; and her mind was wild

626 With flutter of excitement while at heart

627 She quivered at the unlooked-for things she heard.

628 But she again was gladdened and her heart

629 Was cheered by the voice, and the maiden laughed

630 And her cheek reddened with a sense of joy,

631 And spell-bound was her heart with sense of shame.

632 And confidence came to her. And the Word

633 Flew into the womb, and in course of time

634 Having become flesh and endued with life

635 Was made a human form and came to be

636 A boy distinguished by his virgin birth;

637 For this was a great wonder to mankind,

638 But it was no great wonder unto God

639 The Father, nor was it to God the Son.

640 And the glad earth received the new born babe,

641 The heavenly throne laughed and the world rejoiced.

642 And the prophetic new-appearing star

643 Was honored by the wise men, and the babe

644 Born was shown in a manger unto them

645 That obeyed God, and keepers of the herds,

646 And goatherds and to shepherds of the lambs;

647 And Bethlehem called by God the fatherland

648 Of the Word was chosen…

649 …….

650 …….

651 And in heart practice lowliness of mind

652 And cruel deeds hate, and thy neighbor love.

653 Wholly, even as thyself; and from thy soul

654 Love God and do him service. Therefore we

655 Sprung from the holy race of the heavenly Christ

656 Are called of common blood, and we restrain

657 In worship recollection of good cheer,

658 And walk the paths of piety and truth.

659 Not ever are we suffered to approach

660 The inmost sanctuary of the temples,

661 Nor pour libations to carved images,

662 Nor honor them with prayers, nor with the smells

663 Much-pleasing of flowers, nor with light of lamps,

664 Nor yet with shining votive offerings

665 Adorn them, nor with smoke of frankincense

666 That sends forth flame of altars; nor do thou,

667 Adding unto the sacrifice of bulls

668 And taking pleasure in defilement send

669 Blood of sheep-slaughtering outrage, thus to give

670 Ransom for penalty beneath the earth;

671 Nor by the smoke of flesh-consuming pyre.

672 And odors foul pollute the light of heaven;

673 But joyful with pure minds and cheerful soul,

674 With love abounding and with generous hands,

675 With soothing psalms and songs that honor God,

676 We are commanded to sing praise to thee,

677 The imperishable and without deceit,

678 All-father God, of understanding mind,

679 …….

680 Dies iræ, dies illa,

681 Solvet sæclum in favilla,

682 Teste David cum Sibylla.

Book 11

1 O world of men wide-scattered, and long walls,

2 The cities huge and nations numberless,

3 Throughout the east and west and south and north,

4 Divided off by various languages

5 And kingdoms; other things, the very worst,

6 Against you I am now about to speak.

7 For from the time when on the earlier men

8 The flood came and the Almighty One himself

9 Destroyed that race by many waters, then

10 Brought he in yet another race of men

11 Untiring; and they, setting themselves up

12 Against heaven, built to height unspeakable

13 A tower; and tongues of all were loosed again;

14 And on them hurled came wrath of God most high,

15 By which the tower unutterably great

16 Fell; and against each other they stirred up

17 An evil strife. And then of mortal men

18 Was the tenth race since these things came to pass;

19 And the whole earth was among foreign men

20 And various languages distributed,

21 Whose numbers I will tell and in acrostics

22 Of the initial letter show the name.

23 And first shall Egypt royal power receive

24 Preeminent and just; and then in her

25 Shall many-counseling men be governors;

26 Moreover then a fearful man shall rule,

27 Close-fighter very strong; and he shall have

28 This letter of the acrostic of his name:

29 Sword shall he stretch out against pious men.

30 And while this one is ruler there shall be

31 A fearful sign in the Egyptian land,

32 Which, gladdening very greatly, shall with corn

33 Souls perishing with famine then supply;

34 The law-giver, himself a prisoner,

35 The East and offspring of Assyrian men

36 Shall nourish; and his name know thou .mw-parser-output .nowrap,.mw-parser-output .nowrap a:before,.mw-parser-output .nowrap .selflink:before{white-space:nowrap}…

37 … of the measure of the number ten.

38 But when there shall come from the radiant heaven

39 Ten strokes of judgment upon Egypt, then

40 Will I again proclaim these things to thee.

41 Memphis, alas, alas for thee! alas,

42 Great royal one! the Erythræan sea

43 Shall thy much people utterly destroy.

44 Then when the people of twelve tribes shall leave

45 The fruitful land of ruin by command

46 Of the Immortal, the Lord God himself

47 Will also give a law unto mankind.

48 And o’er the Hebrews then a mighty king

49 Magnanimous shall rule, and have a name.

50 Derived from sandy Egypt, Theban man

51 Of doubtful native land; and Memphis he,

52 Dread serpent, will show outward signs of love,

53 And he will watch o’er many things in wars.

54 Now the tenth kingdom being twelve times complete

55 Seven besides and even unto the tenth hundred,

56 Others being altogether left behind,

57 Then shall arise the Persian sovereignty.

58 And then an evil shall befall the Jews,

59 Famine and pestilence intolerable

60 They do not make escape from in that day.

61 But when a Persian shall rule, and a son

62 Of his son’s son shall lay the scepter down,

63 While years roll round to five fours, and to these

64 A hundred more, and thou a hundred nines

65 Shalt finish and all things shalt thou repay;

66 And then unto the Persians and the Medes

67 Shalt thou be given over as a slave,

68 Destroyed with blows by reason of hard fights.

69 Straightway to Persians and Assyrians

70 And to all Egypt shall an evil come,

71 And to Libya and the Ethiopians,

72 And to the Carians and Pamphylians

73 And to all other mortals. And he then

74 Shall to the grandsons give the royal power,

75 Who again snatching the whole earth away

76 Shall plunder races for their many spoils,

77 Not having fellow-feeling. Mournful dirges

78 Shall the sad Persians by the Tigris wail,

79 And Egypt water many a land with tears.

80 And then to thee, O Median land, a man

81 Of wealth abundant and of Indian birth

82 Shall many evils do, till thou repay

83 All things which thou, possessed of shameless soul,

84 Hast done before. Alas, alas for thee,

85 Thon Median nation; thou shalt afterwards

86 Be servant unto Ethiopian men

87 Beyond the land of Meroe; wretched thou

88 Shalt from the first seven and a hundred years

89 Complete, and put thy neck beneath the yoke.

90 And then an Indian of dark countenance

91 And gray hair and great soul shall afterwards

92 Become lord, who shall many evils bring

93 Upon the East by reason of hard fights;

94 And he shall treat thee more despitefully

95 And shall destroy all thy men. But when he

96 The twentieth and the tenth year shall be king,

97 Among them, also seven and the tenth,

98 Then every nation of a royal power

99 Shall be mad and declare their liberty,

100 And during three years leave their servile blood.

101 But he shall come again and every nation

102 Of valiant men shall put their neck again

103 Under the yoke, serve the king as before,

104 And of its own free will again obey.

105 There shall be great peace throughout all the world.

106 And then o’er the Assyrians there shall rule

107 A mighty king, a man preeminent,

108 And shall persuade all to speak pleasing things,

109 Which God ordained according to the law;

110 Then all kings arrogant with pointed spears

111 Timid and speechless shall before him quail,

112 And him shall very powerful rulers serve

113 Because of counsels of the mighty God;

114 For he will carry all things in detail

115 By reason, and all things will he subject,

116 And he the temple of the mighty God

117 And lovely altar will himself erect

118 In his might, and will hurl the idols down;

119 And gathering tribes together, both the race

120 Of fathers and the helpless little ones,

121 He shall encompass the inhabitants;

122 His name shall have two hundred for its number,

123 And of the eighteenth letter show the sign.

124 But when for rolling decades two and five

125 He shall rule, going forwards towards the end

126 Of his time, there shall be as many kings

127 As there are tribes of men, as there are clans,

128 As there are cities, and as isles and coasts,

129 And fields and lands that bring forth goodly fruit.

130 But one of these shall be a mighty king,

131 A leader among men; and many kings

132 Of lofty spirit shall submit to him,

133 And to his sons and grandsons opulent

134 Give portions on account of royal power.

135 Decades of decades, eight ones upon these

136 Of years shall they rule, and at last shall end.

137 But when with cruel Ares there shall come

138 A powerful wild beast, even then for thee,

139 O queenly land, shall wrath spring forth again.

140 Alas, alas for thee, thou Persian land;

141 What an outpouring of the blood of men

142 Shalt thou receive when that strong-minded man

143 Comes to thee; then I’ll shout these things again.

144 But when Italian soil shall generate,

145 Great wonder unto mortals, there shall be

146 Moans of young children by a fountain pure,

147 In shady cavern offspring of wild beast

148 That feeds on sheep, who unto manhood grown

149 Shall upon seven strong hills with reckless soul

150 Hurl many headlong down, in numbers both

151 Having a hundred, and their names shall show

152 A great sign to them that are yet to be;

153 And they shall build upon the seven hills

154 Strong walls and wage around them grievous war.

155 And then again shall there be growing up

156 Revolt of men around thee, thou great land

157 Of fine ears, high-souled Egypt; but again

158 I’ll cry these things. And yet thou shalt receive

159 A great stroke in thy houses; and again

160 Shall there be a revolt of thine own men.

161 Now over thee, O wretched Phrygia,

162 I weep in pity; for to thee from Greece,

163 Tamer of horses, there shall conquest come

164 And war and plague by reason of hard fights.

165 Ilium, I pity thee; for there shall come

166 From Sparta an Erinys to thy halls

167 Mixed with a deadly sting; and most of all

168 Shall she bring thee toils, troubles, groans, and wails,

169 When well-skilled men the battle shall begin,

170 By far the noblest heroes of the Greeks

171 Who are to Ares dear. And one of these

172 Shall be a strong brave king; of foulest deeds

173 He for his brother’s sake will go in quest.

174 And they shall overthrow the famous walls

175 Of Phrygian Troy; when of the rolling years

176 Twice five shall be filled with the bloody deeds

177 Of savage war, a wooden artifice

178 Shall sudden cover men, and on thy knees

179 Thou shalt receive this, not perceiving it

180 To be an ambush pregnant with the Greeks,

181 O cause of grievous woe. Alas, alas,

182 How much in one night Hades shall receive,

183 And what spoils of the old man weeping much

184 Shall he bear off! But with those yet to come

185 Shall be undying fame. And the great king,

186 A hero sprang from Zeus, shall have his name

187 Of the first letter of the alphabet;

188 Homewards shall he in order go. And then

189 Shall he fall by a treacherous woman’s hand.

190 And there shall rule a child sprung from the race

191 And the blood of Assaracus, renowned

192 Of heroes, both a strong and valiant man.

193 And he shall come out of the mighty fire

194 Of ravaged Troy, fleeing from fatherland

195 By reason of the fearful toil of war;

196 Bearing his aged father on his shoulders

197 And also holding his son by the hand

198 He shall perform a pious work of law,

199 Who, looking cautiously about him, cleft

200 The onset of the fire of burning Troy,

201 And hurrying through the multitude in dread

202 He shall pass over land and fearful sea.

203 And he shall have a trisyllabic name,

204 For the beginning of the alphabet

205 Points out this highest man as not unknown.

206 And then a city for the powerful Latins

207 He will raise up. And in his fifteenth year,

208 Destroyed by waters in the depths of sea,

209 Shall he lay hold on the event of death.

210 But him though dead the nations of mankind

211 Shall not forget; for his race over all

212 Shall rule hereafter even to Euphrates

213 And river Tigris, throughout the mid land

214 Of the Assyrians, where the Parthians

215 Extended. For those who are yet to come

216 It shall be, when all these things come to pass.

217 And there shall be an old man, minstrel wise,

218 Whom all shall among mortals call most wise,

219 By whose good understanding the whole world

220 Shall be instructed; for his chapters he

221 According to their power of thoughts will write.

222 And wisely will he write most marvelous things,

223 At times appropriating words of mine

224 Measures and verses; for he shall the first

225 My books unfold and after these things hide them

226 And unto men bring them to light no more

227 Until the end of baneful death and life.

228 But when forthwith these things have been fulfilled

229 Which I spoke, yet again the Greeks shall fight

230 With one another; and Assyrians,

231 Arabians and the quiver-bearing Medes,

232 And Persians and Sicilians shall rise up,

233 And Lydians, Thracians and Bithynians,

234 And they who dwell in the land of fair corn

235 Beside the streams of Nile; and among all

236 Will God the imperishable put at once

237 Confusion. But exceeding terribly

238 Shall an Assyrian base-born fiery man

239 Come suddenly, possessed of beastly soul,

240 And looking cautiously about him cut

241 Through every isthmus, going against all,

242 And sailing o’er the sea. Then, faithless Greece,

243 To thee shall happen very many things.

244 Alas, alas for thee, O wretched Greece,

245 How many things thou art obliged to wail!

246 And during seven and eighty rolling years

247 Thou shalt the miserable refuse be

248 Of fearful battle among all the tribes.

249 Then shall a Macedonian man again

250 Bring forth for Hellas woe and shall destroy

251 All Thrace, and toil of Ares on the isles

252 And coasts and the war-loving Triballi.

253 .mw-parser-output .wst-asterisks{display:block;margin:auto;text-align:center}…….

254 …….

255 He shall among the foremost fighters be,

256 And he shall share that name which shows the sign

257 Of numbers ten times fifty. And short-lived

258 Shall he be; but behind him he shall leave

259 The greatest kingdom on the boundless earth.

260 But by base spearman he himself shall fall

261 While thought to live in quiet as none else.

262 And afterwards shall a great-hearted child

263 Of this one rule, beginning with his name

264 The alphabet; but his race shall pass out.

265 Not of Zeus, not of Ammon shall they call

266 This one true son, yet still a bastard son

267 Of Cronos as they all imagine him.

268 And cities he of many mortal men

269 Shall plunder; and for Europe shall shoot up

270 The greatest sore, And also terribly

271 Will he abuse the city Babylon,

272 And every land the sun looks down upon,

273 And he alone shall sail both east and west.

274 Alas, alas for thee, O Babylon,

275 Thou shalt serve triumphs, who wast called a queen;

276 Down upon Asia Ares comes, he comes

277 Surely and shall thy many children slay.

278 And then shalt thou send forth thy royal man

279 Named by the number four, expert with spear

280 Among the mighty warriors, terrible,

281 Shooting with bow and arrow. And then famine

282 And war shall hold possession of the midst

283 Of the Cilicians and Assyrians;

284 But kings of lofty spirit shall embrace

285 The dreadful state of heart-consuming strife.

286 But do thou, fleeing, leave the former king,

287 Be neither willing to remain nor fear

288 To be unhappy; for on thee shall come

289 A dreadful lion, a flesh-eating beast,

290 Wild, strange to justice, wearing on his shoulders

291 A mantle. Flee the thunder-smiting man.

292 And Asia all shall bear an evil yoke,

293 And many a murder shall the wet earth drink.

294 But when a mighty city prosperous

295 Ares of Pella shall in Egypt found,

296 And it shall be named from him, fate and death,

297 By his companions treacherously betrayed

298 …….

299 …….

300 For barbarous murder shall destroy this man

301 Around the tables when he shall have left

302 The Indians and shall come to Babylon.

303 Thereafter other kings, in a few years,

304 Devourers of the people, arrogant

305 And faithless, shall rule each by his own tribe;

306 But a great-hearted hero, who shall glean

307 All fenced Europe, from the time each land

308 Shall drink the blood of all tribes, shall forthwith

309 Abandon life, unloosing his own fate.

310 And other kings there shall be, twice four men

311 Of his race, and the same name to them all,

312 And there shall be a bride of Egypt then

313 Commanding and a noble city great

314 Of Macedonian lord, queen Alexandria,

315 Famed nourisher of cities, shining fair

316 She alone shall be the metropolis.

317 Let Memphis then upbraid them that command,

318 And peace shall be deep throughout all the world;

319 Then shall the land of black soil have more fruits.

320 And then there shall come evil to the Jews,

321 Nor shall they in that day make their escape

322 From famine and intolerable plague;

323 But the new world of black soil and fair corn,

324 Divine land, shall receive much-wandering men.

325 But marshy Egypt’s eight kings shall fill up

326 The numbers of two hundred years and three

327 And thirty. Yet shall offspring perish not

328 Of all of them, but there shall issue forth

329 A female root, a bane of mortal men,

330 Betrayer of her kingdom. But they shall

331 According to their evil deeds perform

332 Their wickedness thereafter, and one here

333 Another there shall perish; son that wears

334 The purple shall cut off his warlike sire,

335 And he himself in turn by his own son,

336 And ere he shall put forth another shoot

337 He shall cease; but a root shall sprout again

338 Thereafter of itself; and there shall be

339 A race beside him growing. For a queen

340 There shall be of the land by Nilus’ streams

341 Which comes down through seven mouths into the sea,

342 And her name very lovely shall be that

343 Of the number twenty; and she will demand

344 Numberless things and gather up all goods

345 Of gold and silver; but from her own men

346 Shall treachery befall her. Then again.

347 For thee, O dusky land, shall there be wars

348 And battles and great slaughter of mankind.

349 When many over fertile Rome shall rule,

350 Examples not at all of happy men,

351 But tyrants, and there be of thousands chiefs

352 And of ten thousands, and the overseers

353 Of popular assemblies under law,

354 Then shall the mightiest Caesars bear the rule.

355 Ill-fated all their days; and of these last

356 Shall for initial have the number ten,

357 Last Cæsar stretching on the earth his limbs,

358 Struck by dire Ares by a hostile man,

359 Whom carrying in their hands the youth of Rome

360 Shall bury piously, and over him

361 Pour out their token for his friendship’s sake

362 Rendering a tribute to his memory.

363 But when thou shalt come to an end of time

364 And hast completed twice three hundred years

365 And twice ten, from the time when he shall rule

366 Who is thy founder, child of the wild beast,

367 There shall no longer a dictator be

368 Ruling a measured period; but a lord

369 Shall become king, man equal to the gods.

370 Then, Egypt, know the king that comes to thee;

371 And dreadful Ares of the glittering helm

372 Shall surely come. For there shall be for thee,

373 O widowed one, a capture afterwards;

374 For round the walls of thy land there shall be

375 Terrible raging mischief-working wars.

376 But having suffered misery in wars

377 Thou, wretched, shalt thyself flee from above

378 Those lately wounded; and then to the couch

379 Shalt thou come to the dreadful man himself;

380 The wedlock, sharing one bed, is the end.

381 Alas, alas for thee, ill-wedded bride,

382 Thy royal power unto the Roman king

383 Shalt thou give, and thou shalt repay all things,

384 Which thou aforetime didst with masculine hands;

385 Thou shalt give the whole land by way of dower

386 As far as Libya and the dark-skinned men

387 To the resistless man. And thou shalt be

388 No more a widow, but thou shalt cohabit

389 With a man-eating lion terrible,

390 A furious warrior. And then shalt thou be

391 Unhappy and among all men unknown;

392 For thou shalt leave possessed of shameless soul;

393 And thee, the stately, shall the encircling tomb

394 Receive … is gone … living within …

395 Adapted at the summits, beautiful,

396 Wrought curiously, and a great multitude

397 Shall mourn thee and the dreadful king shall make

398 A piteous lamentation over thee.

399 And then shall Egypt be the toiling slave

400 Who many years against the Indians bears

401 Her trophics; and she shall serve shamefully,

402 And with the river, the fruit-bearing Nile,

403 Mingle her tears, for having gathered wealth

404 And store of all good things, a nourisher

405 Of cities, she shall feed sheep-cating race

406 Of fearful men. Ah, to how many beasts,

407 O very wealthy Egypt, thou shalt be

408 Booty and spoil, but giving peoples laws;

409 And formerly delighting in great kings

410 Thou shalt to peoples be a wretched slave

411 On account of that people, whom of old

412 Piously living thou led’st to much woe

413 Of toils and wailings, and didst put a plow

414 Upon their neck and irrigate the fields

415 With mortal tears. Therefore the Lord himself,

416 The imperishable God who dwells in heaven,

417 Shall utterly destroy and send thee on

418 To wailing; and thou shalt make recompense

419 For what thou didst unlawfully of old,

420 And know at last that God’s wrath came to thee.

421 But I to Python and to Panopeus

422 Of goodly towers shall go; and then shall all

423 Declare that I am a true prophetess

424 Oracle-singing, yet a messenger

425 With maddened soul…

426 And when thou shalt come forward to the books

427 Thou shalt not tremble, and all things to come

428 And things that were ye shall know from our words;

429 Then none shall call the God-seized prophetess

430 An oracle-singer of necessity.

431 But now, Lord, end my very lovely strain,

432 Driving off frenzy and real voice inspired

433 And fearful madness, and give charming song.

Book 12

1 But come now, hear of me the mournful time

2 Of sons of Latium; and first of all

3 After the kings of Egypt were destroyed,

4 And the like earth had downwards borne them all,

5 And after Pella’s townsman, under whom

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

7 Whom Babylon dishonored, and stretched out

8 For Philip a dead body (not of Zeus,

9 Of Ammon not true things were prophesied),

10 And after that one of the race and blood

11 Of king Assaracus, who came from Troy,

12 Even he who eleft the violence of fire,

13 And after many lords, and after men

14 To Arcs dear, and after the young babes,

15 The children of the beast that feeds on sheep,

16 And after the passing of six hundred years

17 And decades two of Rome’s dictatorship,

18 The very first lord, from the western sea,

19 Shall be of Rome the ruler, very strong

20 And warlike, the initial of whose name

21 Begins the letters, and fast binding thee,

22 O thou of goodly fruit, he shall be full

23 Of man-destroying Ares; thou shalt pay

24 The outrage which thou willing didst force on;

25 For he, great soul, shall be the best in wars;

26 Before him Thrace and Sicily shall crouch,

27 With Memphis, Memphis cast headlong to earth

28 By reason of the wickedness of rulers

29 And of a woman unenslaved who falls

30 Under the spear. And laws will he ordain

31 For peoples and put all things under him;

32 Having great fame he shall wield scepter long;

33 For no short time shall be last nor shall ever

34 Be other greater scepter-bearing king

35 Than this one, o’er the Romans, not one hour,

36 For God did lavish all things upon him,

37 And also in the noble earth he showed

38 Great marvelous seasons, and with them showed signs.

39 But when a radiant star all like the sun

40 Shall shine forth out of heaven in the mid days,

41 Then shall the secret Word of the Most High

42 Come clothed in flesh like mortals; but with him

43 The might of Rome and of the illustrious Latins

44 Shall increase. But the mighty king himself

45 Shall under his appointed lot expire,

46 Transmitting to another royal power.

47 But after him a man, a warrior strong,

48 Wearing the purple mantle on his shoulders,

49 Shall bear rule, and with his initial he

50 Numbers three hundred, and he shall destroy

51 The Medes and arrow-hurling Parthians;

52 And he himself by his power shall subvert

53 The high-gate city; and again shall come

54 Evil to Egypt and the Assyrians,

55 And to the Colchian Heniochi,

56 And to those by the waters of the Rhine,

57 The Germans dwelling o’er the sandy shores.

58 And he himself shall ravage afterwards

59 The high-gate city near Eridanus

60 Which is devising evils. And then he

61 Shall forthwith fall down, struck by gleaming iron.

62 And afterwards shall rule another man

63 Weaving guile, and the initial of his name

64 Will show the number three; and he much gold

65 Shall gather; and with him there shall not be

66 Satiety of wealth, but plundering more

67 Recklessly he’ll put all things in the earth.

68 But peace shall come, and Ares shall desist

69 From wars; and he shall make known many things

70 In divination of the greatest things,

71 Inquiring for the sake of means of life;

72 Yet there shall be on him the greatest sign:

73 From heaven down on the king while perishing

74 There shall flow many little drops of blood.

75 And many lawless things will he perform,

76 And put around the neck of Romans pain

77 Trusting in divination; and the beads

78 Of the assembly he will also slay.

79 And famine shall seize Cappadocians,

80 And Thracians, Macedonians, and Italians.

81 And Egypt shall alone feed numerous tribes;

82 And the king himself beguiling secretly

83 Shall craftily destroy the virgin maid;

84 But her the citizens in tearful grief

85 Shall bury; and against the king they all

86 Holding wrath shall abuse him craftily.

87 While strong Rome blossoms the strong man shall perish.

88 And again there shall rule another lord

89 Of the number of twice ten; and then shall come

90 Unto the Sauromatians and to Thrace

91 And the Triballi, famed for hurling darts,

92 Wars and sad cares; and Roman Ares shall

93 Tear all in pieces. And a fearful sign

94 Shall there be when this man shall rule the land

95 Of the Italians and Pannonians;

96 And there shall be at the mid hour of day

97 Dark night around them and then from the heaven

98 A shower of stones; and thereupon the lord

99 And vigorous judge of the Italians

100 Shall go in Hades’ halls by his own fate.

101 Again another fearful man shall come

102 And dreadful, numbering fifty; and from all

103 The cities many noblest citizens

104 Born to wealth he shall utterly destroy,

105 A dreadful serpent breathing grievous war,

106 Who sometime stretching forth his hands shall make

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

108 Acting the athlete, driving chariots,

109 Putting to death and daring countless things;

110 And he shall cleave the mountain of two seas,

111 And sprinkle it with gore. And out of sight.

112 Shall also vanish the destructive man;

113 Then making himself equal unto God

114 Shall he return, but God will prove him naught.

115 And while he rules there shall be peace profound

116 And not the fears of men; and from the ocean

117 Flowing, and cleaving by Ausonia,

118 Shall come untrodden water; and around

119 Looking with anxious care he will appoint

120 His very many contests for the people,

121 And he himself an actor will contend

122 With voice and cithara, and sing a song

123 Along with harp-string; later he will flee

124 And leave the royal power, and perishing

125 Illy will he repay the harm he wrought.

126 After him three shall rule and two of them

127 Shall have the number seventy by their names,

128 And in addition to these shall be one

129 Of the third letter; and one here, one there,

130 Shall perish by strong Ares’ sturdy hands.

131 Then shall a mighty ruler of men come,

132 Destroyer of the pious, strong-minded man,

133 Spear-wielding Ares, whom seven times the tenth

134 Shall point out clearly; he shall overthrow

135 Phœnicia and destroy Assyria.

136 A sword shall come upon the sacred land

137 Of Solyma even to the utmost bend

138 Of the Tiberian sea. Alas, alas,

139 Phoenicia, O how much shalt thou endure,

140 Grief-laden with thy trophies tightly bound,

141 And every nation shall upon thee tread.

142 Alas, alas, to the Assyrians

143 Shalt thou come and shalt see young children serve

144 Among unfriendly men and with the wives,

145 And every means of life and wealth shall perish;

146 For on thee God’s wrath causing grievous woe

147 Shall come, because they did not keep his law,

148 But served all idols with unseemly arts.

149 And many wars and fights and homicides,

150 Famines, and pestilences, and confusion

151 Of cities shall be. But the reverend king

152 Of mighty soul shall at the end of life.

153 Himself fall by a strong necessity.

154 Then shall two other chief men, cherishing

155 The memory of their father, great king, rule,

156 And in contending warriors glory much.

157 And (one) of these shall be a noble man

158 And lordly, whose name shall three hundred hold;

159 Yet he shall also fall by treachery,

160 Not in the warring companies stretched out,

161 But struck in Rome’s plain by the two-edged brass.

162 And after him a powerful warlike man

163 Of the letter four shall rule the mighty realm,

164 Whom all men on the boundless earth shall love,

165 And then shall there be over all the world

166 A rest from war. Yet all, from west to east,

167 Shall serve him willingly, not by constraint,

168 And cities shall be under his control

169 And of themselves be subject. For to him

170 Shall heavenly Sabaoth much glory bring,

171 The imperishable God who dwells on high.

172 And then shall famine waste Pannonia

173 And all the Celtic land, and shall destroy

174 One here, another there. And there shall be

175 For the Assyrians, whom Orontes laves,

176 Structures and ornament and what may seem

177 Yet greater anywhere. And the great king

178 Shall have a fondness for these and love them

179 Above the others far (and there are many);

180 But he himself shall in mid breast receive

181 A great wound, and seized at the end of life

182 Craftily, by a friend, in hallowed house

183 Of the great royal hall shall he fall down.

184 Wounded; and after him shall be a ruler

185 Numbering fifty, venerable man,

186 Who above measure shall destroy from Rome

187 Many inhabitants and citizens;

188 But he shall rule few; for in Hades’ halls

189 For a former king’s sake he shall wounded go.

190 But then another king, a warrior strong,

191 Who has three hundred for initial sign,

192 Shall bear rule and Jay waste the Thracians’ land

193 Which is much varied, and he shall destroy

194 The powerful Germans dwelling by the Rhine

195 And the Iberians that shoot the arrow.

196 Moreover, there shall be unto the Jews

197 Another greatest evil, and with them

198 Bedewed with murder shall Phœnicia drink;

199 And the walls of the Assyrians shall fall

200 By many warriors. And again a man

201 Destroying life shall waste them utterly.

202 And then shall threatenings of the mighty God,

203 Earthquakes, and great plagues be on every land,

204 Untimely snow-storms, and strong thunderbolts.

205 And then the great king, mountain-roaming Celt,

206 Shall for the toil of Ares not escape

207 A fate unseemly, hastening eagerly

208 After the strife of battle, but worn out

209 Shall he be; foreign dust shall hide his corpse,

210 But dust that of Nemea’s flower has name.

211 And after him another shall arise,

212 A silver-headed man, and of the sea

213 Shall be his name, and of four syllables,

214 Ares himself first of the alphabet

215 Presenting. Temples he shall dedicate

216 In all the cities, watching o’er the world

217 By his own foot, and bringing gifts away,

218 Both gold and amber much will he supply

219 For many; and magicians’ mysteries

220 All will he from the sanctuaries keep;

221 And what is much more excellent for men

222 Will he place .mw-parser-output .nowrap,.mw-parser-output .nowrap a:before,.mw-parser-output .nowrap .selflink:before{white-space:nowrap}… ruling … thunderbolt;

223 And great peace shall be when he shall be lord;

224 And he shall be a minstrel of rieh voice

225 And a participant in lawful things,

226 And a just minister of what is right;

227 But he shall fall, unloosing his own fate.

228 After him three shall rule, and the third late

229 Shall rule, three decades keeping; yet again

230 Of the first unit shall another king

231 Bear the rule; and another after him

232 Shall be commander, of tens numbering seven;

233 And their names shall be honored; and they shall

234 Themselves destroy men marked by many a spot,

235 Britons and mighty Moors and Dacians

236 And the Arabians. But when the last

237 Of these shall perish, fearful Ares then,

238 He that before was wounded, shall again

239 Against the Parthians come, and utterly

240 Shall he destroy them. And then shall the king

241 Himself fall by a treacherous wild beast

242 Training his hands—excuse itself of death.

243 And after him another man shall rule,

244 In many wise things skilled, and he shall have

245 Himself the name of the first mighty king

246 Of the first unit; and he shall be good

247 And mighty; and for the illustrious Latins

248 Shall this strong one accomplish many things

249 In memory of his father; and forthwith

250 Shall he adorn the walls of Rome with gold

251 And silver and ivory; and he shall go

252 Within the market places and the temples

253 With a strong man. And sometime direst wound

254 Shall shoot up like ears in the Roman wars;

255 And he shall sack the whole land of the Germans,

256 When a great sign of God shall be displayed

257 From heaven, and shall for the king’s piety

258 Save men in brazen armor and distress;

259 For God who is in heaven and hears all things

260 Shall wet him with unseasonable rain

261 When he prays. But when these things are fulfilled

262 Of which I spoke, then with the rolling years

263 Shall also the renowned dominion cease

264 Of the great pious king; and at the end

265 Of his life, having then proclaimed his son

266 Succeeding to the kingdom, he shall die

267 By his own lot and leave the royal power

268 Unto the ruler with the golden hair,

269 Who with two tens in his name, born a king

270 From the race of his father, shall receive

271 Dominion. This man with superior powers

272 Of mind shall grasp all things; and he shall rival

273 Great-hearted overweening Hercules,

274 And be the best in mighty arms and have

275 The greatest fame in chase and horsemanship;

276 But he shall live in peril all alone.

277 And while this man is ruler there shall be

278 A fearful sign: there shall be a great mist

279 Then in the plain of Rome, so that a man

280 May not discern his neighbor. And then wars

281 Shall come to pass along with mournful cares,

282 When the king himself, exceeding mad with love,

283 And weakly, shall come in the marriage-bod

284 Shaming his youthful offspring, infamous

285 For inconsiderate wedding-songs impure.

286 And then, in helpless loneliness concealed,

287 The mighty baneful man held under wrath

288 Shall in a bath-room suffer evil plight,

289 Man-slaying Ares bound by treacherous fate.

290 Know then the fatal lot of Rome is near

291 Because of zeal for power; and by the hands

292 Of Ares many in Palladian halls

293 Shall perish. And then Rome shall be bereft

294 And shall repay all things, which she alone

295 Before accomplished by her many wars.

296 My heart laments, my heart within me mourns;

297 For from the time when thy first king, proud Rome,

298 Gave good law to thee and to men on earth,

299 And the Word of the great immortal God

300 Came to the earth, until the nineteenth reign

301 Shall have been finished Cronos shall complete

302 Two hundred years, twice twenty and twice two,

303 With six months added; then the twentieth king,

304 When smitten with sharp brass he with the sword

305 Shall in thy houses pour out blood, shall make

306 Thy race a widow, having in his name

307 The letter which the number eighty shows,

308 And burdened with old age; but he shall make

309 A widow of thee in a little time,

310 When many warriors, many overthrows,

311 And murders, homicides, and deadly feuds

312 And miseries of conquests there shall be,

313 And in confusion many a horse and man

314 Shall, cleft by force of hands, fall in the plain.

315 And then another man shall rule, and have

316 The sign of his name in the number ten;

317 And many sorrows shall he bring to pass,

318 And groans, and he shall plunder many men;

319 But he himself shall be short-lived and fall

320 By mighty Ares, struck by gleaming iron.

321 Another, numbering fifty, then shall come,

322 A warrior roused up by the East for rule;

323 A warlike Ares he shall come to Thrace;

324 And he shall flee thereafter and shall come

325 Into the land of the Bithynians

326 And the Cilician plain; but brazen Ares

327 The life-destroyer shall with speedy stroke

328 Utterly spoil him in the Assyrian fields.

329 And then again there shall rule craftily

330 A man skilled in fraud, full of various wiles,

331 Roused up by the West, and his name shall have

332 The number of two hundred. And again

333 Another sign: he shall contrive a war

334 For royal power against Assyrian men,

335 Raise a whole army and subject all things.

336 And he shall rule the Romans with his might;

337 But there is much contrivance in his heart,

338 Impulse of baleful Ares; serpent dire,

339 And violent in war, who shall destroy

340 All high-born men upon the earth, and slay

341 The noble for their wealth, and, robber like,

342 Stripping all earth while men are perishing,

343 He shall go to the East; and all deceit

344 Shall be to him …

345 .mw-parser-output .wst-asterisks{display:block;margin:auto;text-align:center}…….

346 Then shall a youthful Cæsar with him reign

347 Having the name of a puissant lord

348 Of Macedon, by the first letter known;

349 Bringing in broils around him he shall flee

350 The hard deception of the coming king

351 In the bosom of the army; but the one

352 Who rules by his barbaric usages,

353 A temple-guard, shall perish suddenly

354 Slain by strong Arcs with the gleaming iron;

355 Him even dead shall people tear in pieces.

356 And then the kings of Persia shall rise up;

357 And … Roman Ares Roman lord.

358 And Phrygia shall with earthquakes groan again

359 Wretched. Alas, alas, Laodicea;

360 Alas, alas, sad Hierapolis;

361 For you first once the yawning oarth received.

362 Of Rome … immense Aus …

363 All things as many …

364 Shall wail … while men are perishing

365 In the hands of Ares; and the lot of men

366 Shall be bad; but then by the eastern way

367 Hastening to look down upon Italy,

368 Stripped naked ho shall fall by gleaming iron,

369 Acquiring hatred for his mother’s sake,

370 For seasons are of all sorts; each holds back

371 The other … gleaming … and this not at once all know;

372 For all things shall not be (the lot) of all,

373 But only those shall be for happiness

374 Who honor God and shun idolatry.

375 And now, Lord of the world, of every realm.

376 Unfeigned immortal King—for thou didst put

377 Into my heart the oracle divine—

378 Make thou the word cease; for I do not know

379 What things I say; for thou art in me he

380 That speaketh all these things. Now let me rest

381 A little and put from my heart aside

382 The charming song; for weary is my heart

383 Foretelling with divine words royal power.

Book 13

1 Great word divine he bids me sing again—

2 The immortal holy God imperishable,

3 Who gives to kings their power and takes away,

4 And who determined for them time both ways,

5 Both that of life and that of baneful death.

6 And these the heavenly God enjoins on me

7 Unwilling to bring tidings unto kings

8 Concerning royal power.mw-parser-output .nowrap,.mw-parser-output .nowrap a:before,.mw-parser-output .nowrap .selflink:before{white-space:nowrap}…

9 .mw-parser-output .wst-asterisks{display:block;margin:auto;text-align:center}……

10 ……

11 And spear impetuous Ares; and by him

12 All perish, child and the old man who gives

13 To the assemblies laws; and many wars

14 And battles there shall be, and homicides,

15 Famines and pestilences, earthquake-shocks

16 And mighty thunderbolts, and many ways

17 Of the Assyrians over all the world,

18 And pillaging and robbery of temples.

19 And then an insurrection there shall be

20 Of the industrious Persians, and with them

21 Indians, Armenians, and Arabians;

22 And unto these again a Roman king

23 Insatiate in war and leading on

24 His spearmen against the Assyrians

25 Shall draw near, a young Ares, and as far

26 As the deep-flowing silvery Euphrates

27 Shall warlike Ares stretch his deadly spear

28 Because of …

29 For by his friend betrayed he shall fall down

30 In the ranks smitten by the gleaming iron.

31 And straightway eoming out of Syria

32 There shall a purple-loving warrior rule,

33 Terror of Ares, and also his son,

34 A Cæsar, shall even all the earth oppress;

35 And the one name is unto both of them:

36 On first and twentieth there are to be placed

37 Five hundred. But when these in wars shall rule,

38 And laws shall be enacted, there shall be

39 A little rest from war, not for long time;

40 But when a wolf shall to a flock of sheep

41 Pledge solemn oaths against the white-toothed dogs,

42 Then, having misled, he will tear in pieces

43 The woolly sheep, and cast his oaths aside;

44 And then shall there be an unlawful strife

45 Of haughty kings in wars, and Syrians

46 Shall perish terribly, and Indians

47 And the Armenians and Arabians,

48 The Persians and the Babylonians

49 Shall one another by hard fights destroy,

50 But when a Roman Ares shall destroy

51 A German Ares ruinous of life

52 Triumphing on the ocean, then is war

53 Of many years for haughty Persian men,

54 But for them there shall not be victory;

55 For as a fish swims not upon the point

56 Of a high many-ridged and windy rock

57 Precipitant, nor does a tortoise fly,

58 Nor does an eaglo into water come,

59 So also are the Persians in that day

60 Far off from victory, while the fond nurse

61 Of the Italians, in the plain of Nile

62 Reposing by the sacred water’s side,

63 Sends forth the appointed lot to seven-hilled Rome.

64 Now these things are; and while the name of Rome

65 Shall hold in numbers of revolving time,

66 So many years shall the great noble city

67 Of Macedon’s lord, willing, deal out corn.

68 Another much-distressing pain I’ll sing

69 For Alexandrians who are destroyed

70 By reason of the strife of shameful men.

71 Strong men who were aforetime terrible

72 Being then impotent shall pray for peace

73 By reason of the wickedness of chiefs.

74 And there shall come wrath of the mighty God

75 On the Assyrians and a mountain stream

76 Shall utterly destroy them, which shall come

77 To Cæsar’s city and harm Canaanites.

78 The Pyramus shall irrigate the city

79 Of Mopsus; then shall the Ægæans fall

80 Because of strife of very mighty men.

81 Thee, wretched Antioch, shall Ares strong

82 Leave not while round thee an Assyrian war

83 Is pressing, for a chief of men shall dwell

84 Within thy houses who shall fight with all

85 The arrow-burling Persians, he himself

86 Having obtained of Romans royal power.

87 Now, cities of Arabians, deck yourselves

88 With temples and with places for the race,

89 And with broad markets and with splendid wealth,

90 With images, gold, silver, ivory;

91 And thou who art of all most fond of learning,

92 Bostra and Philippopolis, that thou may’st come

93 Into great sorrow; and the laughing spheres

94 Of the zodiacal vault, Arics,

95 Taurus, and Gemini, and as many stars

96 Ruling hours as with them in heaven appear

97 Shall benefit thee not; thou, wretched one,

98 Hast trusted many, when that very man

99 Shall afterwards bring near that which is thine.

100 And now for Alexandrians loving war

101 Will I sing wars most dreadful; and much people

102 Shall perish while their cities are destroyed

103 By citizens against each other matched.

104 And fighting for the sake of hateful strife,

105 And round them horrid Ares, rushing on,

106 Shall cease from war. And then one of great soul

107 Along with his own mighty son shall fall

108 By treachery on the older king’s account.

109 And after him there shall rule powerfully

110 O’er fertile Rome another great-souled lord

111 Versed in war, coming from the Dacians

112 And numbering three hundred; he shall have

113 Also the letter of the number four,

114 And many shall he slay, and then the king

115 Shall all his brothers and his friends destroy

116 Even while the kings are cut off, and straightway

117 Shall there be fights and pillagings and murders

118 Suddenly on the older king’s account.

119 Then, when a wily man shall summoned come,

120 A robber and a Roman not well known

121 From Syria appearing, he by guile

122 Into a race of Cappadocian men

123 Shall drive through and, besieging, shall press hard,

124 Insatiate of war. And then for thee,

125 Tyana and Mazaka, there shall be

126 A capture; thou shalt be enslaved and put

127 Upon thy neck again a fearful yoke.

128 And Syria shall mourn for men destroyed

129 And then Selenian goddess shall not guard

130 Her holy city. But when he by flight

131 From Syria shall before the Romans come,

132 And shall pass over the Euphrates’ streams,

133 No longer like the Romans, but like fierce

134 Dart-shooting Persians, then, fulfilling fate,

135 Down shall the ruler of the Italians fall

136 In the ranks smitten by the gleaming iron;

137 And close upon him shall his children perish.

138 But when another king of Rome shall reign,

139 Then also to the Romans there shall come

140 Unstable nations, on the walls of Rome

141 Destructive Ares with his bastard son;

142 Then also shall be famines, pestilence,

143 And mighty thunderbolts, and dreadful wars,

144 And anarchy in cities suddenly;

145 And the Syrians shall perish fearfully;

146 For there shall come upon them the great wrath

147 Of the Most High and straightway an uprising

148 Of the industrious Persians, and mixed up

149 With Persians shall the Syrians destroy

150 The Romans; but by the divine decree

151 They shall not make a conquest of their laws.

152 Alas, how many with their goods shall flee

153 From the East unto men of other tongues!

154 Alas, the dark blood of how many men

155 The land shall drink! For that shall be a time

156 In which the living uttering o’er the dead

157 A blessing shall by word of mouth pronounce

158 Death beautiful and death shall flee from them.

159 And now for thee, O wretched Syria,

160 I weep in sorrow; for to thee shall come

161 A dreadful blow from arrow-shooting men,

162 Which thou didst never think would come to thee.

163 Also the fugitive of Rome shall come

164 Bearing a great spear, crossing on his way

165 Euphrates with his many myriads,

166 And he shall burn thee, and dispose all things

167 In a bad way. O wretched Antioch,

168 And thee a city they shall never call,

169 When by thy lack of prudence thou shalt fall

170 Under the spears; and stripping off all things

171 And making naked he shall leave thee thus

172 Coverless, houseless; and when anyone

173 Sees he shall of a sudden weep for thee.

174 And thou shalt be, O Hierapolis,

175 A triumph, also thou, Berœa; weep

176 At Chalcis over lately wounded sons.

177 Alas, how many by the steep high mount

178 Of Casius shall dwell and by Amanus

179 How many, and how many Lycus laves,

180 And Marsyas as many and Pyramus

181 The silver-eddying; for even to the bounds

182 Of Asia they shall treasure up their spoils,

183 Make cities naked, and bear idols off

184 And cast down temples on much-nourishing earth.

185 And sometime to Gauls and Pannonians,

186 To Mysians and Bithynians there shall be

187 Great sorrow when a warrior shall have come.

188 O Lycians, Lycians, there shall come a wolf

189 To lick thy blood, when Sannians shall come

190 With city-wasting Ares and the Carpians

191 Shall draw near with Ausonians to fight.

192 And then by his own shameless recklessness

193 The bastard son shall put the king to death,

194 And he himself for his impiety

195 Shall straightway perish. And again shall rule

196 After him yet another whose name shows

197 First letter; but he too shall quickly fall

198 By mighty Ares, struck by gleaming iron.

199 And yet again the world shall be confused,

200 Men perishing by pestilence and war.

201 And the Persians maddened by the Ausonians

202 Shall in the toil of Ares yet again

203 Force their way. And then there shall be a flight

204 Of Romans; and thereafter there shall come

205 The priest heard of all round, sent by the sun,

206 From Syria appearing, and by guile

207 Shall he accomplish all things. And then too

208 The city of the sun shall offer prayer;

209 And round about her shall the Persians dare

210 The fearful threatenings of the Phoenicians.

211 But when two chiefs, men swift in war, shall rule

212 The very mighty Romans, one of whom

213 Shall have the number seventy, and the other

214 The number three, even then the stately bull,

215 That digs the earth with his hoofs and stirs up

216 The dust with his two horns, shall many ills

217 Upon a dark-skinned reptile perpetrate—

218 Which draws a trail with his scales; and besides,

219 Himself shall perish. And yet after him

220 Again shall come another fair-horned stag,

221 Hungry upon the mountains, striving hard

222 To feed upon the venom-shedding beasts;

223 Then shall a dread and fearful lion come,

224 Sent from the sun, and breathing forth much flame.

225 And then too by his shameless recklessness

226 Shall he destroy the well-horned rapid stag,

227 And the most mighty venom-shedding beast

228 So dread, that sends forth many piping sounds,

229 And the he-goat that sideways moves along,

230 And after him fame follows; he himself

231 Sound, unhurt, unapproachable, shall rule.

232 The Romans, and the Persians shall be weak.

233 But, Lord, King of the world, O God, restrain

234 The song of our words, and give charming song.

Book 14

1 O men, why do ye vainly think on things

2 Too lofty, as if ye immortal were?

3 And ye are ruling but a little time,

4 And over mortals all desire to reign,

5 Not understanding that God himself hates

6 The lust of rule, and most of all things hates

7 Insatiate kings fearful in wickedness,

8 And over them he stirs up what is dark;

9 Wherefore, instead of good works and just thoughts,

10 Ye all choose for your garments purple robes,

11 Desiring wretched fights and homicides;

12 Them God imperishable who dwells in heaven

13 Shall make short-lived, destroy them utterly,

14 And overthrow one here, another there.

15 But when there shall a bull-destroyer come

16 Trusting in his own might, thick-haired and grim,

17 And shall destroy all, he shall also tear

18 Shepherds in pieces, and no victory

19 Shall be theirs unless soon, with speed of feet

20 Pursuing eagerly through wooded glens,

21 Young dogs shall meet in conflict; for a dog

22 Pursued the lion which destroys the shepherds.

23 And then there shall be a lord confident

24 In his might, and named with four syllables,

25 And shown forth clearly from the number one;

26 But him shall brazen Ares quickly slay

27 Because of conflict with insatiate men.

28 Then shall two other princely men bear rule,

29 Both of the number forty; and with them

30 Shall great peace be in the world and to all

31 The people law and right; but them in turn

32 Shall men with gleaming helmet, needing gold

33 And silver, impiously put to death

34 For these things, catching them by their deft plans.

35 And then again a dreadful lord shall rule,

36 Young, fighting hand to hand, whose name shall show

37 The number seventy, life-destroying, fierce,

38 Who to the army basely shall betray

39 The people of Rome, slain by wickedness.

40 Because of wrath of kings, and he shall hurl

41 Down every city and hut of the Latins.

42 And Rome is no more to be seen or hoard,

43 Such as of late another traveler saw;

44 For all these things shall in the ashes lie,

45 Nor shall there be a sparing of her works;

46 For hurtful he himself shall come from heaven,

47 God the immortal from the sky shall send

48 Lightnings and thunderbolts upon mankind;

49 And some he will destroy by lightnings burned,

50 And others with his mighty thunderbolts.

51 And Rome’s strong children and the famous Latins

52 Shall then the shameless dreadful ruler slay.

53 Around him dead the dust shall not lie light,

54 But he shall be a sport for dogs and birds

55 And wolves, for he a martial people spoiled.

56 After him, numbering forty, there shall rule

57 Another, famous Parthian-destroyer,

58 German-destroyer, putting down dread beasts

59 That kill men, which upon the ocean’s streams

60 And the Euphrates press continuous on.

61 And then shall Rome again be as before.

62 But when there comes a great wolf in thy plains,

63 A ruler marching onward from the West,

64 Then shall he under powerful Ares die

65 Being cleft asunder by the piercing brass.

66 And o’er the very mighty Romans then

67 Shall there rule yet again another man

68 Of great heart, from Assyria brought to light,

69 Of the first letter, and he shall himself

70 By means of wars put all things under him,

71 And by his armies at once power display

72 And lay down laws; but him shall brazen Ares

73 Quickly destroy by treacherous armies falling.

74 After him three of haughty heart shall rule,

75 One having the first number, one three tens,

76 And the other with three hundred shall partake,

77 Cruel, who gold and silver in much fire.

78 Shall melt in statues of gods made with hands,

79 And to the armies they, equipped for war,

80 Will, for the sake of victory, moneys give,

81 Dividing many costly things and goods;

82 And in like manner, striving eagerly

83 After power, they shall harm disastrously

84 The arrow-shooting Parthians of the deep

85 And swift Euphrates, and the hostile Medes,

86 And the soft-haired warlike Massagetæ

87 And Persians also, quiver-bearing men.

88 But when the king shall his own fate unloose

89 Leaving unto his sons more fit for arms

90 The royal scepter and entreating right,

91 Then they, forgetful of their father’s words

92 And having their hands all prepared for war,

93 Shall rush in conflict for the royal power.

94 And then another lord, of the third number,

95 Shall rule alone, and smitten by a sword

96 Shall quickly see his fate. Then after him

97 Shall many perish at each other’s hands,

98 Being very valiant for the royal power.

99 Moreover a great-hearted one shall rule

100 The very mighty Romans, an old lord,

101 Of the number four, and manage all things well.

102 And then upon Phoenicia shall come war

103 And conflict, when there shall come nations near

104 Of arrow-shooting Persians; ah, how many

105 Shall before men of barbarous speech fall down!

106 Sidon and Tripolis and Berytus

107 The loudly-boasting shall bebold each other

108 Amid the blood and bodies of the dead.

109 Wretched Laodicea, round thyself

110 Thou shalt a great and unsuccessful war

111 Stir up through the impiety of men.

112 Ah, hapless Tyrians, ye shall gather in

113 An evil harvest; when in the day-time

114 The sun that lighteth mortals shall withdraw,

115 And his disk not appear, and drops of blood

116 Thiek and abundant shall flow down from heaven

117 Upon the earth. And then the king shall die,

118 Betrayed by his companions. After him

119 Shall many shameless leaders still promote

120 The wicked strife and one another kill.

121 And then shall there a reverend ruler be,

122 Of much skill, with a name that numbers five,

123 Confiding in great armies, whom mankind

124 Will fondly love because of royal power;

125 And having the good name he shall thereto

126 Add by good deeds. But while he reigns there shall

127 ‘Twixt Taurus and snow-clad Amanus be

128 A fearful sign. From the Cilieian land

129 A city new and beautiful and strong

130 Shall by the deep strong rivers be destroyed.

131 And in Propontis and in Phrygia

132 Shall there be many earthquakes. And the king

133 Of great renown shall under his own lot

134 By wasting deadly sickness lose his life.

135 And after him shall rule two lordly kings,

136 One numbering three hundred, and one three;

137 And many shall he utterly destroy

138 In defense of the seven-hill city Rome,

139 And for the sake of powerful sovereignty.

140 And then shall evil to the senate come,

141 Nor shall it from the angry king escape

142 While he holds wrath against it. And a sign

143 Shall then appear to all men upon earth;

144 And fuller shall the rains be, snow and hail

145 Shall ruin field-fruits o’er the boundless earth.

146 But they shall fall in wars, slain by strong Ares

147 In behalf of the war for the Italians.

148 And then again another king shall rule,

149 Full of devices, gathering all the army,

150 And for the sake of war distributing

151 Money to those with brazen breastplate clad;

152 But thereupon shall Nilus, rich in corn,

153 Beyond the Libyan mainland irrigate

154 For two years the dark soil and fruitful land

155 Of Egypt; but all things shall famine seize

156 And war and robbers, murders, homicides.

157 And many cities shall by warlike men

158 Be thrown down headlong by the army’s hands;

159 And he, betrayed, shall fall by gleaming iron.

160 After him one whose number is three hundred

161 Shall rule the Romans, very mighty men;

162 He shall stretch forth a life-destroying spear

163 Against the Armenians and the Parthians,

164 The Assyrians and the Persians firm in war.

165 And then anew shall a creation be

166 Of splendidly built Rome with gold and amber

167 And silver and ivory in order raised;

168 And in her many people shall abide

169 From all the East and from the prosperous West;

170 And the king shall make other laws for her;

171 But then shall death destructive and strong fate

172 In turn receive him in a boundless isle.

173 And there shall rule another, of ten triads,

174 A man like a wild beast, fair-haired and grim,

175 Who shall be a descendant of the Greeks.

176 And then a city of Molossian Phthia

177 Feeding much, and Larissa shall be bent

178 Down on Peneus’s overhanging brows;

179 And then too in horse-feeding Scythia

180 Shall be an insurrection. And dire war

181 Shall be hard by the waters of the lake

182 Mæotis at streams by the utmost month

183 Of the fount of watery Phasis on the mead

184 Of asphodel; and there shall many fall

185 By powerful warriors. Ah, how many men

186 Shall Ares with strong brass receive! And then,

187 Having destroyed a Scythian race, the king

188 Shall die in his own lot unloosing life.

189 And yet another of the number four

190 Shall rule thereafter, openly made known

191 A dreadful man, whom all Armenians,

192 Who drink the best ice of the flowing stream

193 Araxes, and the Persians of great soul

194 Shall fear in wars. And between Colchians

195 And very strong Pelasgi there shall be

196 Wars, fights, and homicides. And those who hold

197 The cities of the land of Phrygia

198 And those of the Propontis, and make bare

199 From out their scabbards the two-edged swords,

200 Shall smite each other through sore impiousness.

201 And then shall God to mortal men display

202 From heaven a great sign with the rolling years,

203 A bat, the portent of bad war to come.

204 And then the king shall not escape stern fate,

205 But die by hand, slain by the gleaming iron.

206 After him, numbering fifty, there shall rule

207 Again another coming out of Asia,

208 A dreadful terror, fighting hand to hand;

209 And he shall set war on Rome’s stately walls,

210 And among Colchians, and Heniochi,

211 And the milk-drinking Agathyrsians

212 By Euxine sea, at Thraeia’s sandy bay.

213 And then the king shall not escape stern fate,

214 And they will tear in pieces his dead corpse.

215 And then, the king slain, man-ennobling Rome

216 Shall be a desert, and much people perish.

217 And then again one terrible and dread.

218 From mighty Egypt shall rule, and destroy

219 Great hearted Parthians and Medes and Germans,

220 And Agathyrsians of the Bosporus,

221 Iernians, Britons, and Iberians

222 That bear the quiver, bent Massagetæ,

223 And Persians thinking themselves more than men.

224 And then a famous man shall look upon

225 All Hellas, acting as an enemy

226 To Scythia and windy Caucasus.

227 And there shall be a dread sign while he rules:

228 Crowns altogether like the shining stars

229 Shall from heaven in the south and north appear.

230 And then shall he bequeath the royal power

231 To his son whose initial letter heads

232 The alphabet, when in the halls of Hades.

233 The manly king in his own lot shall go.

234 But when the son of this man in the land

235 Of Rome shall rule, shown by the number one,

236 There shall be over all the earth great peace

237 Much longed for, and the Latins will love him.

238 As king because of his own father’s worth;

239 Him, eager to go both to East and West,

240 The Roman people shall against his will

241 Retain at home and in command of Rome,

242 For among all there is a friendly heart

243 Felt for their royal and illustrious lord.

244 But baneful death shall snatch him out of life,

245 Short-lived, abandoned to his destiny.

246 But others afterwards again shall smite

247 Each other, powerful warriors, carrying on

248 An evil strife, not holding kingly power,

249 But being tyrants. And in all the world

250 Shall they bring many evil things to pass,

251 But chiefly for the Romans till the time

252 Of the third Dionysus, until armed

253 With helmet Ares shall from Egypt come,

254 Whom they shall surname Dionysus lord.

255 But when the famous royal purple cloak

256 A murderous lion and murderous lioness

257 Shall rend, together they shall grasp the lungs

258 Of the changed kingdom; then a holy king,

259 Whose name has the first letter, pressing hard

260 For victory, shall cast down hostile chiefs

261 To be the food of dogs and birds of prey.

262 Alas for thee, O city burned with fire,

263 O powerful Rome! How many things must thou

264 Needs suffer when all these things come to pass!

265 But the great far-famed king shall afterward

266 Raise thee all up again with gold and amber

267 And silver and ivory, and in the world

268 Thou shalt in thy possessions foremost be,

269 Also in temples, market-places, wealth,

270 And race-grounds; and then shalt thou be again

271 A light for all, even as thou wast before.

272 Ah, wretched Cecropes and Cadmeans

273 And the Laconians, who are situate

274 Around Peneus and Molossian stream

275 Thick grown with rushes, Tricca and Dodona,

276 And high-built Ithome, Pierian ridge

277 Around the summit of Olympian mount,

278 Ossa, Larissa, and high-gate Calydon.

279 But when God shall for mortals bring to pass

280 A great sign, day dark twilight round the world,

281 Even then to thee, O king, the end shall come,

282 Nor is it possible that thou escape

283 A brother’s piercing dart against thee hurled.

284 And then again shall rule a life-destroyer,

285 A fiery eagle from the royal race,

286 Who shall of Egypt’s offspring take fast hold,

287 Younger, but than his brother much more strong,

288 Who has for his first sign the number eighty.

289 And then the whole world shall for honor’s sake

290 Bear in its lap the soul-distressing wrath

291 Of the immortal God; and there shall come

292 On mortal men, the creatures of a day,

293 Famines and plagues and wars and homicides,

294 And an incessant darkness o’er the earth,

295 Mother of peoples, and relentless wrath

296 From heaven, and disorder of the times,

297 And earthquake shocks, and flaming thunderbolts,

298 And stones and storms of rain and squalid drops.

299 And the high summits of the Phrygian land

300 Feel the shock, bases of the Scythian hills

301 Feel the shock, cities tremble, and all earth

302 Trembles at the cliffs of the land of Greece.

303 And many cities, God being very wroth,

304 Shall fall prone under burning thunderbolts

305 And with bewailings, and to shun the wrath

306 And make escape is not even possible.

307 And then the king shall by a strong hand fall,

308 Struck as if he were no one by his men.

309 After him of the Latins many men

310 Wearing the purple mantle on their shoulders

311 Shall be again raised up, who shall by lot

312 Desire to lay hold on the royal power.

313 And then upon the stately walls of Rome

314 Shall be three kings, two having the first number,

315 And one the eponym of victory

316 Bearing as no one else. They shall love Rome.

317 And all the world, concerned for mortal men;

318 But they shall not accomplish anything;

319 For God has not been gracious to the world

320 Neither will be be gentle with mankind,

321 Because they have done many evil things.

322 Therefore to kings shall he a mean soul bring

323 Still worse than that of leopards and of wolves;

324 For harshly seizing them with their own hands,

325 Like feeble women who are idly slain,

326 Shall men in brazen breastplate utterly

327 Destroy the kings together with their scepters.

328 Ah, wretched lofty men of glorious Rome,

329 Trusting in false oaths ye shall be destroyed.

330 And then shall many masters with the spear,

331 Men rushing not in order furious on,

332 Take away offspring of the first-born men

333 In their blood. .mw-parser-output .nowrap,.mw-parser-output .nowrap a:before,.mw-parser-output .nowrap .selflink:before{white-space:nowrap}… Therefore thrice

334 Shall the Most High then bring on dreadful doom,

335 And all men with their works shall he destroy.

336 But into judgment yet again shall God

337 Cause them to come that have a shameless soul,

338 As many as determined evil things;

339 And they themselves are fenced in, falling one

340 Upon another, and given over there.

341 Into that condemnation of wickedness.

342 .mw-parser-output .wst-asterisks{display:block;margin:auto;text-align:center}…….

343 All one by one, yet a brilliant comet

344 …….

345 Of much to come, of war and battle strife.

346 But at the time when one about the isles

347 Shall gather many oracles that speak

348 To strangers of fight and of battle strife,

349 And grievous harm of temples, he shall bid

350 One in great haste to gather in Rome’s halls

351 For twelve months wheat and barley in abundance,

352 And this most quickly. And in wretched plight

353 The city shall be those days, and straightway

354 Shall it again be prosperous not a little;

355 And rest shall be when that rule is destroyed.

356 And then the last race of the Latin kings

357 Shall be, and after it again shall grow

358 Dominion, children and the children’s race

359 Shall be unshaken; for it shall be known,

360 Since of a surety God himself is king.

361 There is a land dear, nourisher of men,

362 Situate in a plain, and round it Nile

363 Marks off the boundary and separates

364 All Libya and Ethiopia.

365 And Syrians short-lived, one from one place,

366 Another from another, from that land

367 Shall snatch away all movable effects;

368 A great and careful lord shall be their king,

369 Training up youth and sending off for men,

370 And planning something fearful about those

371 Most fearful, above all he shall send forth

372 A powerful helper of all Italy

373 The lofty-minded. And when he shall come

374 Unto the dark sea of Assyria

375 He shall despoil Phoenicians in their homes,

376 And fastening evil war and battle dire

377 Shall be one lord of the two lords of earth.

378 And now will I for Alexandrians sing

379 Their grievous end; alas, barbarians

380 Shall possess sacred Egypt, land unharmed,

381 Unshaken, when wrath from the gods shall come.

382 …….

383 … making winter summer,

384 Then shall the oracles be all fulfilled.

385 But when three youths in the Olympian games

386 Shall conquer, and thou shalt bid them that know

387 The oracles that call on God to cleanse

388 First by the blood of sucking quadruped,

389 Thrice therefore shall the Most High then bring on

390 A fearful lot, and he shall over all

391 Brandish the mournful long spear; then much blood

392 Barbarian shall be poured out in the dust.

393 When the city shall be plundered utterly

394 By inhospitable strangers. Happy he

395 Who is dead, also happy any one

396 Who is without a child; for he who once

397 Was leader surnamed for them that are free,

398 Far-famed in song, no longer in his mind

399 Revolving earlier plans, shall place their neck

400 Under a servile yoke; such slavery,

401 Cause of much weeping, shall a lord impose.

402 And then straightway an army of Sicilians

403 Ill-fated shall come, carrying dismay,

404 When a barbarian nation shall again

405 Come suddenly; and the fruit, when it grows,

406 They from the field shall sever. Upon them

407 Shall God the lofty Thunderer bestow

408 Evil instead of good; continually

409 Shall stranger pluck from stranger hateful gold.

410 But now when all shall look upon the blood

411 Of the flesh-eating lion and there comes

412 Upon the body a murderous lioness,

413 Down from his head will he the scepter cast

414 Away from him. And as in friendly feast

415 In Egypt when the people all partake,

416 They perform valiant deeds, and one restrains

417 Another, and among them there is much

418 Shouting aloud; so also shall there be

419 Upon mankind the fear of furious strife,

420 And many shall be utterly destroyed

421 And others kill each other by hard fights.

422 And then one covered with dark scales shall come;

423 Two others shall come acting in concert

424 With one another, and with them a third

425 A great ram from Cyrene, whom before.

426 I spoke of as a fugitive in war

427 Beside the streams of Nile; but in no wise

428 An unsuccessful way do all complete.

429 And then the lengths of the revolving years

430 Shall be exceeding quiet; yet again

431 Thereafter shall a second war for them

432 In Egypt be stirred up, and there shall be

433 A battle on the sea, but victory

434 Shall not be theirs. Ah, wretched ones, there shall

435 A conquest of the famous city be,

436 And it shall be a spoil of war not long.

437 And then men having common boundaries

438 Of much land shall flee wretched, and shall lead

439 Their wretched parents. And they shall again

440 Having great victory light on a land,

441 And shall destroy the Jews, men staunch in war,

442 Wasting by wars far as the hoary deep,

443 On both sides, fighting in the foremost ranks

444 For father-land and parents. And a race

445 Of trophy-bearing men shall for the dead

446 Be reckoned. Ah, how many men shall swim

447 About the waves! For on the sandy beach

448 Many shall lie; and heads of golden hair

449 Shall fall beneath Egyptian winged fowls.

450 And then for the Arabians mortal blood

451 Shall go in quest. But when wolves shall with dogs

452 Pledge in a sea-girt island solemn oaths,

453 Then shall there be the raising of a tower,

454 And the city that suffered very many things

455 Men shall inhabit. For deceitful gold

456 Shall no more be nor silver, nor acquiring

457 Of the earth, nor much-laboring servitude;

458 But one fast friendship and one mode of life

459 With cheerful soul; and all things shall be common

460 And equal light among the means of life.

461 And wickedness shall sink down from the earth

462 Into the vast sea. And then near at hand

463 Is come the harvest-time of mortal men.

464 There is imposed a strong necessity

465 That these things be fulfilled. And at that time

466 There shall not any other traveler say,

467 In this conjecturing, that the race of men

468 Though perishable shall ever cease to be.

469 And then a holy nation shall prevail

470 And bold the sovereignty of all the earth

471 Unto all ages with their mighty sons.

Colophon

The Sibylline Oracles
by The Sibyl
translated by Milton S. Terry.

This edition was produced by
Royal Archives.

The text is set in Palatino and Georgia.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
August 16, 2026.

Table of Contents

- Title Page
- Copyright
- Book 1
- Book 2
- Book 3
- Book 4
- Book 5
- Book 6
- Book 7
- Book 8
- Book 11
- Book 12
- Book 13
- Book 14
- Colophon