Book 3
1 O thou who thunderest from on high, blessed heavenly one, who hast the Cherubim
2 as thy throne, I pray thee give me a short respite from mine unerring oracle,
3 for my soul within me is weary.
4 Nay, why did my heart again flutter, and why is my soul,
5 lashed with a spur from within, compelled to announce my message
6 to all? So again I will proclaim all
7 that God bids me proclaim unto men.
8 Ye men that bear the form that God did mould in his image,
9 why do ye wander at random and walk not in the straight path,
10 being ever mindful of the eternal Creator?
11 There is one sovereign God, ineffable, whose dwelling is in heaven,
12 self sprung, unseen yet seeing all himself alone.
13 No mason’s hand did make him, nor does some model formed from gold
14 or ivory by the varied skill of man represent him.
15 But he, himself Eternal, hath revealed himself
16 as One who is and was before, yea and shall be hereafter.
17 For who, being mortal, can gaze on God with his eyes?
18 Or who could bear even to hear the mere name
19 of the mighty, heavenly God, the World-Ruler?
20 Who by his word created all, both heaven and sea
21 and tireless sun and moon at full
22 and twinkling stars, mighty mother Ocean,
23 springs and rivers, fire immortal, days and nights.
24 Yea it is God Himself who fashioned four-lettered Adam,
25 the first man fashioned, who completes in his name
26 morn and dusk, antarctic and arctic.
27 He too both established the fashion of the form of mortal men
28 and made the beasts and things that creep and fly.
29 Ye do not worship nor fear God, but wander at haphazard,
30 bowing down to serpents and doing sacrifice to cats,
31 and to dumb idols and stone statues of mortal wights,
32 and sitting down before the doors of godless temples
33 ye weary the God who ever is, who guards all
34 , taking your delight in miserable stones, forgetting the judgement
35 of the Eternal Saviour Who created heaven and earth.
36 O race that delights in blood, crafty, wicked race of godless men,
37 liars and double-tongued, immoral,
38 adulterous, idolatrous, of wily devices,
39 within whose heart is evil, a frenzied spur,
40 snatching for yourselves, having a shameless mind!
41 For no man of wealth endowed with goods will give any part to another,
42 but miserable meanness shall be among all mortals,
43 and faith they shall never keep at all,
44 but many widowed women shall have other secret lovers for lucre’s sake,
45 and gaining husbands shall not keep hold of the rope of life.
46 But when Rome shall rule over Egypt as well,
47 †as she still hesitates to do, then the mightiest kingdom
48 of the immortal king over men shall appear.
49 And a holy prince shall come to wield the sceptre over all the world
50 unto all ages of hurrying time.
51 And then there shall be inexorable wrath on Latin men.
52 Three with piteous fate shall bring ruin on Rome,
53 and all its people shall perish in their own dwellings,
54 whensoever a cataract of fire shall flow from heaven.
55 O wretched me! when shall that day arrive,
56 even the judgement of the eternal God, the mighty King?
57 Yet for the present be ye founded, O ye cities, and adorned all of you
58 with temples and race-courses, with markets and statues
59 of gold and silver and stone, that ye may come to the day of bitterness.
60 For come it will, whenever the odour of brimstone pervades
61 all mankind. But I will tell out in particular
62 all those cities in which men are to suffer woe.
63 From the stock of Sebaste Beliar shall come in later time
64 and shall fraise the mountain heights and raise the sea,
65 the great fiery sun and the bright moon,
66 and he shall raise up the dead and shall perform many signs
67 for men: but they shall not be effective in him.
68 Nay, but he deceives mortals, and many shall he deceive,
69 Hebrews faithful and elect and lawless too, and other
70 men who have never yet listened to the word of God.
71 But at whatsoever time the threatened vengeance of the Almighty God draws near,
72 and fiery energy comes through the swelling surge to earth,
73 and burns up Beliar and the overweening men,
74 even all who have put their trust in him,
75 then the world shall be under the dominion of a woman’s hands
76 obeying her every behest.
77 Then when a widow shall reign over the whole world
78 and cast both gold and silver into the godlike deep,
79 and the brass and iron of shortlived man
80 cast into the sea, then the elements of the world one and all
81 shall be widowed, what time God Whose dwelling is in the sky
82 shall roll up the heaven as a book is rolled.
83 And the whole firmament in its varied forms shall fall on the divine earth
84 and on the sea: and then shall flow a ceaseless cataract of raging fire,
85 and shall burn land and sea,
86 and the firmament of heaven and the stars and creation itself
87 it shall cast into one molten mass and clean dissolve.
88 Then no more shall there be the luminaries’ twinkling orbs,
89 no night, no dawn, no constant days of care,
90 no spring, no summer, no winter nor autumn.
91 And then the judgement of the Mighty God shall come into the midst
92 of the mighty aeon, when all these things shall come to pass.
93 O for the watery tracks and all the dry land,
94 when the sun arises which never sets again.
95 All shall obey him as he ascends again upon the world,
96 for as much as he first fashioned them, and his might.
97 But whensoever the threatened vengeance of the Mighty God is brought to pass,
98 that vengeance with which once he threatened mortals when they made a tower
99 in the Assyrian land—Now all were of one tongue
100 and they desired to ascend into the starry heaven.
101 But straightway the Eternal laid great stress
102 upon the blasts: then the winds dashed down the great tower from on high,
103 and incited mortal men to mutual strife.
104 Therefore men named the city Babylon.
105 But when the tower was fallen and men’s tongues
106 divided off with divers kinds of sounds, then the whole
107 earth began to be filled with separate kingdoms.
108 Then came the tenth generation of articulate men,
109 since the flood came upon the men of yore.
110 And Cronos, Titan, and Iapetus were kings,
111 the goodliest children of Gaia and Ouranos, whom men called
112 Earth and Heaven, dubbing them so
113 because they were the first of all articulate men.
114 Threefold were the divisions of earth in the portion of each,
115 and each was king in his own sphere, nor did they fight,
116 for oaths had been made to their father, and the shares were just.
117 Then their father’s full time of age arrived
118 and so he died. And his sons in monstrous transgression of their oaths
119 stirred up strife against one another
120 as to who should reign over mortals in possession of royal honour.
121 And Cronos and Titan fought against each other.
122 But them Rhea and Gaia and garland-loving Aphrodite,
123 Demeter and Hestia and fair-tressed Dione
124 brought to friendship, reconciling the kings
125 all brethren as they were and of one kin, and the other
126 men who were of like blood and parentage.
127 And they resolved that Cronos should reign as king of all,
128 because he was eldest and fairest of form.
129 But Titan for his part imposed mighty oaths on Cronos
130 that he should not rear a family of male children, so that he himself might be king
131 when old age and death overtook Cronos.
132 So whensoever Rhea was in travail, the Titans would sit beside her
133 and tear in pieces every male child,
134 but the women children they would leave alive to be reared with their mother.
135 But our lady Rhea when she brought forth her third child
136 brought forth Hera first: and when they saw evidently
137 that the child was female they went away to their homes, those rough
138 Titans. And then Rhea brought forth a man child,
139 whom she quickly sent away, to be reared secretly and privily,
140 to Phrygia, taking three Cretan men under oath into her counsel.
141 Therefore they gave him the name of Zeus because he was sent away unsuspected.
142 In like manner too she sent away Poseidon stealthily.
143 Then at the third time Rhea, goddess among women, gave birth to Pluto
144 as she was passing Dodona, whence ran the watery courses
145 of the river Europus, and the water flowed to the sea
146 blended with the Peneius, and they call it the Stygian stream.
147 But when the Titans heard that there were sons
148 born privily to the union of Cronos and Rhea,
149 then Titan mustered his seventy sons,
150 and held in bonds Cronos and Rhea his consort.
151 And he hid them in the earth and kept them in fetters.
152 Then indeed the sons of mighty Cronos heard of it,
153 and they raised up for him a great war and battle din.
154 And this is the beginning of war to all mortals
155 [yea this is the first beginning of war to mortals].
156 And then God inflicted evil on the Titans.
157 And all the families of the Titans and of Cronos
158 died. Then in the circling course of time
159 the Egyptian empire arose, then that of the Persians,
160 of the Medes and Ethiopians and of Assyrian Babylon,
161 then that of the Macedonians, again that of Egypt and then of Rome.
162 And then the message of the Great God fluttered in my breast
163 and bade me prophesy severally about each
164 land and to their kings, and to put them in mind of things that are to be.
165 And this was the first thing that God vouchsafed to my understanding,
166 namely how many kingdoms of men are being mustered.
167 First of all the house of Solomon shall hold sway,
168 and the Phoenician invaders of Asia and of the islands as well
169 , and the race of the Pamphylians, Persians, and Phrygians,
170 and that too of the Carians and Mysians and Lydians rich in gold.
171 Then shall come the Greeks overweening and unholy:
172 then a very motley race of Macedonia shall hold sway,
173 who shall come as a dread war cloud upon mortals.
174 But the God of heaven shall smite them utterly.
175 Next there shall be the sway of another empire,
176 an empire of many hoary heads from the western sea,
177 which shall hold sway over much land, and shall convulse many men,
178 and shall cause fear to many kings in time to come;
179 much gold too and silver it shall ravish
180 from many cities: and again there shall be in the godlike earth
181 gold, yes, and silver, and raiment too.
182 And they shall afflict mortals. But those men shall have a great
183 fall, whensoever they enter on a course of unjust insolence.
184 And straightway a stress of ungodliness shall fall on them,
185 and male shall draw near to male, and they shall set their children
186 in ill-famed houses, and there shall be in those days
187 great tribulation among men, and it shall set all things wrong,
188 and cut everything short, and fill everything with evils,
189 through covetousness the corrupter of life, and ill-gotten wealth,
190 in many lands and especially in Macedonia.
191 And it shall stir up hatred, and they shall show all manner of guile,
192 until the seventh reign when there shall reign
193 over Egypt a king, who shall be of Greek origin.
194 And then the nation of the Mighty God shall be again powerful,
195 that nation which shall be to all mortals the guide of life.
196 But why has God put this too into my mind to say
197 what shall be the first evil and the next one and the last which is to fall
198 on all men, and what shall be the beginning of these?
199 First of all God shall inflict evil on the Titans,
200 for they shall suffer vengeance at the hands of the sons of the mighty Cronos,
201 because they bound Cronos and the honoured mother.
202 Then, secondly, the Greeks shall have tyrannies and haughty
203 kings, overweening and unchaste,
204 adulterous and evil in every way, and no longer shall mortals have
205 rest from war. And the terrible Phrygians shall perish,
206 all of them, and evil shall be upon Troy on that day.
207 Then to the Persians and Assyrians evil shall come,
208 and to the whole of Egypt, and to Libya and the Ethiopians,
209 and the Carians and Pamphylians an evil hard to remove,
210 and to all men. Why, then, do I detail each severally?
211 But when the first have reached their end, straightway then shall
212 be a second series upon men. But now I will proclaim this first of all.
213 Evil shall come to the godly men, who dwell around the great temple
214 of Solomon, and who are the descendants of righteous
215 men. Yet of these also I will proclaim
216 the family and kindred of their fathers and the people of all,
217 everything expressly will I proclaim, O mortal of cunning wiles and crafty mind.
218 There is a city (Camarina) down in the land of Ur of the Chaldees,
219 from which comes a race of most righteous men,
220 who ever give themselves up to sound counsel and fair deeds.
221 For they search not out the circling course of the sun or the moon,
222 nor monstrosities beneath the earth,
223 nor the depth of Ocean’s shimmering sea,
224 nor portents of sneezes, and birds of augurers,
225 nor wizards, nor magicians, nor enchanters,
226 nor the deceits of ventriloquists’ foolish words,
227 nor do they study the predictions of Chaldaean astrology,
228 nor do they astronomize: for all these things are in their nature prone to deceive,
229 such things as witless men are searching out day by day,
230 exercising their souls for a work of no profit.
231 Yes, and they have taught deceits to ill-starred men,
232 from which come many evils to mortals on the earth,
233 so that they are led astray from good paths and righteous acts.
234 But these diligently practise justice and virtue,
235 and not covetousness, which is the source of myriad ills
236 to mortal men, of war and desperate famine.
237 But they have just measures in country and city,
238 nor do they carry out night robberies one against another,
239 nor do they drive off herds of oxen and sheep and goats,
240 nor does a neighbour remove his neighbour’s landmarks,
241 nor does a man of much wealth vex his lesser brother,
242 nor does anyone afflict widows but rather assists them,
243 ever ready to supply them with corn and wine and oil.
244 And always the wealthy man among the people sends a portion of his harvest to those who have nothing,
245 but are in want,
246 fulfilling the command of the Mighty God, the ever abiding strain:
247 for Heaven has wrought the earth for all alike.
248 But when the people of twelve tribes with their God-sent leaders
249 shall leave Egypt and pursue their road,
250 journeying with a fiery pillar in the night-time,
251 and in a pillar of cloud whensoever the dawn leads on day,
252 over them He shall set up as leader the mighty man
253 Moses, whom the princess found and took home from a marsh,
254 and bringing up called her son. But when he came,
255 leading the people whom God was bringing from Egypt
256 to Mount Sina, then God gave them the law forth from heaven,
257 writing all its ordinances on two tables,
258 and commanded to keep them and if so be any disobeyed,
259 he should pay the penalty, either according to law or by mortals’ hands,
260 or if he escaped mortal men, he should perish by divine justice.
261 To them alone does the fruitful field yield its fruit
262 up to an hundred fold from one, and the measures of God are yielded.
263 But they too shall have evil, neither shall they escape
264 pestilence. Yea, and thou too shalt leave thy lovely shrine
265 and flee, since it is thy fate to leave thine holy soil.
266 And thou shalt be carried to the Assyrians, and shalt see thine infant children
267 enslaved to hostile men,
268 and thy wives: and all thy livelihood and wealth shall perish.
269 And every land shall be full of thee and every sea:
270 and every one shall be incensed at thy customs.
271 And the whole land shall be empty of thee: and the fenced altar,
272 and the temple of the Mighty God and the long walls
273 shall all fall to the ground, because thou didst not obey in thy mind
274 the holy law of the Immortal God, but wentest astray,
275 and didst serve miserable idols, and didst not fear
276 the Immortal Father of gods and of all men,
277 nor wouldst honour Him, but didst honour the idols of mortal men.
278 Therefore for seven decades of times thy fruitful land
279 shall all be empty of thee and (so shall) thy wondrous shrine.
280 But there awaits thee good at the end and exceeding great glory,
281 as the Immortal God has ordained for thee. But do thou tarry,
282 trusting in the holy laws of the Mighty God,
283 when bowing thy knee thou prayest toward the light of dawn.
284 And then the God of heaven shall send a king,
285 and shall judge each man with blood and flame of fire.
286 There is a royal tribe, whose family shall
287 never stumble: and this in the circuit of times
288 shall have dominion and shall begin to raise up a new shrine of God.
289 And all the kings of the Persians shall succour it
290 with gold and brass and well wrought iron.
291 For God Himself shall give a holy dream by night.
292 And then the Temple shall be again as it was before.
293 Then indeed my spirit ceased its God-sent strain,
294 and I besought the Great Father to ease me from my spell.
295 And again the word of the Great God fluttered in my breast,
296 and bade me prophesy of each several
297 land and to put in the minds of the kings that which is to be.
298 And this first God put it in my mind to say,
299 how many grievous woes the Eternal has devised for Babylon,
300 because it sacked His great temple.
301 Woe unto thee Babylon and race of Assyrian men, a rushing destruction is coming one day upon the whole land of the sinners,
302 and a crash shall destroy the whole country of men,
303 even the scourge of the Mighty God †the inspirer of my strains†.
304 For from the air from above there shall come to thee Babylon
305 (yea from heaven there shall come down to thee from the Holy Place)
306 and to the children of wrath eternal perdition.
307 And then thou shalt be as thou wast before as though thou hadst not been born.
308 And then thou shalt be surfeited with blood, as formerly thou thyself
309 didst spill the blood of good men and just,
310 whose blood even now cries unto the farthest heaven.
311 Then shall come home to thee, O Egypt, a mighty plague
312 and dread, which thou didst never expect to come to thee.
313 †For a sword shall go through the midst of thee†,
314 and confusion and death and famine shall last
315 to the seventh generation of kings, and then thou shalt cease.
316 Woe unto thee, land of Gog and Magog that art in the midst of
317 the rivers of Ethiopia; what an outpouring of blood shalt thou receive,
318 and thou shalt be called among men the habitation of judgement,
319 and the drenched earth shall drink thy life blood.
320 Woe unto thee, Libya: woe to the sea and land!
321 Ye daughters of the West to what a bitter day shall ye come:
322 yea come pursued by a grievous struggle,
323 dreadful and grievous: a dreadful judgement shall there be again.
324 And perforce ye shall all come to perdition
325 forasmuch as ye utterly destroyed the great House of the Eternal,
326 and ground it fearfully with iron teeth.
327 Therefore thou shalt see thy land full of dead bodies,
328 some from war and all assaults of the devil,
329 by famine and pestilence, and by savage-hearted foes.
330 And all thy land shall be empty of thee, and thy cities deserts.
331 In the west a star shall shine, which they shall call a comet,
332 a messenger to men of the sword, famine, and death,
333 and the †destruction† of ruling men and great notables.
334 Again there shall be very great signs among men:
335 for deep eddying Tanais shall leave the Maeotic sea,
336 and down the deep bed a fertile furrow shall be drawn,
337 and the vast stream shall bend its neck.
338 Chasms there shall be and yawning gulfs: and many cities
339 shall fall with all their people: in Asia’s land lassus,
340 Cebren, Pandonia, Colophon, Ephesus, Nicaea,
341 Antioch, Cyagra, Sinope, Smyrna, Murine,
342 Gaza rich in wealth, Hierapolis, Astypalaea,
343 and of Europe famous Tanagra, royal Meropea,
344 Antigone, Magnesia, and divine Mycenae.
345 Know then that the baleful race of Egypt is nigh its doom,
346 and then to the Magnesians the year that is past shall be better.
347 For all the wealth that Rome received from tributary Asia,
348 threefold as much shall Asia receive back again
349 from Rome, and shall repay to her her hideous violence.
350 And for all those children of Asia who served Italian homes,
351 Italians to twenty-fold shall live in bondage and penury in Asia,
352 and shall pay back their debt ten thousand-fold.
353 O Rome, pampered golden offspring of Latium!
354 thou virgin oft intoxicated by thy many suitors in marriage,
355 as a slave-girl shalt thou be wedded without ceremony,
356 and ofttimes shall thy mistress shear thy luxuriant locks,
357 and passing sentence on thee shall cast thee from heaven to earth,
358 and shall lift thee up again from earth to heaven,
359 because men held to a bad and lawless life.
360 Samos too shall be sand, Delos shall vanish
361 and Rome become a street: and all the oracles are being fulfilled.
362 Of perishing Smyrna there shall be no account. Outlaw shall she be,
363 but with evil counsels and the villainy of her leaders.
364 But tranquil peace shall make its way to the land of Asia.
365 And Europe shall then be happy, the air salubrious,
366 year after year bracing and free from storms and free from hail,
367 producing everything, birds and creeping creatures of the earth.
368 Thrice happy who shall live unto that time, man
369 or woman: *happy he whose life is as among country folk*.
370 For good law shall come in its fullness from the starry heaven
371 upon men, and good justice, and with it
372 the best of all gifts to men, sober concord,
373 and affection, faithfulness, friendship from strangers and fellow-citizens too.
374 And lawlessness, murmuring, envy, wrath, and folly
375 shall flee from men: penury, too, shall flee, and distress,
376 and murder, and destructive strifes, and baleful feuds,
377 and thefts by night and every evil in those days.
378 But Macedonia shall bring forth a grievous calamity for Asia,
379 and for Europe there shall shoot up a desperate woe,
380 from the race of the son of Cronos, a family of bastards and slaves.
381 This shall subdue even the fortified city of Babylon,
382 and after being called mistress of every land on which the sun looks,
383 shall perish with miserable fate,
384 keeping but a name among its far-wandering sons of a later age.
385 One day there shall come unexpectedly to Asia’s wealthy land
386 a man clad with a purple cloak upon his shoulders,
387 savage, a stranger from justice, fiery: for he hath exalted himself
388 even against the thunder, a mortal as he is. And all Asia shall have an evil yoke,
389 and the drenched earth shall drink large draughts of blood.
390 But even so Hades shall attend him utterly destroyed.
391 By the race of those whose family he wishes to destroy
392 by them shall his own family be destroyed.
393 Yet after leaving one root, which the Destroyer shall cut off,
394 he shall put forth a side-shoot of ten horns.
395 He shall cut down the warrior parent of the purple race,
396 †and he himself at the hand of his grandsons shall perish in a like fate of war†:
397 and then a parasite horn shall have dominion.
398 Then fertile Phrygia shall have a sign
399 when in the land of Rhea an accursed race, a perennial branch
400 vigorous with roots that feel no thirst,
401 disappears stock and all in one night,
402 with men and all in the city of the earth-shaking Thunderer,
403 which in time to come they shall call from that event Dorylaeum
404 in ancient dark Phrygia, the land of many tears.
405 That time goes by the name of the Earth-shaking time.
406 It shall shatter the recesses of the earth and pull down the walls,
407 and signs shall spring forth which are the beginning not of good but of evil.
408 It shall have kings expert in the war of every tribe,
409 *wily indigenous descendants of Aeneas, an aboriginal race*.
410 But in after times thou shalt be a prey to thy lovers.
411 Ilium, I pity thee: for in Sparta an avenging fury
412 shall put forth a shoot exceeding fair, ever famed and noble,
413 leaving the far-spread sea of Asia and Europe.
414 But to thee above all it shall bring lamentations and labours and groanings,
415 and set them down; yet to future generations thy fame shall never wax old.
416 Then again there shall be an aged wight false in writing,
417 and false in birthplace: and the light in his eyes shall set.
418 Yet he shall have much wit, and a verse fitted to his thoughts
419 blended under two names. Chian shall he call
420 himself, and he shall write the story of Ilium, not truthfully indeed,
421 but with poetic skill; for he shall gain possession of my verses and measures.
422 He first shall unfold my books with his hands:
423 and then right well shall he deck out the helmed men of war,
424 Hector Priam’s son and Achilles, offspring of Peleus,
425 and all the rest who cared for doughty deeds.
426 Yea and he shall make gods stand by the warriors’ side
427 leading astray in every way the mortals of empty head.
428 Their widespread glory rather will it be to have died
429 in Ilium: but he himself shall receive his recompense.
430 To Lycia too the race of Locros shall bring forth many evils.
431 Chalcedon, to whose lot has fallen the passage of the narrow sea,
432 to thee too shalt the scion of Ætolia come and work ruin.
433 Cyzicus, from thee the sea shall rend away thy ponderous wealth.
434 *And thou, Byzantium, one day wilt look on Ares’ shield*,
435 and then thou shalt receive groanings and seas of blood.
436 Thou too, Krasos, lofty mountain of Lycia, from a rock
437 opening in chasms from thy peak water shall bubble forth,
438 until it cause even Patara’s prophetic wonders to cease.
439 O Cyzicus, thou that dwellest in vine-growing Propontis,
440 the crested wave of Rhyndacus shall thunder round about thee.
441 And thou, Rhodes, shalt for a long time escape slavery,
442 thou daughter of the day, and great shall be thy wealth in later times,
443 and on the sea thou shalt have strength pre-eminent over others.
444 But in the end thou shalt be a prey to thy lovers
445 with thy beauty and thy wealth: a grievous yoke shalt thou put upon thy neck.
446 Furthermore, a Lydian earthquake shall lay Persia in ruins,
447 bringing most direful woes on Europe and Asia.
448 †The Sidonians’ baleful king, and the war of others
449 shall bring baleful destruction to the sea-faring Samians.†
450 With the blood of perishing men the plain shall bubble to the sea: and wives with bright-robed girls
451 shall shout aloud for their own hideous violence,
452 some for their bridegrooms, some for their perishing sons.
453 The token of Cyprus: an earthquake shall destroy its ravines,
454 and Hades at one fell swoop shall possess himself of many souls.
455 Trallis, neighbour to Ephesus, shall shake down with an earthquake
456 its well-built walls and people of stout-hearted men.
457 And the earth shall be drenched by boiling water,
458 and the stupefied earth shall drink in mist as well: and there shall be an odour of sulphur.
459 Samos too at that time shall build a royal mansion.
460 Italy, to thee no foreign war shall come,
461 but a people of thy blood shall destroy thee,
462 shameless one, with many woes, stalwart as thou art and much renowned.
463 And thou, stretched by thine own warm ashes,
464 †careless of thy children’s future, shalt slay thyself,†
465 and thou shalt be not the mother of heroes but the nurse of beasts.
466 But when from Italy a destroyer shall come,
467 then Laodicea,
468 thou fair city of the Carians beside the wondrous waters of Lycus, thou shalt be dashed headlong,
469 and be silent after bemoaning thy much-vaunted parent.
470 The Thracian Crobuzi shall rise throughout Haemus.
471 On the Campanians there falls chattering of teeth, by reason of the city-wasting famine,
472 and they shall bewail their long-lived ancestor.
473 Cyrnos and Sardo, by the great storm eddies
474 and the lashes of the Holy God through the depths of the sea,
475 shall sink beneath the wave with their sea-faring children.
476 Alas for all the maids that Death shall wed,
477 and the lads whom the deep shall attend unanealed.
478 Alas for the infant children floating on the sea, and the stores of wealth.
479 The happy Mysian land shall suddenly produce a royal race.
480 But not for long shall Carthage †truly† be.
481 And the Galatians shall have a miserable and piteous fate.
482 To Tenedos too there shall come a final unequalled evil.
483 And brazen Sicyon and thou, Corinth, too
484 †shalt resound with howls for all and Aulis shall shout in equal measure†.
485 Then when my spirit ceased its inspired strain,
486 again the oracle of Mighty God stirred within my breast,
487 and bade me prophesy of several lands.
488 Woe to the race of Phoenicians, men and women,
489 and to all their sea-coast cities: not one of you,
490 shall come to the light of the sun in that light that is common to all.
491 Nor shall there be any more any numbering of thy life nor tribe to thee,
492 because of thine unrighteous tongue and thy lawless and unclean life
493 which all have led, opening their mouth for uncleanness,
494 and because they covenanted with monstrous words, false and unjust,
495 and stood before God the Great King,
496 and opened with falsehood their filthy mouth. Therefore shall he
497 marvellously bring them low with His scourges more than any
498 land, and God shall send on them a bitter fate,
499 burning their cities from the ground and their many foundations.
500 Woe to thee, much-vexed Crete. To thee shall come a scourge
501 and a dread eternal destruction. And all the earth shall see thee once more wreathed in smoke,
502 and fire shall never leave thee but thou shalt burn.
503 Woe unto thee, Thrace: how shalt thou come to the yoke of bondage:
504 when Galatians mingled with the sons of Dardanus
505 swoop on to ravage Hellas, then shall be thine evil day,
506 and to a strange land thou shalt give (thine own) and receive nought.
507 †Woe unto thee, Gog and Magog, and to all the several tribes,
508 Marsians and Dacians†, how many evils fate brings near to you:
509 (many, too), to the sons of the Lycians, Mysians and Phrygians.
510 And many tribes of the Pamphylians and Lydians shall fall,
511 of Moors and Ethiopians and nations of barbarous speech,
512 Cappadocians and Arabians. But why should I proclaim the fate of each severally?
513 for upon all nations who dwell on the earth
514 the Most High shall send a grievous scourge.
515 But whensoever a numerous barbarian race shall fall upon the Greeks,
516 it shall destroy many heads of picked men,
517 and many of men’s fat flocks shall they ravish,
518 and herds of horses and mules and lowing oxen.
519 And well-built houses shall they lawlessly burn with fire.
520 And many miserable wights shall they carry by force as slaves to another land,
521 children and tender deep-girdled women,
522 snatched from their chambers and with delicate feet falling forward.
523 They shall see them in bonds at the hand of strange-tongued foes
524 suffering every horror of outrage. And they shall have
525 no man to lend them but a little aid in war and to succour their lives.
526 They shall see the foe reaping the enjoyment of their own possessions and of all their wealth,
527 and trembling shall be underneath their knees.
528 An hundred shall flee and one shall slay them all:
529 and five shall rout a heavy squadron; and they, thrown one against another
530 in shameful confusion by the dread din of battle,
531 shall bring exultation to the foe but to Greeks mourning.
532 Then all Hellas shall lie under the yoke of slavery,
533 and war and pestilence shall come upon all mankind at once,
534 and God shall make the great heaven above brazen,
535 and drought over the whole earth, and it of iron.
536 Then all mankind shall grievously lament
537 no sowing and no ploughing: and fire upon earth
538 shall He send down column upon column, who created heaven and earth:
539 and of all mankind the third part shall be destroyed.
540 Hellas, why dost thou put thy trust in governors,
541 mortal men who are powerless to escape the consummation of death?
542 With what view dost thou proffer vain gifts to the dead
543 and sacrifice to idols? Who has put error in thine heart,
544 that thou shouldst perform these rites and forsake the face of Mighty God?
545 Reverence the name of the Father of all and forget him not.
546 There are a thousand years and five hundred more,
547 since the reign of the haughty kings
548 of the Greeks who were the pioneers of evils to mankind,
549 holding fast to many idols of defunct gods,
550 whereby ye have been taught to think vain things.
551 But when the wrath of the great God shall be upon you,
552 then shall ye know the face of the great God.
553 And every soul of men with deep groans,
554 upraising their hands straight to the broad heaven,
555 shall begin to call to his succour the Mighty king,
556 and to seek who shall come as a deliverer from the mighty wrath.
557 But come and learn this and store it in thy mind,
558 how many shall be the woes of the circling years. [For not even if thou shouldst offer up hecatombs of sacrifices],
559 as many as Hellas offered of old, of kine and bellowing bulls,
560 bringing whole burnt sacrifices to the temple of the Mighty God,
561 not even so wilt thou escape from jarring war and panic
562 and pestilence, and the yoke of bondage again.
563 But so long the race of godless men shall exist,
564 until the day of fate reaches its appointed end.
565 Ye shall not sacrifice to God until all these things come to pass.
566 Whatsoever the one God purposes fails not of its accomplishment.
567 For that all things be accomplished the stress of necessity will insist.
568 There shall be thereafter a holy race of God-fearing men,
569 adhering to the counsels and the mind of the Most High:
570 who pay full honour to the temple of the mighty God,
571 with drink offerings and fat offerings and sacred hecatombs,
572 with sacrifices of lusty bulls and unblemished rams,
573 and piously offer as whole burnt sacrifices rich flocks of firstling sheep and lambs upon the great altar.
574 And in righteousness possessing the law of the Most High,
575 they shall dwell happily in their cities and rich fields,
576 themselves as prophets exalted by the Immortal One,
577 and bringing great joy to all mortals.
578 For to them alone the Mighty God has given discreet counsel,
579 and faith and an excellent understanding in their hearts:
580 in that they give not themselves to vain deceits, nor honour the works of men’s hands,
581 of gold and brass, silver or ivory,
582 idols of dead gods of wood and stone,
583 idols of clay vermilion painted, pictured likenesses of beasts,
584 such things as men with minds void of counsel do honour.
585 But they instead raise heavenwards holy arms,
586 rising early from their bed and ever cleansing their flesh
587 with water, and they honour Him alone who reigns for ever,
588 the Eternal, and after him their parents: and more than any
589 men they are mindful of the purity of marriage.
590 Nor do they hold unholy intercourse with boys,
591 as do the Phoenicians, Egyptians, and Latins,
592 and spacious Hellas, and many nations of other men,
593 Persians and Galatians and all Asia, transgressing
594 the holy law of the immortal God which he ordained.
595 For which cause the Eternal shall impose on all men
596 retribution and famine and woes and groans,
597 war, too, and pestilence and fearful calamities ;
598 because they would not honour in holiness the eternal Father of all men,
599 but reverenced and honoured idols
600 made by men’s hands, which men themselves shall cast
601 into the crannies of rocks and hide in shame,
602 whensoever a youthful king of Egypt, seventh in line,
603 of his own land reckoned from the Greeks shall reign over
604 an empire, over which the doughty Macedonians shall reign;
605 and there comes from Asia a mighty king, a fiery eagle,
606 who shall darken every land with foot and horse,
607 and shall break up everything and fill everything with miseries:
608 he shall cast down the kingdom of Egypt, and taking all
609 its wealth, shall ride upon the broad surface of the sea.
610 And then at length to God the great King, the Eternal,
611 they shall bend the white knee upon the fruitful earth,
612 and the works of men’s hand shall all fall into the flame of fire.
613 And then God shall give great joy to men.
614 For the earth and the trees and the innumerable flocks of sheep,
615 shall give their true fruit to mankind,
616 of wine and sweet honey and white milk
617 and corn which is to men the most excellent gift of all.
618 But thou, O man of wiles, tarry not with hesitation,
619 but turning round again make intercession to God.
620 Sacrifice to God hundreds of bulls and firstling lambs
621 and of goats in the circling seasons.
622 Yea, make intercession to Him, the Immortal God, if perchance He may have mercy upon thee.
623 For He alone is God, and there is none beside.
624 Honour righteousness and oppress no man:
625 for these are the commands of the Eternal to wretched mortals.
626 But do thou beware of the wrath of the mighty God,
627 whenever the consummation of pestilence comes upon all mortals,
628 and, overthrown, they meet with a terrible retribution
629 and king captures king and takes his land,
630 and nations ravage nations and potentates people,
631 and rulers all flee to another land,
632 and the land is changed in men and a barbarian empire
633 ravages Hellas, and drains the rich land
634 of its wealth, and men come face to face in strife
635 for the sake of gold and silver,
636 (the love of money shall be the shepherd of evils to many)
637 in a foreign land. And all shall be unburied,
638 and vultures and savage beasts of the earth
639 shall devour the flesh of some. And when all these things are fulfilled,
640 the giant earth shall devour the relics of the dead.
641 And it shall all be unsown and unploughed,
642 proclaiming in its misery the corruption of myriads of men.
643 And then for many spaces of time in circling years [men shall gather and burn in their houses]
644 targes and shields and javelins and divers kinds of weapons.
645 Nor shall wood be cut from the thicket to kindle fire.
646 And then from the sunrise God shall send a king,
647 who shall give every land relief from the bane of war:
648 some he shall slay and to others he shall consecrate faithful vows.
649 Nor shall he do all these things by his own will,
650 but in obedience to the good ordinances of the mighty God.
651 And again the people of the mighty God shall be laden with excellent wealth,
652 with gold and silver and purple adornment.
653 The land shall bear her increase, and the sea
654 shall be full of good things. And kings shall begin to be weary
655 of repelling evil one against another with wrath.
656 Envy is no good thing for miserable mortals.
657 But again the kings of the nations shall throw themselves against this land
658 in troops, bringing retribution on themselves.
659 For the shrine of the mighty God and the noblest men
660 they shall seek to ravage whensoever they come to the land.
661 In a ring round the city the accursed kings shall place
662 each one his throne with his infidel people by him.
663 And then with a mighty voice God shall speak unto all
664 the undisciplined empty-minded people, and -judgement shall come upon them
665 from the mighty God, and all shall perish
666 at the hand of the Eternal. From heaven shall fall
667 fiery swords down to the earth: lights shall come bright
668 and great, flashing into the midst of men.
669 And earth, the universal Mother, shall shake in those days
670 at the hand of the Eternal, and the fishes in the sea,
671 and all the beasts of the earth and the countless tribes of flying things,
672 and all souls of men and every sea
673 shall shudder at the presence of the Eternal and there shall be panic.
674 And the towering mountain peaks and the hills of the giants
675 He shall rend, and the murky abyss shall be visible to all.
676 And the high-hung ravines in the lofty mountains
677 shall be full of dead bodies: the rocks shall flow
678 with blood, and each torrent shall flood the plain.
679 The well-built walls of the disaffected men shall all fall to the ground,
680 because they knew not the law
681 nor the judgement of the Mighty God, but with witless mind
682 with one united onslaught †ye cast your spears† against the Holy One.
683 And God shall judge all with war and sword,
684 and with fire and cataclysms of rain. And there shall be
685 brimstone from heaven, yea stones and hail
686 incessant and grievous: and death shall be upon the fourfooted beasts.
687 And then shall they know the Immortal God, who ordains these things.
688 †Wailing and lamenting through the length and breadth of the land†
689 shall come with the perishing of men: and all the shameless
690 shall be washed with blood. Yea, the land itself shall drink
691 of the blood of the perishing: the beasts shall eat their fill of flesh.
692 God Himself, the great eternal God
693 bade me prophesy these things: and they shall not lack their fulfilment.
694 Nothing fails of its appointed end when He but conceives the thought.
695 For all over the world the Spirit of God cannot lie.
696 Then again all the sons of the great God
697 shall live quietly around the temple, rejoicing in those gifts
698 which He shall give, who is the Creator, and sovereign righteous Judge.
699 For He by Himself shall shield them, standing beside them alone in His might,
700 encircling them, as it were, with a wall of flaming fire.
701 Free from war shall they be in city and country.
702 For they shall not feel the touch of horrid war, for the Eternal shall be
703 Himself their champion, and the hand of the Holy One.
704 And then all the isles and the cities shall say,
705 How doth the Eternal love those men!
706 For all things work in sympathy with them and help them,
707 the heaven and God’s chariot the sun, and the moon.
708 A sweet strain shall they utter from their mouths in hymns.
709 Come, let us all fall upon the earth and supplicate
710 the Eternal King, the mighty, everlasting God.
711 Let us make procession to His Temple, for He is the sole Potentate.
712 And let us all ponder the law of the Most High God,
713 who is the most righteous of all on earth.
714 But we had gone astray from the path of the Eternal,
715 and with foolish heart worshipped the works of men’s hands,
716 idols and images of men that are dead.
717 So shall the souls of the faithful raise their cry.
718 Come, let us throughout God’s people fall upon our faces,
719 and gladden with hymns God our Father throughout our households,
720 furnishing ourselves with the weapons of our enemies throughout the whole land
721 for seven spans of circling years,
722 targes and shields and helms and weapons of all and sundry kinds
723 in great numbers, and quantities of bows and arrows and javelins.
724 For even wood shall not be cut from the thicket for kindling fire.
725 But, wretched Hellas, cease thine arrogance:
726 supplicate the great heart of the Eternal and take heed to thyself.
727 To dispatch indeed against this city thine ill-advised people,
728 which comes not of the holy land of the Mighty!
729 Arouse not Camarina: ‘tis better not aroused. (Rouse not)
730 a leopard from its lair, lest mischief befall.
731 Nay, withhold thine hand, and cherish not a spirit of overweening arrogance in thy breast,
732 dispatching to a mighty contest.
733 And serve the Mighty God, that thou mayst have a share in these gifts.
734 But when the fated day shall reach this consummation,
735 and there shall come to mortals the judgement of the Eternal God,
736 there shall come upon men a great judgement and empire.
737 For Earth the universal mother shall give to mortals her best
738 fruit in countless store of corn, wine and oil.
739 Yea, from heaven shall come a sweet draught of luscious honey,
740 the trees shall yield their proper fruits, and rich flocks,
741 and kine and lambs of sheep and kids of goats.
742 He will cause sweet fountains of white milk to burst forth.
743 And the cities shall be full of good things and the fields rich:
744 neither shall there be any sword throughout the land nor battle din:
745 nor shall the earth be convulsed any more with deep-drawn groans.
746 No war shall there be any more nor drought throughout the land,
747 no famine nor hail to work havoc on the crops.
748 But there shall be a great peace throughout all the earth,
749 and king shall be friendly with king till the end
750 of the age, and a common law for men throughout all the earth
751 shall the Eternal perfect in the starry heaven
752 for all those things which have been wrought by miserable mortals.
753 For He above is God and there is none else.
754 He too shall burn with fire the race of stubborn men.
755 But consecrate your minds within your breasts,
756 and eschew unlawful service: serve the Living God .
757 Shun adultery and confused intercourse with males.
758 Rear thine own offspring and slay it not:
759 for the Eternal will surely be wroth with him who commits these sins.
760 And then indeed he will raise up his kingdom for all ages
761 over men, he who once gave a holy law
762 to godly men, to all of whom He promised to open out the earth
763 and the world, and the portals of the blessed, and all joys,
764 and everlasting sense and eternal gladness.
765 And from every land they shall bring frankincense and gifts to the house
766 of the great God : and there shall be no other
767 house for men even in future generations to know
768 but only that which He has given to faithful men to honour.
769 For mortals call that alone (the house) of the great God.
770 And all the paths of the plain and the sheer banks,
771 and the lofty mountains and the wild sea waves
772 shall become easy to travel over by foot or sail in those days.
773 For nought but peace shall come upon the land of the good:
774 and the prophets of the Mighty God shall take away the sword.
775 For they are the judges of mortal men and just kings.
776 Even wealth shall be righteous among men:
777 for this is the judgement and the rule of the Mighty God.
778 Rejoice, O virgin, and exult: for to thee
779 the Creator of heaven and earth has given everlasting joy.
780 And in thee shall he dwell, and thou shalt have eternal light.
781 And wolves and lambs together shall crop grass upon the mountains,
782 and leopards shall feed with kids.
783 Prowling bears shall lie with calves,
784 and the carnivorous lion shall eat hay in the manger
785 like the ox, and the tiniest infants shall lead them in bonds,
786 for He shall make the beasts upon the earth incapable of harm.
787 Serpents and asps shall sleep with babes,
788 and shall not harm them: for God’s hand shall be stretched over them.
789 Now I will tell thee a very evident sign, that thou mayst understand
790 when the end of all things is coming on the earth.
791 When swords in the star-lit heaven
792 appear by night towards dusk and towards dawn,
793 and straightway dust is carried from heaven
794 †to earth, and all the brightness of the sun
795 fails at midday from the heavens†, and the moon’s
796 rays shine forth and come back to earth,
797 and a sign comes from the rocks with dripping streams of blood:
798 and in a cloud ye shall see a battle of foot and horse,
799 as a hunt of wild beasts, like unto misty clouds.
800 This is the consummation of war which God, whose dwelling is in heaven, is bringing to pass.
801 But all must sacrifice to the Mighty king.
802 These are the acts of the wrath of God which I, leaving the far-off walls of Assyrian Babylon
803 impelled by frenzy, and coming as a fire launched forth against Hellas,
804 am proclaiming unto all mankind,
805 so as to proclaim unto mortals the mysteries of God.
806 And mortals throughout Greece shall call me a stranger of another land,
807 born of Erythrae and shameless. Others shall call me, born of my mother Circe
808 and my father Gnostos, the Sibyl,
809 a crazy impostor. But when all these things come to pass,
810 then ye shall make mention of me, and no man any more
811 shall call me crazy, the prophetess of the Mighty God.
812 For he did not reveal to me those things which before he revealed to my parents,
813 but all those things which happened first of all God hath (not) detailed to me,
814 but of the later things God hath put all in my understanding,
815 so that I may proclaim the things that shall be and that were before
816 and tell them to mortal men. For when the world was being swallowed up
817 by the waters, and one man only who found favour was left,
818 floating on the waters in a dwelling of hewn wood,
819 with beasts and birds, that the world might be replenished again:
820 his daughter-in-law was I, and of his blood I came,
821 to whom the first things happened: and now the latter things have all been told.
822 So let all these things be accounted true that are spoken of my mouth.