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From Sibylline Oracles, Translated from the Greek into English Blank Verse by Milton S. Terry; New York: Hunt & Eaton, Cincinatti: Cranston & Stowe’s, 1890; pp. 161-172.
BOOK VII.
[162]CONTENTS OF BOOK VII.
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O RHODES, thou wretched one, thee first I mourn.
Of cities first, first shalt thou be destroyed,
Bereft of men and of all means of life.
And Delos, thou shalt sail upon the sea,
5
And be unstable on the watery way.
Cyprus, a billow of thy bridal sea
Shall some time ruin thee. Thee, Sicily,
The burning fire within thee shall consume.
* * * *
Nor heed God’s terrible and pleasant water.
* * * *
10 Noah, sole fugitive of all men came.
* * * *
The land shall swim, the mountains and the air
Shall also swim, all things shall water be,
And all things shall by water be detroyed.
The wind shall cease, and a second age begin.
15
O Phrygia, from the upper water first
This book is of Christian or Jewish-Christian origin, and probably belongs to the close of the second, or the early part of the third, century, A. D.
Line 1. This line is wanting in several manuscripts; in some it is appended to book vi, together with some lines of the acrostic beginning with book viii, 269. Rhodes is mentioned in book iv, 124. Comp. also iii, 525-531.
Line 4. Delos. — Comp. book iii, 429, and reff.
Line 6. Cyprus. — Comp. book iii, 542.
Line 7. Sicily. — Comp. book iv, 97.
Lines 9-14. This passage, evidently referring to the flood of Noah, is fragmentary, and closely parallel with book v, 215, 225, 228.
Line 15. Phrygia. — Comp. book i, 229, and note there. Comp. also iii, 164, and v, 168-170.
To break forth, thou thyself shalt be the first
To deny God, being pleased with other gods,
Who shall destroy thee, miserable one,
When many rolling years shall be complete.
20
The wretched Ethiopians, suffering
By pitiable woes, and crouching down
In terror, shall be smitten by the sword.
Rich Egypt, ever caring for the corn
Which the Nile underneath his floating waves
25
Makes seven times drunk, shall perish by the strife
Of tribes with one another. Quickly then
Will men drive Apis out, no god for men.
Woe, woe, Laodicea, daring one.
Thou shalt be false, God having never seen;
30
And Lycus’ surges shall wash thee away.
He himself, who is born the mighty God,
Shall work great signs, and in the midst of heaven
Shall hang an axle, and shall place on high
A mighty terror to be seen by men,
35
Measuring a column with an immense fire,
Whose drops shall slay the races of mankind
That have done evil. For a time will come
When men may God appease, but put no end
To bitter sorrows; but through David’s house
40
Shall all things be fulfilled. For unto him
Has God himself given and confirmed a throne;
And messengers beneath his feet repose,
Some in the fire, some in the streams appear,
Others save cities, and some send forth winds.
Line 27. Apis. — The sacred bull, worshiped by the Egyptians.
Line 28. Laodicea. — Comp. book iii, 559-562.
Lines 33-35. Axle . . . column. — This idea of a column, axle, or pillar, to be reared on high in connection with the final judgment, is peculiar to the Sibyl. Comp. book ii, 293, 344, and 355.
45
And unto many men shall life be hard,
Entering in souls, and changing minds of men.
But when a new shoot from the root shall spring,
The vast creation which he once to all
Spread forth abundantly for nourishment,
50
And all things with the times shall be complete.
But when strange Persians, warlike tribe, shall rule,
The bridal chambers shall be full of fear
Because of lawless tribes. For her own son
Will mother have as husband, son will harm
55
His mother, daughter couching by her sire
Shall sleep according to barbarian law.
But afterward to them the Roman Mars
Shall shine forth from a multitude of spears,
And they shall mix much land with human blood.
60
But then the chief of Italy shall flee
From the power of the spear, and they shall leave
Upon the land a shaft engraved in gold,
Among the foremost fighters, evermore
Bearing a symbol of necessity.
Line 47. Comp. book vi, 20.
Line 51. Persians. — The reference is most probably to the Parthians, under the rule of the Arsacidæ. Ewald, however, understands Persians here as a symbolical name for the incestuous Romans.
Line 57. Roman Mars. — Roman military expeditions against the Parthians.
Line 60. Chief of Italy. — Imperial commander of the army. Alexandre understands the reference to be to Alexander Severus, who warred with the Parthians.
Line 62. Shaft. — The manuscripts read a flower, but without sense. We follow the emendation of Alexandre. The idea seems to be that the Roman forces suffered some defeat, the royal commander withdrew from the conflict, but they left upon the field and among the foremost combatants the imperial standard or ensign, ever after to be a sign of the dire necessity that forced the warlike legions of Rome to retreat. It would, perhaps, be well to read ἀρχος, dominion, instead of ἀνάγκης, necessity.
65
But then shall Ilias sink into the tomb,
Wicked and piteously starred by fate,
No wedding there, and brides shall deeply grieve,
Because they knew not God, but ever gave
The echo to the cymbal and the drum.
70
Consult the oracle, O Colophon;
For over thee is hanging fearful fire.
Ill-wedded Thessaly, the earth no more
Shall see thee, nor thy ashes, and alone
Escaping from the main-land thou shalt sail;
75
So, hapless one, thou shalt be war’s vile filth,
Falling by means of rivers and sharp swords.
And thou, O hapless Corinth, shalt receive
Around thee heavy war, thou timid one,
And by each other ye shall be destroyed.
80
O Tyre, how much shalt thou alone receive?
For the small number of the pious men
Within thy land will scatter thee afar.
O Cœle-Syria, thou towerest high
Above Phenician men, for whom the sea
85
Of Berytas lies pouring forth abroad;
O wretched one, thou hast not known thy God,
Who once in Jordan’s waters bathed himself,
Line 65. Ilias. — Here apparently put for all the region round about ancient Ilium or Troy, or perhaps for Perganum in the neighboring province.
Line 70. Colophon. — Situated a little to the north of Ephesus, and the seat of an ancient oracle of Apollo (Strabo, xiv, i, 27).
Line 72. Ill-wedded. — Unfortunate in the marriages of the inhabitants. Comp. line 67.
Line 74. Sail. — Go into exile over the sea.
Line 77. Corinth. — Comp. book iii, 575, note; also book iv, 134.
Line 83. Cœle-Syria. — That part of Syria which lies between the Libanus and Antilibanus mountain ranges.
Line 85. Berytas. — On the Phenician sea-coast north of Zidon, the modern Beyrout. The sea of Berytas is the Mediterranean along this coast.
And over whom the Spirit spread his wing;
Who, ere the earth and starry heaven were formed,
90
Was made a ruler of his Father’s word,
And by the Holy Spirit put on flesh,
And quickly flew unto his Father’s house.
Three towers for him the mighty heaven has fixed,
In which God’s noble stewards shall abide,
95
Hope, piety, and longed-for reverence,
In gold and silver having no delight,
But in the holy reverence of men,
And sacrifices, and most righteous thoughts.
But thou to the immortal, mighty God,
100
The lofty One, shalt offer sacrifice,
Not melting grains of frankincense in fire,
Nor smiting with the sword the shaggy lamb.
But with all such as bear thy blood, take thou
Wild fowls, and, having prayed, send them away
105
And turn thy eyes to heaven; and thou shalt pour
On the pure fire the water, and thus cry:
“O Father, thou who didst beget the Word,
A bird have I sent thee, swift messenger
Of words, O thou Word, sprinkling thy baptism
110
With holy waters, through which from the fire
Thou didst make thyself manifest to light.”
Thou shalt not shut the door when unto thee
A stranger comes in need to keep away
Line 93. Three towers. — Corresponding with the three virtues named in line 95. Comp. Hermas‘s vision of the one tower which was explained to him as a revelation of the Church. Hermæ Pastor, book i, vision iii [G., 2, 899-909].
Lines 99-125. This passage contains a series of precepts which are strictly neither Jewish nor Christian. Some of the precepts suggest certain doctrines of the Essenes (comp. Josephus, Ant., xviii, i, 5); others bear a manifest Christian character, and lines 107-111 contain allusions to the baptism of Jesus, as lines 87, 88.
Hunger of poverty, but taking hold
115
Of that man’s head, and sprinkling it with water,
Pray thrice, and cry unto thy God such things:
“I ask not riches. Suppliant I received
Once openly a suppliant. Father, thou
Provider, hear; thou wilt give him that prays.”
120
Then, when the man has gone, say: “Press me not,
God’s sacred service, righteous, holy, free,
By which Gehenna was reproved . . .
O Father, strengthen thou my wretched heart.
To thee I look, to thee, the Undefiled,
125
Who wast not fashioned by the hands of men.”
Sardinia, weighty now, thou shalt be changed
To ashes. Thou shalt be no more an isle,
When comes a decade round. Amid the waves
Shall sailors seek thee when thou art no more,
130
And the king-fishers for thee shall lament.
Mygdonia, rugged, inaccessible,
A watch-fire o’er the sea, thou boastest age,
And of age thou shalt perish altogether
With the hot wind, and rave with many woes.
135
O Celtic land, on thine own mountain heights,
Along the Alps so inaccessible,
Deep sand shall altogether cover thee.
Tribute shalt thou no longer give, nor corn,
Nor pasture; but thou shalt forever be
140
Deserted by the nations, frozen thick
With chilling ice, and shalt atone the wrongs
Which thou, unholy one, didst not discern.
Line 122. Lacuna in the Greek text at the end of this line.
Line 126. Sardinia. — Comp. book iii, 566.
Line 131. Mygdonia. — The well-known provinces of this name, one in Macedonia and one in Mesopotamia, do not agree well with the import of the Sibyl’s language here. Perhaps it is an erroneous reading.
Great-hearted Rome, thou to Olympus shalt
Flash lightning after Macedonian spears;
145
But God shall make thee utterly unknown,
When yet thou seemst more firmly to remain.
Then to thee such things I will cry aloud.
Being ruined thou wilt speak aloud, once bright
And clear. A second time to thee, O Rome,
150
Again a second time I’ll speak to thee.
And now thee, wretched Syria, piteously
Do I bewail. O Thebans ill-advised,
In you there is an evil noise, flutes play,
The trumpet sounds for you an evil note,
155
And ye shall see the entire land destroyed.
Woe, woe to thee, thou wretched, ugly sea!
Thou shalt be utterly consumed by fire,
And thou wilt ruin people with thy brine.
For there shall be such raging fire on earth
160
As flows like water, and it shall destroy
The whole land; mountains it will set on fire,
Burn up the rivers, empty out the springs.
The world shall be disordered, men destroyed.
Then sorely burned, the wretched ones will look
165
Toward heaven, not with stars, but fire inwrought.
Not quickly do they perish, but destroyed
Line 143. To Olympus. — The reference seems to be to the decisive battle of Pydna on the Macedonian coast, just north of Mount Olympus, where the Romans defeated the Macedonians, and put an end to their kingdom.
Line 145. Comp. book iii, 413-428, note.
Line 150. Again. — Rome is repeatedly made the subject of the Sibyl’s song. Comp. book viii, 45; ix, 325; xii, 252.
Line 152. Thebans. — Comp. book iv, 109. Here, however, the reference may as well be understood of Thebes in Egypt.
Line 156. Sea. — Comp. book v, 205. The whole passage should be compared with 2 Pet. 6, 7, 10-12.
Line 163. Cited by Lactantius, Div. Inst., vii, 16 [L., 6, 792].
Under the flesh and burning in the spirit
For endless years, they will know that God’s law
Is hard to prove, and cannot be deceived.
170
And then earth shall be taken by violence,
Whatever god she daringly set forth
Upon the altars, and shall be deceived
By the smoke through the air, producing woes.
But they shall bear much longing, who for gain
175
Prophesy shameless things and lengthen out
The evil time; who, clothed in shaggy skins
Of sheep, themselves as Hebrews falsely pass,
Which race they have no part in, but with words
Constantly talking, misers in their woes,
180
They will change customs, and will not persuade
The just, who through the heart propitiate God.
But in the third lot of revolving years,
The eighth, first shall another world appear.
And there shall be a long unyielding night.
185
And then shall pass around a dreadful stench
Of brimstone, messenger of homicides,
When men by night and hunger shall be killed.
Then a pure mind will he beget in men,
And will establish thy race as it was
190
To thee aforetime. No more shall one cut
Deep furrows with the plow, nor oxen sink
The guiding iron downward; nor shall vines
Nor ears of corn be seen, but all shall eat
The dewy manna with their fair white teeth.
195
With them then also God himself shall be,
Lines 182, 183. Third lot . . . eighth, first. — The idea intended by these peculiar designations of time is not apparent.
Line 184. Lacuna in the Greek text of this line.
Line 189. Thy race. — Jewish race; a millenial conception of Jewish restoration and glory.
And teach them, as he taught me, doleful one.
For O, how many evils once I did
Knowingly! Also many other things
I wickedly and carelessly performed.
200
Countless my couches, but no marriage bond
Concerned me, and to all a savage oath
I rashly brought. The needy I shut out,
And among those who went to the like glen
I went, and did not heed the voice of God.
205
Therefore did fire devour me, and shall gnaw,
For I myself shall not live, but a time
Of evil shall destroy me. Then will men
Make me a grave, passing me by the sea
And killing me with stones. For with my sire
210
A dear son share I. Stone me, stone me, all;
For thus shall I live, and fix eyes on heaven.
Line 207. Destroy me. — Had Arnobius this passage in mind when he wrote: “If the Sibyl, when she was uttering her prophecies and oracular responses, and was filled with Apollo’s power, had been cut down and slain by impious robbers, would Apollo have been slain in her?” Adv. Gentes, book i, 62 [L., 5, 802]. Comp. the conclusion of book ii.
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