Sibylline Oracles

Historical printed page 386

THE SIBYLLINE BOOKS. Βοοκ III, Lines 393-446 the drenched earth shall drink large draughts of blood. (93) But even so Hades shall attend him utterly destroyed. (94) By the race of those whose family he wishes to destroy (95) by them shall his own family be destroyed. (96) Yet after leaving one root, which the Destroyer shall cut off, (97) he shall put forth a side-shoot of ten horns. (98) He shall cut down the warrior parent of the purple race, (99) tand he himself at the hand of his grandsons shall perish in a like fate of wart: (400) and then a parasite horn shall have dominion. (401) Then fertile Phrygia shall have a sign (402) when in the land of Rhea an accursed race, a perennial branch (403) vigorous with roots that feel no thirst, (404) disappears stock and all in one night, (405) with men and all in the city of the earth-shaking Thunderer, (406) which in time to come they shall call from that event Dorylaeum (407) in ancient dark Phrygia, the land of many tears, (408) That time goes by the name of the Earth-shaking time. (409) It shall shatter the recesses of the earth and pull down the walls, (10) and signs shall spring forth which are the beginning not of good but of evil. (11) It shall have kings expert in the war of every tribe, (12) *wily indigenous descendants of Aeneas, an aboriginal race*. (13) But in after times thou shalt bea prey to thy lovers. (14) Ilium, I pity thee : for in Sparta an avenging fury (15) shall put forth a shoot exceeding fair, ever famed and noble, (16) leaving the far-spread sea of Asia and Europe. (17) But to thee above all it shall bring lamentations and labours and groanings, (18) and set them down; yet to future generations thy fame shall never wax old. (19) Then again there shall be an aged wight false in writing, (20) and false in birthplace: and the light in his eyes shall set. (21) Yet he shall have much wit, and a verse fitted to his thoughts (22) blended under two names. Chian shall he call (23) himself, and he shall write the story of Ilium, not truthfully indeed, (24) but with poetic skill ; for he shall gain possession of my verses and measures. (25) He first shall unfold my books with his hands: (26) and then right well shall he deck out the helmed men of war, (27) Hector Priam’s son and Achilles, offspring of Peleus, (28) and all the rest who cared for doughty deeds. (29) Yea and he shall make gods stand by the warriors’ side (30) leading astray in every way the mortals of empty head. (31) Their widespread glory rather will it be to have died (32) in Ilium: but he himself shall receive his recompense. (33) To Lycia too the race of Locros shall bring forth many evils. ἐ (34) Chalcedon, to whose lot has fallen the passage of the narrow sea, (35) to thee too shalt the scion of AEtolia come and work ruin. (36) Cyzicus, from thee the sea shall rend away thy ponderous wealth. (37) *And thou, Byzantium, one day wilt look on Ares’ shield*, (38) and then thou shalt receive groanings and seas of blood. (39) Thou too, Krasos, lofty mountain of Lycia, from a rock (40) opening in chasms from thy peak water shall bubble forth, (41) until it cause even Patara’s prophetic wonders to cease. (42) O Cyzicus, thou that dwellest in vine-growing Propontis, (43) the crested wave of Rhyndacus shall thunder round about thee. (44) And thou, Rhodes, shalt for a long time escape slavery, (45) thou daughter of the day, and great shall be thy wealth in later times, (46) and on the sea thou shalt have strength pre-eminent over 396. The Destroyer is Demetrius I. 397. side-shoot. This is Alexander Balas, who gave himself out as a son of Antiochus Epiphanes. The ‘ten horns’, if it refers to him, may have reference to the ten letters of Alexandros. But cf. Daniel vil. 7 ff. The reading in 397 and 399 is uncertain. The conjecture followed in 399 is καὐτὸς ὑφ᾽ υἱωνῶν καθ᾽ ὁμόφρονα αἶσαν “Apnos. 398. The parent is Demetrius I: the purple race is Demetrius II, who married Cleopatra of Egypt. 399. This is wrong. Alexander Balas was assassinated by some followers after a defeat by Ptolemy Philometor, not by the hand of Demetrius’ children. 400. a parasite horn, i.e. Tryphon. 401-18. The Fall of Troy. From the Erythraean Sibyl. Cf. Paus. x. 12. 2. 402. the land of Rhea = Phrygia. The ‘accursed race’ = the Trojans, ancestors of the Romans. Lines 402-4 recur early in i. 184-6. For κῦμα it seems necessary to read κλῆμα, ‘branch’. 405. the city of the . . . Thunderer, i. e. Troy, whose walls were built by Poseidon. 406. Dorylaeum is in Phrygia, on the Thymbris. Coins of this city with the head of Poseidon have been found. But the whole passage 406-9, which appears to identify Troy with Dorylaeum, has not been satisfactorily explained. It is possible that Dorylaeum is merely suggested in its literal meaning (= ¢he prey of the spear) as anickname for Troy. 412. wily indigenous descendants of Aeneas. Read Aiveddas Sodious αὐτόχθονας. 413. thy lovers, i.e. Paris and Helen. Geffcken compares Pausanias x. 12. 2 ἡ δὲ ‘Hpoidn, νεωτέρα μὲν ἐκείνης (sc. τῆς Δελφικῆς) φαίνεται δὲ ὅμως πρὸ τοῦ πολέμου γεγονυῖα καὶ αὕτη τοῦ Τρωικοῦ" καὶ ᾿Ἑλένην τε προεδήλωσεν ἐν τοῖς χρησμοῖς ὡς ἐπ᾿ ὀλέθρῳ τῆς ᾿Ασίας καὶ Εὐρώπης τραφήσοιτο ἐν Σπάρτῃ. 419. aged wight, i.e. Homer. For the contention that Homer borrowed from the Sibyl cf. Lact. Div. Just. i. 6. 9, Diod. Sic. iv. 66, The argument is also found in Aristobulus in the second century B.C. 420. The blindness of Homer is alluded to as early as in the Homeric hymn to Apollo, quoted in Thucyd. iii, 104. 422. two names, i.e. the //ad and Odyssey. 433-88. A series of calamities on various towns and countries. 437. look on... shield. The rendering rests on an emendation (ἀσπίδα δέρξῃ for” Actd: στέρξῃ). 441. Patara, the seaport of Xanthus, contained a famous oracle of Apollo. Cf. Horace, Cavm. ili. 4. 64. 386 a