Sibylline Oracles

Historical printed page 403

THE SIBYLLINE BOOKS. Book V, Lines 295--341 and quakings of the earth sink into the divine sea (95) headlong, even as tempests overwhelm ships. (96) Ephesus shall lament prostrate and weeping by her shores, (97) and seeking for her temple which is no longer inhabited. (98) And then in wrath the Immortal God who dwells in heaven (99) shall hurl from the sky a fiery meteor down on the unholy head. (300) And instead of winter there shall be summer on that day, (301) and then indeed shall be autumn’s end to mortal men. (302) For He who thunders from on high shall utterly destroy all the shameless men, (303) with thunderings and lightnings and flaming thunderbolts, (304) on those who are his enemies, and he shall destroy them as ungodly (305) so that dead bodies shall remain on the earth more numerous than the sand. (306) Smyrna too shall come bemoaning her minstrel (307) to the gates of Ephesus, and she shall perish more thoroughly. (308) And Cyme, the foolish, with her streams inspired of God, (309) hurled down by the hands of godless men, unjust and lawless, (310) shall not so much as put forth a branch toward heaven, (11) but shall remain dead by its swelling streams. (12) And then they shall groan together awaiting an evil doom. (13) They shall know when they have a token wherefore they have laboured, (14) that stubborn folk and shameless race of the Cymaeans. (15) Then when they shall bemoan their wicked land reduced to ashes (16) Lesbos shall be for ever destroyed by Eridanus. (17) Woe unto thee Cibyra, thou fair city, cease thy rout, (18) and Hierapolis, thou land uniquely wedded to the god of wealth. (19) Thou shalt have, what thou hast longed to have, gold but gold of many tears, (20) burying it in the earth by the streams of Thermodon. (21) And rock- clinging Tripolis by Maeander’s waters, (22) left widowed by the billows at night against the shore, (23) God’s Providence shall one day make a full end of thee unto the ground. (24) May it never befall me to choose willingly the land that is neighbour to Phoebus. (25) One day a meteor from on high shall destroy delicate Miletus, (26) forasmuch as she chose the deceitful verse of Phoebus, (27) and men’s learned study and prudent counsel. (28) Be favourable, Father of all, to the delicate fruitful land, (29) to great Judaea, that we may see thy purposes. (30) Her first didst thou know, O God, with thine acts of favour, (31) so that she seemed to all mankind to be the object of thy special grace, (32) and to realize what a charge she had from thee. (33) Thrice wretched me, I long to see the Thracians’ works, (34) and the wall that spans two seas, dragged by Ares (35) river-like in the dust like a fishing diver. (36) Wretched Hellespont, a son of the Assyrians shall one day yoke thee. (37) {The Thracians’ battle shall come and utterly destroy thy might}: (38) and an Egyptian king shall take Macedonia, (39) and a barbarian clime shall cast down the might of rulers. (40) Lydians and Galatians, Pam- phylians and Pisidians (41) bear rule with all their people armed with bitter strife. 296. prostrate. Read ὑπτία for ὕπτια δ᾽, 298-305. Further calamities and reversal of seasons. The section seems misplaced here. 301. autumn’s end. μετόπωρ᾽ for MSS. μετέπειτ᾽, 306. minstrel, Avpoupyéy. Geffck.’s emendation for Λυκουργόν. The reference would be to Homer. The idea seems to be that in the general distress even the inveterate rivalry between Ephesus and Smyrna would cease. 308. The people of the Asiatic Cumae were regarded as specially foolish. But the reference to the inspired streams would fit in better with the Cumae in Campania. 310. Read κλῆμα προήσει for ἅρμα προδώσει. 311. swelling (κυμαίνουσι) for ‘Cumaean’ (κυμήοισιν). The play on words seems to make this emendation preferable to Geffcken’s κυανέοισιν. ca The Eridanus was a river famous in old legends. Here, perhaps, used for the sea. Cf. Virgil’s ‘ Acheloia pocula’. 317. Cibyra. Mendelssohn’s emendation for Corcyra, Cibyra was on the borders of Caria and Lycia. 319. longed to have (memd@nxas). MSS. ‘made’ (πεποίηκας). Gold, χρυσόν, is a suggested emendation for A/ace, χῶρον." It carries on the idea of ‘ wedded to the god of wealth’ (Πλούτωνι μιγεῖσα). One of the features of Hierapolis was the Ploutonium, a hole just wide enough to admit a man, reaching deep into the earth, from which issued a mephitic vapour. See Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, p. 86. 322. left widowed. Read xnpevécioa for MSS. κληρωθεῖσα. Should we read ‘ hurled down,’ καρριφθεῖσαὶ Tripolis was situated on a hill overhanging the Maeander. 323. Read πέδονδε for ποθ᾽ ἥδε. 324. Miletus was not far from the famous temple of Apollo at Branchidae. 327. study = μελέτην, a play on Μίλητον. Miletus was proud of her philosophers, and especially of Thales. 334. The great wall that spanned the isthmus on which Byzantium stood. 335. like (io’) a suggestion for ‘to’ (ἐπ). The diver was probably a sea bird. 336. Xerxes’ bridge across the Hellespont. 337. Reading uncertain. It is suggested to read Λυσίμαχον for εἰς σὲ μάχη, and translate ‘The Thracians’ might shall utterly undo Lysimachus’. The reference would be to the death of Lysimachus in the battle of Corupedion in 2818B.C. His vanquisher, Seleucus, was slain by Ptolemy Keraunos, and he in his turn was defeated and killed by the Gauls in 280 B.c. 341. bear rule (xparéovor). Perhaps read κροτέουσι, ‘resound with din of arms’. 403 Dd2