Sibylline Oracles

Historical printed page 406

THE SIBYLLINE BOOKS. Book V, Lines 464-530 (64) When a wintry blast distils in form of snow, (65) and a great river and the largest lakes are frozen, (66) straightway a barbarian horde shall make its way to the land of Asia, (67) and shall destroy the race of the dreaded Thracians as though it were but puny. (68) And then mortals in desperation shall devour their own parents (69) in the last stages of famine, and shall consume them greedily as food. (70) And from every house beasts shall devour the table (71) and the very birds shall devour all mortals, (72) and as a result of grievous war the bloodstained ocean shall be filled (73) with the flesh and blood of the insensate men. (74) Then such faintness shall there be through- out the earth (75) that one may tell the number of men and the measure of women. (76) Myriad shall be the lamentations of the wretched generation about the term (77) when the sun sets never to rise again, (78) waiting to be bathed in the waters of ocean. (79) For it has seen the unholy villainies of many men. (80) There shall be a moonless darkness even around the great heaven, (81) and no slight mist shall envelop the folds of earth (82) a second time. But then God’s light shall guide (83) all those good men who have raised their hymns to God. (84) Isis, thou goddess thrice ill-starred, thou shalt remain by the streams of Nile (85) alone, frenzied but speechless by the sands of Acheron, (86) and no memory of thee shall remain throughout the whole earth. (87) And thou, Sarapis, covered with many useless stones, (88) shalt lie a giant corpse in Egypt thrice ill-starred. (89) And all who have brought the precious things of Egypt to thee, (90) shall weep for thee bitterly, bethinking them of the Immortal God. (91) They shall know thee to be nothing, all who have sung hymns to theeas God. (92) And then one of the priests shall say, a linen-clad man, (93) Come, let us set up the fair temple of the true God. (94) Come, let us change the grievous custom we have received from our fathers, (95) whereby, performing processions and rites to gods of stone and earthenware, they had no sense. (97) Let us turn ourselves and hymn the Immortal God, (98) the Father himself who is from everlasting, (99) the Chief of all, the True, the King, (500) the Father, Sustainer of souls, the Great Eternal God. (501) And then in Egypt there shall be a great and holy temple, (502) and to it the people whom God made shall bring sacrifices. (503) To these God shall grant a life without decay. (504) But when, leaving the shameless tribes of the Triballi, (505) the Ethiopians tarry to till the land of Egypt, (506) they shall begin their evil deeds that all the latter things may come to pass. (507) For they shall destroy the great temple of the land of Egypt. (508) And God shall rain griev- ous wrath upon them down to earth, (509) so as to destroy all the evil and all the lawless. (10) And there shall be no more any sparing in that land (11) because they did not keep that which God entrusted to them. (12) I saw the threatening of the gleaming sun among the stars, (13) and the moon’s grievous wrath among the lightning flashes. (14) The stars travailed with war: and God suffered them to fight. (15) For instead of the sun long flames rose in revolt, (17) and the two-horned revolution of the moon was changed. (16) Lucifer waged battle, mounted on Leo’s back. (18) Capricorn smote the heel of the young Taurus: (19) and Taurus snatched from Capricorn his day of return. (20) Orion removed the Scales so that they remained no more. (21) Virgo changed her sphere with the Twins in Aries. (22) The Pleiad appeared no more: and the Dragon disowned the Belt. (23) Pisces entered into the girdle of Leo. (24) Cancer did not stay, for he feared Orion. (25) Scorpio drew up his tail, because of savage Leo: (26) and the dog-star perished from the sun’s flame. (27) The might of doughty Lucifer burned up Aquarius. (28) Heaven itself was stirred till it shook the warriors, (29) and in anger cast them headlong to the earth. (30) And smitten swiftly into the waters of Ocean, (31) they kindled the whole earth: and the sky remained starless, _ 464-74. A Gaulish invasion. Probably an ancient oracle on the Gaulish inroad into Asia after their repulse at Delphi in 279 B.c. 476-83. A plague of darkness, the righteous only having light. 476. wretched, δειλή, a conjecture for MSS. δεινή. 482. The writer has in mind probably the darkness that reigned in Egypt when only the Israelites had light. eee The conversion of Egypt. Four lines are quoted by Clem. Al. Prof. iv. 50 with slight alterations from the S. 487. So Clem. But the MSS. have ‘stretched on thy stones thou shalt have many toils’, λίθοις ἐπικείμενε πολλὰ μογήσεις. 489. Or perhaps ‘whom the spell of Egypt hath brought to thee’. ὅσσους δ᾽ Αἰγύπτου πόθος ἤγαγεν εἴς σε (So ἘΖ.). 501. The Temple of Onias at Heliopolis was destroyed by order of Vespasian. 504-11. Destruction of the Temple followed by God’s vengeance. 504. The Triballi, properly a rude tribe living on the borders of Thrace, are here used generally for savages. 505. The MSS. tarry is to be kept. But ‘the land of Egypt’ is Alexandre’s emendation (Αἰγύπτου γαῖαν for Αἴγυπτον ény τε). 512-31. The battle of the stars; cf. Lucan, Phars.i.72. If the stars are taken as representing angelic beings, the scene is parallel to the ‘war in heaven’ in Apoc. xii. 7. Only here all are finally expelled. 514. war. A necessary emendation for the MSS. reading, which gives no sense. 517. revolution (ῥοῖζος) for ‘ trouble’ (ὀιζύς). 525. MSS. uncertain. 406