THE SIBYLLINE ORACLES.

Book I Book II Book III Book IV Book V Book VI Book VII Book VIII Fragments

BOOK V.

BUT come, now, hear of me the mournful time
Of sons of Latium. And first of all,
After the kings of Egypt were destroyed
And the like earth had downwards borne them all,
And after Pella's townsman, under whom
The whole East and the rich West were cast down,
whom Babylon dishonored, and stretched out
For Philip a dead body (not of Zeus,
Of Ammon not true things were prophesied),
And after that one of the race and blood
Of king Assaracus, who came from Troy,
Even he who cleft the violence of fire,
And after many lords, and after men
To Ares dear, and after the young babes,
The children of the beast that feeds on sheep,
The very first lord shall be, who shall sum
Twice ten with the first letter of his name;
In wars exceeding powerful shall he be;
And he shall have the initial sign of ten;
And in like manner after him to reign
Is one who has the alphabet's first letter;
Before him Thrace and Sicily shall crouch,
Then Memphis, Memphis cast headlong to earth
By reason of the cowardice of rulers
And of a woman unenslaved who falls
Upon the wave. And laws will he ordain
For peoples and put all things under him;
But after a long time shall he transmit
His power unto another, who shall have
Three hundred for his first initial sign,
And of a river the beloved name,
And the Persians he shall rule and Babylon;
And then shall he smite Medians with his spear.
Then shall one rule who has the initial sign
Of the number three. And then shall be a lord
Who shall for first initial have twice ten;
And he shall come to Ocean's utmost water
And by Ausonia cleave the refluent tide.
And one whose mark is fifty shall be lord,
A dreadful serpent breathing grievous war,
Who sometime stretching forth his hands shall make
An end of his own race and stir all things,
Acting the athlete, driving chariots,
Putting to death and daring countless things;
And he shall cleave the mountain of two seas
And sprinkle it with gore; but out of sight
Shall also vanish the destructive man;
Then, making himself equal unto God,
Shall he return; but God will prove him naught.

And after him shall three kings be destroyed
By one another. Then a great destroyer
Of pious men shall come, whom seven times ten
Shall point out clearly. But from him a son,
Whom the first letter of three hundred proves,
Shall take the power. And after him shall be
A ruler, of the initial sign of four,
A life-destroyer. Then a reverend man
Of the number fifty. Next, succeeding him
Who has the first mark of the initial sign
Three hundred, shall a Celtic mountaineer,
Into the strife of battle pressing on,
Escape not fate unseemly, but shall be
Worn weary unto death; him foreign dust,
But dust that of Nemea's flower has name,
Shall hide a corpse. And after him shall rule
Another man, with silver helmet decked;
And unto him shall be the name of a sea;
And he shall be a man the best of all
And in all things discreet. And upon thee,
Thou best of all, above all, dark-haired one,
And upon thy shoots shall be all these days.
After him three shall rule; but the third one
Shall at a late time hold the royal power.

Worn out am I, thrice-miserable one,
Sister of Isis, to lay up in heart
An evil message, and an inspired song
Of oracles. First Mænades shall dart
Around thy much-lamented temple's steps,
And thou shalt be in evil hands that day
When the Nile some time shall fill the whole land
Of Egypt even to sixteen cubits deep;
It shall wash all the land, and water it
For mortals; and the pleasure of the land
Shall be still and the glory of her face.

Memphis, thou most shalt over Egypt wail;
For of old ruling mightily the land
Thou shalt become poor, so that out of heaven
The Thunderer shall himself with great voice cry:
"O mighty Memphis, who didst boast of old
O'er craven mortals greatly, thou shalt wail
Full of pain and all-hapless, so that thou
Thyself shalt the eternal God perceive
Immortal in the clouds. Where among men
Is now thy mighty pride? Because thou didst
Against my God-anointed children rave,
And didst urge evil forward on good men,
Thou shalt for such things suffer penalty
In some like manner. No more openly
For thee shall there be right among the blessed;
Fallen from the stars, thou shalt not rise to heaven."

Now these things unto Egypt God bade me
Speak out for the last time, when men shall be
Utterly evil. But they labor hard,
Evil men evil things awaiting, wrath
Of the immortal Thunderer in heaven,
Worshiping stones and beasts instead of God,
And also fearing many things besides
Which have no speech, nor mind, nor power to hear;
Which things it is not right for me to mention,
Each one an idol, formed by mortal hands;
Of their own labors and presumptuous thoughts
Did men receive gods made of wood and stone
And brass, and gold and silver, foolish too,
Without life and dumb, molten in the fire
They made them, vainly trusting such things. . . .
Thmois and Xois are in sore distress,
And smitten is the hall of Heracles
And Zeus and Hermes (king). And as for thee,
O Alexandria, famed nourisher
(Of cities) war shall not leave, nor (plague) . . .
For thy pride thou shalt pay as many things
As thou before didst. Silent shalt thou be
A long age, and the day of thy return . . .
    .    .    .    .    .    .    .
No more for thee shall flow luxurious drink . . .
    .    .    .    .    .    .    .

For there shall come a Persian on thy dale,
And like hail shall he all the land destroy,
And artful men, with blood and corpses. . . .
By sacred altars one of barbarous mind,
Strong, full of blood and raging senselessly,
With countless numbers rushing to destruction.
And then shalt thou, in cities very rich,
Be very weary. Falling on the earth
All Asia shall wail on account of gifts
Crowning her head with which she was by thee
Delighted. But, as he himself obtained
The Persian land by lot, he shall make war
And killing every man destroy all life,
So that there shall remain for wretched mortals
A third part. But with nimble leap shall he
Himself speed from the West, and all the land
Besiege and waste. But when he shall possess
The height of power and odious reverence,
He shall come, wishing to destroy the city
Even of the blessed. And a certain king
Sent forth from God against him shall destroy
All mighty kings and bravest men. And thus
Shall judgement by the Immortal come to men.
Alas, alas for thee, unhappy heart!
Why dost thou move me to declare these things,
The painful rule of Egypt over many?
Go to the East, to races of the Persians
Who lack in understanding, and show them
That which is now and that which is to be.

The river of Euphrates shall bring on
A deluge, and it shall destroy the Persians,
Iberians and Babylonians
And the Massagetæ that relish war
And trust in bows. All Asia fire-ablaze
Shall to the isles beam brightly. Pergamos,
Revered of old, shall perish from its base,
And Pitane among men shall appear
All-desolate. All Lesbos shall sink deep
Into the deep, and thus shall be destroyed.
Smyrna, whirled down her cliffs, shall wail aloud,
She that was once revered and given a name
Shall perish utterly. Bithynians
Shall over their own country, then reduced
To ashes, wail, and o'er great Syria,
And o'er Phœnicia that has many tribes.
Alas, alas for thee, O Lycia;
How many evils does the sea contrive
Against thee, mounting up of its own will
Upon the painful land! And it shall dash
With evil earthquake and with bitter streams
On the rough Lycian land that once breathed perfume.
And there shall be for Phrygia fearful wrath
Because of sorrow for which Rhea came,
Mother of Zeus, and there continued long.

The sea shall overthrow the Centaur race
And barbarous nation, and beneath the earth
Shall tear away the Lapithæan land.

The river of deep eddies and deep flow,
Peneus, shall destroy Thessalian land,
Snatching men from the earth. Eridanus
(Pretending once to bear the forms, of beasts).

Hellas thrice wretched shall the poets weep,
When one from Italy shall smite the neck
Of the isthmus, mighty king of mighty Rome,
A man made equal to God, whom, they say,
Zeus himself and the august Hera bore
He, courting by his voice all-musical
Applause for his sweet Songs, shall put to death
With his own wretched mother many men.
From Babylon shall flee the fearful lord
And shameless whom all mortals and best men
Abhor; for he slew many and laid hands
Upon the womb; against his wives he sinned
And of men stained with blood had he been formed.
And he shall come to monarchs of the Medes
And Persians, first whom he loved and to whom
He brought renown, while with those wicked men
He lurked against a nation not desired
And on the temple made by God he seized
And citizens and people going in,
Of whom I justly sang the praise, he burned;
For when this man appeared the whole creation
Was shaken and kings perished--and yet power
Remained among them, and they quite destroyed
The mighty city and the righteous people.

But when the fourth year a great star shall shine,
Which alone shall the whole earth overpower
Because of honor, which was first assigned
To lord Poseidon; then a great star shall come
From heaven into the dreadful sea and burn
The vast deep, and Babylon itself,
And the land of Italy, because, of which
There perished many holy faithful men
Among the Hebrews and a people true.

Thou shalt be among evil mortals made
To suffer evils, but thou shalt remain
All-desolate whole ages by thyself
Hating thy soil; for thou didst have desire
For sorcery, adulteries were with thee
And lawless carnal intercourse with boys,
Thou evil city, womanish, unjust,
Ill-fated above all. Alas, alas!
Thou city of the Latin land, unclean
In all things, Mænad having joy in snakes,
Over thy banks a widow shalt thou sit
And the river Tiber shall lament for thee,
His consort thee, who hast a blood-stained heart
And impious soul. Didst thou not understand
What God can do, and what he doth devise?
But thou saidst, "I'm alone, and me no one
Shall sack." But now shall God, who ever is,
Thee and all thine destroy, and in that land
No longer shall thy ensign yet remain,
As of old, when the mighty God received
Thy honors. Stay, O lawless one, alone,
And mixed with burning fire inhabit thou
In Hades the Tartarean lawless land.

And now again, O Egypt, I bewail
Thy blind delusion; Memphis, first in toils,
Thou shalt be filled up with the dead; in thee
The pyramids shall speak a ruthless sound.
O Python, who wast justly called of old
The double city, be for ages silent,
So that thou mayest cease from wickedness.
Reckless in evils, treasury of toils,
Much-wailing Mænad, suffering, dire ills,
Much-weeping, thou a widow shalt remain
Through all time. Thou didst full of years become
While thou alone wast ruling o'er the world;
But when the white dress Barca round herself
Shall put on over that which is defiled,
Would that I neither were nor had been born.

O Thebes, where is thy great strength? A fierce man
Shall slay the people; but thou, wretched one,
Grasping thy dusky dress shalt wail alone,
And thou shalt make atonement for all things
Which thou aforetime with a shameless soul
Didst perpetrate. They also shall behold
A mourning on account of lawless deeds.

And a mighty man of the Ethiopians
Shall overthrow Syene; by their might
Shall swarthy Indians occupy Teucheira.
Pentapolis, a man of mighty, strength
Shall burn thee whole. All-tearful Libya,
Who shall explain thy follies? And Cyrene,
Of mortals who shall pitiably weep
For thee? Thou shalt not even to the time
Of thy destruction cease thy hateful wail.

Among the Britons and among the Gauls,
Rich in gold, Ocean shall be roaring loud
Filled with much blood; for evil things
Did they unto God's children, when a king
Of the Sidonians, a Phœnician, led
A mighty Gallic host from Syria;
And he shall slaughter thee, thyself, Ravenna,
And unto slaughter shall he lead the way.

O Indians and great-hearted Ethiops,
Together fear; for when with these the course
Of Capricorn and Taurus in the Twins
Shall wind about the middle of the heaven,
Virgo then rising, and about his front
Fastening a belt the sun shall lead all heaven,
There shall be moving downwards to the earth
A mighty conflagration high in air,
And a new nature in the warlike stars,
so that the whole land of the Ethiops
Shall perish in the midst of fire and groans.

And weep thou, Corinth, the destruction sad
Which is in thee; for when with pliant threads
The Fates three sisters, spinning shall aloft
Lead him who flees by guile against the voice
Of the isthmus, until all shall look at him
Who once cut out the rock with ductile brass,
He also shall destroy and smite thy land,
As it hath been appointed. For to him
God gave strength to accomplish that which could
No earlier of all the kings together.
And first with sickle cleaving off the roots
From three heads he shall give food in excess
To others, so that kings unclean shall eat
The flesh of parents. For unto all men
Slaughter and terrors are laid up in store
because of the great city and just people
Saved through all time, whom Providence held high.

O thou unstable one and ill-advised,
By evil fates surrounded, for mankind
Both a beginning and great end of toil,--
Of suffering creation and of part
Restored again,--thou leader insolent
Of evils, and for men a great curse, who
Of mortals wished for thee? Who has not been
Embittered from within? Cast down in thee
A king his honored life lost. Evilly
Hast thou disposed all things and washed away
All that is fair, and by thee have been changed
The world's fair folds. In strife with us perhaps
Thou hast brought forward these unstable things;
And how dost thou say, "I will thee persuade,"
And "If in any thing thou blame me, speak?"

There was once among men the sun's bright light
The prophets' common ray being spread abroad;
Speech dripping honey, fair drink for all men,
Appeared and grew, and day arose on all.
Because of this, thou narrow-minded one
Leader of greatest evils, both a sword
And grief shall come in that day. For mankind
Both a beginning and great end of toil,--
Of suffering creation and of part
Restored again,--hear, O thou curse of men,
The bitter oracle intolerable.
But when the Persian land shall keep away
From war and plague and groaning, in that day
A race divine of blessed heavenly Jews
Shall offer prayer, who shall dwell round about
God's city in mid portions of the land,
And even as far as Joppa building round
A great wall they shall carry it aloft
Unto the gloomy clouds. No more shall trump
Sound battle--din nor by a foe's mad hands
Shall they be cut off; but they shall set up
Their trophies for an age of evil men.
And one shall come again from heaven, a man
Preeminent, whose hands on fruitful tree
By far the noblest of the Hebrews stretched,
Who at one time did make the sun stand still
When he spoke with fair word and holy lips,
No longer vex thy soul within thy breast
By reason of the sword, rich child of God,
Flower longed for by him only, goodly light
And noble branch, a scion much beloved,
Pleasant Judea, city beautiful,
Inspired by hymns. No more shall unclean foot
Of Greeks keep revel round about thy land,
Who held within their breast a lawless mind;
But thee shall glorious children honor much
[And be expert in songs and holy tongues],
With sacrifices of all kinds and prayers
Honored of God. All who endure the toils
Of small affliction and the just shall have
More that is altogether beautiful;
But the wicked, who to heaven sent lawless speech,
Shall cease their speaking one against another,
And hide themselves until the world be changed.
And there shall be a rain of gleaming fire
From the clouds; and no more shall mortals reap
The fair corn from the earth; all things unsown
And unplowed, until mortal men shall know
The Lord of all things, the immortal God
Always existing, and no more revere
Mortal things, neither dogs nor vultures' nests,
And what things Egypt taught to magnify
With dumb mouths and dull lips. But all these things
The holy land of the only pious men
Shall bring forth, from the honey-dripping rock
A stream and from a spring ambrosial milk
Shall flow for all the just; for in one God,
One Father, who alone is glorious,
Having great piety and faith they hoped.

But why does the wise mind grant me these things?
And now thee, wretched Asia, piteously
I mourn and the race of Ionians
And Carians and Lydians rich in gold.
Alas, alas for thee, O Sardis; and alas
For Trallis much beloved; alas, alas,
Laodicea, city beautiful;
Thus shalt thou be by earthquakes overthrown
And ruined, and be also changed to dust.
And to Asia gloomy. . . .

Artremis' temple fixed at Ephesus . . .
By chasms, and earthquakes come headlong down
Sometime into the dreadful sea, as storms
Overwhelm ships. And up-turned Ephesus
Shall wail aloud, lament beside her banks,
And for her temple search which is no more.

And then incensed shall God the imperishable,
Who dwells on high, hurl thunderbolts from heaven
Down on the head of him that is impure.
And in the place of winter there shall be
In that day summer. And to mortal men
Shall then be great woe; for the Thunderer
Shall utterly destroy all shameless men
And with his thunders and with lightning-flames
And blazing thunderbolts men of ill-will,
And thus shall he destroy the impious ones,
So that there shall remain upon the earth
Dead bodies more in number than the sand.

For Smyrna also, weeping her Lycurgus,
Shall come unto the gates of Ephesus
And she herself shall perish even more.

And foolish Cyme with her inspired streams
Cast down by hands of godless men unjust
And lawless, shall to heaven not so much
As a word utter; but she shall remain
Dead in Cymæan streams. And then shall they
Together weep, awaiting evil things.
Cyme's rough populace and shameless tribe,
Having a sign, shall know for what they toiled.
And then, when they shall have bewailed their land
Reduced to ashes, by Eridanus
Shall Lesbos be forever overthrown.

Alas, Corcyra, city beautiful,
Alas for thee, cease from thy revelry.
Thou also, Hierapolis, sole land
With riches mixed, what thou hast longed to have
Thou shalt have, even a land of many tears,
Since thou wast angry towards a land beside
Thermodon's streams. Rock-clinging Tripolis,
Beside the waters of Mæander, thee
Shall by the nightly surges under shore
God's wrath and foresight utterly destroy.

Take me not, willing, to the neighboring land
Of Phœbus; sometime shall a thunderbolt
Dainty Miletus from above destroy,
Because she seized on Phœbus' crafty song
And the wise care and prudent plan of men.

Father of all, be gracious to the land
Of Judah, well fed, fruit-abounding, great,
In order that thy judgments we may see.
For thou, O God, in kindness didst regard
This land first that it might appear to be
Thy gracious gift unto all mortal men
And to hold fast what God put in their charge.

The works thrice wretched of the Thracians
I yearn to see, and wall between two seas
Trailed in the dust along beneath the mist,
Even like a river for the swimming fish.

O wretched Hellespont, sometime a child
Of the Assyrians shall throw a yoke
Across thee; battle of the Thracians comes
And shall despoil thy strength. And there shall rule
Over the land of Macedonia
A king of Egypt, and a barbarous clime
Shall waste the strength of captains. Lydians,
And the Galatians, and Pamphylians
With the Pisidians, all equipped for war
Shall in a mass bring evil strife to pass.
Thrice wretched Italy, then shalt remain
All-desolate, unwept, in blooming land
By deadly sting to perish utterly.

And sometime high in the broad heaven above
Like thunder-roaring shall God's voice be heard.
And the unwasting flames of the sun himself
Shall be no more, nor shall the brilliant light
Of the moon again be in the latest time,
When God shall be the ruler. And dark gloom
Shall be o'er all the earth, and blinded men
And evil beasts and woe; that day shall be
A long time, so that men shall see that God
Himself is Lord, the overseer of all
In front of heaven. And then will he himself
Not pity hostile men, who sacrifice
Their herds of lambs and sheep and calves and goats
And bellowing golden-horned bulls, offering them
To lifeless Hermæ and to gods of stone.
But let the law of wisdom be your guide
And the glory of the righteous; lest sometime
The imperishable God incensed destroy
Each race of men and shameless tribe of life,
It doth behoove them faithfully to love
The Father, the wise God who ever is.

In the last time, at the turning of the moon,
There shall be raging through the world a war
And carried on with cunning, and in guile.
And from the limits of the earth shall come
Fleeing and pondering sharp things in his mind,
A matricidal man who every land
Shall overpower and over all things rule,
And see all things more wisely than all men;
And that for whose sake he himself was slain
Shall he seize forthwith. And he shall destroy
Many men and great tyrants and shall burn
All of them, as none other ever did,
And he shall raise up them that are afraid
For emulation's sake. And from the West
Much war shall come to men, and blood shall flow
Down hill till it becomes deep-eddying streams.
And in the plains of Macedonia
Shall wrath distil and give help from the West,
But to the king destruction. And a wind
Of winter then shall blow upon the earth,
And the plain be filled with evil war again.
For fire shall rain down from the heavenly plains
On mortals, and therewith blood, water, flash
Of lightning, murky darkness, night in heaven,
And waste in war and o'er the slaughter mist,
And these together shall destroy all kings
And noblest men. Thus shall be made to cease
Then the destruction pitiable of war.
And no more shall one fight with swords or iron
Or even darts, which things shall not again
Be lawful. But wise people shall have peace,
Who were left, having made proof of wickedness,
That they might at the last be filled with joy.

Ye matricides, leave off your impudence
And evil-working boldness, who of old
provided lawlessly lewd couch with boys,
And placed as harlots maidens pure before
In brothels by assault and punishment
And by much-laboring indecency.
For in thee mother with her child did hold
Unlawful intercourse, and daughter was
With her own father wedded as a bride;
And in thee kings have their ill-fated mouth
Polluted, and in thee have wicked men
Found couch with cattle. Be in silence hushed,
Thou wicked city all-bewailed, possessed
Of revelry; for by thee virgin maids
Shall care no longer for the fire divine
Of sacred wood that fondly nourisheth;
Before thee was a much-loved house of old
Extinguished, when I saw the second house
Cast headlong down and overwhelmed with fire
By an unholy hand, house ever flourishing,
God's watchful temple, brought forth of his saints
And being always indestructible,
By the soul hoped for and the body itself.
For not without the rites of burial
Shall one praise God out of the unseen earth,
Nor did wise workman make a stone by them,
Nor had he fear of gold, cheat of the world
And of souls, but the mighty Father, God
Of all things God-inspired, did he revere
With holy offerings and fair hecatombs.
But now an unseen and unholy king
With multitude great and with men renowned
Rose into power and cast his dwelling down
And let it go unbuilt. But he himself
When he set foot on the immortal land
Destroyed the ground. And such a sign no more
Was wrought upon men, so that it appeared
That others the great city should destroy.

For there came from the heavenly plains a man,
One blessed, with a scepter in his hand,
Which God gave him, and he ruled all things well,
And unto all the good did he restore
The riches which the earlier men had seized.
And many cities with much fire he took
From their foundations, and he set on fire
The towns of mortals who before did evil,
And he did make that city, which God loved,
More radiant than stars and sun and moon,
And he set order, and a holy house
Incarnate made, pure, very fair, and formed
In many stades a great and boundless tower
Touching the clouds themselves and seen by all,
So that all holy and all righteous men
Might see the glory of the eternal God,
A sight that has been longed for. Rising sun
And setting day hymned forth the praise of God.
For there are then no longer fearful things
For wretched mortals, nor adulteries
And lawless love of boys, nor homicide
Nor tumult, but a righteous strife in all.
It is the last time of the saints when God
Accomplisheth these things, high Thunderer,
Founder of temple most magnificent.

Alas, alas for thee, O Babylon,
For golden throne and golden sandal famed,
Kingdom of many years and of the world
Sole ruler, who wast great in olden time
And city of all cities, thou no more
Shalt lie in golden mountains and by streams
Of the Euphrates; thou shalt be laid low
By rout of earthquake. But the Parthians dire
Caused thee to suffer all things. Hold thou fast
Thy unknown speech, impure Chaldean race;
Ask not nor be concerned how thou shalt lead
The Persians or how thou shalt rule the Medes;
For on account of thy supremacy,
Which thou hadst, sending hostages to Rome
And serving Asia, thou that formerly
Didst also think thyself a queen, shalt come
Unto the judgment of antagonists,
Because of whom thou hast suffered baneful things;
And thou shalt give instead of crooked words
Bitter vexation to the enemies,

And in the last time shall the sea be dry
And ships no longer sail to Italy,
And Asia the great then, all-hapless, shall
Be water, and then Crete shall be a plain.
And Cyprus shall endure great misery
And Paphos shall bewail a dreadful fate,
So that even Salamis, great city, shall
Be seen to undergo great misery;
And now the dry land shall be fruitless sand
Upon the shore. And locusts not a few
Shall utterly destroy the Cyprian land.
Looking at Tyre, doomed mortals, ye shall weep.
Phœnicia, dreadful wrath remains for thee,
Until thou to a worthless ruin fall,
So that even Sirens truly may lament.

In the fifth generation, when the ruin
Of Egypt has ceased, it shall come to pass
That shameless kings shall be together joined,
And races of Pamphylians shall encamp
In Egypt, and in Macedonia
And in Asia and among the Libyans
Shall in the dust be a world-maddening war
Exceeding bloody, which the king of Rome
And rulers of the West shall make to cease.

When wintry storm shall drop down like the snow,
While frozen are great river and vast lakes,
Forthwith a barbarous race shall make their way
Into the Asian land and shall destroy
The race of dreadful Thracians, hard to quell.
And then shall mortals feeding lawlessly
Devour their parents, being by hunger worn,
And shall gulp down the entrails. And wild beasts
Shall devour from all houses table-food,
And they and birds all mortals shall devour.
The ocean with dead bodies shall be filled
From the river and be red with flesh and blood
Of the foolish ones. Then thus a feebleness
Shall be on earth, so that of men the number
May be seen and the measure of the women,

And the dire race shall wail for myriad things
At last when the sun sets to rise no more,
But to remain submerged in Ocean's waves;
For it beheld the wickedness unclean
Of many mortals. And a moonless night
Shall be a fame around the mighty heaven,
And no small mist shall hide the world's ravines
A second time; then afterwards God's light
Shall guide the good men, who sang praise to God.

Isis, thrice wretched goddess, thou alone
Shalt on the waters of the Nile remain,
A Mænad out of order on the sands
Of Acheron, and no longer shall remain
Remembrance of thee over all the earth.
And also thou, Sarapis, who art placed
On many glistening stones, a ruin vast
Shalt thou in thrice unhappy Egypt lie.
But those whom love of Egypt led to thee
Shall all lament thee badly; but who put
Imperishable reason in their breast,
And who praised God, shall know thee to be naught.

And sometime shall a linen-vested man,
A priest, say: "Come, let us raise up of God
A beautiful true temple; come, let us
The fearful law of our forefathers change,
Because of which they did not understand
That they were unto gods of stone and clay
Making processions and religions rites.
Let us turn our souls, giving praise to God
The imperishable, who himself is Father,
The everlasting One, the Lord of all,
The true One, the King, life-sustaining Father,
The mighty God existing evermore."
And then shall there a great pure temple be
In Egypt, and the people made by God
Shall into it their sacrifices bring.
And to them God shall give life incorrupt.

But when the Ethiopians, forsaking
The shameless tribes of the Triballians,
Shall cultivate their Egypt, they will then
Begin their baseness, that the later things
May all occur. For they shall overthrow
The mighty temple of the Egyptian land;
And God shall rain down on the earth dire wrath
Among them, so that all the wicked ones
And all without sense perish. And no more
Shall there be any sparing in that land,
Because they did not keep that which God gave.

I saw the threatening of the shining Sun
Among the stars, and in the lightning flash
The dire wrath of the Moon; the stars travailed
With battle; and God gave them up to light.
For long fire-flames rebelled against the Sun;
Lucifer treading upon Leo's back
Began the fight; and the Moon's double horn
Changed its shape; Capricorn smote Taurus' neck;
And Taurus took away from Capricorn
Returning day. Orion would no more
Abide his yoke; the lot of Gemini
Did Virgo change in Aries; no more shone
The Pleiads; Draco disavowed his zone;
Down into Leo's girdle Pisces went.
Cancer remained not, for he feared Orion;
Scorpio down on dire Leo backwards moved;
And from the Sun's flame Sirius slipped away;
And the strength of the mighty Shining One
Aquarius kindled. Uranus himself
Was roused, until he shook the warring ones;
And being incensed he hurled them down on earth.
Then swiftly smitten down upon the baths
Of Ocean they set all the earth on fire;
And the high heaven remained without a star.