But come, now, hear of me the mournful time
2Of sons of Latium. And first of all,
3After the kings of Egypt were destroyed
4And the like earth had downwards borne them all,
5And after Pella's townsman, under whom
6The whole East and the rich West were cast down,
7Whom Babylon dishonored, and stretched out
8For Philip a dead body (not of Zeus,
9Of Ammon not true things were prophesied),
10And after that one of the race and blood
11Of king Assaracus, who came from Troy,
12Even he who cleft the violence of fire,
13And after many lords, and after men
14To Ares dear, and after the young babes,
15The children of the beast that feeds on sheep,
16The very first lord shall be, who shall sum
17Twice ten with the first letter of his name;
18In wars exceeding powerful shall he be;
19And he shall have the initial sign of ten;
20And in like manner after him to reign
21Is one who has the alphabet's first letter;
22Before him Thrace and Sicily shall crouch,
23Then Memphis, Memphis east headlong to earth
24By reason of the cowardice of rulers
25And of a woman unenslaved who falls
26Upon the wave. And laws will be ordain
27For peoples and put all things under him;
28But after a long time shall he transmit
29His power unto another, who shall have
30Three hundred for his first initial sign,
31And of a river the beloved name,
32And the Persians he shall rule and Babylon;
33And then shall he smite Medians with his spear.
34Then shall one rule who has the initial sign
35Of the number three. And then shall be a lord
36Who shall for first initial have twice ten;
37And he shall come to Ocean's utmost water
38And by Ansonia cleave the refluent tide.
39And one whose mark is fifty shall be lord,
40A dreadful serpent breathing grievous war,
41Who sometime stretching forth his hands shall make
42An end of his own race and stir all things,
43Acting the athlete, driving chariots,
44Putting to death and daring countless things;
45And he shall cleave the mountain of two seas
46And sprinkle it with gore; but out of sight
47Shall also vanish the destructive man;
48Then, making himself equal unto God,
49Shall he return; but God will prove him naught.
50And after him shall three kings be destroyed
51By one another. Then a great destroyer
52Of pious men shall come, whom seven times ten
53Shall point out clearly. But from him a son,
54Whom the first letter of three hundred proves,
55Shall take the power. And after him shall be
56A ruler, of the initial sign of four,
57A life-destroyer. Then a reverend man
58Of the number fifty. Next, succeeding him
59Who has the first mark of the initial sign
60Three hundred, shall a Celtic mountaineer,
61Into the strife of battle pressing on,
62Escape not fate unseemly, but shall be
63Worn weary unto death; him foreign dust,
64But dust that of Nemea's flower has name,
65Shall hide a corpse. And after him shall rule
66Another man, with silver helmet decked;
67And unto him shall be the name of a sea;
68And he shall be a man the best of all
69And in all things discreet. And upon thee,
70Thou best of all, above all, dark-haired one,
71And upon thy shoots shall be all these days.
72After him three shall rule; but the third one
73Shall at a late time hold the royal power.
74Worn out am I, thrice-miserable one,
75Sister of Isis, to lay up in heart
76An evil message, and an inspired song
77Of oracles. First Mænades shall dart
78Around thy much-lamented temple's steps,
79And thou shalt be in evil hands that day
80When the Nile some time shall fill the whole land
81Of Egypt even to sixteen cubits deep;
82It shall wash all the land, and water it
83For mortals; and the pleasure of the land
84Shall be still and the glory of her face.
85Memphis, thou most shalt over Egypt wail;
86For of old ruling mightily the land
87Thou shalt become poor, so that out of heaven
88The Thunderer shall himself with great voice cry:
89"O mighty Memphis, who didst boast of old
90O'er craven mortals greatly, thou shalt wail
91Full of pain and all-hapless, so that thou
92Thyself shalt the eternal God perceive
93Immortal in the clouds. Where among men
94Is now thy mighty pride? Because thou didst
95Against my God-anointed children rave,
96And didst urge evil forward on good men,
97Thou shalt for such things suffer penalty
98In some like manner. No more openly
99For thee shall there be right among the blessed;
100Fallen from the stars, thou shalt not rise to heaven."
101Now these things unto Egypt God bade me
102Speak out for the last time, when men shall be
103Utterly evil. But they labor hard,
104Evil men evil things awaiting, wrath
105Of the immortal Thunderer in heaven,
106Worshiping stones and beasts instead of God,
107And also fearing many things besides
108Which have no speech, nor mind, nor power to hear;
109Which things it is not right for me to mention,
110Each one an idol, formed by mortal hands;
111Of their own labors and presumptuous thoughts
112Did men receive gods made of wood and stone
113And brass, and gold and silver, foolish too,
114Without life and dumb, molten in the fire
115They made them, vainly trusting such things . . . .
116Thmois and Xois are in sore distress,
117And smitten is the hall of Heracles
118And Zeus and Hermes (king). And as for thee,
119O Alexandria, famed nourisher
120(Of cities) war shall not leave, nor (plague) . . .
121For thy pride thou shalt pay as many things
122As thou before didst. Silent shalt thou be
123A long age, and the day of thy return . . .
124No more for thee shall flow luxurious drink . . .
125For there shall come a Persian on thy dale,
126And like hail shall he all the land destroy,
127And artful men, with blood and corpses . . . .
128By sacred altars one of barbarous mind,
129Strong, full of blood and raging senselessly,
130With countless numbers rushing to destruction,
131And then shalt thou, in cities very rich,
132Be very weary. Falling on the earth
133All Asia shall wail on account of gifts
134Crowning her head with which she was by thee
135Delighted. But, as he himself obtained
136The Persian land by lot, he shall make war
137And killing every man destroy all life,
138So that there shall remain for wretched mortals
139A third part. But with nimble leap shall he
140Himself speed from the West, and all the land
141Besiege and waste. But when he shall possess
142The height of power and odious reverence,
143He shall come, wishing to destroy the city
144Even of the blessed. And a certain king
145Sent forth from God against him shall destroy
146All mighty kings and bravest men. And thus
147Shall judgment by the Immortal come to men,
148Alas, alas for thee, unhappy heart!
149Why dost thou move me to declare these things,
150The painful rule of Egypt over many?
151Go to the East, to races of the Persians
152Who lack in understanding, and show them
153That which is now and that which is to be.
154The river of Euphrates shall bring on
155A deluge, and it shall destroy the Persians,
156Iberians and Babylonians
157And the Massagetæ that relish war
158And trust in bows. All Asia fire-ablaze
159Shall to the isles beam brightly. Pergamos,
160Revered of old, shall perish from its base,
161And Pitane among men shall appear
162All-desolate. All Lesbos shall sink deep
163Into the deep, and thus shall be destroyed.
164Smyrna, whirled down her cliffs, shall wail aloud,
165She that was once revered and given a name
166Shall perish utterly. Bithynians
167Shall over their own country, then reduced
168To ashes, wail, and o'er great Syria,
169And o'er Phoenicia that has many tribes.
170Alas, alas for thee, O Lycia;
171How many evils does the sea contrive
172Against thee, mounting up of its own will
173Upon the painful land! And it shall dash
174With evil earthquake and with bitter streams
175On the rough Lycian land that once breathed perfume.
176And there shall be for Phrygia fearful wrath
177Because of sorrow for which Rhea came,
178Mother of Zeus, and there continued long.
179The sea shall overthrow the Centaur race
180And barbarous nation, and beneath the earth
181Shall tear away the Lapithæan land.
182The river of deep eddies and deep flow,
183Peneus, shall destroy Thessalian land,
184Snatching men from the earth. Eridanus
185(Pretending once to bear the forms of beasts).
186Hellas thrice wretched shall the poets weep,
187When one from Italy shall smite the neck
188Of the isthmus, mighty king of mighty Rome,
189A man made equal to God, whom, they say,
190Zeus himself and the august Hera bore;
191He, courting by his voice all-musical
192Applause for his sweet songs, shall put to death
193With his own wretched mother many men.
194From Babylon shall flee the fearful lord
195And shameless whom all mortals and best men
196Abhor; for he slew many and laid hands
197Upon the womb; against his wives he sinned
198And of men stained with blood had he been formed.
199And he shall come to monarchs of the Medes
200And Persians, first whom he loved and to whom
201He brought renown, while with those wicked men
202He lurked against a nation not desired;
203And on the temple made by God he seized
204And citizens and people going in,
205Of whom I justly sang the praise, he burned;
206For when this man appeared the whole creation
207Was shaken and kings perished—and yet power
208Remained among them, and they quite destroyed
209The mighty city and the righteous people.
210But when the fourth year a great star shall shine,
211Which alone shall the whole earth overpower
212Because of honor, which was first assigned
213To lord Poseidon; then a great star shall come
214From heaven into the dreadful sea and burn
215The vasty deep, and Babylon itself,
216And the land of Italy, because of which
217There perished many holy faithful men
218Among the Hebrews and a people true.
219Thou shalt be among evil mortals made
220To suffer evils, but thou shalt remain
221All-desolate whole ages by thyself,
222Hating thy soil; for thou didst have desire
223For sorcery, adulteries were with thee
224And lawless carnal intercourse with boys,
225Thou evil city, womanish, unjust,
226Ill-fated above all. Alas, alas!
227Thou city of the Latin land, unclean
228In all things, Mænad having joy in snakes,
229Over thy hanks a widow shalt thou sit
230And the river Tiber shall lament for thee,
231His consort thee, who hast a blood-stained heart
232And impious soul. Didst thou not understand
233What God can do, and what he doth devise?
234But thou saidst, "I'm alone, and me no one
235Shall sack," But now shall God, who ever is,
236Thee and all thine destroy, and in that land
237No longer shall thy ensign yet remain,
238As of old, when the mighty God received
239Thy honors. Stay, O lawless one, alone,
240And mixed with burning fire inhabit thou
241In Hades the Tartarean lawless land.
242And now again, O Egypt, I bewail
243Thy blind delusion; Memphis, first in toils,
244Thou shalt be filled up with the dead; in thee
245The pyramids shall speak a ruthless sound.
246O Python, who wast justly called of old
247The double city, be for ages silent,
248So that thou mayest cease from wickedness.
249Reckless in evils, treasury of toils,
250Much-wailing Mænad, suffering dire ills,
251Much-weeping, thou a widow shalt remain
252Through all time. Thou didst full of years become
253While thou alone wast ruling o'er the world;
254But when the white dress Barca round herself
255Shall put on over that which is defiled,
256Would that I neither were nor had been born!
257O Thebes, where is thy great strength? A fierce man
258Shall slay the people; but thou, wretched one,
259Grasping thy dusky dress shalt wail alone,
260And thou shalt make atonement for all things.
261Which thou aforetime with a shameless soul
262Didst perpetrate. They also shall behold.
263A mourning on account of lawless deeds.
264And a mighty man of the Ethiopians
265Shall overthrow Syene; by their might
266Shall swarthy Indians occupy Teucheira.
267Pentapolis, a man of mighty strength
268Shall burn thee whole. All-tearful Libya,
269Who shall explain thy follies? And Cyrene,
270Of mortals who shall pitiably weep
271For thee? Thou shalt not even to the time
272Of thy destruction cease thy hateful wail.
273Among the Britons and among the Gauls,
274Rich in gold, Ocean shall be roaring loud
275Filled with much blood; for evil things
276Did they unto God's children, when a king
277Of the Sidonians, a Phoenician, led
278A mighty Gallic host from Syria;
279And he shall slaughter thee, thyself, Ravenna,
280And unto slaughter shall he lead the way.
281O Indians and great-hearted Ethiops,
282Together fear; for when with these the course
283Of Capricorn and Taurus in the Twins
284Shall wind about the middle of the heaven,
285Virgo then rising, and about his front.
286Fastening a belt the sun shall lead all heaven,
287There shall be moving downwards to the earth
288A mighty conflagration high in air,
289And a new nature in the warlike stars,
290So that the whole land of the Ethiops
291Shall perish in the midst of fire and groans.
292And weep thou, Corinth, the destruction sad
293Which is in thee; for when with pliant threads
294The Fates, three sisters, spinning shall aloft
295Lead him who flees by guile against the voice
296Of the isthmus, until all shall look at him
297Who once cut out the rock with ductile brass,
298He also shall destroy and smite thy land,
299As it bath been appointed. For to him
300God gave strength to accomplish that which could
301No earlier of all the kings together.
302And first with sickle cleaving off the roots
303From three heads he shall give food in excess
304To others, so that kings unclean shall eat
305The flesh of parents. For unto all men
306Slaughter and terrors are laid up in store
307Because of the great city and just people
308Saved through all time, whom Providence held high.
309O thou unstable one and ill-advised,
310By evil fates surrounded, for mankind
311Both a beginning and great end of toil,—
312Of suffering creation and of part
313Restored again,—thou leader insolent
314Of evils, and for men a great curse, who
315Of mortals wished for thee? Who has not been
316Embittered from within? Cast down in thee
317A king his honored life lost. Evilly
318Hast thou disposed all things and washed away
319All that is fair, and by thee have been changed
320The world's fair folds. In strife with us perhaps
321Thou hast brought forward these unstable things;
322And how dost thou say, "I will thee persuade,"
323And "If in any thing thou blame me, speak?"
324There was once among men the sun's bright light
325The prophets' common ray being spread abroad;
326Speech dripping honey, fair drink for all men,
327Appeared and grew, and day arose on all.
328Because of this, thou narrow-minded one
329Leader of greatest evils, both a sword
330And grief shall come in that day. For mankind
331Both a beginning and great end of toil,—
332Of suffering creation and of part
333Restored again,—hear, O thou curse of men,
334The bitter oracle intolerable.
335But when the Persian land shall keep away
336From war and plague and groaning, in that day
337A race divine of blessed heavenly Jews
338Shall offer prayer, who shall dwell round about
339God's city in mid portions of the land,
340And even as far as Joppa building round
341A great wall they shall carry it aloft
342Unto the gloomy clouds. No more shall trump
343Sound battle-din nor by a foe's mad hands
344Shall they be cut off; but they shall set up
345Their trophies for an age of evil men.
346And one shall come again from heaven, a man
347Preeminent, whose hands on fruitful tree
348By far the noblest of the Hebrews stretched,
349Who at one time did make the sun stand still
350When he spoke with fair word and holy lips.
351No longer vex thy soul within thy breast
352By reason of the sword, rich child of God,
353Flower longed for by him only, goodly light
354And noble branch, a scion much beloved,
355Pleasant Judea, city beautiful,
356Inspired by hymns, No more shall unclean foot
357Of Greeks keep revel round about thy land,
358Who held within their breast a lawless mind;
359But thee shall glorious children honor much
360[And be expert in songs and holy tongues],
361With sacrifices of all kinds and prayers
362Honored of God. All who endure the toils
363Of small affliction and the just shall have
364More that is altogether beautiful;
365But the wicked, who to heaven sent lawless speech,
366Shall cease their speaking one against another,
367And hide themselves until the world be changed.
368And there shall be a rain of gleaming fire
369From the clouds; and no more shall mortals reap
370The fair corn from the earth; all things unsown
371And unplowed, until mortal men shall know
372The Lord of all things, the immortal God
373Always existing, and no more revere
374Mortal things, neither dogs nor vultures' nests,
375And what things Egypt taught to magnify
376With dumb mouths and dull lips. But all these things
377The holy land of the only pious men
378Shall bring forth, from the honey-dripping rock
379A stream and from a spring ambrosial milk
380Shall flow for all the just; for in one God,
381One Father, who alone is glorious,
382Having great piety and faith they hoped.
383But why does the wise mind grant me these things?
384And now thee, wretched Asia, piteously
385I mourn and the race of Ionians
386And Carians and Lydians rich in gold.
387Alas, alas for thee, O Sardis; and alas
388For Trallis much beloved; alas, alas,
389Laodicea, city beautiful;
390Thus shalt thou be by earthquakes overthrown
391And ruined, and be also changed to dust.
392And to Asia gloomy . . . .
393Artemis' temple fixed at Ephesus . . .
394By chasms and earthquakes shall come headlong down.
395Sometime into the dreadful sea, as storms
396Overwhelm ships. And up-turned Ephesus
397Shall wail aloud, lament beside her banks,
398And for her temple search which is no more.
399And then ineensed shall God the imperishable,
400Who dwells on high, burl thunderbolts from heaven
401Down on the head of him that is impure.
402And in the place of winter there shall be
403In that day summer. And to mortal men
404Shall then be great woe; for the Thunderer
405Shall utterly destroy all shameless men
406And with his thunders and with lightning-flames
407And blazing thunderbolts men of ill-will,
408And thus shall he destroy the impious ones,
409So that there shall remain upon the earth
410Dead bodies more in number than the sand.
411For Smyrna also, weeping her Lycurgus,
412Shall come unto the gates of Ephesus
413And she herself shall perish even more.
414And foolish Cyme with her inspired streams
415Cast down by hands of godless men unjust
416And lawless, shall to heaven not so much
417As a word utter; but she shall remain
418Dead in Cymæan streams. And then shall they
419Together weep, awaiting evil things.
420Cyme's rough populace and shameless tribe,
421Having a sign, shall know for what they toiled.
422And then, when they shall have bewailed their land
423Reduced to ashes, by Eridanus
424Shall Lesbos be forever overthrown.
425Alas, Corcyra, city beautiful,
426Alas for thee, cease from thy revelry.
427Thon also, Hierapolis, sole land
428With riches mixed, what thou hast longed to have
429Thou shalt have, even a land of many tears,
430Since thou wast angry towards a land beside
431Thermodon's streams. Rock-clinging Tripolis,
432Beside the waters of Meander, thee
433Shall by the nightly surges under shore
434God's wrath and foresight utterly destroy.
435Take me not, willing, to the neighboring land
436Of Phœbus; sometime shall a thunderbolt
437Dainty Miletus from above destroy,
438Because she seized on Phœbus' crafty song
439And the wise care and prudent plan of men.
440Father of all, be gracious to the land
441Of Judah, well fed, fruit-abounding, great,
442In order that thy judgments we may see.
443For thou, O God, in kindness didst regard
444This land first that it might appear to be
445Thy gracious gift unto all mortal men
446And to hold fast what God put in their charge.
447The works thrice wretched of the Thracians
448I yearn to see, and wall between two seas
449Trailed in the dust along beneath the mist,
450Even like a river for the swimming fish.
451O wretched Hellespont, sometime a child
452Of the Assyrians shall throw a yoke
453Across thee; battle of the Thracians comes
454And shall despoil thy strength. And there shall rule
455Over the land of Macedonia
456A king of Egypt, and a barbarous clime
457Shall waste the strength of captains. Lydians
458And the Galatians, and Pamphylians
459With the Pisidians, all equipped for war
460Shall in a mass bring evil strife to pass.
461Thrice wretched Italy, thou shalt remain
462All-desolate, unwept, in blooming land
463By deadly sting to perish utterly.
464And sometime high in the broad heaven above
465Like thunder-roaring shall God's voice be heard.
466And the unwasting flames of the sun himself
467Shall be no more, nor shall the brilliant light
468Of the moon again be in the latest time,
469When God shall be the ruler. And dark gloom
470Shall be o'er all the earth, and blinded men
471And evil beasts and woe; that day shall be
472A long time, so that men shall see that God
473Himself is Lord, the overseer of all
474In front of heaven. And then will he himself
475Not pity hostile men, who sacrifice
476Their herds of lambs and sheep and calves and goats
477And bellowing golden-horned bulls, offering them
478To lifeless Hermæ and to gods of stone.
479But let the law of wisdom be your guide
480And the glory of the righteous; lest sometime
481The imperishable God incensed destroy
482Each race of men and shameless tribe of life,
483It doth behoove them faithfully to love.
484The Father, the wise God who ever is.
485In the last time, at the turning of the moon,
486There shall be raging through the world a war
487And carried on with cunning and in guile.
488And from the limits of the earth shall come
489Fleeing, and pondering sharp things in his mind,
490A matricidal man who every land
491Shall overpower and over all things rule,
492And see all things more wisely than all men;
493And that for whose sake he himself was slain
494Shall he seize forthwith. And he shall destroy
495Many men and great tyrants and shall burn
496All of them, as none other ever did,
497And he shall raise up them that are afraid
498For emulation's sake. And from the West
499Much war shall come to men, and blood shall flow
500Down hill till it becomes deep-eddying streams.
501And in the plains of Macedonia
502Shall wrath distil and give help from the West,
503But to the king destruction. And a wind
504Of winter then shall blow upon the earth,
505And the plain be filled with evil war again.
506For fire shall rain down from the heavenly plains.
507On mortals, and therewith blood, water, flash
508Of lightning, murky darkness, night in heaven,
509And waste in war and o'er the slaughter mist,
510And these together shall destroy all kings
511And noblest men. Thus shall be made to cease
512Then the destruction pitiable of war.
513And no more shall one fight with swords or iron
514Or even darts, which things shall not again
515Be lawful. But wise people shall have peace,
516Who were left, having made proof of wickedness,
517That they might at the last be filled with joy.
518Ye matricides, leave off your impudence
519And evil-working boldness, who of old
520Provided lawlessly lewd couch with boys,
521And placed as harlots maidens pure before
522In brothels by assault and punishment
523And by much-laboring indecency.
524For in thee mother with her child did hold
525Unlawful intercourse, and daughter was
526With her own father wedded as a bride;
527And in thee kings have their ill-fated mouth
528Polluted, and in thee have wicked men
529Found couch with cattle. Be in silence hushed,
530Thou wicked city all-bewailed, possessed
531Of revelry; for by thee virgin maids
532Shall care no longer for the fire divine
533Of sacred wood that fondly nourisheth;
534Before thee was a much-loved house of old
535Extinguished, when I saw the second house
536Cast headlong down and overwhelmed with fire
537By an unholy hand, house ever flourishing,
538God's watchful temple, brought forth of his saints
539And being always indestructible,
540By the soul hoped for and the body itself.
541For not without the rites of burial
542Shall one praise God out of the unseen earth,
543Nor did wise workman make a stone by them,
544Nor had he fear of gold, cheat of the world
545And of souls, but the mighty Father, God
546Of all things God-inspired, did he revere
547With holy offerings and fair hecatombs.
548But now an unseen and unholy king
549With multitude great and with men renowned
550Rose into power and cast his dwelling down
551And let it go unbuilt. But he himself
552When he set foot on the immortal land
553Destroyed the ground. And such a sign no more
554Was wrought upon men, so that it appeared
555That others the great city should destroy.
556For there came from the heavenly plains a man,
557One blessed, with a scepter in his hand,
558Which God gave him, and he ruled all things well,
559And unto all the good did he restore
560The riches which the earlier men had seized.
561And many cities with much fire he took
562From their foundations, and he set on fire.
563The towns of mortals who before did evil,
564And he did make that city, which God loved,
565More radiant than stars and sun and moon,
566And he set order, and a holy house.
567Incarnate made, pure, very fair, and formed
568In many stades a great and boundless tower
569Touching the clouds themselves and seen by all,
570So that all holy and all righteous men
571Might see the glory of the eternal God,
572A sight that has been longed for. Rising sun
573And setting day hymned forth the praise of God.
574For there are then no longer fearful things
575For wretched mortals, nor adulteries
576And lawless love of boys, nor homicide
577Nor tumult, but a righteous strife in all,
578It is the last time of the saints when God
579Accomplisheth these things, high Thunderer,
580Founder of temple most magnificent.
581Alas, alas for thee, O Babylon,
582For golden throne and golden sandal famed,
583Kingdom of many years and of the world
584Sole ruler, who wast great in olden time
585And city of all cities, thou no more
586Shalt lie in golden mountains and by streams
587Of the Euplirates; thou shalt be laid low
588By rout of earthquake. But the Parthians dire
589Caused thee to suffer all things. Hold thon fast
590Thy unknown speech, impure Chaldean race;
591Ask not nor be concerned how thou shalt lead
592The Persians or how thou shalt rule the Medes;
593For on account of thy supremacy,
594Which thou hadst, sending hostages to Rome
595And serving Asia, thou that formerly
596Didst also think thyself a queen, shalt come
597Unto the judgment of antagonists,
598Because of whom thou hast suffered baneful things;
599And thou shalt give instead of crooked words
600Bitter vexation to the enemies.
601And in the last time shall the sea be dry
602And ships no longer sail to Italy,
603And Asia the great then, all-hapless, shall
604Be water, and then Crete shall be a plain.
605And Cyprus shall endure great misery
606And Paphos shall bewail a dreadful fate,
607So that even Salamis, great city, shall
608Be seen to undergo great misery;
609And now the dry land shall be fruitless sand
610Upon the shore. And locusts not a few
611Shall utterly destroy the Cyprian land.
612Looking at Tyre, doomed mortals, ye shall weep.
613Phœnicia, dreadful wrath remains for thee,
614Until thou to a worthless ruin fall,
615So that even Sirens truly may lament.
616In the fifth generation, when the ruin
617Of Egypt has ceased, it shall come to pass
618That shameless kings shall be together joined,
619And races of Pamphylians shall encamp
620In Egypt, and in Macedonia
621And in Asia and among the Libyans
622Shall in the dust be a world-maddening war
623Exceeding bloody, which the king of Rome
624And rulers of the West shall make to cease.
625When wintry storm shall drop down like the snow,
626While frozen are great river and vast lakes,
627Forthwith a barbarous race shall make their way
628Into the Asian land and shall destroy
629The race of dreadful Thracians, hard to quell.
630And then shall mortals feeding lawlessly
631Devour their parents, being by hunger worn,
632And shall gulp down the entrails. And wild beasts
633Shall devour from all houses table-food,
634And they and birds all mortals shall devour.
635The ocean with dead bodies shall be filled
636From the river and be red with flesh and blood
637Of the foolish ones. Then thus a feebleness
638Shall be on earth, so that of men the number
639May be seen and the measure of the women.
640And the dire race shall wail for myriad things
641At last when the sun sets to rise no more,
642But to remain submerged in Ocean's waves;
643For it beheld the wickedness unclean
644Of many mortals. And a moonless night
645Shall be a fame around the mighty heaven,
646And no small mist shall hide the world's ravines
647A second time; then afterwards God's light
648Shall guide the good men, who sang praise to God.
649Isis, thrice wretched goddess, thou alone.
650Shalt on the waters of the Nile remain,
651A Mænad out of order on the sands
652Of Acheron, and no longer shall remain
653Remembrance of thee over all the earth.
654And also thou, Sarapis, who art placed
655On many glistening stones, a ruin vast
656Shalt thou in thrice unhappy Egypt lie.
657But those whom love of Egypt led to thee
658Shall all lament thee badly; but who put
659Imperishable reason in their breast,
660And who praised God, shall know thee to be naught.
661And sometime shall a linen-vested man,
662A priest, say: "Come, let us raise up of God
663A beautiful true temple; come, let us
664The fearful law of our forefathers change,
665Because of which they did not understand
666That they were unto gods of stone and clay
667Making processions and religious rites.
668Let us turn our souls, giving praise to God
669The imperishable, who himself is Father,
670The everlasting One, the Lord of all,
671The true One, the King, life-sustaining Father,
672The mighty God existing evermore."
673And then shall there a great pure temple be
674In Egypt, and the people made by God
675Shall into it their sacrifices bring.
676And to them God shall give life incorrupt.
677But when the Ethiopians, forsaking
678The shameless tribes of the Triballians,
679Shall cultivate their Egypt, they will then
680Begin their baseness, that the later things
681May all occur. For they shall overthrow
682The mighty temple of the Egyptian land;
683And God shall rain down on the earth dire wrath
684Among them, so that all the wicked ones
685And all without sense perish. And no more
686Shall there be any sparing in that land,
687Because they did not keep that which God gave.
688I saw the threatening of the shining Sun
689Among the stars, and in the lightning flash
690The dire wrath of the Moon; the stars travailed
691With battle; and God gave them up to fight.
692For long fire-flames rebelled against the Sun;
693Lucifer treading upon Leo's back
694Began the fight; and the Moon's double horn
695Changed its shape; Capricorn smote Taurus' neck;
696And Taurus took away from Capricorn
697Returning day. Orion would no more.
698Abide his yoke; the lot of Gemini
699Did Virgo change in Aries; no more shone
700The Pleiads; Draco disavowed his zone;
701Down into Leo's girdle Pisces went.
702Cancer remained not, for he feared Orion;
703Scorpio down on dire Leo backwards moved;
704And from the Sun's flame Sirius slipped away;
705And the strength of the mighty Shining One
706Aquarius kindled. Uranus himself
707Was roused, until he shook the warring ones;
708And being incensed he hurled them down on earth.
709Then swiftly smitten down upon the baths
710Of Ocean they set all the earth on fire;
711And the high heaven remained without a star.