Sibylline Oracles

thumb|There was once among men a shining light of the sun. The Sibylline Oracles are a collection of oracular utterances written in Greek hexameters ascribed to the Sibyls, prophetesses who uttered divine revelations in a frenzied state. Fourteen books and eight fragments of Sibylline Oracles survive, in an edition of the 6th or 7th century AD. They are not to be confused with the original Sibylline Books of the ancient Etruscans and Romans which were burned by order of Roman general Flavius Stilicho in the 4th century AD. Quotes Greek text cited from J. Geffcken, Die Oracula Sibyllina (Leipzig, 1902). Book 5 κακοὶ [. . .]ἀντὶ θεοῦ δὲ λίθους καὶ κνώδαλα θρησκεύοντεςπολλὰ μάλ᾿ ἄλλυδις ἄλλα φοβούμενοι, οἷς λόγος οὐδείς,οὐ νόος, οὐκ ἀκοή. The wicked [. . .] worship stones and brute beasts instead of God,revering very many things, one here another there, which have no reason,or mind or hearing. V.75–79 (tr. H. C. O. Lanchester, 1913) ἐξ ἰδίων δὲ κόπων καὶ ἀτασθαλιῶν ἐπινοιῶνἄνθρωποι δέξαντο θεοὺς ξυλίνους λιθίνους τεχαλκέους τε χρυσέους τε καὶ ἀργυρέους, ματαίους δὲἀψύχους κωφούς τε καὶ ἐν πυρὶ χωνευθένταςποιήσαντο μάτην τούτοισι πεποιθότες. From their own labors and wicked notionsmen have accepted gods of wood and stone.They have made them of bronze and gold and silver, vainlifeless, dumb, and smelted in fire, vainly putting their trust in such as these. V.81–85 (tr. H. C. O. Lanchester, 1913) ἦν ποτ᾿ ἐν ἀνθρώποις λαμπρὸν σέλας ἠελίοιοσπειρομένης ἀκτῖνος ὁμοσπόνδοιο προφητῶν·γλῶσσα μελισταγέουσα καλὸν πόμα πᾶσι βροτοῖσινφαῖνέ τε καὶ προὔβαλλε καὶ ἥμερα πᾶσιν ἔτελλεν. There was once among men a shining light of the sunwhen the harmonious ray of the prophets was being spread abroad,a tongue dripping a beautiful drink for all mortals with honeyed sweetness;it made manifest, offered and effected gentle things for all. V.238–241 (tr. H. C. O. Lanchester, 1913) καὶ τότε θυμωθεὶς θεὸς ἄφθιτος αἰθέρι ναίωνοὐρανόθεν πρηστῆρα βαλεῖ κατὰ κρατὸς ἀνάγνου. The imperishable God who dwells in the sky in angerwill case a lightning bolt from heaven against the power of the impious. V.298 (tr. H. C. O. Lanchester, 1913) Book 14 ἄνθρωποι, τί μάτην ὡς ἀθάνατοί περ ἐόντεςκαὶ βραχὺ κοιρανέοντες ἄγαν ὑψηλὰ φρονεῖτε; O men, why do ye vainly think on thingsToo lofty, as if ye immortal were? XIV.1–2 (tr. M. S. Terry, 1890) External links Category:Religious texts