Book 5: Nero’s Return

1 But come, now, hear from me the mournful time of sons of Latium. And first of all,
2 after the kings of Egypt were destroyed
3 and the like earth had borne them all downwards,
4 and after Pella’s townsman, under whom
5 the whole East and the rich West were cast down, whom Babylon dishonored, and stretched out
6 for Philip a dead body (not of Zeus,
7 of Ammon untrue things were prophesied), and after that one of the race and blood
8 of king Assaracus, who came from Troy,
9 even he who split the violence of fire,
10 and after many lords, and after men dear to Ares, and after the young babies,
11 the children of the beast that feeds on sheep,
12 the very first lord will be one who will sum twice ten with the first letter of his name;
13 he will be very powerful in wars;
14 and he will have the initial sign of ten;
15 and in the same way after him to reign is one who has the alphabet’s first letter;
16 before him Thrace and Sicily will crouch, then Memphis, Memphis cast headlong to earth
17 because of the cowardice of rulers
18 and of an unenslaved woman who falls upon the wave. And he will lay down laws
19 for peoples and put all things under him;
20 but after a long time he will pass on his power to another, who will have
21 three hundred for his first initial sign,
22 and the beloved name of a river, and he will rule the Persians and Babylon;
23 and then he will strike Medians with his spear.
24 Then one will rule who has the initial sign
25 of the number three. And then there will be a lord who will have twice ten for first initial;
26 and he will come to Ocean’s farthest water
27 and by Ausonia split the ebbing tide.
28 And one whose mark is fifty will be lord,
29 a dreadful serpent breathing bitter war,
30 who one day stretching out his hands will make an end of his own race and stir all things,
31 acting the athlete, driving chariots, putting to death and daring countless things;
32 and he will split the mountain of two seas and sprinkle it with gore; but out of sight
33 the destructive man will also vanish; then, making himself equal to God,⁠a
34 he will return; but God will prove him nothing.
35 And after him three kings will be destroyed by one another. Then a great destroyer
36 of pious men will come, whom seven times ten
37 will point out clearly. But from him a son,
38 whom the first letter of three hundred proves,
39 will take the power. And after him there will be
40 a ruler, of the initial sign of four, a life-destroyer. Then a revered man
41 of the number fifty. Next, succeeding him
42 who has the first mark of the initial sign three hundred, a Celtic mountaineer will,
43 into the strife of battle pressing on,
44 not escape a shameful fate, but will be
45 worn out to death; foreign dust, but dust that is named for Nemea’s flower,
46 will hide his corpse. And after him another man will rule, wearing a silver helmet;
47 and he will have the name of a sea;
48 and he will be the best man of all and discreet in all things. And upon you,
49 you best of all, above all, dark-haired one,
50 and all these days will be upon your descendants. After him three will rule; but the third one
51 will hold the royal power late.

Judgment upon Egypt

52 I am worn out, utterly miserable one,
53 sister of Isis, to store up in my heart
54 an evil message, and an inspired song
55 of oracles. First Maenades will dart around your much-lamented temple’s steps,
56 and you will be in evil hands that day when the Nile one day will fill the whole land
57 of Egypt even to sixteen cubits deep;
58 it will wash all the land, and water it for mortals; and the pleasure of the land
59 will be still and the glory of her face.
60 Memphis, you will wail most over Egypt;
61 for, once ruling mightily the land
62 you will become poor, so that out of heaven
63 the Thunderer will himself cry out in a loud voice:
64 “Mighty Memphis, who once boasted
65 greatly over cowardly mortals, you will wail full of pain and utterly unfortunate, so that you
66 will yourself see the eternal God
67 immortal in the clouds. Where among men is now your mighty pride? Because you
68 raved against my God-anointed children,
69 and urged evil forward on good men,
70 you will pay the penalty for such things in a similar way. No more openly
71 there will be justice for you among the blessed;
72 fallen from the stars, you will not rise to heaven.”
73 Now these things to Egypt God had me
74 speak out for the last time, when men will be
75 utterly evil. But they labor hard, evil men awaiting evil things, anger
76 of the immortal Thunderer in heaven,
77 worshiping stones and beasts instead of God, and also fearing many things besides
78 which have no speech, nor mind, nor power to hear;
79 things that it is not right for me to mention,
80 each one an idol, formed by mortal hands;
81 of their own labors and presumptuous thoughts
82 men received gods made of wood and stone
83 and brass, and gold and silver, foolish too,
84 without life and mute, cast in the fire
85 they made them, vainly trusting such things. . . . Thmois and Xois are in great distress,
86 and the hall of Heracles is struck
87 and Zeus and Hermes king. And as for you,
88 Alexandria, famous nourisher
89 of cities, war will not leave, nor plague . . .
90 For your pride you will pay as many things as you did before. You will be silent
91 a long age, and the day of your return . . .
92 Luxurious drink will no longer flow for you . . .
93 For a Persian will come on your valley,
94 and like hail he will destroy all the land,
95 and artful men, with blood and corpses. . . . By sacred altars one of barbarous mind,
96 strong, full of blood and raging senselessly,
97 with countless numbers rushing to destruction. And then you will, in cities very rich,
98 be very weary. Falling on the earth
99 all Asia will wail on account of gifts
100 crowning her head with which you delighted her. But, as he himself obtained
101 the Persian land by lot, he will make war
102 and killing every man destroy all life,
103 so that there will remain for wretched mortals
104 a third part. But with nimble leap he will
105 himself speed from the West, and all the land besiege and waste. But when he possesses
106 the height of power and odious reverence,
107 he will come, wishing to destroy the city
108 even of the blessed. And a certain king
109 sent out from God against him will destroy
110 all mighty kings and bravest men. And thus judgment by the Immortal will come to men.

Judgment upon the Eastern Lands

111 Alas, alas for you, unhappy heart! Why do you move me to declare these things,
112 the painful rule of Egypt over many?
113 Go to the East, to races of the Persians who lack understanding, and show them
114 what is now and what is to be.
115 The river of Euphrates will bring on a deluge, and it will destroy the Persians,
116 Iberians and Babylonians
117 and the Massagetae that relish war and trust in bows. All Asia fire-ablaze
118 will beam brightly to the islands. Pergamos,
119 revered long ago, will perish from its base,
120 and Pitane among men will appear all-desolate. All Lesbos will sink deep
121 into the deep, and so will be destroyed.
122 Smyrna, whirled down her cliffs, will wail aloud, she that was once revered and given a name
123 will perish utterly. Bithynians
124 will, over their own country, then reduced
125 to ashes, wail, and over great Syria, and over Phoenicia that has many tribes.
126 Alas, alas for you, Lycia; how many evils does the sea contrive
127 against you, mounting up of its own will
128 upon the painful land! And it will dash with evil earthquake and with bitter streams
129 on the rough Lycian land that once breathed perfume.
130 And there will be fearful anger for Phrygia because of sorrow for which Rhea came,
131 mother of Zeus, and stayed there long.
132 The sea will overthrow the Centaur race and barbarous nation, and beneath the earth
133 will tear away the Lapithaean land.
134 The river of deep eddies and deep flow,
135 Peneus, will destroy Thessalian land, snatching men from the earth. Eridanus
136 pretending once to bear the forms, of beasts.
137 The poets will weep for Hellas utterly wretched,
138 when one from Italy will strike the neck
139 of the isthmus, mighty king of mighty Rome,
140 a man made equal to God, whom, they say, Zeus himself and the majestic Hera bore
141 he, courting with his all-musical voice
142 applause for his sweet Songs, will put to death with his own wretched mother many men.
143 The fearful lord will flee from Babylon
144 and shameless whom all mortals and best men
145 hate; for he killed many and laid hands upon the womb; against his wives he sinned
146 and of men stained with blood he had been formed.
147 And he will come to monarchs of the Medes and Persians, first whom he loved and to whom
148 he brought renown, while with those wicked men
149 he lurked against a nation not desired
150 and on the temple made by God he seized and citizens and people going in,
151 of whom I justly sang the praise, he burned;
152 for when this man appeared the whole creation was shaken and kings perished—and yet power
153 remained among them, and they completely destroyed
154 the mighty city and the righteous people.
155 But when the fourth year a great star shines, which alone will overpower the whole earth
156 because of honor, which was first assigned
157 to lord Poseidon; then a great star will come
158 from heaven into the dreadful sea and burn
159 the vast deep, and Babylon itself,
160 and the land of Italy, because of which many holy faithful men perished among the Hebrews and a true people.
161 Among evil mortals you will be made
163 to suffer evils, but you will remain
164 all-desolate for whole ages by yourself
165 hating your soil; for you had a desire for sorcery, adulteries were with you
166 and lawless carnal intercourse with boys, you evil city, womanish, unjust,
167 ill-fated above all. Alas, alas!
168 You city of the Latin land, unclean in all things, Maenad having joy in snakes,
169 you will sit as a widow over your banks
170 and the river Tiber will lament for you, you, his wife, who have a blood-stained heart
171 and impious soul. Did you not understand
172 what God can do, and what he devises? But you said, “I’m alone, and me no one
173 will sack.” But now God, who always is, will
174 destroy you and all yours, and in that land
175 your banner will no longer remain, as once, when the mighty God received
176 your honors. Stay, lawless one, alone,
177 and mixed with burning fire inhabit
178 in Hades the Tartarean lawless land.

Egypt, Nero, and the Coming Judgment

179 And now again, Egypt, I mourn for
180 your blind delusion; Memphis, first in toils, you will be filled up with the dead; in you
181 the pyramids will speak a ruthless sound.
182 Python, who were justly called long ago the double city, be silent for ages,
183 so that you may cease from wickedness.
184 Reckless in evils, treasury of toils,
185 much-wailing Maenad, suffering, terrible evils, much-weeping, you will remain a widow
186 through all time. You became full of years while you alone were ruling over the world;
187 but when the white dress Barea around herself
188 puts on over what is defiled, would that I neither were nor had been born
189 Thebes, where is your great strength? A fierce man
190 will kill the people; but you, wretched one, grasping your dark dress will wail alone,
191 and you will make atonement for all things
192 which you formerly with a shameless soul perpetrated. They also will see
193 a mourning on account of lawless deeds.
194 And a mighty man of the Ethiopians
195 will overthrow Syene; by their might dark-skinned Indians will occupy Teucheira.
196 Pentapolis, a man of mighty strength will burn you whole. All-tearful Libya,
197 who will explain your follies? And Cyrene,
198 which mortal will pitiably weep for you? You will not even to the time
199 of your destruction cease your hateful wail.
200 Among the Britons and among the Gauls, rich in gold, Ocean will be roaring loud
201 filled with much blood; for evil things
202 they did to God’s children, when a king
203 of the Sidonians, a Phoenician, led
204 a mighty Gallic host from Syria;
205 and he will slaughter you, yourself, Ravenna, and he will lead the way to slaughter.
206 Indians and great-hearted Ethiops,
207 fear together; for when with these the course of Capricorn and Taurus in the Twins
208 winds around the middle of the heaven,
209 Virgo then rising, and around his front
210 fastening a belt the sun will lead all heaven, there will be moving downwards to the earth
211 a mighty conflagration high in air,
212 and a new nature in the warlike stars, so that the whole land of the Ethiops
213 will perish in the midst of fire and groans.
214 And weep, Corinth, for the sad destruction
215 which is in you; for when with pliant threads the three sister Fates, spinning, will, up high,
216 lead him who flees by guile against the voice
217 of the isthmus, until all look at him
218 who once cut out the rock with ductile brass,
219 he will also destroy and strike your land,
220 as it has been appointed. For to him God gave strength to accomplish what could
221 no earlier of all the kings together.
222 And first with sickle cutting off the roots
223 from three heads he will give food in excess
224 to others, so that unclean kings will eat
225 the flesh of parents. For to all men slaughter and terrors are laid up in store
226 because of the great city and just people
227 saved through all time, whom Providence held high. You unstable one and ill-advised,
228 by evil fates surrounded, for mankind
229 both a beginning and great end of toil—
230 of suffering creation and of part restored again—you insolent leader
231 of evils, and for men a great curse, who
232 of mortals wished for you? Who has not been embittered from within? Cast down in you
233 a king lost his honored life. Wickedly
234 have you disposed all things and washed away
235 all that is fair, and you have changed the world’s fair folds. In strife with us perhaps
236 you have brought forward these unstable things;
237 and how do you say, “I will persuade you,” and “If in anything you blame me, speak?”
238 There was once among men the sun’s bright light
239 the prophets’ common ray being spread abroad;
240 speech dripping honey, fair drink for all men, appeared and grew, and day arose on all.
241 Because of this, you narrow-minded one
242 leader of greatest evils, both a sword
243 and grief will come on that day. For mankind
244 both a beginning and great end of toil—
245 of suffering creation and of part restored again—hear, you curse of men,
246 the bitter, intolerable oracle.
247 But when the Persian land keeps away
248 from war and plague and groaning, on that day
249 a race divine of blessed heavenly Jews
250 will offer prayer, who will live around God’s city in mid portions of the land,
251 and even as far as Joppa building around
252 a great wall they will carry it up
253 to the gloomy clouds. No more will the trumpet
254 sound battle-din nor by an enemy’s mad hands
255 will they be cut off; but they will set up their trophies for an age of evil men.
256 And one will come again from heaven, a man
257 preeminent, who stretched his hands on the fruitful tree, by far the noblest of the Hebrews,
258 who at one time made the sun stand still
259 when he spoke with fair word and holy lips,
260 no longer trouble your soul within your breast because of the sword, rich child of God,
261 flower longed for by him only, fine light
262 and noble branch, a much-loved offshoot, pleasant Judea, beautiful city,
263 inspired by hymns. No more will the unclean foot
264 of Greeks revel around your land,
265 who held within their breast a lawless mind;
266 but you will greatly honor glorious children
267 and be expert in songs and holy tongues,
268 with sacrifices of all kinds and prayers
269 honored by God. All who endure the toils
270 of small affliction and the just will have more that is altogether beautiful;
271 but the wicked, who sent lawless speech to heaven,
272 will stop speaking one against another,
273 and hide themselves until the world is changed.
274 And there will be a rain of gleaming fire
275 from the clouds; and mortals will no longer reap the fair grain from the earth; all things unsown
276 and unplowed, until mortal men know
277 the Lord of all things, the immortal God
278 always existing, and no more revere
279 mortal things, neither dogs nor vultures’ nests,
280 and the things Egypt taught them to glorify with mute mouth and dull lips. But all these things
281 the holy land of the only pious men
282 will bring forth, from the honey-dripping rock a stream and from a spring ambrosial milk
283 will flow for all the just; for in one God,
284 one Father, who alone is glorious,
285 having great piety and faith they hoped. But why does the wise mind grant me these things?

The Nations and the Judgment of Rome

286 And now you, wretched Asia, piteously
287 I mourn and the race of Ionians and Carians and Lydians rich in gold.
288 Alas, alas for you, Sardis; and alas
289 for much-loved Trallis; alas, alas,
290 Laodicea, beautiful city; thus you will be overthrown by earthquakes
291 and ruined, and be also changed to dust.
292 And to Asia gloomy...
293 Artemis’ temple fixed at Ephesus ...
294 By chasms, and earthquakes come headlong down
295 one day into the dreadful sea, as storms overwhelm ships. And upturned Ephesus
296 will wail aloud, lament beside her banks,
297 and search for her temple which is no more. And then, enraged, God the imperishable will,
298 who lives on high, hurl thunderbolts from heaven
299 down on the head of the one who is impure.
300 And in the place of winter there will be on that day summer. And to mortal men
301 there will then be great misery; for the Thunderer
302 will utterly destroy all shameless men and with his thunders and with lightning-flames
303 and blazing thunderbolts men of ill-will,
304 and so he will destroy the impious ones,
305 so that there will remain upon the earth dead bodies more numerous than the sand.
306 For Smyrna also, weeping her Lycurgus,
307 will come to the gates of Ephesus and she herself will perish even more.
308 And foolish Cyme with her inspired streams
309 cast down by hands of godless, unjust men
310 and lawless, will not utter to heaven so much as a word; but she will remain
311 dead in Cymaean streams. And then they will
312 together weep, awaiting evil things.
313 Cyme’s rough populace and shameless tribe,
314 having a sign, will know what they toiled for.
315 And then, when they have mourned their land reduced to ashes, by Eridanus
316 Lesbos will be overthrown forever. Alas, Corcyra, beautiful city,
317 alas for you, cease from your revelry.
318 You also, Hierapolis, sole land mixed with riches, what you have longed to have
319 you will have, even a land of many tears,
320 since you were angry toward a land beside thermodon’s streams. Rock-clinging Tripolis,
321 beside the waters of Maeander, you
322 shall by the nightly surges under shore
323 God’s anger and foresight utterly destroy.
324 Do not take me, willing, to the neighboring land
325 of Phoebus; one day a thunderbolt will destroy dainty Miletus from above,
326 because she seized on Phoebus’ crafty song
327 and the wise care and prudent plan of men. Father of all, be gracious to the land
328 of Judah, well fed, fruit-abounding, great,
329 in order that we may see your judgments.
330 For you, God, in kindness regarded this land first that it might appear to be
331 your gracious gift to all mortal men
332 and to hold fast what God put in their charge.
333 The utterly wretched works of the Thracians
334 I yearn to see, and the wall between two seas
335 trailed in the dust along beneath the mist, even like a river for the swimming fish.
336 Wretched Hellespont, one day a child of the Assyrians will throw a yoke
337 across you; battle of the Thracians comes
338 and will plunder your strength. And there will rule over the land of Macedonia
339 a king of Egypt, and a barbarous region
340 will waste the strength of captains. Lydians, and the Galatians, and Pamphylians
341 with the Pisidians, all equipped for war will bring about evil strife in a mass.
342 Utterly wretched Italy, then you will remain
343 all-desolate, unwept, in blooming land by deadly sting to perish utterly.
344 And one day high in the broad heaven above
345 God’s voice will be heard roaring like thunder.
346 And the unwasting flames of the sun himself
347 will be no more, nor will the brilliant light
348 of the moon again be in the latest time,
349 when God is the ruler. And dark gloom
350 will be over all the earth, and blinded men and evil beasts and misery; that day will be
351 a long time, so that men will see that God
352 himself is Lord, the overseer of all in front of heaven. And then he himself will
353 not pity hostile men, who sacrifice
354 their herds of lambs and sheep and calves and goats
355 and bellowing golden-horned bulls, offering them to lifeless Hermae and to gods of stone.
356 But let the law of wisdom be your guide
357 and the glory of the righteous; for fear that one day
358 the imperishable God, enraged, destroys
359 each race of men and shameless tribe of life,
360 they ought to love faithfully the Father, the wise God who always is.
361 In the last time, at the turning of the moon,
362 there will be raging through the world a war and carried on with cunning, and in guile.
363 And from the limits of the earth will come
364 fleeing and pondering sharp things in his mind,
365 a matricidal man who will overpower every land and rule over all things,
366 and see all things more wisely than all men;
367 he will seize at once the thing for whose sake he himself was killed; and he will destroy
368 many men and great tyrants and will burn
369 all of them, as none other ever did,
370 and he will raise up those who are afraid for emulation’s sake. And from the West
371 much war will come to men, and blood will flow
372 down hill till it becomes deep-eddying streams.
373 And in the plains of Macedonia
374 anger will distill and give help from the West,
375 but to the king destruction. And a wind of winter then will blow upon the earth,
376 and the plain be filled with evil war again.
377 For fire will rain down from the heavenly plains on mortals, and with it blood, water, flash
378 of lightning, murky darkness, night in heaven,
379 and waste in war and over the slaughter mist,
380 and these together will destroy all kings and noblest men. Thus will be made to cease
381 then the pitiable destruction of war.
382 And no longer will anyone fight with swords or iron
383 or even darts, which will not again
384 be lawful. But wise people will have peace,
385 who were left, having experienced wickedness, that they might at the last be filled with joy.
386 You matricides, give up your impudence and evil-working boldness, who long ago
387 provided lawlessly lewd couch with boys,
388 and placed girls who were pure before as prostitutes in brothels by assault and punishment
389 and by much-laboring indecency.
390 For in you a mother with her child held unlawful intercourse, and a daughter was
391 with her own father married as a bride;
392 and in you kings have their ill-fated mouth polluted, and in you have wicked men
393 found couch with cattle. Be silent,
394 you wicked, much-mourned city, full
395 of revelry; for by you young virgins will care no longer for the fire divine
396 of sacred wood that fondly nourishes;
397 before you was a much-loved house long ago
398 extinguished, when I saw the second house
399 cast headlong down and overwhelmed with fire
400 by an unholy hand, house always flourishing, God’s watchful temple, brought forth by his saints
401 and being always indestructible,
402 by the soul hoped for and the body itself. For not without the rites of burial
403 will anyone praise God out of the unseen earth,
404 nor did a wise workman make a stone by them,
405 nor did he fear gold, cheat of the world
406 and of souls, but the mighty Father, God
407 of all things God-inspired, he revered
408 with holy offerings and fair hecatombs.
409 But now an unseen and unholy king
410 with a great multitude and with men renowned rose into power and cast down his dwelling
411 and let it go unbuilt. But he himself when he set foot on the immortal land
412 destroyed the ground. And such a sign no more
413 was performed upon men, so that it appeared that others should destroy the great city.
414 For a man came from the heavenly plains,
415 one blessed, with a scepter in his hand, which God gave him, and he ruled all things well,
416 and to all the good he restored
417 the riches which the earlier men had seized. And with much fire he took many cities
418 from their foundations, and he set on fire
419 the towns of mortals who did evil before,
420 and he made that city, which God loved,
421 more radiant than stars and sun and moon,
422 and he set order, and a holy house
423 incarnate made, pure, very fair, and formed
424 in many stades a great and boundless tower
425 touching the clouds themselves and seen by all, so that all holy and all righteous men
426 might see the glory of the eternal God,
427 a sight that has been longed for. Rising sun
428 and setting day sang the praise of God.
429 For there are then no longer fearful things
430 for wretched mortals, nor adulteries and lawless love of boys, nor homicide
431 nor tumult, but a righteous strife in all. It is the last time of the saints when God
432 accomplishes these things, high Thunderer,

Babylon, Egypt, and the Last Disasters

433 founder of the most magnificent temple. Alas, alas for you, Babylon,
434 famous for golden throne and golden sandal,
435 kingdom of many years and sole ruler of the world, who were great in former times
436 and city of all cities, you no more
437 will lie in golden mountains and by streams of the Euphrates; you will be laid low
438 by rout of earthquake. But the terrible Parthians
439 caused you to suffer all things. Hold fast
440 your unknown speech, impure Chaldean race; do not ask or be concerned how you will lead
441 the Persians or how you will rule the Medes;
442 for on account of your supremacy, which you had, sending hostages to Rome
443 and serving Asia, you who formerly
444 also thought yourself a queen, will come
445 to the judgment of antagonists, because of whom you have suffered harmful things;
446 and you will give instead of crooked words
447 bitter torment to the enemies, and in the last time the sea will be dry
448 and ships no longer sail to Italy,
449 and great Asia then, utterly unfortunate, will
450 be water, and then Crete will be a plain. And Cyprus will endure great misery
451 and Paphos will mourn a dreadful fate, so that even Salamis, great city, will
452 be seen to undergo great misery;
453 and now the dry land will be fruitless sand upon the shore. And many locusts
454 will utterly destroy the Cyprian land.
455 Looking at Tyre, doomed mortals, you will weep. Phoenicia, dreadful anger remains for you,
456 until you fall to a worthless ruin,
457 so that even Sirens truly may lament. In the fifth generation, when the ruin
458 of Egypt has ceased, it will happen
459 that shameless kings will be joined together,
460 and races of Pamphylians will camp in Egypt, and in Macedonia
461 and in Asia and among the Libyans
462 there will be in the dust a world-maddening war exceedingly bloody, which the king of Rome
463 and rulers of the West will bring to an end.
464 When a wintry storm drops down like snow,
465 while the great river and vast lakes are frozen, at once a barbarous race will make their way
466 into the Asian land and will destroy
467 the race of dreadful Thracians, hard to subdue.
468 And then mortals will, feeding lawlessly,
469 devour their parents, worn down by hunger,
470 and will gulp down the entrails. And wild beasts will devour from all houses table-food,
471 and they and birds will devour all mortals.
472 The ocean will be filled with dead bodies
473 from the river and be red with flesh and blood
474 of the foolish ones. Then thus a feebleness
475 will be on earth, so that the number of men may be seen and the measure of the women,
476 and the terrible race will wail for countless things
477 at last when the sun sets to rise no more,
478 but to remain submerged in Ocean’s waves;
479 for it saw the unclean wickedness
480 of many mortals. And a moonless night will be a fame around the mighty heaven,
481 and no small mist will hide the world’s ravines
482 a second time; then afterward God’s light will guide the good men, who sang praise to God.
483 Isis, utterly wretched goddess, you alone
484 will remain on the waters of the Nile,
485 a Maenad out of order on the sands of Acheron, and no longer will remain
486 remembrance of you over all the earth.
487 And also you, Sarapis, who are placed on many glistening stones, a vast ruin
488 you will lie in utterly unhappy Egypt.
489 But those whom love of Egypt led to you
490 will all lament you badly; but those who put imperishable reason in their breast,
491 and who praised God, will know you to be nothing.
492 And one day a linen-vested man, a priest, will say: “Come, let us raise up for God
493 a beautiful true temple; come, let us
494 change the fearful law of our ancestors,
495 because of which they did not understand that they were to gods of stone and clay
496 making processions and religious rites.
497 Let us turn our souls, giving praise to God
498 the imperishable, who himself is Father,
499 the everlasting One, the Lord of all,
500 the true One, the King, life-sustaining Father, the mighty God existing forever.”
501 And then there will be a great pure temple in Egypt, and the people made by God
502 will bring their sacrifices into it.
503 And to them God will give incorruptible life. But when the Ethiopians, forsaking
504 the shameless tribes of the Triballians,
505 cultivate their Egypt, they will then begin their baseness, so that the later things
506 may all occur. For they will overthrow
507 the mighty temple of the Egyptian land;
508 and God will rain down on the earth terrible anger
509 among them, so that all the wicked ones
510 and all without sense perish. And no more will there be any sparing in that land,
511 because they did not keep that which God gave.

War among the Stars

512 I saw the threatening of the shining Sun among the stars, and in the lightning flash
513 the terrible anger of the Moon; the stars labored
514 with battle; and God gave them up to light.
515 For long fire-flames rebelled against the Sun;
516 lucifer treading upon Leo’s back
517 began the fight; and the Moon’s double horn
518 changed its shape; Capricorn struck Taurus’ neck;
519 and Taurus took away from Capricorn
520 returning day. Orion would no more bear his yoke; the lot of Gemini
521 Virgo changed in Aries; no more shone
522 the Pleiads; Draco disavowed his zone;
523 Pisces went down into Leo’s belt.
524 Cancer did not remain, for he feared Orion;
525 scorpio moved backwards down on fierce Leo; and from the Sun’s flame Sirius slipped away;
526 and the strength of the mighty Shining One
527 aquarius kindled. Uranus himself
528 was roused, until he shook the warring ones;
529 and being enraged he hurled them down on earth.
530 Then swiftly struck down upon the baths of Ocean they set all the earth on fire;
531 and the high heaven remained without a star.