BOOK OF LIGHTNING
And thereupon shall the whole world be
governed by the hands
Of a woman, and obedient everywhere.
Then when a widow shall o’er all the world gain the rule,
And cast in the mighty sea both gold and silver, also brass and iron,
Of short-lived men, into the deep shall cast,
Then all the elements shall be bereft of order.
When the God who dwells on high shall roll the heaven, even as a scroll is rolled,
And to the mighty earth and sea shall fall the entire multiform sky, and There shall flow a tireless cataract of raging fire,
And it shall burn the land and burn the sea, and heavenly sky and night and day
And melt creation itself together,
And pick out what is pure.
No more laughing spheres of light,
Nor night, nor dawn, nor many days of care,
Nor spring, nor winter, nor the summer-time, nor Autumn,
And then of the mighty God, the judgment midway in a mighty age
Shall come, when all these things shall come to pass.
Of a woman, and obedient everywhere.
Then when a widow shall o’er all the world gain the rule,
And cast in the mighty sea both gold and silver, also brass and iron,
Of short-lived men, into the deep shall cast,
Then all the elements shall be bereft of order.
When the God who dwells on high shall roll the heaven, even as a scroll is rolled,
And to the mighty earth and sea shall fall the entire multiform sky, and There shall flow a tireless cataract of raging fire,
And it shall burn the land and burn the sea, and heavenly sky and night and day
And melt creation itself together,
And pick out what is pure.
No more laughing spheres of light,
Nor night, nor dawn, nor many days of care,
Nor spring, nor winter, nor the summer-time, nor Autumn,
And then of the mighty God, the judgment midway in a mighty age
Shall come, when all these things shall come to pass.
—The Sibylline Oracles, circa 30 B.C.E.
Translated from the Greek
Milton S. Terry, 1899
Translated from the Greek
Milton S. Terry, 1899