1. Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 1036-1330, 1035 (6th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
| 1035. εἴσω κομίζου καὶ σύ, Κασάνδραν λέγω | 1035. Take thyself in, thou too — I say, Kassandra! |
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2. Euripides, Trojan Women, 42, 41 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
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3. Herodotus, Histories, 1.182 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
| 1.182. These same Chaldaeans say (though I do not believe them) that the god himself is accustomed to visit the shrine and rest on the couch, as in Thebes of Egypt, as the Egyptians say ,(for there too a woman sleeps in the temple of Theban Zeus, and neither the Egyptian nor the Babylonian woman, it is said, has intercourse with men), and as does the prophetess of the god at Patara in Lycia, whenever she is appointed; for there is not always a place of divination there; but when she is appointed she is shut up in the temple during the night. |
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4. Plato, Phaedo, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 69c. from all these things, and self-restraint and justice and courage and wisdom itself are a kind of purification. And I fancy that those men who established the mysteries were not unenlightened, but in reality had a hidden meaning when they said long ago that whoever goes uninitiated and unsanctified to the other world will lie in the mire, but he who arrives there initiated and purified will dwell with the gods. For as they say in the mysteries, the thyrsus-bearers are many, but the mystics few ; |
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5. Plato, Timaeus, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
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6. Lycophron, Alexandra, 1279 (4th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)
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7. Cicero, On Divination, 2.76 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 2.76. Sed de hoc loco plura in aliis, nunc hactenus. Externa enim auguria, quae sunt non tam artificiosa quam superstitiosa, videamus. Omnibus fere avibus utuntur, nos admodum paucis; alia illis sinistra sunt, alia nostris. Solebat ex me Deiotarus percontari nostri augurii disciplinam, ego ex illo sui. Di immortales! quantum differebat! ut quaedam essent etiam contraria. Atque ille iis semper utebatur, nos, nisi dum a populo auspicia accepta habemus, quam multum iis utimur? Bellicam rem administrari maiores nostri nisi auspicato noluerunt; quam multi anni sunt, cum bella a proconsulibus et a propraetoribus administrantur | 2.76. But we shall discuss the latter point at greater length in other discourses; let us dismiss it for the present.Now let us examine augury as practised among foreign nations, whose methods are not so artificial as they are superstitious. They employ almost all kinds of birds, we only a few; they regard some signs as favourable, we, others. Deiotarus used to question me a great deal about our system of augury, and I him about that of his country. Ye gods! how much they differed! So much that in some cases they were directly the reverse of each other. He employed auspices constantly, we never do except when the duty of doing so is imposed by a vote of the people. Our ancestors would not undertake any military enterprise without consulting the auspices; but now, for many years, our wars have been conducted by pro-consuls and pro-praetors, who do not have the right to take auspices. |
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8. Cicero, On Laws, 2.3-2.4 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
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9. Cicero, On The Nature of The Gods, 2.6 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 2.6. Nor is this unaccountable or accidental; it is the result, firstly, of the fact that the gods often manifest their power in bodily presence. For instance in the Latin War, at the critical battle of Lake Regillus between the dictator Aulus Postumius and Octavius Mamilius of Tusculum, Castor and Pollux were seen fighting on horseback in our ranks. And in more modern history likewise these sons of Tyndareus brought the news of the defeat of Perses. What happened was that Publius Vatinius, the grandfather of our young contemporary, was returning to Rome by night from Reate, of which he was governor, when he was informed by two young warriors on white horses that King Perses had that very day been taken prisoner. When Vatinius carried the news to the Senate, at first he was flung into gaol on the charge of spreading an unfounded report on a matter of national concern; but afterwards a dispatch arrived from Paulus, and the date was found to tally, so the Senate bestowed upon Vatinius both a grant of land and exemption from military service. It is also recorded in history that when the Locrians won their great victory over the people of Crotona at the important battle of the River Sagra, news of the engagement was reported at the Olympic Games on the very same day. often has the sound of the voices of the Fauns, often has the apparition of a divine form compelled anyone that is not either feeble-minded or impious to admit the real presence of the gods. |
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10. Cicero, On Duties, 3.102, 3.104 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 3.102. Quid est igitur, dixerit quis, in iure iurando? num iratum timemus lovem? At hoc quidem commune est omnium philosophorum, non eorum modo, qui deum nihil habere ipsum negotii dicunt, nihil exhibere alteri, sed eorum etiam, qui deum semper agere aliquid et moliri volunt, numquam nec irasci deum nec nocere. Quid autem iratus Iuppiter plus nocere potuisset, quam nocuit sibi ipse Regulus Nulla igitur vis fuit religionis, quae tantam utilitatem perverteret. An ne turpiter faceret? Primum minima de malis. Num igitur tantum mali turpitude ista habebat, quantum ille cruciatus? Deinde illud etiam apud Accium: Fregistín fidem? Néque dedi neque do ínfideli cuíquam quamquam ab impio rege dicitur, luculente tamen dicitur. 3.104. Non fuit Iuppiter metuendus ne iratus noceret, qui neque irasci solet nec nocere. Haec quidem ratio non magis contra Reguli quam contra omne ius iurandum valet. Sed in iure iurando non qui metus, sed quae vis sit, debet intellegi; est enim ius iurandum affirmatio religiosa; quod autem affirmate quasi deo teste promiseris, id tenendum est. Iam enim non ad iram deorum, quae nulla est, sed ad iustitiam et ad fidem pertinet. Nam praeclare Ennius: Ó Fides alma ápta pinnis ét ius iurandúm Iovis! Qui ius igitur iurandum violat, is Fidem violat, quam in Capitolio vicinam Iovis optimi maximi, ut in Catonis oratione est, maiores nostri esse voluerunt. | 3.102. "What significance, then," someone will say, "do we attach to an oath? It is not that we fear the wrath of Jove, is it? Not at all; it is the universally accepted view of all philosophers that God is never angry, never hurtful. This is the doctrine not only of those who teach that God is Himself free from troubling cares and that He imposes no trouble upon others, but also of those who believe that God is ever working and ever directing His world. Furthermore, suppose Jupiter had been wroth, what greater injury could He have inflicted upon Regulus than Regulus brought upon himself? Religious scruple, therefore, had no such preponderance as to outweigh so great expediency." "Or was he afraid that his act would be morally wrong? As to that, first of all, the proverb says, 'of evils choose the least.' Did that moral wrong, then, really involve as great an evil as did that awful torture? And secondly, there are the lines of Accius: Thyestes. Hast thou broke thy faith? Atreus. None have I given; none give I ever to the faithless. Although this sentiment is put into the mouth of a wicked king, still it is illuminating in its correctness. 3.104. "He need not have been afraid that Jupiter in anger would inflict injury upon him; he is not wont to be angry or hurtful." This argument, at all events, has no more weight against Regulus's conduct than it has against the keeping of any other oath. But in taking an oath it is our duty to consider not what one may have to fear in case of violation but wherein its obligation lies: an oath is an assurance backed by religious sanctity; and a solemn promise given, as before God as one's witness, is to be sacredly kept. For the question no longer concerns the wrath of the gods (for there is no such thing) but the obligations of justice and good faith. For, as Ennius says so admirably: "Gracious Good Faith, on wings upborne; thou oath in Jupiter's great name!" Whoever, therefore, violates his oath violates Good Faith; and, as we find it stated in Cato's speech, our forefathers chose that she should dwell upon the Capitol "neighbour to Jupiter Supreme and Best. |
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11. Catullus, Poems, 51 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
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12. Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library, 16.26.6 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 16.26.6. It is said that in ancient times virgins delivered the oracles because virgins have their natural innocence intact and are in the same case as Artemis; for indeed virgins were alleged to be well suited to guard the secrecy of disclosures made by oracles. In more recent times, however, people say that Echecrates the Thessalian, having arrived at the shrine and beheld the virgin who uttered the oracle, became enamoured of her because of her beauty, carried her away with him and violated her; and that the Delphians because of this deplorable occurrence passed a law that in future a virgin should no longer prophesy but that an elderly woman of fifty should declare the oracles and that she should be dressed in the costume of a virgin, as a sort of reminder of the prophetess of olden times. Such are the details of the legend regarding the discovery of the oracle; and now we shall turn to the activities of olden times. |
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13. Dionysius of Halycarnassus, Roman Antiquities, 5.16.3, 6.13.1-6.13.2 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 5.16.3. For the Romans attribute panics to this divinity; and whatever apparitions come to men's sight, now in one shape and now in another, inspiring terror, or whatever supernatural voices come to their ears to disturb them are the work, they say, of this god. The voice of the divinity exhorted the Romans to be of good courage, as having gained the victory, and declared that the enemy's dead exceeded theirs by one man. They say that Valerius, encouraged by this voice, pushed on to the Tyrrhenians' entrenchments while it was still the dead of night, and having slain many of them and driven the rest out of the camp, made himself master of it. 6.13.1. It is said that in this battle two men on horseback, far excelling in both beauty and stature those our human stock produces, and just growing their first beard, appeared to Postumius, the dictator, and to those arrayed about him, and charged at the head of the Roman horse, striking with their spears all the Latins they encountered and driving them headlong before them. And after the flight of the Latins and the capture of their camp, the battle having come to an end in the late afternoon, two youths are said to have appeared in the same manner in the Roman Forum attired in military garb, very tall and beautiful and of the same age, themselves retaining on their counteces as having come from a battle, the look of combatants, and the horses they led being all in a sweat. 6.13.2. And when they had each of them watered their horses and washed them at the fountain which rises near the temple of Vesta and forms a small but deep pool, and many people stood about them and inquired if they brought any news from the camp, they related how the battle had gone and that the Romans were the victors. And it is said that after they left the Forum they were not seen again by anyone, though great search was made for them by the man who had been left in command of the city. |
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14. Livy, History, 1.19.4, 7.6, 29.18.4-29.18.5, 29.18.18, 42.28.12 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
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15. Lucretius Carus, On The Nature of Things, 1.102-1.103, 1.108-1.109 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
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16. Ovid, Fasti, 6.473-6.572, 6.582, 6.589-6.596, 6.601-6.648 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)
| 6.473. Now you complain, Phrygian Tithonus, abandoned by your bride 6.474. And the vigilant Morning Star leaves the Eastern waters. 6.475. Good mothers (since the Matralia is your festival) 6.476. Go, offer the Theban goddess the golden cakes she’s owed. 6.477. Near the bridges and mighty Circus is a famous square 6.478. One that takes its name from the statue of an ox: 6.479. There, on this day, they say, Servius with his own 6.480. Royal hands, consecrated a temple to Mother Matruta. 6.481. Bacchus, whose hair is twined with clustered grapes 6.482. If the goddess’ house is also yours, guide the poet’s work 6.483. Regarding who the goddess is, and why she exclude 6.484. (Since she does) female servants from the threshold 6.485. of her temple, and why she calls for toasted cakes. 6.486. Semele was burnt by Jove’s compliance: Ino 6.487. Received you as a baby, and nursed you with utmost care. 6.488. Juno swelled with rage, that Ino should raise a child 6.489. Snatched from Jove’s lover: but it was her sister’s son. 6.490. So Athamas was haunted by the Furies, and false visions 6.491. And little Learchus died by his father’s hand. 6.492. His grieving mother committed his shade to the tomb. 6.493. And paid the honours due to the sad pyre. 6.494. Then tearing her hair in sorrow, she leapt up 6.495. And snatched you from your cradle, Melicertes. 6.496. There’s a narrow headland between two seas 6.497. A single space attacked by twofold waves: 6.498. There Ino came, clutching her son in her frenzied grasp 6.499. And threw herself, with him, from a high cliff into the sea. 6.500. Panope and her hundred sisters received them unharmed 6.501. And gliding smoothly carried them through their realm. 6.502. They reached the mouth of densely eddying Tiber 6.503. Before they became Leucothea and Palaemon. 6.504. There was a grove: known either as Semele’s or Stimula’s: 6.505. Inhabited, they say, by Italian Maenads. 6.506. Ino, asking them their nation, learned they were Arcadians 6.507. And that Evander was the king of the place. 6.508. Hiding her divinity, Saturn’s daughter cleverly 6.509. Incited the Latian Bacchae with deceiving words: 6.510. ‘O too-easy-natured ones, caught by every feeling! 6.511. This stranger comes, but not as a friend, to our gathering. 6.512. She’s treacherous, and would learn our sacred rites: 6.513. But she has a child on whom we can wreak punishment.’ 6.514. She’d scarcely ended when the Thyiads, hair streaming 6.515. Over their necks, filled the air with their howling 6.516. Laid hands on Ino, and tried to snatch the boy. 6.517. She invoked gods with names as yet unknown to her: 6.518. ‘Gods, and men, of this land, help a wretched mother!’ 6.519. Her cry carried to the neighbouring Aventine. 6.520. Oetaean Hercules having driven the Iberian cattle 6.521. To the riverbank, heard and hurried towards the voice. 6.522. As he arrived, the women who’d been ready for violence 6.523. Shamefully turned their backs in cowardly flight. 6.524. ‘What are you doing here,’ said Hercules (recognising her) 6.525. ‘Sister of Bacchus’ mother? Does Juno persecute you too?’ 6.526. She told him part of her tale, suppressing the rest because of her son: 6.527. Ashamed to have been goaded to crime by the Furies. 6.528. Rumour, so swift, flew on beating wings 6.529. And your name was on many a lip, Ino. 6.530. It’s said you entered loyal Carmentis’ home 6.531. As a guest, and assuaged your great hunger: 6.532. They say the Tegean priestess quickly made cake 6.533. With her own hands, and baked them on the hearth. 6.534. Now cakes delight the goddess at the Matralia: 6.535. Country ways pleased her more than art’s attentions. 6.536. ‘Now, O prophetess,’ she said, ‘reveal my future fate 6.537. As far as is right. Add this, I beg, to your hospitality.’ 6.538. A pause ensued. Then the prophetess assumed divine powers 6.539. And her whole breast filled with the presence of the god: 6.540. You’d hardly have known her then, so much taller 6.541. And holier she’d become than a moment before. 6.542. ‘I sing good news, Ino,’ she said, ‘your trials are over 6.543. Be a blessing to your people for evermore. 6.544. You’ll be a sea goddess, and your son will inhabit ocean. 6.545. Take different names now, among your own waves: 6.546. Greeks will call you Leucothea, our people Matuta: 6.547. Your son will have complete command of harbours 6.548. We’ll call him Portunus, Palaemon in his own tongue. 6.549. Go, and both be friends, I beg you, of our country!’ 6.550. Ino nodded, and gave her promise. Their trials were over 6.551. They changed their names: he’s a god and she’s a goddess. 6.552. You ask why she forbids the approach of female servants? 6.553. She hates them: by her leave I’ll sing the reason for her hate. 6.554. Daughter of Cadmus, one of your maid 6.555. Was often embraced by your husband. 6.556. Faithless Athamas secretly enjoyed her: he learned 6.557. From her that you gave the farmers parched seed. 6.558. You yourself denied it, but rumour confirmed it. 6.559. That’s why you hate the service of a maid. 6.560. But let no loving mother pray to her, for her child: 6.561. She herself proved an unfortunate parent. 6.562. Better command her to help another’s child: 6.563. She was more use to Bacchus than her own. 6.564. They say she asked you, Rutilius, ‘Where are you rushing? 6.565. As consul you’ll fall to the Marsian enemy on my day.’ 6.566. Her words were fulfilled, the Tolenu 6.567. Flowed purple, its waters mixed with blood. 6.568. The following year, Didius, killed on the same 6.569. Day, doubled the enemy’s strength. 6.570. Fortuna, the same day is yours, your temple 6.571. Founded by the same king, in the same place. 6.572. And whose is that statue hidden under draped robes? 6.582. Under cloth: the king’s face being covered by a robe. 6.589. Having secured her marriage by crime, Tullia 6.590. Used to incite her husband with words like these: 6.591. ‘What use if we’re equally matched, you by my sister’ 6.592. Murder, I by your brother’s, in leading a virtuous life? 6.593. Better that my husband and your wife had lived 6.594. Than that we shrink from greater achievement. 6.595. I offer my father’s life and realm as my dower: 6.596. If you’re a man, go take the dower I speak of. 6.601. With blood and slaughter the weak old man was defeated: 6.602. Tarquin the Proud snatched his father-in-law’s sceptre. 6.603. Servius himself fell bleeding to the hard earth 6.604. At the foot of the Esquiline, site of his palace. 6.605. His daughter, driving to her father’s home 6.606. Rode through the streets, erect and haughty. 6.607. When her driver saw the king’s body, he halted 6.608. In tears. She reproved him in these terms: 6.609. ‘Go on, or do you seek the bitter fruits of virtue? 6.610. Drive the unwilling wheels, I say, over his face.’ 6.611. A certain proof of this is Evil Street, named 6.612. After her, while eternal infamy marks the deed. 6.613. Yet she still dared to visit her father’s temple 6.614. His monument: what I tell is strange but true. 6.615. There was a statue enthroned, an image of Servius: 6.616. They say it put a hand to its eyes 6.617. And a voice was heard: ‘Hide my face 6.618. Lest it view my own wicked daughter.’ 6.619. It was veiled by cloth, Fortune refused to let the robe 6.620. Be removed, and she herself spoke from her temple: 6.621. ‘The day when Servius’ face is next revealed 6.622. Will be a day when shame is cast aside.’ 6.623. Women, beware of touching the forbidden cloth 6.624. (It’s sufficient to utter prayers in solemn tones) 6.625. And let him who was the City’s seventh king 6.626. Keep his head covered, forever, by this veil. 6.627. The temple once burned: but the fire spared 6.628. The statue: Mulciber himself preserved his son. 6.629. For Servius’ father was Vulcan, and the lovely 6.630. Ocresia of Corniculum his mother. 6.631. Once, performing sacred rites with her in the due manner 6.632. Tanaquil ordered her to pour wine on the garlanded hearth: 6.633. There was, or seemed to be, the form of a male organ 6.634. In the ashes: the shape was really there in fact. 6.635. The captive girl sat on the hearth, as commanded: 6.636. She conceived Servius, born of divine seed. 6.637. His father showed his paternity by touching the child’ 6.638. Head with fire, and a cap of flames glowed on his hair. 6.639. And Livia, this day dedicated a magnificent shrine to you 6.640. Concordia, that she offered to her dear husband. 6.641. Learn this, you age to come: where Livia’s Colonnade 6.642. Now stands, there was once a vast palace. 6.643. A site that was like a city: it occupied a space 6.644. Larger than that of many a walled town. 6.645. It was levelled to the soil, not because of its owner’s treason 6.646. But because its excess was considered harmful. 6.647. Caesar counteced the demolition of such a mass 6.648. Destroying its great wealth to which he was heir. |
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17. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 14.129-14.153 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)
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18. Philo of Alexandria, On The Contemplative Life, 66-70, 72, 78-79, 81, 83-89, 64 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)
| 64. But since the entertainments of the greatest celebrity are full of such trifling and folly, bearing conviction in themselves, if any one should think fit not to regard vague opinion and the character which has been commonly handed down concerning them as feasts which have gone off with the most eminent success, I will oppose to them the entertainments of those persons who have devoted their whole life and themselves to the knowledge and contemplation of the affairs of nature in accordance with the most sacred admonitions and precepts of the prophet Moses. |
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19. Propertius, Elegies, 4.9.37-4.9.50 (1st cent. BCE
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20. Vergil, Aeneis, 2.27, 3.443-3.445, 4.650-4.662, 6.1-6.2, 6.9-6.12, 6.14-6.44, 6.46-6.155, 6.258-6.259, 6.262-6.264, 7.563-7.571, 8.203-8.204, 8.349-8.354, 11.429 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 2.27. with arms and soldiery. In sight of Troy 3.443. “I live, 't is true. I lengthen out my days 3.444. through many a desperate strait. But O, believe 3.445. that what thine eyes behold is vision true. 4.650. whisper old omens dire. In dreams she feels 4.651. cruel Aeneas goad her madness on 4.652. and ever seems she, friendless and alone 4.653. ome lengthening path to travel, or to seek 4.654. her Tyrians through wide wastes of barren lands. 4.655. Thus frantic Pentheus flees the stern array 4.656. of the Eumenides, and thinks to see 4.657. two noonday lights blaze oer his doubled Thebes ; 4.658. or murdered Agamemnon's haunted son 4.659. Orestes, flees his mother's phantom scourge 4.660. of flames and serpents foul, while at his door 4.661. avenging horrors wait. Now sorrow-crazed 4.662. and by her grief undone, resolved on death 6.1. After such words and tears, he flung free rein 6.2. To the swift fleet, which sped along the wave 6.9. To find the seed-spark hidden in its veins; 6.10. One breaks the thick-branched trees, and steals away 6.11. The shelter where the woodland creatures bide; 6.12. One leads his mates where living waters flow. 6.14. The templed hill where lofty Phoebus reigns 6.15. And that far-off, inviolable shrine 6.16. of dread Sibylla, in stupendous cave 6.17. O'er whose deep soul the god of Delos breathes 6.18. Prophetic gifts, unfolding things to come. 6.20. Here Daedalus, the ancient story tells 6.21. Escaping Minos' power, and having made 6.22. Hazard of heaven on far-mounting wings 6.23. Floated to northward, a cold, trackless way 6.24. And lightly poised, at last, o'er Cumae 's towers. 6.25. Here first to earth come down, he gave to thee 6.26. His gear of wings, Apollo! and ordained 6.27. Vast temples to thy name and altars fair. 6.28. On huge bronze doors Androgeos' death was done; 6.29. And Cecrops' children paid their debt of woe 6.30. Where, seven and seven,—0 pitiable sight!— 6.31. The youths and maidens wait the annual doom 6.32. Drawn out by lot from yonder marble urn. 6.33. Beyond, above a sea, lay carven Crete :— 6.34. The bull was there; the passion, the strange guile; 6.35. And Queen Pasiphae's brute-human son 6.36. The Minotaur—of monstrous loves the sign. 6.37. Here was the toilsome, labyrinthine maze 6.38. Where, pitying love-lorn Ariadne's tears 6.39. The crafty Daedalus himself betrayed 6.40. The secret of his work; and gave the clue 6.41. To guide the path of Theseus through the gloom. 6.42. 0 Icarus, in such well-graven scene 6.43. How proud thy place should be! but grief forbade: 6.44. Twice in pure gold a father's fingers strove 6.46. Aeneas long the various work would scan; 6.47. But now Achates comes, and by his side 6.48. Deiphobe, the Sibyl, Glaucus' child. 6.49. Thus to the prince she spoke : 6.50. “Is this thine hour 6.51. To stand and wonder? Rather go obtain 6.52. From young unbroken herd the bullocks seven 6.53. And seven yearling ewes, our wonted way.” 6.54. Thus to Aeneas; his attendants haste 6.55. To work her will; the priestess, calling loud 6.57. Deep in the face of that Euboean crag 6.58. A cavern vast is hollowed out amain 6.59. With hundred openings, a hundred mouths 6.60. Whence voices flow, the Sibyl's answering songs. 6.61. While at the door they paused, the virgin cried : 6.62. “Ask now thy doom!—the god! the god is nigh!” 6.63. So saying, from her face its color flew 6.64. Her twisted locks flowed free, the heaving breast 6.65. Swelled with her heart's wild blood; her stature seemed 6.66. Vaster, her accent more than mortal man 6.67. As all th' oncoming god around her breathed : 6.68. “On with thy vows and prayers, 0 Trojan, on! 6.69. For only unto prayer this haunted cave 6.70. May its vast lips unclose.” She spake no more. 6.71. An icy shudder through the marrow ran 6.72. of the bold Trojans; while their sacred King 6.73. Poured from his inmost soul this plaint and prayer : 6.74. “Phoebus, who ever for the woes of Troy 6.75. Hadst pitying eyes! who gavest deadly aim 6.76. To Paris when his Dardan shaft he hurled 6.77. On great Achilles! Thou hast guided me 6.78. Through many an unknown water, where the seas 6.79. Break upon kingdoms vast, and to the tribes 6.80. of the remote Massyli, whose wild land 6.81. To Syrtes spreads. But now; because at last 6.82. I touch Hesperia's ever-fleeting bound 6.83. May Troy 's ill fate forsake me from this day! 6.84. 0 gods and goddesses, beneath whose wrath 6.85. Dardania's glory and great Ilium stood 6.86. Spare, for ye may, the remt of my race! 6.87. And thou, most holy prophetess, whose soul 6.88. Foreknows events to come, grant to my prayer 6.89. (Which asks no kingdom save what Fate decrees) 6.90. That I may stablish in the Latin land 6.91. My Trojans, my far-wandering household-gods 6.92. And storm-tossed deities of fallen Troy . 6.93. Then unto Phoebus and his sister pale 6.94. A temple all of marble shall be given 6.95. And festal days to Phoebus evermore. 6.96. Thee also in my realms a spacious shrine 6.97. Shall honor; thy dark books and holy songs 6.98. I there will keep, to be my people's law; 6.99. And thee, benigt Sibyl for all time 6.100. A company of chosen priests shall serve. 6.101. O, not on leaves, light leaves, inscribe thy songs! 6.102. Lest, playthings of each breeze, they fly afar 6.103. In swift confusion! Sing thyself, I pray.” 6.104. So ceased his voice; the virgin through the cave 6.105. Scarce bridled yet by Phoebus' hand divine 6.106. Ecstatic swept along, and vainly stove 6.107. To fing its potent master from her breast; 6.108. But he more strongly plied his rein and curb 6.109. Upon her frenzied lips, and soon subdued 6.110. Her spirit fierce, and swayed her at his will. 6.111. Free and self-moved the cavern's hundred adoors 6.112. Swung open wide, and uttered to the air 6.113. The oracles the virgin-priestess sung : 6.114. “Thy long sea-perils thou hast safely passed; 6.115. But heavier woes await thee on the land. 6.116. Truly thy Trojans to Lavinian shore 6.117. Shall come—vex not thyself thereon—but, oh! 6.118. Shall rue their coming thither! war, red war! 6.119. And Tiber stained with bloody foam I see. 6.120. Simois, Xanthus, and the Dorian horde 6.121. Thou shalt behold; a new Achilles now 6.122. In Latium breathes,—he, too, of goddess born; 6.123. And Juno, burden of the sons of Troy 6.124. Will vex them ever; while thyself shalt sue 6.125. In dire distress to many a town and tribe 6.126. Through Italy ; the cause of so much ill 6.127. Again shall be a hostess-queen, again 6.128. A marriage-chamber for an alien bride. 6.129. Oh! yield not to thy woe, but front it ever 6.130. And follow boldly whither Fortune calls. 6.131. Thy way of safety, as thou least couldst dream 6.133. Thus from her shrine Cumaea's prophetess 6.134. Chanted the dark decrees; the dreadful sound 6.135. Reverberated through the bellowing cave 6.136. Commingling truth with ecstasies obscure. 6.137. Apollo, as she raged, flung loosened rein 6.138. And thrust beneath her heart a quickening spur. 6.139. When first her madness ceased, and her wild lips 6.140. Were still at last, the hero thus began : 6.141. “No tribulations new, 0 Sibyl blest 6.142. Can now confront me; every future pain 6.143. I have foretasted; my prophetic soul 6.144. Endured each stroke of fate before it fell. 6.145. One boon I ask. If of th' infernal King 6.146. This be the portal where the murky wave 6.147. of swollen Acheron o'erflows its bound 6.148. Here let me enter and behold the face 6.149. of my loved sire. Thy hand may point the way; 6.150. Thy word will open wide yon holy doors. 6.151. My father through the flames and falling spears 6.152. Straight through the centre of our foes, I bore 6.153. Upon these shoulders. My long flight he shared 6.154. From sea to sea, and suffered at my side 6.155. The anger of rude waters and dark skies,— 6.258. “0, guide me on, whatever path there be! 6.259. In airy travel through the woodland fly 6.262. 0 heavenly mother!” So saying, his steps lie stayed 6.263. Close watching whither they should signal give; 6.264. The lightly-feeding doves flit on and on 7.563. which, while in night and slumber thou wert laid 7.564. Saturnia 's godhead, visibly revealed 7.565. bade me declare. Up, therefore, and array 7.566. thy warriors in arms! Swift sallying forth 7.567. from thy strong city-gates, on to the fray 7.568. exultant go! Assail the Phrygian chiefs 7.569. who tent them by thy beauteous river's marge 7.570. and burn their painted galleys! 't is the will 7.571. of gods above that speaks. Yea, even the King 8.203. alike the northern and the southern sea. 8.204. Accept good faith, and give! Behold, our hearts 8.349. burst wide the doorway of the sooty den 8.350. and unto Heaven and all the people showed 8.351. the stolen cattle and the robber's crimes 8.352. and dragged forth by the feet the shapeless corpse 8.353. of the foul monster slain. The people gazed 8.354. insatiate on the grewsome eyes, the breast 11.429. for other land or people yearn, and fate |
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21. Vergil, Georgics, 2.173-2.174, 2.473-2.474 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 2.173. With it the Medes for sweetness lave the lips 2.174. And ease the panting breathlessness of age. 2.473. Nor cold by hoar-frost curdled, nor the prone 2.474. Dead weight of summer upon the parched crags |
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22. Lucan, Pharsalia, 3.399, 5.116-5.227 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
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23. Petronius Arbiter, Satyricon, 17.8, 19.2 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
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24. Petronius Arbiter, Satyricon, 17.8, 19.2 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
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25. Plutarch, On The Obsolescence of Oracles, None (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 431e. For if the souls which have been severed from a body, or have had no part with one at all, are demigods according to you and the divine Hesiod, Holy dwellers on earth and the guardian spirits of mortals, why deprive souls in bodies of that power by virtue of which the demigods possess the natural faculty of knowing and revealing future events before they happen? For it is not likely that any power or portion accrues to souls when they have left the body, if they did not possess them before; but the souls always possess them; only they possess them to a slight degree while conjoined with the body, some of them being completely imperceptible and hidden, others weak and dim, and about as ineffectual and slow in operation as person |
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26. Plutarch, Oracles At Delphi No Longer Given In Verse, None (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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27. Plutarch, Demetrius, 23.5 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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28. Plutarch, Coriolanus, 3.4 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 3.4. In the battle of which I was speaking, it is said that Castor and Pollux appeared, and that immediately after the battle they were seen, their horses all a-drip with sweat, in the forum, announcing the victory, by the fountain where their temple now stands. Therefore the day on which this victory was won, the Ides of July, was consecrated to the Dioscuri. |
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29. Quintilian, Institutes of Oratory, 2.13.13 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 2.13.13. Timanthes, who was, I think, a native of Cythnus, provides an example of this in the painting with which he won the victory over Colotes of Teos. It represented the sacrifice of Iphigenia, and the artist had depicted an expression of grief on the face of Calchas and of still greater grief on that of Ulysses, while he had given Menelaus an agony of sorrow beyond which his art could not go. Having exhausted his powers of emotional expression he was at a loss to portray the father's face as it deserved, and solved the problem by veiling his head and leaving his sorrow to the imagination of the spectator. |
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30. Seneca The Younger, Thyestes, 651-682, 650 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
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31. Statius, Thebais, 4.419-4.442 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
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32. Valerius Flaccus Gaius, Argonautica, 4.392 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
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33. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.24.1, 10.12.6 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 2.24.1. The citadel they call Larisa, after the daughter of Pelasgus. After her were also named two of the cities in Thessaly, the one by the sea and the one on the Peneus. As you go up the citadel you come to the sanctuary of Hera of the Height, and also a temple of Apollo, which is said to have been first built by Pythaeus when he came from Delphi . The present image is a bronze standing figure called Apollo Deiradiotes, because this place, too, is called Deiras (Ridge). Oracular responses are still given here, and the oracle acts in the following way. There is a woman who prophesies, being debarred from intercourse with a man. Every month a lamb is sacrificed at night, and the woman, after tasting the blood, becomes inspired by the god. 10.12.6. However, death came upon her in the Troad, and her tomb is in the grove of the Sminthian with these elegiac verses inscribed upon the tomb-stone:— Here I am, the plain-speaking Sibyl of Phoebus, Hidden beneath this stone tomb. A maiden once gifted with voice, but now for ever voiceless, By hard fate doomed to this fetter. But I am buried near the nymphs and this Hermes, Enjoying in the world below a part of the kingdom I had then. The Hermes stands by the side of the tomb, a square-shaped figure of stone. On the left is water running down into a well, and the images of the nymphs. |
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34. Iamblichus, Concerning The Mysteries, 3.4-3.6 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)
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