Book 5
Of things unchangeable the song divine;
1
Yet loves the just. When men have left their homes
To seek another, it has turned their steps
Aright, as with the Tyrians;The Tyrians consulted the oracle in consequence of the earthquakes which vexed their country (Book III., line 255), and were told to found colonies. and raised
The hearts of men to war, as prove the waves
Of Salamis:See Herodotus, Book VII., 140-143. The reference is to the answer given by the oracle to the Athenians that their wooden walls would keep them safe; which Themistocles interpreted as meaning their fleet. when earth refused her fruits
Or plague has filled the air, this voice benign
Has given fresh hope and pointed to the end.
No gift from heaven's high gods so great as this
Our centuries have lost, since Delphi's shrine
Has silent stood, and kings forbade the godsCicero, on the contrary, suggests that the reason why the oracles ceased was this, that men became less credulous. ('De Div.,' ii., 57.) Lecky, 'History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne,' vol. i., p. 368.
To speak the future, fearing for their fates.
Nor does the priestess sorrow that the voice
Is heard no longer; and the silent fane
To her is happiness; for whatever breast
Contains the deity, its shattered frame
Surges with frenzy, and the soul divine
Shakes the frail breath that with the god receives,
As prize or punishment, untimely death.
These tripods Appius seeks, unmoved for years,
These soundless caverned rocks, in quest to learn
Hesperia's destinies. At his command
To loose the sacred gateways and permit
The prophetess to enter to the god,
The keeper calls Phemonoe;This name is one of those given to the Cumaean Sibyl mentioned at line 216. She was said to have been the daughter of Apollo. whose steps
Round the Castalian fount and in the grove
Were wandering careless; her he bids to pass
The portals. But the priestess feared to tread
The awful threshold, and with vain deceits
Sought to dissuade the chieftain from his zeal
To learn the future. ' What this hope,' she cried,
Roman, that moves thy breast to know the fates?
'Long has Parnassus and its silent cleft
'Stifled the god; perhaps the breath divine
'Has left its ancient gorge and through the world
'Wanders in devious paths; or else the fane,
'Consumed to ashes by barbarian Probably by the Gauls under Brennus, B.C. 279. fire,
'Closed up the deep recess and choked the path
'Of Phoebus; or the ancient Sibyl's books
'Disclosed enough of fate, and thus the gods
