§8ἤδη δὲ προϊόντες ἦμεν κατὰ τὸν Ἱέρωνος ἀνδριάντα τοῦ τυράννου· καὶ τῶν μὲν ἄλλων ὁ ξένος εἰδὼς ἅπαντα παρεῖχεν ὅμως ὑπʼ εὐκολίας ἀκροατὴν αὑτόν·
As we went on, we were already by the statue of the tyrant Hieron; and the stranger, though he knew everything about the other things, nevertheless, out of his good nature, offered himself as a listener.
ἀκούσας δʼ ὅτι κίων τις ἑστὼς ἄνω χαλκοῦς Ἱέρωνος ἔπεσεν, αὐτομάτως τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης, τὸν Ἱέρωνα συνέβαινεν ἐν Συρακούσαις τελευτᾶν, ἐθαύμασε.
But when he heard that a certain bronze column of Hieron standing above had fallen of its own accord on that very day, and that it happened that Hieron died in Syracuse on the same day, he wondered.
κἀγὼ τῶν ὁμοίων ἅμα συνανεμίμνησκον, οἷα δὴ τοῦ Ἱέρωνος μὲν τοῦ Σπαρτιάτου, ὅτι πρὸ τῆς ἐν Λεύκτροις αὐτῷ γενομένης τελευτῆς ἐξέπεσον οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ τοῦ ἀνδριάντος, οἱ δʼ ἀστέρες ἠφανίσθησαν οὓς Λύσανδρος ἀνέθηκεν ἀπὸ τῆς ἐν Αἰγὸς ποταμοῖς ναυμαχίας.
And I at the same time reminded him of similar events, such as that of Hieron the Spartan, that before the death that befell him at Leuctra, the eyes of his statue fell out, and the stars disappeared which Lysander had dedicated after the naval battle at Aegospotami.
ὁ δʼ αὐτοῦ τοῦ Λυσάνδρου λίθινος ἀνδριὰς ἐξήνθησεν ἀγρίαν λόχμην καὶ πόαν τοσαύτην τὸ πλῆθος, ὥστε κατακρύψαι τὸ πρόσωπον.
And the stone statue of Lysander himself sprouted a wild thicket and grass so great in quantity as to hide his face.
ἐν δὲ τοῖς Σικελικοῖς τῶν Ἀθηναίων ἀτυχήμασιν αἵ τε χρυσαῖ τοῦ φοίνικος ἀπέρρεον βάλανοι, καὶ τὴν ἀσπίδα τοῦ Παλλαδίου κόρακες περιέκοπτον.
And at the time of the Sicilian disasters of the Athenians, the golden dates of the palm tree fell off, and crows pecked around the shield of the Palladium.
ὁ δὲ Κνιδίων στέφανος, ὃν Φαρσαλίᾳ τῇ ὀρχηστρίδι Φιλόμηλος ὁ Φωκέων τύραννος ἐδωρήσατο, μεταστᾶσαν αὐτὴν ἐκ τῆς Ἑλλάδος εἰς τὴν Ἰταλίαν, ἀπώλεσεν ἐν Μεταποντίῳ παίζουσαν περὶ τὸν νεὼν τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος· ὁρμήσαντες γὰρ ἐπὶ τὸν στέφανον οἱ νεανίσκοι καὶ μαχόμενοι περὶ τοῦ χρυσίου πρὸς ἀλλήλους διέσπασαν τὴν ἄνθρωπον.
And the crown of the Cnidians, which Philomelus the tyrant of the Phocians had given to Pharsalia the dancing-girl, when she moved from Greece to Italy, destroyed her as she was playing around the temple of Apollo in Metapontum; for the young men, rushing for the crown and fighting with one another for the gold, tore the woman to pieces.
Ἀριστοτέλης μὲν οὖν μόνον Ὅμηρον ἔλεγε κινούμενα ποιεῖν ὀνόματα διὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν ἐγὼ δὲ φαίην ἂν καὶ τῶν ἀναθημάτων τὰ ἐνταυθοῖ μάλιστα συγκινεῖσθαι καὶ συνεπισημαίνειν τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ προνοίᾳ· καὶ τούτων μέρος μηδὲν εἶναι κενὸν μηδʼ ἀναίσθητον, ἀλλὰ πεπλῆσθαι πάντα θειότητος;
Aristotle indeed said that Homer alone made "words that move" because of their vividness, but I would say that the dedications here also especially move together and signal together with the providence of the god; and that no part of these is empty or without feeling, but all are full of divinity.
. καὶ ὁ Βόηθος
ναί
εἶπεν· οὐ γὰρ ἀρκεῖ τὸν θεὸν εἰς σῶμα καθειργνύναι θνητὸν ἅπαξ ἑκάστου μηνός, ἀλλὰ καὶ λίθῳ παντὶ καὶ χαλκῷ συμφυράσομεν αὐτόν, ὥσπερ οὐκ ἔχοντες ἀξιόχρεων τῶν τοιούτων συμπτωμάτων τὴν τύχην δημιουργὸν καὶ ταὐτόματον. εἶτʼ
ἔφην ἐγώ
τύχῃ σοι δοκεῖ καὶ αὐτόματον τῶν τοιούτων ἕκαστον ἐοικέναι, καὶ πιθανόν ἐστι τὰς ἀτόμους ἐξολισθεῖν καὶ διαλυθῆναι καὶ παρεγκλῖναι μήτε πρότερον μήθʼ ὕστερον, ἀλλὰ κατʼ ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον, ἐν ᾧ τῶν ἀναθέντων ἕκαστος;
And Boethus said, "Yes; for it is not enough to shut up the god in a mortal body once every month, but we must also mix him up with every stone and bronze, as if we did not have chance and the spontaneous as a fully sufficient creator of such coincidences." "Then," said I, "does each of such things seem to you to resemble chance and the spontaneous, and is it plausible that the atoms should slip and dissolve and swerve neither earlier nor later, but at that very time in which each of those who dedicated them was about to fare worse or better?
ἢ χεῖρον ἔμελλε πράξειν ἢ βέλτιον; καὶ σὲ μὲν Ἐπίκουρος ὠφελεῖ νῦν ὡς ἔοικεν ἀφʼ ὧν εἶπεν ἢ ἔγραψε πρὸ ἐτῶν τριακοσίων· ὁ θεὸς δʼ, εἰ μὴ συνείρξειε φέρων ἑαυτὸν εἰς ἅπαντα μηδʼ ἀνακερασθείη πᾶσιν, οὐκ ἄν σοι δοκοίη κινήσεως ἀρχὴν καὶ πάθους αἰτίαν παρασχεῖν οὐδενὶ τῶν ὄντων; ʼ §9τοιαῦτα μὲν ἐγὼ πρὸς τὸν Βόηθον ἀπεκρινάμην, ὅμοια δὲ περὶ τῶν Σιβυλλείων.
And Epicurus benefits you now, as it seems, from what he said or wrote three hundred years ago; but the god, if he does not shut himself up, bringing himself into all things, nor is mixed with all, would he not seem to you to provide a beginning of motion and a cause of change to none of existing things?" Such were the answers I made to Boethus, and similar ones concerning the Sibylline matters.
ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἔστημεν κατὰ τὴν πέτραν γενόμενοι τὴν κατὰ τὸ βουλευτήριον, ἐφʼ ἧς λέγεται καθίζεσθαι τὴν πρώτην Σίβυλλαν ἐκ τοῦ Ἑλικῶνος παραγενομένην ὑπὸ τῶν Μουσῶν τραφεῖσαν (ἔνιοι δέ φασιν ἐκ Μαλιέων ἀφικέσθαι Λαμίας οὖσαν θυγατέρα τῆς Ποσειδῶνος), ὁ μὲν Σαραπίων ἐμνήσθη τῶν ἐπῶν, ἐν οἷς ὕμνησεν ἑαυτήν, ὡς οὐδʼ ἀποθανοῦσα λήξει μαντικῆς· ἀλλʼ αὐτὴ μὲν ἐν τῇ σελήνῃ περίεισι τὸ καλούμενον φαινόμενον γενομένη πρόσωπον, τῷ δʼ ἀέρι τὸ πνεῦμα συγκραθὲν ἐν φήμαις ἀεὶ φορήσεται καὶ κληδόσιν· ἐκ δὲ τοῦ σώματος μεταβαλόντος ἐν τῇ γῇ πόας; καὶ ὕλης ἀναφυομένης, βοσκήσεται ταύτην ἱερὰ θρέμματα, χρόας τε παντοδαπὰς ἴσχοντα καὶ μορφὰς καὶ ποιότητας ἐπὶ τῶν σπλάγχνων ἀφʼ ὧν αἱ προδηλώσεις ἀνθρώποις τοῦ μέλλοντος.
For when we came and stood by the rock near the council-house, on which it is said that the first Sibyl sat when she came from Helicon, having been brought up by the Muses (though some say she came from the Malians, being Lamia, the daughter of Poseidon), Sarapion remembered the verses in which she praised herself, saying that even after death she would not cease from prophecy; but she herself would go round in the moon, becoming the so-called face that appears, while her breath, mixed with the air, would always be carried in rumors and omens; and from her body, as it changed in the earth, and as grass and herbage grew up, sacred beasts would feed on this, having all kinds of colors, shapes, and qualities upon their entrails, from which come the forewarnings of the future to men.
ὁ δὲ Βόηθος ἔτι μᾶλλον ἦν φανερὸς καταγελῶν τοῦ δὲ ξένου εἰπόντος, ὡς, εἰ καὶ ταῦτα μύθοις ἔοικεν, ἀλλὰ ταῖς γε μαντείαις ἐπιμαρτυροῦσι πολλαὶ μὲν ἀναστάσεις καὶ μετοικισμοὶ πόλεων Ἑλληνίδων, πολλαὶ δὲ βαρβαρικῶν στρατιῶν ἐπιφάνειαι καὶ ἀναιρέσεις ἡγεμονιῶν· ταυτὶ δὲ τὰ πρόσφατα καὶ νέα πάθη περί τε Κύμην καὶ Δικαιάρχειαν οὐχ ὑμνούμενα πάλαι καὶ ᾀδόμενα διὰ τῶν Σιβυλλείων ὁ χρόνος ὥσπερ ὀφείλων ἀποδέδωκεν, ἐκρήξεις πυρὸς ὀρείου καὶ ζέσεις θαλασσίας, καὶ πετρῶν καὶ φλεγμονῶν ὑπὸ πνεύματος ἀναρρίψεις, καὶ φθορὰς πολεων ἅμα τοσούτων καὶ τηλικούτων, ὡς μεθʼ ἡμέραν ἐπελθοῦσιν ἄγνοιαν εἶναι καὶ ἀσάφειαν ὅπου κατῴκηντο τῆς χώρας συγκεχυμένης;
Boethus was still more clearly laughing; but the stranger said that even if these things seem like myths, yet many destructions and migrations of Greek cities, and many appearances of barbarian armies and overthrows of empires bear witness to her prophecies; "and these recent and new disasters around Cumae and Dicaearchia, which were sung and chanted long ago through the Sibylline books, has not time paid them back as if owing a debt? Namely, the eruptions of mountain fire and boilings of the sea, and the tossings up of rocks and flames by the wind, and the destruction of so many and so great cities at once, so that to those who came the next day there was ignorance and uncertainty as to where they had been situated, the country having been confounded.
ταῦτα γὰρ εἰ γέγονε πιστεῦσαι χαλεπόν ἐστι, μὴ τί γε προειπεῖν ἄνευ θειότητος
For if these things are hard to believe even when they have happened, how much more is it impossible to foretell them without divinity?"