Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/83

 ANSWER OF THE DELPHIAN ORACLE. 59 express order of Xerxes, who (Jirected that the full strength of his assembled armament should be shown to them, in order that the terror of the Greeks might be thus magnified. The step was well calculated for such a purpose : but the discouragement througliout Greece was already extreme, at this critical period when the storm was about to burst upon them. Even to intelli- gent and well-meaning Greeks, much more to the careless, the timid, or the treacherous, — Xerxes with his countless host ap- peared irresistible, and indeed something more than human : i of course, such an impression would be encouraged by the large number of Greeks already his tributaries: and we may even trace a manifestation of a wish to get rid of the Athenians alto- gether, as the chief objects of Persian vengeance and chief hin- drance to tranquil submission. This despair of the very contin- uance of Hellenic life and autonomy breaks forth even from th^ sanctuary of Hellenic religion, the Delphian temple ; when the Athenians, in their distress and uncertainty, sent to consult the oracle. Hardly had their two envoys performed the customary sacrifices, and sat down in the inner chamber near the priestess Aristonike, when she at once exclaimed : " Wretched men, why sit ye there ? Quit your land and city, and flee afar ! Head body, feet, and hands are alike rotten : fire and sword, in the train of the Syrian chariot, shall overwhelm you : nor only your city, but other cities also, as well as many even of the temples of the gods, — which are now sweating and trembling with fear, and foreshadow, by drops of blood on their roofs, the hard calam- ities impending. Get ye away from the sanctuary, with your souls steeped in sorrow." 2 uv&puiTov, etc. : compare also vii, 56. 'AA/l' Itov e^ aSvTOLO, kqkoIc d* sircKcSvaTE ^vfiov. The general sense and scope of the oracle appears to me clear, in this case. It is a sentence of nothing but desolation and sadness ; though Bahi and Sch-weighauser, with other commentators, try to infuse into it some- thing of encouragement by construing ^vftov, fortitude. The translation of Valla and Schultz is nearer to the truth. But even when the general sense of an oracle is plain (which it hardly ever is), the particular phrases ara always wild and vague.
 * Herodot. vii, 203. ov yap ^ebi> elvai tov kniovra kirl tj/v 'EAAada, d^A'
 * Herodot. vii, 140.