Doug
It was allegedly the last oracle given at Delphi, to Julian the Apostate,
a.d. 361. Swinburne used it as the epigraph to his once celebrated poem,
which also includes a translation. The first stanza is below. I should have
remembered that, so i had seen it before, but the time since I last read
Swinburne is almost as far away as the Delphic Oracle :)
THE LAST ORACLE
(A.D. 361)
εἴπατε τῷ βασιλῆϊ, χαμαὶ πέσε δαίδαλος αὐλά·
οὐκέτι φοῖβος ἔχει καλύβαν, οὐ μάντιδα δάφνην,
οὐ παγάν λαλέουσαν · ἀπέσβετο καὶ λάλον ὕδωρ.
Years have risen and fallen in darkness or in twilight,
Ages waxed and waned that knew not thee nor thine,
While the world sought light by night and sought not thy light,
Since the sad last pilgrim left thy dark mid shrine.
Dark the shrine and dumb the fount of song thence welling,
5
Save for words more sad than tears of blood, that said:
Tell the king, on earth has fallen the glorious dwelling,
And the watersprings that spake are quenched and dead.
Not a cell is left the God, no roof, no cover
In his hand the prophet laurel flowers no more.
10
And the great king's high sad heart, thy true last lover,
Felt thine answer pierce and cleave it to the core.
And he bowed down his hopeless head
In the drift of the wild world's tide,
And dying, Thou hast conquered, he said,
15
Galilean; he said it, and died.
On 24 April 2011 20:16, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 'Tis indeed. David, thanks...
>
> Doug
> On 2011-04-24, at 2:43 AM, David Bircumshaw wrote:
>
> > On a different, but not entirely dissimilar note, I hadn't come across
> this
> > beautiful little 4th century (A.D.) Greek poem before. It's a lament for
> the
> > passing of the Classical gods. The translation is by Andrew Foreman.
>
> Douglas Barbour
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
> http://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
>
> Latest books:
> Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
> Wednesdays'
>
> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
>
> Just a late night pilgrim
> Looking for redemption in the underground.
> Lord, won't you help a late night pilgrim
> When the morning comes around.
>
> Tift Merritt
>
--
David Joseph Bircumshaw
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave
blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/
|