Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.6.2 · 1.6.2
Apollo answers in verse
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Χρᾷ δὲ ὁ θεὸς κοινὰ ἀμφοτέροις τὰ μαντεύματα ἐμμέτρως. Τὰ ⟨δ’⟩ ἔπη τάδε· Τίπτε ποθεῖτε μαθεῖν νούσου τέλος ἠδὲ καὶ ἀρχήν; Ἀμφοτέρους μία νοῦσος ἔχει, λύσις ἔνθεν ἀνέστη. Δεινὰ δʼ ὁρῶ τοῖσδεσσι πάθη καὶ ἀνήνυτα ἔργα· ἀμφότεροι φεύξονται ὑπεὶρ ἅλα λυσσοδίωκτοι, δεσμὰ δὲ μοχθήσουσι παρʼ ἀνδράσι μιξοθαλάσσοις καὶ τάφος ἀμφοτέροις θάλαμος καὶ πῦρ ἀΐδηλον, καὶ ποταμοῦ Νείλου παρὰ ῥεύμασιν Ἴσιδι σεμνῇ σωτείρῃ μετόπισθε παραστῇς ὄλβια δῶρα. Ἀλλʼ ἔτι που μετὰ πήματʼ ἀρείονα πότμον ἔχουσι.
The god gave his oracles to both in common, in verse. These were the verses: Why do you long to learn the end of the sickness, and its beginning too? One sickness holds them both; from there the cure has risen. I see terrible sufferings for these two, and endless labors. Both will flee over the sea, pursued by madness; they will suffer chains among sea-mingled men; for both, a tomb will be a bridal chamber, and there will be destroying fire. And beside the streams of the river Nile you will afterwards offer rich gifts to holy Isis, the savior. But still, somehow, after their woes, a better fate is theirs.
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The setting
Book 1, chapter 6. The envoys from both families have asked Apollo for the truth about the sickness.
A note on this passage
The oracle at Claros gave its answers in verse (Tacitus, Annals 2.54), and this answer is nine hexameters, the meter of Homer, in Homer's dialect: νοῦσος for νόσος, τοῖσδεσσι for τοῖσδε, ὑπείρ for ὑπέρ. The lines name what is coming without explaining it: flight over the sea, chains among sea-mingled men, a tomb that is a bridal chamber, a fire that destroys, gifts to Isis the savior by the Nile, and after the suffering a better fate. The story brings back every one of these, and the tomb and the bridal chamber meet again in Book 3 (3.7–3.8). The sacrifices in Ephesus brought no λύσις, no release from the trouble (1.5.8); the god says where it has risen, and in the next chapter the fathers cannot make out what any of it means (1.7.1).
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