Herodotus, Histories 1.47.3 · 1.47.3
"I know the number of the sand"
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The Pythia — Οἶδα δʼ ἐγὼ ψάμμου τʼ ἀριθμὸν καὶ μέτρα θαλάσσης, καὶ κωφοῦ συνίημι, καὶ οὐ φωνεῦντος ἀκούω. ὀδμή μʼ ἐς φρένας ἦλθε κραταιρίνοιο χελώνης ἑψομένης ἐν χαλκῷ ἅμʼ ἀρνείοισι κρέεσσιν, ᾗ χαλκὸς μὲν ὑπέστρωται, χαλκὸν δʼ ἐπιέσται.
"I know the number of the sand and the measures of the sea; I understand the mute and hear the one who does not speak. A smell has come to my mind of a hard-shelled tortoise boiling in bronze with lamb's flesh; bronze is laid beneath it, and bronze is put over it."
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The setting
The Pythia's answer, in five lines of verse.
A note on this passage
The first two lines are the god introducing himself, and they are among the grandest in Greek. Apollo knows the number of grains of sand and the measure of the sea; he understands the mute and hears the one who says nothing. It is a claim to know what no one can count and to hear what makes no sound, and it is precisely the claim Croesus's test was built to check.
Then the god comes down to the kitchen. What reaches his <em>phrenes</em>, his mind, is a smell: a <em>krataírinos chelōnē</em>, a "hard-shelled tortoise," stewing in bronze with lamb. <em>Krataírinos</em> is an oracle's word, built for the occasion from "strong" and "hide." The last line turns the bronze pot into a riddle, bronze beneath and bronze above, a cauldron with its lid. The concrete nouns are the whole point: the god proves he is a god by getting the menu right.
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Herodotus, Histories 1.47.3 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/herodotus/1.47.3/