Herodotus, Histories 1.53.3 · 1.53.3

Both oracles say the same thing, which is itself part of the proof Croesus wanted: if he makes war on the Persians he will destroy megalēn archēn, "a great empire." The line is famous because it never says whose empire. Croesus hears his enemy's; the god has not actually said that, and never will. Herodotus states the prophecy once, plainly, and lets it sit there unexplained until the story itself explains it.

The second piece of advice is practical rather than prophetic: find the most powerful of the Greeks and make them friends. It is ordinary counsel, the kind any adviser might give a king about to go to war, and it sits next to the riddle about the empire as if the two were equally reliable. Croesus will act on both instructions. Only one of them will turn out as he expects.

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