Herodotus, Histories 1.91.2 · 1.91.2
Three years, no more
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προθυμεομένου δὲ Λοξίεω ὅκως ἂν κατὰ τοὺς παῖδας τοῦ Κροίσου γένοιτο τὸ Σαρδίων πάθος καὶ μὴ κατʼ αὐτὸν Κροῖσον, οὐκ οἷόν τε ἐγίνετο παραγαγεῖν μοίρας.
Though Loxias was eager that the fall of Sardis should come in the time of Croesus's sons, and not in Croesus's own time, it was not possible to turn the Fates aside.
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The Pythia continues: the god did try to help.
A note on this passage
Loxias, Apollo's oracular name, tried to help. Prothymeomenou de Loxieō, "though Loxias was eager," he wanted the disaster to fall on Croesus's sons rather than on Croesus himself. The god is not indifferent to the man he must ruin; he works, quietly, to move the blow onto someone else's lifetime. It is as close as Apollo comes to mercy anywhere in this story.
He could not get what he wanted. Ouk hoion te egineto paragagein moiras, "it was not possible to turn the Fates aside": even Apollo's effort meets a wall with the Fates' name on it. The sentence is short and flat, no excuse offered, and the flatness is the point. Herodotus is telling the reader exactly how much power a god holds over fate: enough to bargain, never enough to cancel.
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