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141Hearing this the men who had been sent by the Athenians to consult the Oracle were very greatly distressed; and as they were despairing by reason of the evil which had been prophesied to them, Timon the son of Androbulos, a man of the Delphians in reputation equal to the first, counselled them to take a suppliant's bough and to approach the second time and consult the Oracle as suppliants. The Athenians did as he advised and said: "Lord,[127] we pray thee utter to us some better oracle about our native land, having respect to these suppliant boughs which we have come to thee bearing; otherwise surely we will not depart away from the sanctuary, but will remain here where we are now, even until we bring our lives to an end." When they spoke these words, the prophetess gave them a second oracle as follows:
"Pallas cannot prevail to appease great Zeus in Olympos, Though she
with words very many and wiles close-woven entreat him. But I will
tell thee this more, and will clench it with steel adamantine: Then
when all else shall be taken, whatever the boundary[128] of Kecrops
Holdeth within, and the dark ravines of divinest Kithairon, A
bulwark of wood at the last Zeus grants to the Trito-born goddess
Sole to remain unwasted, which thee and thy children shall profit.
Stay thou not there for the horsemen to come and the footmen
unnumbered; Stay thou not still for the host from the mainland to
come, but retire thee, Turning thy back to the foe, for yet thou
shalt face him hereafter. Salamis, thou the divine, thou shalt cause
sons of women to perish, Or when the grain[129] is scattered or
when it is gathered together."
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Notes
[127] {onax}, cp. iv. 15.
[128] {ouros}: the word might of course be for {oros}, "mountain," and {Kekropos ouros} would then mean the Acropolis (so it is understood by Stein and others), but the combination with Kithairon makes it probable that the reference is to the boundaries of Attica, and this seems more in accordance with the reference to it in viii. 53.
[129] {Demeteros}.