Histories

Herodotus

Herodotus. Godley, Alfred Denis, translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd., 1920-1925 (printing).

Now none relate what answer was given by the rest of the oracles. But at Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi, no sooner had the Lydians entered the hall to inquire of the god and asked the question with which they were entrusted, than the Pythian priestess uttered the following hexameter verses:

  1. “I know the number of the grains of sand and the extent of the sea,
  2. And understand the mute and hear the voiceless.
  3. The smell has come to my senses of a strong-shelled tortoise
  4. Boiling in a cauldron together with a lamb's flesh,
  5. Under which is bronze and over which is bronze.”