[3]
The Lacedaemonians sent to
Delphi to inquire in what place the bones of
Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, were buried. And the oracle replied in this wise:“
A certain Tegea there is of
Arcady
In a smooth and level plain, where two winds blow
Before a stern necessity, to stroke
Comes answering stroke, and bane is heaped on bane.
There the life-giving earth holds fast the son
Of Agamemnon; bring thou him thence and then
The overlord of Tegea thou shalt be.
”It was a smithy that was referred to, and the oracle means by the two winds the
bellows,1 signifying by "stroke" the anvil and the hammers, and by "bane heaped
on bane," the iron upon iron; for iron is called a "bane" because the discovery of it has
worked to the hurt of mankind.
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1 The translation has been expanded, for the Greek is elliptic. The oracle and a detailed explanation of it are given in Hdt. 1.67-68.
Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.
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