King Xerxes & the Sibyl
(430 B.C.)
The King is kneeling, the sibyl is prophesying
prior to the Battle of Thermopylae
“You are the Great King, that king whom is
king over kings and kingdoms—
Your domains stretch around the while Mediterranean,
The Caspian to the Red Sea.
To all peoples and languages.
From Egypt, to Ethiopia, to Babylon, and Palestine, and soon to be
Greece!
But that will be short lived. (The King looked scornful at her last
words but remained kneeling and silent and looking towards the sun...)
With your Immortals, and two million man army, you will find a way
through the Hot Gates; a betrayer will show you for a handsome reward!
Soon the battle will be combined:
Victory at Thermopylae will be daunting to your soldiers;
You will need lashes to make them fight!
Thus, beseech the sun, if you will and death to the Greeks for
their idol-worship as you wish, and to their gods, you so despise, your victory
will be harsh. (From the corner of his eye, again he resented
her prophesying but remained silent, looking towards the sun…)
I see they guard the Hot Gates, their leader is Leonidas: and as
they do so your spies will soon tell you, they comb their hair, dance and eat.
Fear not, this is custom, it will pass. (And the
king thought: ‘How dare her say fear not, as if I have something to fear…! But
said naught.)
The blood of Hercules, runs through them.
There is seven hundred Thespians and four hundred Thebans, and
only three hundred Spartans, but they will kill 20,000-of your men!...
(The King did not blink an eye…)
Your heat will say: ‘Why do they not flee?’
The Thespians and Thebans hearts will be weak, but not the
Spartans.
The Thebans will beg for Mercy, but the Spartans will give no
quarter.
The mountains will cover them well.
And your generals will fight over the body Leonidas;
He will make your name remembered for three thousand years!”
The King stopped her, by gesture of a
movement of his hand:
he was resentful, hitherto, he had been
kneeling, not in a defensive or offensive posture, but now as to inspire those
around him for many dreaded the Grecian name of Leonidas, and so he spoke:
“Wretched Seer,” he cried, and his cry being
more like yelp of a hound, could be heard throughout his immense campsite:
“It is I who will make him unforgotten,
for a dozen millenniums to come!”
And she trembled, for at great length his
words echoed in her cerebellum: but she could not withdraw them, it is what she
saw.
And nay, he would not believe.
“You lie!” said the Great King,
“untrustworthy oracle.”
Then word was brought to King Xerxes, his
two brothers were killed, as was Leonidas.
Then the Great king asked for the exiled
Spartan Prince, Demaratus, whom was to his side, called the betrayer:
“How many such Spartans like Leonidas are
there in Greece?”
And Demaratus told him there was a total
of eight thousand.
And then the King stood up from his latter
position, looked at the seer, and she knew (and she could hear the crackling of the
chestnut leaves under the feet of the
Persian general Hydarnes, and his army infiltrated the passage, through the
thick forest that covered the hillside.):
And with the wave of his finger had the
Seer decapitated.
No: 4486 (7-24-2014)
