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."

142. This seemed to them to be (as in truth it was) a milder utterance
than the former one; therefore they had it written down and departed
with it to Athens: and when the messengers after their return made
report to the people, many various opinions were expressed by persons
inquiring into the meaning of the oracle, and among them these, standing
most in opposition to one another:--some of the elder men said they
thought that the god had prophesied to them that the Acropolis should
survive; for the Acropolis of the Athenians was in old time fenced with
a thorn hedge; and they conjectured accordingly that this saying about
the "bulwark of wood" referred to the fence: others on the contrary said
that the god meant by this their ships, and they advised to leave all
else and get ready these. Now they who said that the ships were the
bulwark of wood were shaken in their interpretation by the two last
verses which the prophetess uttered:

"Salamis, thou t