2. POPE SYLVESTER was also told that he should die at Jerusalem, and he died while saying mass in a church so called at Rome.
3. CAMBYSES, son of Cyrus, was told that he should die in Ecbat'ana, which he supposed meant the capital of Media. Being wounded accidentally in Syria, he asked the name of the place; and being told it was Ecbatana, "Here, then, I am destined to end my life."
4. A Messenian seer, being sent to consult the Delphic oracle respecting the issue of the Messenian war, then raging, received for reply:
When the goat stoops to drink of the Neda, O, seer,
From Messenia flee, for its ruin is near!
In order to avert this calamity, all goats were diligently chased from the banks of the Neda. One day, Theoclos observed a fig tree growing on the river-side, and its branches dipped into the stream. The interpretation of the oracle flashed across his mind, for he remembered that goat and fig tree, in the Messenian dialect were the same word.
The pun would be clearer to an English reader if "a stork" were substituted for the goat: "When a stork stoops to drink of the Neda;" and the "stalk" of the fig tree dipping into the stream.
5. When the allied Greeks demanded of the Delphic oracle what would be the issue of the battle of Salamis, they received for answer:
Seed-time and harvest, weeping sires shall tell