ADYTON
A Delphic consultation. Two actions, purification. The first goat in a lifetime always passes; after that it may refuse. The god does not choose for you.
德尔斐式求问。两途、净手。终身第一次试牲必过；其后或可被拒。神不代人抉择。
ENGLISH
These are traditions, not history, and not a model for how to ask. Each tells only how a sentence was sought, how it was taken, and how it ended. The god does not choose for you.
If you cross the Halys, you will destroy a great empire.
The king of Lydia first tested the oracles, judged Delphi true, and sent to ask what would follow if he made war on Persia. The Pythia gave this sentence.
He heard his own victory. He did not ask which empire would fall. He crossed the Halys.
Cyrus took Sardis. Lydia ended. The empire destroyed was his. The god did not choose for him.
The wooden wall only shall not fail.
The Persian host was coming. Athens asked Delphi how the city should stand, and received the sentence of the wooden wall, with words of holy Salamis.
Some heard the timber of the Acropolis, and would hold the rock. Themistocles heard ships, and urged the people to the sea.
The fight was won at Salamis. One utterance; two understandings; two roads for the city.
No one is wiser than Socrates.
Chaerephon went to Delphi in his place and asked whether any man was wiser than Socrates. The god said no.
Socrates did not take it as praise. He went to politicians, poets, and craftsmen, looking for a wiser man, so that the utterance might be proved wrong.
He kept only this: others did not know that they did not know; he knew that he did not. He stood by that asking at his trial. The sentence did not choose how he should live.
The son will kill his father and marry his mother.
This is myth, not a model for asking. Laius went to Delphi about a son, and received this. When Oedipus was grown he went also, asking who he was, and heard the same.
Laius exposed the child on the mountain. Oedipus took the king and queen of Corinth for his parents, and left them to flee the utterance. Both treated it as a fate to escape, not as two actions of which one was better.
In fleeing they met: Laius died at the crossing; Oedipus entered Thebes and married Jocasta. They asked whether it would be fulfilled. The flight became the road.
You are invincible, my child.
Alexander came to Delphi before the campaign, wanting a sentence. It was not the day for the Pythia to speak. The house refused.
He would not wait. He went in and dragged her to the seat. Forced to open her mouth, she said this.
He left satisfied, and took the words as leave to march. To force an opening is no longer to ask. Neither the utterance nor the goat becomes a choice because a man hurries them.
中文
传说如此，并非信史，也不是示范问法。各则只记：如何求得一句，如何领会，结局如何。神不代人抉择。
渡过哈吕斯河，将毁灭一个大帝国。
吕底亚王先试各处神谕是否灵验，认定德尔斐可问，再派人去问：若讨伐波斯，结果如何。皮提亚回了这一句。
他听成自己必胜，未问是哪一个帝国将被毁灭，便渡哈吕斯河开战。
居鲁士破萨迪斯，吕底亚亡。灭掉的是他自己的国。神没有替他选择。
唯木墙不可破。
波斯大军将至。雅典人到德尔斐求问城邦当如何自处，得「木墙」之句，并有「神圣的萨拉米斯」等语。
有人认作卫城的木栅，要据城死守。地米斯托克利认作舰船，劝人登船出海。
海战在萨拉米斯打赢。同一句神谕，领会不同，城邦的活路也不同。
无人比苏格拉底更智慧。
凯勒丰到德尔斐代问：有没有人比苏格拉底更智慧。神说没有。
苏格拉底不把这句话当赞美。他去寻政客、诗人、工匠，要找出更智慧的人，好证明神谕有误。
他只得到这一点：别人不知己不知，他自知其无知。后来受审，仍守这一问。神谕没有替他选择怎么活。
子将弑父，并娶其母。
这是神话，不是可效的问法。拉伊俄斯先到德尔斐，问子嗣之事，得此句。俄狄浦斯长大后，亦到德尔斐问自己的身世，听到的是同一件事。
拉伊俄斯弃婴于山。俄狄浦斯以科任托斯王夫妇为父母，为躲避神谕而离开。两人都把神谕当成必须躲开的命运，而不是两途之中何者为善。
他们在躲避中相遇：拉伊俄斯死于路口，俄狄浦斯入底比斯，娶了伊奥卡斯特。问的是会否应验，结局是躲避本身成了路。
孩子，你不可战胜。
亚历山大到德尔斐，想在出征前求得一句。那日不是皮提亚开口的日子，神殿拒问。
他不候祭日，自己走进去，拖女祭司上座。她被逼开口，说出这一句。
他满意离去，把这句话当作出征的允准。强求开口，已不是求问。神谕与羊的可否，都不因人催促而变成选择。