In the futile attempt

to interpret and decipher

befogged divine wills,

might the mere flight

of a bird's wing

signify triumph

or portend defeat?

 

A fool's errand,

today we may scoff,

but a populace entire 

would hang all hope

on words of prognostication;

would the semantics 

foretell elevation, 

or abject castigation?

 

So, Tiresias the blind

is expected to divine, 

but really to opine

on the whims of Apollo, 

while the Argive Calchas 

must convert the abstract

into mantic utterance

that might well decide

Agamemnon's reluctance,

or bellicose furtherance.