In the extended complement ofsibyls of the Gothic andRenaissance imagination, thePhrygian Sibyl was the priestess presiding over anApollonianoracle atPhrygia, a historical kingdom in the west central part of theAnatolian highlands. She was popularly identified withCassandra, prophetess daughter ofPriam's inHomer'sIliad.[1]
The Phrygian sibyl appears to be one of a triplicated sibyl, with theHellespontine Sibyl and theErythraean Sibyl and may be a doublet of the Hellespontine Sibyl. There was indeed an oracular site in Phrygia, but a single one, at Gergitis.
The sibyls ofAntiquity were increased to ten inLactantius'Divine Institutions (i.6) a 4th-century work quoting from a lost work ofVarro, (1st century BCE).
The wordsibyl comes, viaLatin, from theancient Greek wordsibylla, meaning 'prophetess'. There were several Sibyls in the ancient world, all of whom were re-employed inChristian mythology, to prefigureChristian eschatology:
When the dread trumpet resounds, the deepest earth will yawn open,
Kings will be set before the throne of God.
He will deliver the final judgement on the good and the wicked,
for the latter, fire, for the rest, eternal delights.[2]
Such were the lines, based onTuba mirum and composed by Aria Montano for the portrait of the "Phrygian Sibyl" (1575), one of the suite of ten copperplate engravings of the Sibyls by the Antwerp artist Philip Galle (1537–1612).
Media related toSibyl of Phrygia at Wikimedia Commons
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