Thesibyls[n 1] were prophetesses ororacles inAncient Greece.[1][2]
The sibylsprophesied at holy sites.[3] A sibyl atDelphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC byPausanias[4] when he described local traditions in his writings from the second century AD.At first, there appears to have been only a single sibyl. By the fourth century BC, there appear to have been at least three more,Phrygian,Erythraean, andHellespontine. By the first century BC, there were at least ten sibyls, located in Greece,Italy, theLevant, andAsia Minor.
The English wordsibyl (/ˈsɪbəl/) is from Middle English, via theOld Frenchsibile and theLatinsibylla from theancient GreekΣίβυλλα (Sibylla).[5]Varro derived the name from anAeolicsioboulla, the equivalent of Attictheobule ("divine counsel").[6] This etymology is not accepted in modern handbooks, which list the origin as unknown.[7] There have been alternative proposals in nineteenth-century philology suggestingOld Italic[8][failed verification] orSemitic derivation.[9]
The first known Greek writer to mention a sibyl is (based on the testimony ofPlutarch)Heraclitus (fl. 500 BC):
The Sibyl, with frenzied mouth uttering things not to be laughed at, unadorned and unperfumed, yet reaches to a thousand years with her voice by aid of the god.[10]
Walter Burkert observes that "frenzied women from whose lips the god speaks" are recorded very much earlier in the Near East, as inMari in the second millennium and in Assyria in the first millennium".[11]
Until the literary elaborations of Roman writers, sibyls were not identified by a personal name, but by names that refer to the location of theirtemenos, or shrine.
InPausanias,Description of Greece, the first sibyl at Delphi mentioned ("the former" [earlier]) was of great antiquity, and was thought, according to Pausanias, to have been given the name "sibyl" by the Libyans.[12] SirJames Frazer calls the text defective.
The second sibyl referred to by Pausanias, and named "Herophile", seems to have been based ultimately inSamos, but visited other shrines, atClarus,Delos, andDelphi and sang there, but that at the same time, Delphi had its own sibyl.[12]
James Frazer writes, in his translation and commentary on Pausanias,[13] that only two of the Greek sibyls were historical:Herophile of Erythrae, who is thought to have lived in the eighth century BC, andPhyto of Samos who lived somewhat later. He observes that the Greeks at first seemed to have known only one sibyl, and instancesHeraclides Ponticus[14] as the first ancient writer to distinguish several sibyls: Heraclides names at least three sibyls, thePhrygian, theErythraean, and theHellespontine.[15] The scholar David S. Potter writes, "In the late fifth century BC it does appear that 'Sibylla' was the name given to a single inspired prophetess".[16]
Like Heraclitus,Plato speaks of only one sibyl, but in course of time the number increased to nine, with a tenth, theTiburtine Sibyl, probablyEtruscan in origin, added by the Romans. According toLactantius'Divine Institutions (Book 1, Ch. 6),Varro (first century BC) lists these ten: the Persian, the Libyan, the Delphic, the Cimmerian, the Erythræan, the Samian, the Cumæan, the Hellespontine (in Trojan territory), the Phrygian (at Ancyra), and the Tiburtine (named Albunea).
Naevius names the Cimmerian Sibyl in his books of thePunic War andPiso in his annals.
Evander, the son of Sibyl, founded inRome the shrine ofPan that is called theLupercal.
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The sibyl who most concerned the Romans was theCumaean Sibyl, located near the Greek city ofNaples, whomVirgil's Aeneas consults before his descent to the lower world (Aeneid book VI: 10). Burkert notes (1985, p. 117) that the conquest of Cumae by theOscans in the fifth century destroyed the tradition, but provides aterminus ante quem for a Cumaean sibyl. She is said to have sold the originalSibylline books toTarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome. In Virgil's FourthEclogue, the Cumaean sibyl foretells the coming of a savior—possibly a flattering reference to the poet's patron,Augustus. Christians later identified this saviour as Jesus.[17][18][19]
The Delphic Sibyl was a woman who prophesied before the Trojan Wars (c. eleventh century BC). She was noted by Pausanias[4] in his writing during the second century AD about local traditions in Greece. This earliest documented Delphic Sibyl would have predated by hundreds of years the priestess of Apollo active at the oracle from around the eighth century BC who was known asPythia.[20] As Greek religion passed through transitions to the pantheon of the Classical Greeks that is most familiar to modern readers, Apollo had become the deity represented by Pythia and those who then officiated at the already ancient oracle.
The Erythraean Sibyl was sited atErythrae, a town inIonia oppositeChios.
Apollodorus of Erythrae affirms the Erythraean Sibyl to have been his own countrywoman and to have predicted theTrojan War and prophesied to the Greeks who were moving againstIlium both that Troy would be destroyed and thatHomer would write falsehoods.
The wordacrostic was first applied to the prophecies of the Erythraean Sibyl, which were written on leaves and arranged so that the initial letters of the leaves always formed a word.
The Hellespontine, or Trojan Sibyl, presided over theApollonianoracle atDardania.
The Hellespontian Sibyl was born in the village ofMarpessus near the small town of Gergitha, during the lifetimes ofSolon andCyrus the Great. Marpessus, according toHeraclides of Pontus, was formerly within the boundaries of theTroad. Thesibylline collection atGergis was attributed to the Hellespontine Sibyl and was preserved in the temple of Apollo at Gergis. Thence it passed toErythrae, where it became famous.
The so-called Libyan Sibyl was identified with prophetic priestesses presiding over the ancientZeus-Amon (Zeus represented with the horns of Amon)oracle at theSiwa Oasis in the Western Desert ofEgypt. The oracle here was consulted by Alexander after his conquest of Egypt. The mother of the Libyan Sibyl wasLamia, the daughter ofPoseidon.Euripides mentions the Libyan Sibyl in the prologue to his tragedyLamia.
The Persian Sibyl was said to be a prophetic priestess presiding over theApollonianOracle; although her location remained vague enough so that she might be called the "Babylonian Sibyl", thePersian Sibyl is said to have foretold the exploits ofAlexander the Great.[21] Also namedSambethe, she was reported to be of the family ofNoah.[21] The second-century AD travellerPausanias, pausing atDelphi to enumerate four sibyls, mentions the "Hebrew Sibyl" who was
brought up in Palestine named Sabbe, whose father was Berosus and her mother Erymanthe. Some say she was a Babylonian, while others call her an Egyptian Sibyl.[22][23][24]
The medieval Byzantine encyclopedia, theSuda, credits the Hebrew Sibyl as author of theSibylline oracles.
The Phrygian Sibyl is most well known for being conflated withCassandra,Priam's daughter inHomer'sIliad.[25]The Phrygian Sibyl appears to be a doublet of the Hellespontine Sibyl.
The Samian sibyl's oracular site was atSamos.
To the classical sibyls of the Greeks, the Romans added a tenth, the Tiburtine Sibyl, whose seat was the ancientSabino–Latin town ofTibur (modernTivoli). The mythic meeting ofAugustus with the Sibyl, of whom he inquired whether he should be worshiped as a god, was a favoredmotif of Christian artists. Whether the sibyl in question was theEtruscan Sibyl of Tibur or theGreek Sibyl ofCumae is not always clear. The Christian authorLactantius had no hesitation in identifying the sibyl in question as the Tiburtine Sibyl, nevertheless. He gave a circumstantial account of the pagan sibyls that is useful mostly as a guide to their identifications, as seen by fourth-century Christians:
The Tiburtine Sibyl, by nameAlbunea, is worshiped at Tibur as a goddess, near the banks of theAnio, in which stream her image is said to have been found, holding a book in her hand. Heroracular responses the Senate transferred into the capitol. (Divine Institutes I.vi)
An apocalyptic pseudo-prophecy exists, attributed to the Tiburtine Sibyl, written c. AD 380, but with revisions and interpolations added at later dates.[26] It purports to prophesy the advent of a final emperor named Constans, vanquishing the foes of Christianity, bringing about a period of great wealth and peace, ending paganism, and converting the Jews. After vanquishingGog and Magog, the emperor is said to resign his crown to God. This would give way to theAntichrist. Ippolito d'Este rebuilt theVilla d'Este at Tibur, the modernTivoli, from 1550 onward, and commissioned elaborate fresco murals in the Villa that celebrate the Tiburtine Sibyl, as prophesying the birth of Christ to the classical world.
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InMedieval Latin,sibylla simply became the term for "prophetess". It became used commonly in Late Gothic and Renaissance art to depict femaleSibyllae alongside male prophets.[27]
The number of sibyls so depicted could vary, sometimes they were twelve (See, for example, theApennine Sibyl), sometimes ten, e.g. forFrançois Rabelais, "How know we but that she may be an eleventh sibyl or a second Cassandra?"Gargantua and Pantagruel, iii. 16, noted inBrewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1897.[28]
The best known depiction is that ofMichelangelo who shows five sibyls in the frescoes of theSistine Chapel ceiling; the Delphic Sibyl, Libyan Sibyl, Persian Sibyl, Cumaean Sibyl, and the Erythraean Sibyl. The library ofPope Julius II in theVatican has images of sibyls and they are in the pavement of theSiena Cathedral. The Basilica ofSanta Maria in Aracoeli crowning theCampidoglio, Rome, is particularly associated with the Sibyl, because a medieval tradition referred the origin of its name to an otherwise unattested altar,Ara Primogeniti Dei, said to have been raised to the "firstborn of God" by the emperor Augustus, who had been warned of his advent by the sibylline books: in the church the figures of Augustus and of the Tiburtine Sibyl are painted on either side of the arch above the high altar. In the nineteenth century,Rodolfo Lanciani recalled that at Christmastime thepresepio included a carved and painted figure of the sibyl pointing out to Augustus the Virgin and Child, who appeared in the sky in a halo of light. "The two figures, carved in wood, have now [1896] disappeared; they were given away or sold thirty years ago, when a new set of images was offered to the Presepio by prince Alexander Torlonia." (Lanciani, 1896 ch 1) Like prophets, Renaissance sibyls forecasting the advent of Christ appear in monuments: modelled byGiacomo della Porta in the Santa Casa atLoreto, painted by Raphael inSanta Maria della Pace, by Pinturicchio in theBorgia apartments of the Vatican, engraved by Baccio Baldini, a contemporary of Botticelli, and graffites by Matteo di Giovanni in the pavement of the Duomo of Siena.
Shakespeare references the sibyls in his plays, includingOthello,Titus Andronicus,The Merchant of Venice, and especiallyTroilus and Cressida. In the latter, Shakespeare employed the common Renaissance comparison ofCassandra to a sibyl.[29]
A collection of twelvemotets byOrlande de Lassus entitledProphetiae Sibyllarum (pub. 1600) draw inspiration from the sibyl figures of antiquity. The work—for four voices a cappella—consists of a prologue and twelve prophecies, each once corresponding to an individual Sibyl. While the text speaks of the coming of Jesus Christ, the composer reflects the mystical aura of the prophecies by usingchromaticism in an extreme manner, a compositional technique that became very fashionable at the time. It is possible that Lassus not only viewed Michelangelo's depictions, but also drew the chromatic manière from a number of Italian composers, who experimented at the time.
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The sayings of sibyls andoracles were notoriously open to interpretation (compareNostradamus) and were constantly used for both civil and cult propaganda. These sayings and sibyls should not be confused with the extant sixth-century collection ofSibylline Oracles, which typically predict disasters rather than prescribe solutions.
Some genuine Sibylline verses are preserved in the second-centuryBook of Marvels ofPhlegon of Tralles.The oldest collection of written Sibylline Books appears to have been made about the time ofSolon and Cyrus atGergis onMount Ida in theTroad. The sibyl, who was born near there, at Marpessus, and whose tomb was later marked by the temple of Apollo built upon the archaic site, appears on the coins of Gergis,c. 400–350 BCE. (cf. Phlegon, quoted in the fifth-century geographical dictionary ofStephanus of Byzantium, under 'Gergis'). Other places claimed to have been her home. The sibylline collection at Gergis was attributed to theHellespontine Sibyl and was preserved in the temple of Apollo at Gergis. Thence it passed toErythrae, where it became famous. It was this very collection, it would appear, which found its way toCumae and from Cumae to Rome. Gergis, a city ofDardania in the Troad, a settlement of the ancientTeucri, and, consequently, a town of very great antiquity.[30] Gergis, according toXenophon, was a place of much strength. It had a temple sacred to Apollo Gergithius, and was said to have given birth to the sibyl, who is sometimes calledErythraea, ‘from Erythrae,’ a small place onMount Ida,[31] and at othersGergithia ‘of Gergis’.
Prof. E. Maass (op cit., p.56) holds that two only of the Greek sibyls were historical, namely Herophile of Erythrae and Phyto of Samos; the former he thinks lived in the eighth century BC, the latter somewhat later
Frazer goes on:
At first, the Greeks seemed to have known only one sibyl. (Heraclitus, cited by Plutarch, De Pythiae Oraculis6; Aristophanes,Peace1095, 1116; Plato,Phaedrus, p. 244b). The first writer who is known to have distinguished several sibyls is Heraclides Ponticus in his bookOn Oracles, in which he appears to have enumerated at least three, namely the Phrygian, the Erythraean, and the Hellespontine.
