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TheErythraeanSibyl was the prophetess ofclassical antiquity presiding over theApollonianoracle atErythrae, a town inIonia oppositeChios, which was built byNeleus, the son ofCodrus.
The wordSibyl comes (viaLatin) from theancient Greek wordsibylla, meaningprophetess. Sibyls would give answers whose value depended upon good questions — unlikeprophets, who typically answered with responses indirectly related to questions asked.
Presumably there was more than one sibyl at Erythrae. One is recorded as having been namedHerophile.[1] At least one is said to have been fromChaldea, a nation in the southern portion ofBabylonia, being the daughter ofBerossus (who wrote the Chaldean history) and Erymanthe.Apollodorus of Erythrae, however, says that one who was his own countrywoman predicted theTrojan War and prophesied to the Greeks both thatTroy would be destroyed and thatHomer would write falsehoods.
The termacrostic has been 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.[2]
The Erythraean Sibyl is believed to have made extremely precise statements regarding the coming ofChrist.[3] In Christian iconography, the Erythraean Sibyl is credited with prophesying the coming of theRedeemer, which prophecy was in the form of an acrostic whose initial letters spelled out "ΙΗΣΌΎΣ ΧΡΕΙΣΤΟΣ ΘΕΟΥ ΎΊΟΣ ΣΩΤΗΡ ΣΤΑΎΡΟΣ" ("Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior, Cross).[4] Examples were in mediaeval paintings inSalisbury Cathedral,[5] and others are shown in the illustrations on this page.
