Michelangelo's rendering of the Cumaean Sibyl

The Cumaean Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Cumae, a Greek colony located near Naples, Italy. Download high resolution version (864x1040, 366 KB)Image comments: The Cumaean Sibyl by Michelangelo. ... Download high resolution version (864x1040, 366 KB)Image comments: The Cumaean Sibyl by Michelangelo. ... Lycian Apollo, early Imperial Roman copy of a fourth century Greek original (Louvre Museum) In Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo (Ancient Greek , Apóllōn; or Ἀπέλλων, Apellōn), the ideal of the kouros, was the archer-god of medicine and healing and also a bringer of death-dealing plague; as... An oracle is a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinion; an infallible authority, usually spiritual in nature. ... Cumae (Cuma, in Italian) is an ancient Greek settlement lying to the northwest of Naples in the Italian region of Campania. ... Colonies in antiquity were city-states founded from a mother-city, not from a territory-at-large. ... The Bay of Naples Naples (Italian: , Neapolitan: Nàpule, from Greek Νεάπολη < Νέα Πόλις Néa Pólis New City) is the largest city in southern Italy and capital of the Campania region and the Province of Naples. ...

The word Sibyl comes (via Latin) from the ancient Greek word sibylla, meaning prophetess. There were many Sibyls in the ancient world, but because of the importance of the Cumaean Sibyl in the legends of early Rome, she became one of the most noted and famous, often simply referred to as The Sibyl. The word Sibyl comes (via Latin) from the ancient Greek word sibylla, meaning prophetess. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... In religion, a prophet is a person who has directly encountered God, of whose intentions he can then speak. ... This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. ...

In the art of Michelangelo (shown to the right) and other painters, her powerful presence overshadows every other Sibyl, even her younger and more beautiful sisters, such as the Delphic Sibyl. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect and poet. ... Michelangelos rendering of the Delphic Sibyl The Delphic Sibyl was a legendary figure who gave prophecies in the sacred precinct of Apollo at Delphi, located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. ...

There are various names for the Cumaean Sibyl: Amaltheia, Demophile, Deiphobe, Herophile, or Taraxandra. (In Virgil's Aeneid, she is called Deiphobe, daughter of Glaucus.) A sculpture of Virgil, probably from the 1st century AD. For other uses, see Virgil (disambiguation). ... The Aeneid (IPA English pronunciation: ; in Latin Aeneis, pronounced — the title is Greek in form: genitive case Aeneidos): is a Latin epic written by Virgil in the 1st century BC (between 29 and 19 BC) that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy where he... In Greek mythology, Glaucus (shiny or bright or bluish-green) referred to several different people. ...

The cave at Cumae

The Sibyl was said to inhabit a cave with one hundred mouths, each of which had a voice [1] accessible by a still existing dromos. The cave is a trapezoidal dromos or passage over 131 m long, running parallel to the side of the hill and cut out of the volcanic stone. The Cave of the Sibyl was rediscovered in May 1932 by Amedeo Maiuri. 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... Amedeo Maiuri is the renown Neapolitan archaeologist who decided to uncover Pompeiis pre-A.D. 79 history before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius which destroyed Pompeii. ...

Ancient Roman prophecies

The story of the acquisition of the Sibylline Books by Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the semi-legendary last king of the Roman Kingdom, is one of the famous mythic elements of Roman history. Centuries ago, concurrent with the 50th Olympiad and the Founding of the City of Rome, an old woman arrived incognita in Rome. She came to see King Tarquin. The Cumaean Sibyl offered nine books of prophecies to King Tarquin; and as the king declined to purchase them, owing to the exorbitant price she demanded, she burned three and offered the remaining six to Tarquin at the same stiff price, which he again refused, whereupon she burned three more and repeated her offer. Tarquin then relented and purchased the last three at the full original price (Dion. Halic. 4.62), (another version has the price doubling each time.) The books were thereafter kept in the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill, Rome, to be consulted only on emergencies. The Sibylline Books were finally completely destroyed in 83 BC when the temple of Jove Capitolinus burned. The Sibylline Books or Sibyllae were a collection of oracular utterances, set out in Greek hexameters, purchased from a sibyl by the semi-legendary last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, and consulted at momentous crises through the history of the Republic and the Empire. ... Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (also called Tarquin the Proud or Tarquin II) was the last of the seven legendary kings of Rome, son of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, and son-in-law of Servius Tullius. ... The Roman Kingdom (Latin: Regnum Romanum) was the monarchal government for the city of Rome and its territories from its founding. ... An Olympiad is a period of four years, associated with the Olympic Games. ... Nickname: The Eternal City Motto: SPQR: Senatus PopulusQue Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 8th century BC Mayor Walter Veltroni Area    - City 1,285 km²  (496. ... Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus on Capitoline Hill, 6th-1st century BC. The Temple of Jupiter in the ancient Pompeii. ... Piazza del Campidoglio, on the top of Capitoline Hill, with the façade of Palazzo Senatorio. ... For other uses, see number 83. ... Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus on Capitoline Hill, 6th-1st century BC. The Temple of Jupiter in the ancient Pompeii. ...

Medieval Christianity

In the Middle Ages, both the Cumaean Sibyl and Virgil were considered prophets of the birth of Christ, because the fourth of Virgil's Eclogues appears to contain a Messianic prophecy by the Sibyl, and this was seized on by early Christians as such—one reason why Dante Alighieri later chose Virgil as his guide through the underworld in The Divine Comedy. Similarly, Michelangelo prominently featured the Cumaean Sibyl in the Sistine Chapel among the Old Testament prophets. The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... This page is about the title or the Divine Person. For the Christian figure, see Jesus. ... The Eclogues is one of three major works by the Latin poet Virgil. ... In Abrahamic religions, messianic prophecies describe the coming, acts, authority, personality, nature, etc. ... A Christian is a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, referred to as the Christ. ... Dante in a fresco series of famous men by Andrea del Castagno, ca. ... Dante shown holding a copy of The Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, with the spheres of Heaven above, in Michelinos fresco. ... The Sistine Chapel (Italian: Cappella Sistina) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope, in the Vatican City. ... Note: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh. ...

Constantine, the Christian emperor, in his first address to the assembly of saints, interpreted the whole of The Eclogues as a reference to the coming of Christ and quoted a long passage of the Sybilline Book (Book 8) containing an acrostic in which the initials from a series of verses which read: Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour Cross. Head of Constantines colossal statue at Musei Capitolini Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus[1] (February 27, 272–May 22, 337), commonly known as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, or (among Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic[2] Christians) Saint Constantine, was a Roman Emperor, proclaimed Augustus by his troops on... General definition of saint In general, the term Saint refers to someone who is exceptionally virtuous and holy. ...

Literature

The Cumaean Sibyl is featured in the works of, among others, Virgil (The Eclogues, The Æneid), Ovid (Metamorphoses) and Petronius (The Satyricon). The epigraph to T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land" is a quote from the Satyricon where Trimalchio states that he saw the withered Sibyl in a hanging jar and that she wanted to die. Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ... Cover of George Sandyss 1632 edition of The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and history of the world in terms of Greek and Roman mythology. ... Petronius (c. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... In literature, an epigraph is a quotation that is placed at the start of a work or section that expresses in some succinct way an aspect or theme of what is to follow. ... Thomas Stearns Eliot (September 26, 1888 - January 4, 1965), was a major Modernist Anglo-American poet, dramatist, and literary critic. ... Poetry (ancient Greek: poieo = create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... T. S. Eliot (by E. O. Hoppe, 1919) The Waste Land (sometimes mistakenly written as The Wasteland) is a highly influential 433-line modernist poem by T. S. Eliot. ... Trimalchio is a character in the Roman novel The Satyricon by Petronius. ...

Stories recounted in Virgil's Æneid

The Cumaean Sibyl prophesied by “singing the fates” and writing on oak leaves. These would be arranged inside the entrance of her cave but, if the wind blew and scattered them, she would not help to reassemble the leaves to form the original prophesy again. Species See List of Quercus species The term oak can be used as part of the common name of any of several hundred species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus, and some related genera, notably Cyclobalanopsis and Lithocarpus. ...

The Sibyl was a guide to the underworld (Hades), its entry being at the nearby crater of Avernus. Aeneas employed her services before his descent to the lower world to visit his dead father Anchises, but she warned him that it was no light undertaking: Hades, Greek god of the underworld, enthroned, with his bird-headed staff, on a red-figure Apulian vase made in the 4th century BC. For other uses, see Hades (disambiguation). ... Craters on Mount Cameroon Perhaps the most conspicuous part of a volcano is the crater, a basin of a roughly circular form within which occurs a vent (or vents) from which magma erupts as gases, lava, and ejecta. ... Avernus was an ancient name for a crater near Cumae (Cuma), Italy in the Region of Campania north of Naples. ... Aeneas flees burning Troy, Federico Barocci, 1598. ... For other meanings of the word underworld see Underworld (disambiguation) In the study of mythology and religion, the underworld is a generic term approximately equivalent to the lay term afterlife, referring to any place to which newly-dead souls go. ... In Greek mythology, Anchises was a son of Capys and either Themiste (daughter of Ilus, son of Tros) or Hieromneme (a Naiad and daughter of Simois, the river god). ...

Trojan, Anchises' son, the descent of Avernus is easy.

All night long, all day, the doors of Hades stand open.

But to retrace the path, to come up to the sweet air of heaven,

That is labour indeed. (Aeneid 6.10.)

Stories recounted in Ovid's Metamorphoses

Although she was a mortal, the Sibyl lived about a thousand years. This came about when Apollo granted her a wish; she took up a handful of sand and asked to live for as many years as the grains of sand she held. But she didn't ask for enduring youth and Apollo allowed her body to wither away because the Sibyl did not consent to have sex. Her body grew smaller with age and eventually was kept in a jar (ampulla). Eventually only her voice was left. (Metamorphoses 14) Lycian Apollo, early Imperial Roman copy of a fourth century Greek original (Louvre Museum) In Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo (Ancient Greek , Apóllōn; or Ἀπέλλων, Apellōn), the ideal of the kouros, was the archer-god of medicine and healing and also a bringer of death-dealing plague; as...