The word sibyl comes (via Latin) from the Greek word sibylla, meaning prophetess. The earlier oracular seeresses known as the sibyls of antiquity prophesied at certain holy sites, probably all of pre-Indo-European origin, under the divine influence of a deity, originally one of the chthonic earth-goddesses. Later in antiquity, sibyls wandered from place to place. Latin is an Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... A prophet is a person who is believed to communicate with God, or with a deity. ... The Pre-Indo-European population of Europe included an unknown number of ethnic groups that dwelt on the continent before the coming of the speakers of Indo-European languages (though some scholars dispute the Indo-European invasion theory: see Paleolithic Continuity Theory). ... In mythology chthonic (from Greek χθονιος-pertaining to the earth; earthy) designates, or pertains to, gods or spirits of the underworld, especially in Greek mythology. ...

The mark of a Sibyl possessed with the second sight is the gift to be able to take her eyes out and then put them back in. (FROM: http://www. ...

Homer seems to have been unaware of a Sibyl. The first Greek writer, so far as we know, who mentions a sibyl is Heraclitus, in the 5th century BC: Bust of Homer in the British Museum For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... Heraclitus of Ephesus (Greek Herakleitos) (about 535 - 475 BC), known as The Obscure, was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Ephesus in Asia Minor. ...

'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.' (Heraclitus, fragment 12)

Sibyls and their Cities in the Roman World

Sibyls are not identified by a personal name, but by names that refer to the location of their temenos, for shrine. Sibyls and their Cities Information on Tracing Sibyl: http://inquiry. ... Sibyls and their Cities Information on Tracing Sibyl: http://inquiry. ... Temenos (from the Greek verb meaning to cut) is the Greek term in archaeology given to a piece of land which forms the enclosure of a temple, or sanctuary. ...

The number of Sibyls

Like Heraclitus, Plato speaks of only one Sibyl, but in course of time the number increased to nine, with a tenth, the Tiburtine Sibyl, probably Etruscan in origin, added by the Romans. Plato (Greek: Πλάτων Plátōn) (ca. ... Engraving of the Tiburtine Sibyl by Philip Galle, after a design by Antonius Bloclandt, Antwerp, 1575 To the classical sibyls of the Greeks, the Romans added a tenth, the Tiburtine Sibyl, whose seat was the ancient Etruscan town of Tibur (modern Tivoli). ... The Etruscans were a race of unknown origin from North Italy who were eventually integrated into Rome. ...

According to Lactantius' Divine Institutions (i.6, 4th century AD, quoting from a lost work of Varro, 1st century BC) these ten were those who follow. Of them, the three most famous sibyls throughout their long career were the Delphic, the Erythraean and the Cumaean. Not all the Sibyls in the following list were securely identified with an oracular shrine, and in the vague and shifting picture there is some overlap. Lucius Caelius (or Caecilius?) Firmianus Lactantius was an early Christian author who wrote in Latin (around A.D. 240 - around 320). ... Marcus Terentius Varro ([[116 BC]–27 BC), also known as Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his contemporary Varro Atacinus, was a Roman scholar and writer, who the Romans came to call the most learned of all the Romans. ...

• The Persian Sibyl

Main article: Persian Sibyl.

The Persian Sibyl was said to be prophetic priestess presiding over the Apollonian Oracle; though her location remained vague enough so that she might be called the "Babylonian Sibyl", the Persian Sibyl is said to have foretold the exploits of Alexander the Great according to Nicanor's life of Alexander. Michelangelos rendering of the Persian Sibyl The Persian Sibyl was the prophetic priestess presiding over the Apollonian Oracle. ... Apollo (Greek: Απόλλων, Apóllōn; Απελλων) is a god in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Artemis (goddess of the hunt), one of the most important and many-sided of the... 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. ... The Persian Empire is the name used to refer to a number of historic dynasties that have ruled the country of Persia (Iran). ... Alexander the Great fighting the Persian king Darius (Pompeii mosaic, from a 3rd century BC original Greek painting, now lost). ... Nicanor was the name of several ancient Greeks: Nicanor of Macedon, father of Balacrus, who lived under Philip II of Macedonia Nicanor (Egyptian general), a trusted general of Ptolemy I Soter, king of Egypt Nicanor (general), a key general of Cassander Nicanor of Macedonia, brother of Philotas and comander of...

The Persian Sibyl, by name Sambethe, was reported to be of the family of Noah. [1] Noah or Nóach (Rest, Standard Hebrew נוֹחַ Nóaḥ, Tiberian Hebrew נֹחַ Nōªḥ; Arabic نوح Nūḥ), is a Biblical figure who, according to Genesis built an ark to save his family and each species of the worlds animals from the Deluge (an example of...

• The Libyan Sibyl

Main article: Libyan Sibyl.

The so-called Libyan Sibyl was identified with prophetic priestess presiding over the ancient Zeus Amon (Zeus represented with the horns of Amon) oracle at the Siwa Oasis in the Western Desert of Egypt, (incorrectly placed in the map). The oracle here was consulted by Alexander after his conquest of Egypt. Michelangelos rendering of the Libyan Sibyl The Libyan Sibyl, was the prophetic priestess presiding over the Zeus Ammon Oracle (Zeus represented with the horns of Ammon) at Siwa Oasis in the Libyan Desert. ... Statue of Zeus Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th-century engraving. ... Amun (also spelt Amon, Amoun, Amen, and rarely Imenand, and spelt in Greek as Ammon, and Hammon) was the name of a deity, in Egyptian mythology, who gradually rose to become one of the most important, before disappearing back into the shadows. ... 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. ... The old town of Aghurmi. ...

The Libyan Sibyl, by name Lamia, meaning Serpent or Medusa. Serpent can be any of the following: The reptile commonly called snake. ... A relatively modern image of Medusa painted by Arnold Böcklin In Greek mythology, Medusa (Greek: Μέδουσα), was a monstrous female character whose gaze could turn people to stone. ...

Euripides mentions the Libyan Sibyl in the prologue to his tragedy Lamia. Euripides (c. ...

Michelangelo's rendering of the Delphic Sibyl, Sistine Chapel

• The Delphic Sibyl

Main article Delphic Sibyl.

The oracle at Delphi was commonly known as the Pythia, though her name was also Herophile. She was the Pythian priestess of Python, an archaic chthonic serpent. Later, Sibyl or Pythia became a title given to whichever priestess manned the oracle at the time. The Sibyl sat on a tripod over a cleft in the Sibylline Rock, gaining her often puzzling predictions from it. She sang her predictions, which she received from Gaia, in an ecstatic swoon; her utterings were interpreted by attendant priests during classical times, and rendered into hexameters of notoriously difficult interpretation. Pausanias claimed that the Sibyl was "born between man and goddess, daughter of sea monsters and an immortal nymph". Others said she was sister or daughter to Apollo. Still others claimed the Sibyl received her powers from Gaia originally, who passed the oracle to Themis, who passed it to Phoebe. Download high resolution version (942x960, 147 KB)Delphic Sibyl by Michelangelo Image comments: The Delphic Sibyl by Michelangelo. ... Download high resolution version (942x960, 147 KB)Delphic Sibyl by Michelangelo Image comments: The Delphic Sibyl by Michelangelo. ... The Sistine Chapel (Italian: Cappella Sistina) is a chapel in the Palace of the Vatican, the official residence of the Roman Catholic Pope in the Vatican City. ... Michelangelos rendering of the Delphic Sibyl The Delphic Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian Oracle at Delphi, a Greek colony, located in a plateau on the side of Mount Parnassus. ... 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. ... The theatre, seen from above Delphikjl;lk;kl; (Greek Δελφοί - Delphoi; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece. ... Serpent can be any of the following: The reptile commonly called snake. ... Categories: Move to Wiktionary | Mythology stubs ... Gaia, the Earth-goddess; classical Greek cup signed by Aristophanes and made between 410 B.C. and 400 B.C. Gaia (land or earth, from the Greek ; variant spelling Gaea—see also also Ge from ) is a Greek goddess personifying the Earth. ... Pausanias was Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ... Apollo (Greek: Απόλλων, Apóllōn; Απελλων) is a god in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Artemis (goddess of the hunt), one of the most important and many-sided of the... Themis was the name given by William Henry Pickering in 1905 to a spurious tenth satellite of Saturn which he claimed to have discovered. ... Phoebe, a Titan traditionally associated with the moon. ...

Much has been made of the Pythia's breathing in vapors from the ground and eating laurel leaves. Modern reductionists dismiss the archaic propensity for visions and sometimes attempt to account for the Pythia's swoon with toxic methane or ethylene hydrocarbon vapors — for example, in "Questioning the Delphic oracle," in Scientific American, October 2003. Secular mythographers doubt that the visions of Teresa of Avila would be linked in any comparable way to the effects of sacerdotal wine. As for the eating of laurel leaves, reported everywhere in modern retelling, this comes only from hostile Christian satirists, who were bent on denigrating the oracle, and is not reported in any pagan context. Before descending to the shrine, the Pythia did make a burnt offering of laurel leaves (sacred to Apollo) and barley flour (sacred to Demeter, the Earth Mother, whose presence at Delphi preceded Apollo's). The Pythia is depicted in vase-paintings holding a sprig of laurel, with a laurel-crowned interlocutor. The name Laurel is widely used in English, once being a moderately common name typically for girls; also as Laurie. ... Reductionism in philosophy describes a number of related, contentious theories that hold, very roughly, that the nature of complex things can always be reduced to (explained by) simpler or more fundamental things. ... R-phrases S-phrases , , , Flash point −188 °C Autoignition temperature 537 °C Explosive limits 5–15% Supplementary data page Structure and properties n, εr, etc. ... R-phrases R12, R67 S-phrases S2, S9, S16, S33, S46 Flash point Flammable gas Explosive limits 2. ... Scientific American is a popular-science magazine, published monthly since August 28, 1845, making it the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. ... Demeter, Greek goddess of the harvest. ...

• The Cimmerian Sibyl

Main article: Cimmerian Sibyl.

Naevius names the Cimmerian Sibyl in his books of the Punic War and Piso in his annals. Guercinos rendering of the Cimmerian Sibyl The Cimmerian Sibyl, was the prophetic priestess presiding over the Apollonian Oracle at Cimmerium in Italy, near Lake Avernus (i. ... Gnaeus Naevius (c. ... History -- Military History -- War The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and the Phoenician city of Carthage. ... The Piso family of ancient Rome was a prominent plebeian branch of the gens Calpurnia, with at least 50 prominent Romans known. ...

The Sibyl's son Evander founded in Rome the shrine of Pan which is called the Lupercal. In Roman mythology, Evander (or Euandros) was a deific culture hero who brought the Greek pantheon, laws and alphabet to Rome sixty years before the Trojan War. ... City motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus – SPQR (The Senate and the People of Rome) Founded 21 April 753 BC mythical, 1st millennium BC Region Latium Mayor Walter Veltroni (Left-Wing Democrats) Area  - City Proper  1290 km² Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density (city proper) 2,546,807 almost 4,000,000 1... Marble sculpture of Pan copulating with a goat, recovered from Herculaneum Pan (Greek Παν, genitive Πανος) is the Greek god who watches over shepherds and their flocks. ... Lupercal is the place where Romulus and Remus were said to have been found by the lactating female wolf, who suckled them until they were found by Faustulus. ...

• The Erythraean Sibyl

Main article Erythraean Sibyl.

The Erythraean Sibyl was sited at Erythrae, a town in Ionia opposite Chios. Apollodorus of Erythrae affirms the Erythraean Sibyl to have been his own countrywoman and to have predicted the Trojan War and prophesised to the Greeks who were moving against Ilium both that Troy would be destroyed and that Homer would write falsehoods. The Erythraean Sibyl was the prophetess at Erythrae, a town in Ionia opposite Chios. ... Erythrae (mod. ... Ionia (Greek Ιωνία; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was an ancient region of southwestern coastal Anatolia (now in Turkey) on the Aegean Sea. ... Chios (Italian: Scio, Χίος; alternative transliterations Khios and Hios, see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. ... The Trojan War was a war waged, according to legend, against the city of Troy in Asia Minor by the armies of the Achaeans, following the kidnapping (or elopement) of Helen of Sparta by Paris of Troy. ... Walls of the excavated city of Troy (Turkey) Troy (Greek Troia (or CMC ) also   Ílion; Latin: Troia, Ilium) is a legendary city, scene of the Trojan War, part of which is described in Homers Iliad, an epic poem in Ancient Greek, composed in the 9th or 8th century... Bust of Homer in the British Museum For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ...

The word acrostic 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 Samian Sibyl

Main article Samian Sibyl.

The Samian sibyl's oracular site was at Samos. Montfoorts rendering of the Samian Sibyl The Samian Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Samos, a Greek colony. ... Samos (Greek Σάμος; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is an island in southeastern Greece in the Aegean Sea, off the coast of Turkey. ...

• The Cumaean Sibyl

Main article: Cumaean Sibyl'.

The sibyl who most concerned the Romans was the Cumaean Sibyl near the Greek city of Naples, whom Aeneas consulted before his descent to the lower world (Aeneid book VI: 10). It was she who sold to Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome, the original Sibylline books (q.v.). Christians were especially impressed with the Cumaean Sibyl too, for in Virgil's Fourth Eclogue she foretells the coming of a savior, a flattering reference to the poet's patron, whom Christians identified as Jesus. Michelangelos 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. ... Michelangelos 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. ... Location within Italy Naples (Italian Napoli, Neapolitan Napule, from Greek Νέα Πόλις - Néa Pólis - meaning New City; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is the largest city in southern Italy and capital of Campania Region. ... Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (also called Tarquin the Great 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 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. ... The Eclogues is one of three major works by the Latin poet Virgil. ...

• The Hellespontine Sibyl

Main article: Hellespontine Sibyl.

The Hellespontine, or Trojan Sibyl presided over the Apollonian oracle at Dardania. Montfoorts rendering of the Hellespontine Sibyl The Hellespontine Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Dardania. ... Apollo (Greek: Απόλλων, Apóllōn; Απελλων) is a god in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Artemis (goddess of the hunt), one of the most important and many-sided of the... 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. ... Dardania in Greek mythology is the name of a city founded on Mount Ida by Dardanus from which also the region and the people took their name. ...

The Hellespontian Sibyl was born in the village of Marpessus near the small town of Gergitha, during the lifetimes of Solon and Cyrus the Great. Marpessus, according to Heraclides of Pontus, was formerly within the boundaries of the Troad. Solon Solon (Greek: Σόλων, ca. ... Cyrus the Great Cyrus II of Persia, widely known as Cyrus the Great or Cyrus the Elder, (ca. ... Heraclides Ponticus (387 - 312 BCE), also known as Heraklides, was a Greek philosopher who lived and died at Heraclea, now Eregli, Turkey. ... Map of the Troas The Troas (Troad) is an ancient region in the northwestern part of Anatolia, bounded by the Hellespont to the northwest, the Aegean Sea to the west, and separated from the rest of Anatolia by the massif that forms Mount Ida. ...

The sibylline collection at Gergis was attributed to the Hellespontine Sibyl and was preserved in the temple of Apollo at Gergis. Thence it passed to Erythrae, where it became famous. 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. ... Erythrae (mod. ...

• The Phrygian Sibyl

Main article: Phrygian Sibyl.

The Phrygian Sibyl appears to be a doublet of the Hellespontine Sibyl. Raphaels rendering of the Phrygian Sibyl The Phrygian Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Phrygia, kingdom in the west central part of the Anatolian highlands, part of modern Turkey. ...

• The Tiburtine Sibyl

Main article: Tiburtine Sibyl.

To the classical sibyls of the Greeks, the Romans added a tenth, the Tiburtine Sibyl, whose seat was the ancient Etruscan town of Tibur (modern Tivoli). Engraving of the Tiburtine Sibyl by Philip Galle, after a design by Antonius Bloclandt, Antwerp, 1575 To the classical sibyls of the Greeks, the Romans added a tenth, the Tiburtine Sibyl, whose seat was the ancient Etruscan town of Tibur (modern Tivoli). ... See: Etruscan civilization Etruscan language Etruscan alphabet Etruscan mythology See also: Tyrrhenian, Lemnian, Pelasgian. ... Tivoli (population 55,000), the classical Tibur, is an ancient Italian town some 20 km from Rome (Latium), at the falls of the Aniene, where it issues from the Sabine hills. ... The large waterfalls of Tivoli, Jacob Philipp Hackert, 1783. ...

The mythic meeting of Caesar Augustus with the Sibyl, of whom he inquired whether he should be worshiped as a god, was a favored motif of Christian artists. Whether the sibyl in question was the Etruscan Sibyl of Tibur or the Greek Sibyl of Cumae is not always clear. The Christian author Lactantius 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 4th century Christians: Bust of Augustus Caesar For the honorific title see Augustus (honorific) Caesar Augustus (Latin:IMP·CAESAR·DIVI·F·AVGVSTVS) ¹ (23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), known to modern historians as Octavian for the period of his life prior to 27 BC, is considered the first and one of... The Etruscan Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle. ... Michelangelos 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. ... Cumae (Cuma, in Italian) is an ancient Greek settlement lying to the northwest of Naples in the Italian region of Campania. ... Lucius Caelius (or Caecilius?) Firmianus Lactantius was an early Christian author who wrote in Latin (around A.D. 240 - around 320). ...

"The Tiburtine Sibyl, by name Albunea, is worshiped at Tibur as a goddess, near the banks of the Anio, in which stream her image is said to have been found, holding a book in her hand. Her oracular responses the Senate transferred into the capitol." (Divine Institutes I.vi)

An apocalyptic pseudo-prophecy exists, attributed to the Tiburtine Sibyl , written ca 380 CE, but with revisions and interpolations added at later dates [2]. It purports to prophesy, after the fact (see vaticinium ex eventu), the arrival of the Christian emperor, Constantine, beginning: The Aniene River (in Latin: Anio, formerly called the Teverone) is a 98 km river in Lazio, Italy. ... 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. ... Vaticinium ex eventu (Prophecy from the event) is a technical theological or historiographical term referring to a prophecy written after the author already had information about the events he was foretelling. The text is written so as to appear that the prophecy had taken place before the event. ...

Then will arise a king of the Greeks whose name is Constans. He will be king of the Romans and the Greeks. He will be tall of stature, of handsome appearance with shining face, and well put together in all parts of his body...

Ippolito d'Este rebuilt the Villa d'Este at Tibur, the modern Tivoli, 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. Park of the Villa dEste, Carl Blechen, 1830 The gardens at the Villa dEste The Villa dEste is a masterpiece of Italian architecture and garden design. ... Tivoli, Italy,located on a hill 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Rome, also called Tibur, because the roman Tibur road pass through it. ...

The later Sibyls

The Sibyls were also represented in publicly available art. Michelangelo fixed our image of the sibyls forever, in his powerful representations of them, seated, both aged and ageless, beyond mere femininity, in the frescos of the Sistine Chapel. The library of Pope Julius II in the Vatican has images of sibyls and they are in the pavement of the Siena Cathedral. Michelangelo (full name Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni) (March 6, 1475 - February 18, 1564) was a Renaissance sculptor, architect, painter, and poet. ... The Sistine Chapel (Italian: Cappella Sistina) is a chapel in the Palace of the Vatican, the official residence of the Roman Catholic Pope in the Vatican City. ... Julius II, né Giuliano della Rovere (December 5, 1443 – February 21, 1513), was pope from 1503 to 1513. ... Duomo di Siena. ...

Late Gothic Sibyls, each with her emblem and a single line of prophecy, lettered on a fluttering banderole, were fixtures of Late Gothic illuminations, in 14th and 15th-century France and Germany[3]. An emblem consists of a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept - often a concept of a moral truth or an allegory. ...

Long after the oracles had been silenced by the Christians in the 4th century, the number of Sibyls was increased in the Middle Ages to as many as twelve, a magical number. See, for example, the Apennine Sibyl. Ten, for François Rabelais, was still the proverbial number: “How know we but that she may be an eleventh Sibyl or a second Cassandra?” (Gargantua and Pantagruel, iii. 16, noted in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1897. Numerology is the study of the purported mystical or esoteric relationship between numbers and the character or action of physical objects and living things. ... Monte Vettore (2449 meters) on the border between Umbria and the Marche lies today in Italys Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini. ... François Rabelais (ca. ...

The medieval, Christianized role for the Sibyls was as precursors, prophets of the New Dispensation, Christian allies in a Hellenistic world:

Dies irae, dies illa

Solvet saeclum in favilla

Teste David cum Sibylla.

("Day of wrath, o day of mourning, when the world dissolves in the twinkling of an eye, as David foretold, and the Sibyl." See Dies Irae.)

Dies Iræ (Day of Wrath) is a famous Latin hymn written by Thomas of Celano. ...

Sibylline books

Main articles: Sibylline Books and Sibylline Oracles.

The sayings of sibyls and oracles were notoriously open to interpretation (compare Nostradamus) and were constantly used for both civil and cult propaganda. 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. ... The surviving Sibylline Oracles are not the famous Sibylline Books of Roman history, which were lost not once, but twice, and thus there is very little knowledge of the actual contents. ... 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. ... Nostradamus Nostradamus, (December 14, 1503 – July 1, 1566) born Michel de Nostredame, is one of the worlds most famous authors of prophecies. ...

The Sibylline Books are not the same as the Sibylline Oracles. The Roman Sibylline Books were quite different in character from the preserved Sibylline Oracles, which typically predict disasters rather than prescribe solutions. Some genuine Sibylline verses are preserved in the Book of Marvels of Phlegon of Tralles (2nd century CE). Phlegon, of Tralles in Asia Minor, Greek writer and freedman of the emperor Hadrian, flourished in the 2nd century AD. His chief work was the Olympiads, an historical compendium in sixteen books, from the 1st down to the 229th Olympiad (776 BC to AD 137), of which several chapters are...

The oldest collection of written Sibylline Books appears to have been made about the time of Solon and Cyrus at Gergis on Mount Ida in the Troad. 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, ca 400–350 BCE. (cf. Phlegon, quoted in the 5th century geographical dictionary of Stephanus of Byzantium, under 'Gergis'). Other places claimed to have been her home. 'The sibylline collection at Gergis was attributed to the Hellespontine Sibyl and was preserved in the temple of Apollo at Gergis. Thence it passed to Erythrae, where it became famous. It was this very collection, it would appear, which found its way to Cumae and from Cumae to Rome. Gergis, a city of Dardania in Troas, a settlement of the ancient Teucri, and, consequently, a town of very great antiquity (Herodotus iv: 122). Gergis, according to Xenophon, 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 called Erythraea, from Erythrae, a small place on Mount Ida (Dionysius of Halicarnassus i. 55), and at others Gergithia ('of Gergis'). Solon Solon (Greek: Σόλων, ca. ... The name Cyrus (or Kourosh in Persian) may refer to: [[Cyrus I of Anshan]], King of Persia around 650 BC [[Cyrus II of Persia | Cyrus the Great]], King of Persia 559 BC - 529 BC — See also Cyrus in the Judeo-Christian tradition Cyrus the Younger, brother to the Persian king... Two sacred mountains are called Mount Ida in Greek mythology, equally named Mount of the Goddess. ... Map of the Troas The Troas (Troad) is an ancient region in the northwestern part of Anatolia, bounded by the Hellespont to the northwest, the Aegean Sea to the west, and separated from the rest of Anatolia by the massif that forms Mount Ida. ... Stephanus Byzantinus (Stephanus of Byzantium), the author of a geographical dictionary entitled Εθνικα (Ethnica), of which, apart from some fragments, we possess only the meagre epitome of one Hermolaus. ... Montfoorts rendering of the Hellespontine Sibyl The Hellespontine Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Dardania. ... Erythrae (mod. ... Cumae (Cuma, in Italian) is an ancient Greek settlement lying to the northwest of Naples in the Italian region of Campania. ... Dardania in Greek mythology is the name of a city founded on Mount Ida by Dardanus from which also the region and the people took their name. ... Map of the Troas The Troas (Troad) is an ancient region in the northwestern part of Anatolia, bounded by the Hellespont to the northwest, the Aegean Sea to the west, and separated from the rest of Anatolia by the massif that forms Mount Ida. ... In Greek mythology, king Teucrus was said to have been the son of the river Scamander and of the nymph Idaea. ... Xenophon (In Greek , c. ... The Erythraean Sibyl was the prophetess at Erythrae, a town in Ionia opposite Chios. ... Two sacred mountains are called Mount Ida in Greek mythology, equally named Mount of the Goddess. ... Dionysius Halicarnassensis (of Halicarnassus), Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, flourished during the reign of Augustus. ...

See also: Wives aboard the Ark

• Coin of Gergis bearing the sibyl Herophile on the Digital Historia Numorum

Although Genesis tells us next to nothing about the four women aboard the Ark, who had witnessed the days before the Flood, there exist substantial extra-biblical traditions regarding these women and their names. ...

External links

Classical sibyls

• John Burnet Early Greek Philosophy, 63., 64. brief analysis, 65. the fragments
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Sibyl.
• The Sibyls

Medieval Christianizing sibyls

• Series of twelve etchings of Sibyls: by Master IHS, 1572
• Late Gothic illustrations of twelve sibyls

Modern sibyl imagery

• Pjetër Bogdani, "The Songs of the Ten Sibyls" modern poetry, translated from Albanian
• The Sibyl Gallery

References

• Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911.
• Hale, John R. and others (2003). Questioning the Delphic Oracle. Retrieved Jan. 7, 2005.
• Harry Thurston Peck, Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquity, 1898.
• Lactantius, Divine Institutions Book I, ch. vi (e-text, in English)
• Robin Lane Fox, Alexander the Great 1973. Chapter 14 gives the best modern account of Alexander's visit to the oasis at Siwah, with some background material on the Greek conception of Sibyls.

When Sibyl is taken for a woman's name, it is commonly spelled Sybil. In antiquity, the oracular seeresses of the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean were referred to by the Greek term sibyls. ...