Sibylla
Sibylla, a female soothsayer, prophetess, priestess of Apollo, Sibyl
- a female soothsayer, a prophetess, Sibyl, Varr. ap. Lact. 1, 6, 7; Aug. Civ. Dei, 18, 23; Lact. 2, 8, 48; Verg. A. 5, 735: has (litteras), credo, nisi Sibylla legerit, Interpretari alium potesse neminem, Plaut. Ps. 1, 1, 23 (25): terrae vis Pythiam Delphis incitabat: naturae Sibyllam. Cic. Div. 1, 36, 79; cf. id. ib. 1, 18, 34.—In Roman mythology, the most celebrated is the Sibyl at Cumae, in the service of Apollo; in the time of Aeneas, Ov. M. 14, 104 sq.; 14, 154; 15, 712; Verg. A. 6, 10; 6, 98.—A later Sibyl in the time of Tarquinius Superbus, whose predictions were deposited in the Capitol, and in time of danger were consulted by a college of priests, appointed for that special purpose (at first duumviri, afterwards decemviri and quindecemviri, v. h. vv.), Lact. 1, 6; Gell. 1, 19, 1 sqq.; Plin. 13, 13, 27, § 88; Cic. N. D. 3, 2, 5; id. Div. 1, 43, 97 sq.; id. Rab. Post. 2, 4; id. Fam. 1, 7, 4; Liv. 38, 45; Serv. ad Verg. A. 3, 445; Isid. Orig. 8, 8.—A later Sibyl, burnt by Stilicho, Rutil. Itin. 2, 51; cf. Becker, Antiq. 4, p. 49 sq.
- —Hence, Sĭ-byllīnus (written SIBVLLIN., Inscr. Orell. 2276, p. 394, and Calend. Praenest. M. Apr. ib. tom. ii. p. 389), a, um, adj., of or belonging to the Sibyl, Sibylline: libri, Varr. l. l.; Gell. l. l.; Varr. L. L. 6, § 15 Müll.; Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 49, § 108; Liv. 5, 13; 7, 27; 22, 9; 29, 10; 36, 37; 41, 21 al. (they are called simply libri in Liv. 3, 10; 21, 62; 22, 1; 22, 36; 22, 57; and libri fatales, id. 22, 10): vaticinationes, Cic. N. D. 2, 3, 10: versus, id. Div. 1, 2, 4; Hor. C. S. 5: fata, Cic. Cat. 3, 4, 9.
incipit versus Sybillae De judicio Dei
~illa profetissa ait “denumerat tacitis tot crimina conscius ultor”
si Christum ~illa ejusque labores praedixit venturum, cur non Naso Homerum ‥ praececinit?
en vaticinia ~ille que versibus testantur ex Britannico genere tercio nasciturum qui ‥
hiis auctoritatibus ‥ [convenit ] et auctoritas ~ille quam colligit Lactantius
Sybilla predixerat ‥ oleum erumpendum in Roma
~illa Tibertina vaticinata est de Christo, hiis versibus ‥
cum plures fuerunt ~ille, sc. decem ‥ ea que dicta est Cumea diutissime vixit
quarta etas ‥ ~illa Samia claruit
Cesar ‥ ad se ~illam Tiburtinam sapientem convocans ‥
obiit Sibilla regina Scocie
reg. Castelle', Toleti ‥ Sibill', Cordub'
datum Sibili' kalendis Junii
- , Σίβυλλα, a female soothsayer, prophetess, priestess of Apollo, Sibyl: terrae vis Pythiam Delphis incitabat, naturae Sibyllam. —Deiphobe, daughter of Glaucus, who lived in a grotto at Cumae: Cumaea, V.: vivacis antra Sibyllae, O.—A Sibyl, the author of the Sibylline books kept in the Capitol, C., L.
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…sinet. Via prima salutis, quod minime reris, Graia pandetur ab urbe. Talibus ex adyto dictis Cumaea Sibylla horrendas canit ambages antroque remugit, obscuris vera involvens ea frena furenti concutit, et stimulos sub pectore vertit Apollo…
Vergil, Aeneid
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…ilice, sic leni crepitabat brattea vento. Corripit Aeneas extemplo avidusque refringit cunctantem, et vatis portat sub tecta Sibyllae. Nec minus interea Misenum in litore Teucri flebant, et cineri ingrato suprema ferebant. Principio pinguem taedis et…
Vergil, Aeneid
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…rapit silvas, inventaque flumina monstrat. At pius Aeneas arces, quibus altus Apollo praesidet, horrendaeque procul secreta Sibyllae antrum immane petit, magnum cui mentem animumque Delius inspirat vates, aperitque futura. Iam subeunt Triviae lucos atque…
Vergil, Aeneid
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…ingens rupis in antrum, quo lati ducunt aditus centum, ostia centum ; unde ruunt totidem voces, responsa Sibyllae. Ventum erat ad limen, cum virgo. Poscere fata tempus ait ; deus, ecce, deus Cui…
Vergil, Aeneid
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…inter saxa virum spumosa inmerserat unda. Ergo omnes magno circum clamore fremebant, praecipue pius Aeneas. Tum iussa Sibyllae, haud mora, festinant flentes, aramque sepulchri congerere arboribus caeloque educere certant. Itur in antiquam silvam ,…
Vergil, Aeneid
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…, qui nunc Misenus ab illo dicitur, aeternumque tenet per saecula nomen. His actis, propere exsequitur praecepta Sibyllae. Spelunca alta fuit vastoque immanis hiatu, scrupea, tuta lacu nigro nemorumque tenebris, quam super haud ullae…
Vergil, Aeneid
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…religio in sacra et in auspicia divisa sit, tertium adiunctum sit si quid praedictionis causa ex portentis et monstris Sibyllae interpretes haruspicesve monuerunt, harum ego religionum nullam umquam contemnendam putavi mihique ita persuasi, Romulum auspiciis Numam sacris constitutis…
M. Tullius Cicero, de Natura Deorum
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…, Tusculi aedes Castoris et Pollucis, Romaeque Pietatis nonne et haruspices ea responderunt, quae evenerunt, et in Sibyllae libris eaedem repertae praedictiones sunt Caeciliae Q. filiae somnio modo Marsico bello templum est a senatu Iunoni Sospitae restitutum…
M. Tullius Cicero, De Divinatione
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…carmen omne praetexitur. hoc scriptoris est, non furentis, adhibentis diligentiam, non insani. quam ob rem Sibyllam quidem sepositam et conditam habeamus, ut, id quod proditum est a maioribus, iniussu senatus ne legantur quidem…
M. Tullius Cicero, De Divinatione
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…et somniantibus saepe contingit et non numquam vaticinantibus per furorem, ut Bacis Boeotius, ut Epimenides Cres, ut Sibylla Erythraea. cuius generis oracula etiam habenda sunt, non ea, quae aequatis sortibus ducuntur, sed illa ,…
M. Tullius Cicero, De Divinatione
(in the sing., Lat. Sibylla; Gr. Σίβυλλα, from Doric σιο-βόλλα=θεοῦ βουλή, “the will of God”). The name given in antiquity to inspired prophetesses of some deity, in particular Apollo. They were usually regarded as maidens dwelling in lonely caves or by inspiring springs, who were possessed with a spirit of divination, and gave forth prophetic utterances while under the influence of enthusiastic frenzy. They were described sometimes as priestesses of Apollo, sometimes as his favourite wives or daughters. We have no certain information as to their number, names, country, or date. Though Plato (Phaedr. 294 B) knew of only one, others mention two, three, four (the Erythraean, the Samian, the Egyptian, and the Sardian), and even ten or twelve: the Babylonian, the Libyan, the (elder and younger) Delphian, the Cimmerian, the (elder and younger) Erythraean, the Samian, the Cumaean, the Hellespontine, the Phrygian, and the Tiburtine.
In the earliest times they are mentioned as dwelling in the neighbourhood of the Trojan Ida in Asia Minor, later at Erythrae in Ionia, in Samos, at Delphi, and at Cumae in Italy. The most famous was the Erythraean Sibyl, Herophilé, who is usually considered identical with the Cumaean, as she is represented as journeying by manifold wanderings from her home to Cumae. Here she is said to have lived for many generations in the crypts beneath the temple of Apollo, where she had even prophesied to Aeneas. In later times the designation of Sibyl was also given to the prophetic nymph Albunea near Tibur (Lactant. i. 6, 12).
The Sibylline Books, so often met with in Roman history, had their origin in a collection of oracular utterances in Greek hexameters, composed in the time of Solon and Cyrus at Gergis on Mount Ida, and ascribed to the Hellespontic Sibyl, buried in the temple of Apollo at Gergis. This collection was brought by way of Erythrae to Cumae, and finally, in the time of the last king, to Rome. According to the legend, the Cumaean Sibyl offered to Tarquinius Superbus nine books of prophecies; and as the king declined to purchase them, owing to the exorbitant price she demanded, she burned all but three of them, which the king purchased for the original price, and had them preserved in a vault beneath the Capitoline temple of Iupiter (Varro, ap. Lactant. Inst. Div. i. 6; Dionys.iv. 62; Orig. viii. 815). When they were destroyed in the burning of the Capitol in B.C. 83, the Senate sent envoys to make a collection of similar oracular sayings distributed over various places, in particular Ilium, Erythrae, and Samos. This new collection was deposited in the restored temple, together with similar sayings of native origin— e. g. those of the Sibyl at Tibur, of the brothers Marcius , and others. From the Capitol they were transferred by Augustus as pontifex, in B.C. 12, to the temple of Apollo on the Palatine, after they had been examined and copied; here they remained until about A.D. 405. They are said to have been burned by Stilicho. The use of these oracles was from the outset reserved for the State, and they were not consulted for the foretelling of future events, but on the occasion of remarkable calamities, such as pestilence, earthquake, and as a means of expiating portents. It was only the rites of expiation prescribed by the Sibylline Books that were communicated to the public, and not the oracles themselves. As these books recognized the gods worshipped and the rites observed in the neighbourhood of Troy, they were the principal cause of the introduction of a series of foreign deities and religious rites into the Roman State worship, of the amalgamation of national deities with the corresponding deities of Greece, and a general modification of the Roman religion after the Greek type.
Tarquinius is said to have intrusted the care of the books to a special collegium of two men of patrician rank. After B.C. 367 their number was increased to ten, half patrician and half plebeian; and in the first century B.C., probably in the time of Sulla , five more were added. These officials were entitled respectively duumviri, decemviri, and quindecimviri sacris faciundis. They were usually ex-consuls or ex-praetors. They held office for life, and were exempt from all other public duties. They had the responsibility of keeping the books in safety and secrecy, of consulting them at the order of the Senate, of interpreting the utterances they found therein, and of causing the measures thus enjoined to be carried out; in particular they had the superintendence of the worship of Apollo, the Magna Mater, and Ceres, which had been introduced by the Sibylline Books. See Marquardt, iii. 358 foll.; and Bouché-Leclercq, Hist. de la Divination, ii. pp. 133 foll.
These Sibylline Books have no connection with a collection of Sibylline Oracles in twelve books, written in Greek hexameters, which have come down to us. The latter contain a medley of pretended prophecies by various authors and of very various dates, from the middle of the second century B.C. to the fifth century A.D. They were composed partly by Alexandrian Jews, partly by Christians, in the interests of their respective religions; and in part they refer to events of the later Empire. They are edited by Alexandre (Paris, 1841-56); Friedlieb (Leipzig, 1852); Rzach (Vienna, 1891); and Diels (Berlin, 1891). See Dechent in the Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte (1878); and an article in the Edinburgh Review for July, 1877.