Sibyl
Sibyl EuropeA prophetess. In Roman mythology the best known was the Cumaean Sibyl, who assisted Aeneas in his descent to the underworld. In the Aeneid, written at the close of the first century BC, Virgil treats Cumae as a place where Daedalus, flying from Crete, built a temple to Apollo, and dedicated his wings in it. He also describes as a labyrinthine network of caves the prophetess' sanctuary. ‘Cleft out is the flank of Cumae's rock into a cavern terrific. To it a hundred broad accesses lead, a hundred their mouthways. From it a hundred come the streams of sound, the Sibyl's answerings.’
The Sibylline Books, a collection of oracular sayings which were believed to foretell the future, came to Rome during the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, a legendary Etruscan king. ‘A foreign woman’ offered to sell this ruler nine volumes. When her offer was declined, she burned three of them and offered the remaining six at the original price....
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