The Mythology Book

110

THE FATES WILL

LEAVE ME MY VOICE,

AND BY MY VOICE

I SHALL BE KNOWN

THE SIBYL OF CUMAE

I

n Greek and Roman lore, the

Trojan hero Aeneas wished to

visit his father’s ghost, so he

traveled to the gateway of the

Underworld—the cave of the aged

Sibyl of Cumae. Cumae was a

Greek colony in Campania, in

southern Italy. There, the Sibyl, a

divinely inspired prophetess of the

god Apollo, safely guided Aeneas

to the Underworld and back. As

Aeneas and the Sibyl climbed back

up into the world of the living, he

told her that he owed her his life,

that he would always regard her as

a goddess, and that he would build

a temple in her honor.

The Sibyl said she was no

goddess, and that no human being

was worthy of being worshipped.

To prove that she too was fallible,

she recounted the story of how, as

a young woman, she was wooed by

the god Apollo. When she rejected

him, she sealed her sad fate.

Apollo and the Sibyl

Apollo, desperate to win the Sibyl’s

favor, promised her anything she

desired. She pointed at a heap of

dust and asked to live as many

years as there were grains of dust.

Apollo offered her both the years

and eternal youth if she would

submit to him. But she spurned

him, so the god granted her the

years but not the youth.

By the time she met Aeneas,

the Sibyl was a withered old

woman. She had spent seven

centuries singing the fates and

spelling her prophecies out on palm

IN BRIEF

THEME

Prophecy and destiny

SOURCES

Aeneid, Virgil, ca. 20 bce;

Roman Antiquities, Dionysius

of Halicarnassus, ca. 7 bce;

Metamorphoses, Ovid, 8 ce;

Satyricon, Petronius, ca. 60 ce.

SETTING

Cumae, in the times of Aeneas

(ca. 1200 bce) and Trimalchio

(1st century ce); Rome during

the reign of Tarquinius

Superbus (535–509 bce).

KEY FIGURES

Aeneas A Trojan hero of

Greco-Roman mythology.

The Sibyl of Cumae A

prophetess of Apollo.

Apollo The god of prophecy,

music, and the sun.

Tarquinius Superbus The

last king of Rome before

the birth of the Republic.

Authors depict the Sibyl in three ways:

As a young

woman, beloved

by Apollo.

At 700 years of

age, when she

meets Aeneas.

Ancient but not

immortal,

wishing for death.

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111

See also: Hades and the Underworld 48–49 ■ Apollo and the Oracle of

Delphi 58–59 ■ Aeneas 96–101 ■ The founding of Rome 102–05

ANCIENT ROME

leaves, which she would arrange at

the mouth of her cave; if the wind

blew the leaves about, the Sibyl

would refuse to rearrange them,

and the prophecy would be lost.

Final prophesies

The Sibyl of Cumae approached

Tarquinius Superbus (Tarquin

the Proud), the last king of Rome

before the Republic, with nine

books of prophecies, which she

offered to sell him for a high price.

Tarquinius, seeing merely a

withered old woman, haughtily

turned her away. The Sibyl burned

three of the books, and offered him

the remaining six for the same

price. Again he refused. The Sibyl

burned another three books and

offered the king the remaining

three for the same price as the

original nine. He was so intrigued

that he paid her what she asked.

After selling her books, the Sibyl

disappeared and was not mentioned

again until she was spotted by

Trimalchio, a former slave, in

the 1st-century ce Satyricon of

Petronius. By then, her withered

body was so tiny that she was hung

up in a jar. When some local boys

asked her what she wanted, she

replied, “I want to die.” Eventually,

only her voice was left. ■

Aeneas greets the Sibyl at the

Temple of Apollo, accompanied by

Achates, a fellow exile from Troy, before

his descent into the Underworld, in this

manuscript illustration (ca. 400 ce).

The Sibylline Books

The three books of prophecies

known as the Sibylline Books

were one of ancient Rome’s

greatest treasures. They were

kept in the temple of Jupiter

on the Capitoline Hill and

consulted at times of crisis.

The original books were

burnt in a temple fire in 83 bce,

but the prophecies that they

contained were carefully

gathered together from across

the Roman Empire and placed

back in the temple. The

Emperor Augustus later had

them moved to the temple of

Apollo on the Palatine Hill.

The Sibylline Books had 10

custodians who interpreted

the obscure and ambiguous

prophecies. These men also

directed the Romans on how

to worship the gods Apollo,

Cybele, and Ceres. Apollo had

inspired the Sybil’s prophecies

and the Sibylline Books gave

advice on the worship of

Cybele and Ceres. However,

the books were intentionally

destroyed in 405 ce by Flavius

Stilicho, a Roman general who

believed that they were being

used against him.

The Sibyl of Cumae is portrayed

in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel in

Rome, painted by Michelangelo

(1510), to illustrate that pagans

can enter the kingdom of God.

’Tis time to ask the oracles;

the god, lo! The god!

The Sybil of Cumae,

Aeneid

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