Sybil of Cuma

NAME SIBILLA OR SYBIL
By this name the virgin priestesses devoted to Apollo were known in all the ancient world. The most famous lived in Cuma, a Greek colony built on the Campania coast.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE When the Sybil is Prophesying , she is described like a pale woman, with her breast deflated, her hair standing on end and speaking with an inhuman voice.

TIME FROM PREHISTORIC TIMES UP TO THE CHRISTIAN ERA.

PLACE CUMA

WHAT HAPPENED The Cuma temples were well known in the Greek age. Believers came from every parts of the Mediterranean area to wait for the precious prophesies of the Sybil. She lived in a Cave. She wrote her responses on leaves and then she scattered them in the wind so that the believers could hardly interpret them.
It is told that one day the sybil went to the last king of Rome, Tarquinio the proud one. She offered him 9 books, called Sybillean Books, where were collected all the prophesies about Rome. She asked for 300 golden coins but the king didn’t accept. Then the Sybil started to burn the books one at the time. So the books diminished but not their price. Finally Tarquinio accepted to pay but there were only three books left. Made by leaves, they were written in verses and hieroglyphics. They were kept in the Jove Temple on the Campidoglio ( one of the seven hills Rome was built on ) and were consulted each time the town was in trouble.
Virgilio, a famous poet of Ancient Rome, sang the Sybil’s prophetic gifts and, in the Augustan Age, Cuma became one of the main religious centres of the Roman Empire.
That was a great fortune for the town founded in Campi Flegrei in the 1st half of the 8th century by sailors from Calcidia ( a Greek region ). There is large archeological area where you can find the remnants of the wonderful temples . In the same excavations you can visit also the Cavern where the Sybil lived. It is 130 metres long and well preserved, thanks also to the rearrangements dating back to the 4th century before Christ.

THE LEGEND More legendary than historical is the Sybil that Virgilio sang about in the 6th book of his most famous work, the ENEIDE . Thanks to the Sybil, Enea could make the trip in the Hades whose gate was supposed to be in the Lake of Averno.

SAYINGS OR PROVERBS ‘To speak in a sybil-like way’ : to speak in a mysterious way.

NAME	SIBILLA OR SYBIL By this name the virgin priestesses devoted to Apollo were known in all the ancient world. The most famous lived in Cuma, a Greek colony built on the Campania coast.
PHYSICAL APPEARANCE	When the Sybil is Prophesying , she is described like a pale woman, with her breast deflated, her hair standing on end and speaking with an inhuman voice.
TIME	FROM PREHISTORIC TIMES UP TO THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
PLACE	CUMA
WHAT HAPPENED	The Cuma temples were well known in the Greek age. Believers came from every parts of the Mediterranean area to wait for the precious prophesies of the Sybil. She lived in a Cave. She wrote her responses on leaves and then she scattered them in the wind so that the believers could hardly interpret them. It is told that one day the sybil went to the last king of Rome, Tarquinio the proud one. She offered him 9 books, called Sybillean Books, where were collected all the prophesies about Rome. She asked for 300 golden coins but the king didn’t accept. Then the Sybil started to burn the books one at the time. So the books diminished but not their price. Finally Tarquinio accepted to pay but there were only three books left. Made by leaves, they were written in verses and hieroglyphics. They were kept in the Jove Temple on the Campidoglio ( one of the seven hills Rome was built on ) and were consulted each time the town was in trouble. Virgilio, a famous poet of Ancient Rome, sang the Sybil’s prophetic gifts and, in the Augustan Age, Cuma became one of the main religious centres of the Roman Empire. That was a great fortune for the town founded in Campi Flegrei in the 1st half of the 8th century by sailors from Calcidia ( a Greek region ). There is large archeological area where you can find the remnants of the wonderful temples . In the same excavations you can visit also the Cavern where the Sybil lived. It is 130 metres long and well preserved, thanks also to the rearrangements dating back to the 4th century before Christ.
THE LEGEND	More legendary than historical is the Sybil that Virgilio sang about in the 6th book of his most famous work, the ENEIDE . Thanks to the Sybil, Enea could make the trip in the Hades whose gate was supposed to be in the Lake of Averno.
SAYINGS OR PROVERBS	‘To speak in a sybil-like way’ : to speak in a mysterious way.