SIBYL (Gr. sibulla, according to the old derivation from dias Louie; Doric, sins bolla the will or counsel of God "), the name anciently given to several prophetic women, whose history, in so far as they have any, has come down to us in a wholly mythical form, if, indeed. such beings ever existed at alll Their number is differently given; sonic writers (zElian, for example) mention only four—the Erythrantn, the Soudan, the Egyptian, and the Sardian; but in general ten are reckoned, viz., the Babylonian, the Libyan, the Delphian, the Cimmerian, the Erythrwan, the Samian, the the Trojan or Hellespontian. the Phrygian, and the Tiburtinc. Of these, by far the most celebrated is the Cunneen, identified by Aristotle with the Eryth•an, and personally known by the names of Herophile, Demo, •hemonoU. Deipbobe, Demophile, and Amai three.. She figures prominently in the 0th book of Virgil's ./Eueid, as the conductor of the poet into the realm of the shades. The Roman legend concerning her (as recorded by Livy) is, that the Caine from the east, and appearing before king Tarquin the proud, offered him nine books for sale. The price dt-mancleth appeared to the monarch exorbi tant, amid he refused to purchase them. She then went away, destroyed three, and returning, asked as much for the remaining six as for the nine. This was again refuse,l, whereupon she destroyed other three, and once more offered to sell him the rest, but without any abatement of the original price. Tarquin was struck by her per tinacity, and bought the books, which wetc found to contain advices regarding the relig ion and policy of the Romans. They were preserved in a subterranean chamber of the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline, and were originally intrusted to two ofilcials (duunt yin/ sucvorum), appointed by the r.enate, who alone had the right to inspect them. The number of keepers was afterward increased to 10 (deceinviri), and finally, by Saila, to 15 (quindecentriri). In the year 84 n.c., the temple of Jupiter having been consumed by fire, the original sibylline books or leaves were destroyed, whereupon a special embassy was dispatched by the senate to all the cities of Greece, Italy, and Asia Minor. to collect
such as were current in these regions. This being done, the new collection was depos ited in the temple of Jupiter after it had been rebuilt. Spurious sibylline prophecies—or what were regarded as such—accumulated greatly in private hands toward the close of the republic; and Augustus, fearing, perhaps, that they might be turned to political uses, ordered them all to be given up to the city-prretor, and burned them. More than 2,000 were de..`,royed Oa this occasion. The remainder were kept in the temple of Apollo, on the Palatine, under lock and key; but the whole perished during the burning of Rome in the time of Nero. Other collections were made: and as late as the 6th c., when the city was besieged by the Goths, there were not wanting some who pretended to predict the issue from a consultation of these venerable oracles. It is, however, beyond doubt, that as early. at m as the 2d c. A,D., when enthusiastic men sprang up in the Christian church. prophesying in a poetic-oracular style (whence they.were sometimes called sibyllists), the sibylline books were much interpolated and falsified to assist the progress of the new faith. The utterances of these Christian sibyllists form a special department of early ecclesiastical literature, and are a mixture of Jewish, pagan, and Christian ingredieuts. The collections of them also bear the nameof " sibylline books." An edi tion was published by Gallrens, at Amsterdam. in 1089. and was entitled Onitrula Sibyl lina; fragments have also been edited Angelo Mai (Milan, 1817) and Struve Konigs berg, 1818).—Consult Bleck, Ether die Lastehung und Zusammensetzlog der lots in achi Bilehern erhaltenen Sammliing SibylliniScher Oralcrl(in Schleiermacher's Theo/oft/Ace Zeit schrift, Berl. 1819) and Thorlacius, Libri Sibyllistarum Veteris ficciesice (1822); Ewald, (Aber Entstehung, Inhalt und Werth der Sibyllinischer Bucher (Gott. 1858).