Michelangelo's rendering of the Persian Sibyl
By Santa Maria degli Scalzi ">Scalzi,_Venice.html" ;"title="Giuseppe Torretto Scalzi, Venice">Santa Maria degli Scalzi
The Persian Sibyl – also known as the Babylonian, Chaldaean, Hebrew or Egyptian Sibyl – was the prophetic priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle.
The word Sibyl (oracle), "Sibyl" comes (via Latin) from the ancient Greek word ''sibylla'', meaning "prophetess". There were many Sibyls in the ancient world, but the Persian Sibyl allegedly foretold the exploits of
Alexander of Macedon. Nicanor, who wrote a life of Alexander, mentions her.
The Persian Sibyl has had at least three names: Sambethe, Helrea and Sabbe.
Sambethe was said to be of the family of
Noah
Noah (; , also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian Patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baháʼí literature, ...
.
''The Persian Sibyl'' by
Guercino
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),Miller, 1964 better known as (il) Guercino (), was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The vigorous n ...
hangs in the Capitoline Museum in Rome.
Pausanias, pausing at
Delphi
Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient Classical antiquity, classical world. The A ...
to enumerate four sibyls, mentions a "Hebrew sibyl":
there grew up among the Hebrews above Palestine, a woman who gave oracles named Sabbe, whose father was Berosus and her mother Erymanthe. Some say she was a Babylonian, while others call her an Egyptian Sibyl.
The medieval Byzantine encyclopedia, the ''
Suda
The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; ; ) is a large 10th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine encyclopedia of the History of the Mediterranean region, ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas () or Souidas (). It is an ...
'', credits the Hebrew Sibyl as the author of the
Sibylline oracles
The ''Sibylline Oracles'' (; sometimes called the pseudo-Sibylline Oracles) are a collection of oracular utterances written in Greek hexameters ascribed to the Sibyls, prophetesses who uttered divine revelations in a frenzied state. Fourteen b ...
, a collection of texts of c. the 2nd to 4th century which were collected in the 6th century.
See also
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Sibylline oracles
The ''Sibylline Oracles'' (; sometimes called the pseudo-Sibylline Oracles) are a collection of oracular utterances written in Greek hexameters ascribed to the Sibyls, prophetesses who uttered divine revelations in a frenzied state. Fourteen b ...
*
Wives aboard the Ark
References
Jewish Encyclopedia: Sibyl
External links
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Sibyls