‘Casta Sibylla’? Ritratti di Sibille nella raccolta degli ‘Oracula Sibyllina’

Abstract

It is universally known that the Sibyl was a virgin prophetess; yet, in the Sibylline Oracles she does not at all present herself as a parthenos . She says she is the daughter-in-law of Noah in Orac. Sib. I 280-290 and, probably, in III 823-827 as well; the (unfaithful?) wife of a most wealthy man in Orac. Sib. II 340-345, where she confesses to having neglected her marriage, behaving like a kunopis and an anaidēs ; finally, a sinner and a «serial lover» in Orac. Sib. VII 151-162. Furthermore, in Orac. Sib. III 812-813 she claims that the Greeks would have called her an anaidēs from Erythrae. The present article deals with all these passages, but it is mainly focused on the epilogues of books III and VII. The first section of the article discusses the unflattering opinions that, according to the Jewish author of ll. III 813-818, the Greeks would have had of the Erythrean Sibyl, in order to detect their possible motivations (see the Epilogue ). After a brief section on the passages of book I/II, the third section examines the main textual issues of the epilogue of book VII and proposes a new interpretation of this Sibyl’s confession in the light of Act 7, 55-56.