Editing Sibyl (section)

== History ==
[[File:DelphicSibylByMichelangelo.jpg|thumb|[[Michelangelo]]'s ''Delphic Sibyl'', [[Sistine Chapel]] [[Sistine Chapel ceiling|ceiling]]]]
The English word ''sibyl'' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɪ|b|əl}}) is from Middle English, via the [[Old French]] {{lang|fro|sibile}} and the [[Latin]] {{lang|la|sibylla}} from the [[ancient Greek]] {{wikt-lang|grc|Σίβυλλα}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|Sibylla}}).<ref>{{OED|Sibyl}} {{OEtymD|sibyl}}</ref> [[Varro]] derived the name from an [[Aeolic Greek|Aeolic]] ''sioboulla'', the equivalent of Attic ''[[theobule]]'' ("divine counsel").<ref>Tim Denecker, ''Ideas on Language in Early Latin Christianity'' (2017), p. 305.</ref> This etymology is not accepted in modern handbooks, which list the origin as unknown.<ref>Cf. Frisk, ''Griechische eymologisches Wörterbuch'', vol. 2, p. 700; Chantraine, ''Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque'', 2009, p. 966.</ref> There have been alternative proposals in nineteenth-century philology suggesting [[Italic languages|Old Italic]]<ref>"Rheinisches Museum" 1 ({{year needed|date=December 2021}}), 110ff.</ref>{{failed verification|date=December 2021}} or [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] derivation.<ref>{{Cite Jewish Encyclopedia |noicon=1 |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13629-sibyl |title=Sibyl}} "Since Lactantius expressly says (l.c. ["Divinarum Institutionum," i. 6]) that the sibyl is a native of Babylon, the name is probably Semitic in origin. The word may be resolved into the two components "sib" + "il," thus denoting "the ancient of god" (Krauss, in 'Byzantinische Zeit.' xi. 122)"</ref>

The first known Greek writer to mention a sibyl is (based on the testimony of [[Plutarch]]) [[Heraclitus]] (fl. 500 BC):
<blockquote>The Sibyl, with frenzied mouth uttering things not to be laughed at, unadorned and unperfumed, yet reaches to a thousand years with her voice by aid of the god.<ref>Heraclitus, fragment 92, ed. Charles H. Kahn, (1981), p. 125.</ref></blockquote>
[[Walter Burkert]] observes that "frenzied women from whose lips the god speaks" are recorded very much earlier in the Near East, as in [[Mari, Syria|Mari]] in the second millennium and in Assyria in the first millennium".<ref>Burkert 1985, p. 116</ref>

Until the literary elaborations of Roman writers, sibyls were not identified by a personal name, but by names that refer to the location of their ''[[temenos]]'', or shrine.

In [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''[[Description of Greece]]'', the first sibyl at Delphi mentioned ("the former" [earlier]) was of great antiquity, and was thought, according to Pausanias, to have been given the name "sibyl" by the Libyans.<ref name="Pausanias">See Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'', x.12 edited with commentary and translated by Sir [[James Frazer]], 1913 edition. Cf. v. 5, p. 288. Also see [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+10.12.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 Pausanias, 10.12.1] at the Perseus Project.</ref> Sir [[James Frazer]] calls the text defective.

The second sibyl referred to by Pausanias, and named "Herophile", seems to have been based ultimately in [[Samos Island|Samos]], but visited other shrines, at [[Clarus]], [[Delos]], and [[Delphi]] and sang there, but that at the same time, Delphi had its own sibyl.<ref name="Pausanias"/>

[[James Frazer]] writes, in his translation and commentary on Pausanias,<ref>Frazer quotes Ernst Maass, ''De Sibyllarum Indicibus'' (Berlin, 1879).</ref> that only two of the Greek sibyls were historical: [[Erythraean Sibyl|Herophile of Erythrae]], who is thought to have lived in the eighth century BC, and [[Samian Sibyl|Phyto of Samos]] who lived somewhat later. He observes that the Greeks at first seemed to have known only one sibyl, and instances [[Heraclides Ponticus]]<ref>Heraclides Ponticus, ''On Oracles''.</ref> as the first ancient writer to distinguish several sibyls: Heraclides names at least three sibyls, the [[Phrygian Sibyl|Phrygian]], the [[Erythraean Sibyl|Erythraean]], and the [[Hellespontine Sibyl|Hellespontine]].<ref>[[James Frazer|Frazer, James]], translation and commentary on Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'', v. 5, p. 288, commentary and notes on Book X, Ch. 12, line 1, "Herophile surnamed Sibyl":
<blockquote>Prof. E. Maass (op cit., p.56) holds that two only of the Greek sibyls were historical, namely Herophile of Erythrae and Phyto of Samos; the former he thinks lived in the eighth century BC, the latter somewhat later</blockquote>

Frazer goes on:
<blockquote>At first, the Greeks seemed to have known only one sibyl. (Heraclitus, cited by Plutarch,'' De Pythiae Oraculis ''6; Aristophanes, ''Peace ''1095, 1116; Plato, ''Phaedrus'', p. 244b). The first writer who is known to have distinguished several sibyls is Heraclides Ponticus in his book ''On Oracles'', in which he appears to have enumerated at least three, namely the Phrygian, the Erythraean, and the Hellespontine.</blockquote>
</ref> The scholar David S. Potter writes, "In the late fifth century BC it does appear that 'Sibylla' was the name given to a single inspired prophetess".<ref>David Stone Potter, ''Prophecy and history in the crisis of the Roman Empire: a historical commentary on the Thirteenth Sibylline Oracle'', Cf. Chapter 3, p. 106.</ref>

Like Heraclitus, [[Plato]] speaks of only one sibyl, but in course of time the number increased to nine, with a tenth, the [[Tiburtine Sibyl]], probably [[Etruscan mythology|Etruscan]] in origin, added by the Romans. According to [[Lactantius]]' ''Divine Institutions'' (Book 1, Ch. 6), [[Marcus Terentius Varro|Varro]]  (first century BC) lists these ten: the Persian, the Libyan, the Delphic, the Cimmerian, the Erythræan, the Samian, the Cumæan, the Hellespontine (in Trojan territory), the Phrygian (at Ancyra), and the Tiburtine (named Albunea).