Mythology / the-sybil-of-cumae
Facts about The Sybil of Cumae
- 05
Located near Naples, Cumae was one of the earliest Greek colonies in Italy and home to the famous cave sanctuary where the Sibyl delivered her prophecies.
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Petronious's Satyricon references the Sibyl of Cumae as wishing for death, a detail later echoed by T.S. Eliot as the epigraph to The Waste Land.
- 03
Apollo granted the Sibyl of Cumae immortality but not eternal youth, causing her to wither endlessly as she aged across a thousand years.
- 02
In Roman tradition, the Sibyl of Cumae offered nine prophetic books to King Tarquinius, burning six when he refused her price before he finally purchased the remaining three.
- 01
According to Virgil's Aeneid, the Sibyl of Cumae guided Aeneas through the underworld to visit his deceased father Anchises.