SYBILS.
The existence of one or more Sybils in the ancient world has been
distinctly proved. Classic authors are unanimous upon the subject. Suidas
tells us that there were fourteen; Varro, ten. Oelian asserts that there
were only four; while Martinus Capella reduces them to two.
Dr. Petit, however, the author of the Essay "De Sybilla," reduces them to
one. Let us grant that the Sybil of Cumæ was the only authentic Sybil,
whether originating in Ionia, Syria, or Campania. Let us even establish
that her name was Demo, according to Pausanias, though Virgil declares
that she was called Deiphobe, and was the daughter of Glaucus. Suidas
calls his fourteen by the common name of Eriphile; Aristotle styles the
Sybil, Malanchrenes. After due consideration of these names, certain
writers unanimously adopted that of Amalthea. Be it our business to
inquire into the question upon the only reasonable grounds, namely, in a
symbolical sense. A man had need to belong to Rome or Greece to entertain
a due respect for the subject; where the existence of supernatural beings
placed by the Gods between heaven and earth, and predominating over Kings
and their subjects, was regarded as a blessing. In those times, such
creations had a salutary influence of which we cannot now appreciate the
value. The ancient social institutions, of so many centuries past, are
scarcely to be understood from books; since those by which we are actually
surrounded are not altogether comprehensible.
Great was the veneration conceded to the Sybils in Greece and Rome; in
proof of which we need only cite the Sybilline volume--to discredit which
in the olden time, would have been a matter of danger.
It is known to all that a venerable Sybil came to Tarquin, and offered to
sell him nine volumes of her prophecies, when her price being taxed as
exorbitant, she threw three volumes into the fire, still requiring the
same price for the remaining six. Still denied her price by Tarquin, three
more of the books shared the same fate; and on her adhering to her
original demand for the remaining three; Tarquin assembled the Augurs, who
advised the purchase, and the monarch was forced to submit to the terms of
the Sybil.
From that moment, the Sybilline leaves became objects of veneration. They
were made over to the custody of the priests, and consulted upon
occasions of importance after a decree of the Senate. These volumes were
destroyed in the conflagration of the Capitol, eighty-three years before
Christ; a severe calamity to the Romans, who looked upon the Sybilline
books as a sacred charta. It is remarkable, that after the destruction of
these volumes, the Republic gradually declined, and fell under the yoke of
the Emperors.
Immense as was the loss of the volumes, considering their influence over
the minds of the people, the Augurs and Senate hoped to replace the loss.
Zealous missionaries were sent to all the cities of Europe, Asia and
Africa, which affected to possess Sybilline verses; and more than two
thousand were brought back. But we are to conclude they were far from
genuine, as the Sybilline oracles declined in credit. Augustus suppressed
many of the verses, and the rest were burned by Stilicon, father-in-law of
the Emperor Honorius.
In all countries of the ancient world, Virgins were objects of worship;
and even as connected with Pagan idolatries, there is something beautiful
and touching in the homage paid to virginal purity, more particularly in
contrast with the ferocity of manners of the early Romans. The most abject
corruption respected the worship of virginity. No virgin could be
immolated by the Romans; and Octavia was reduced to infamy ere she could
be lawfully sacrificed to the vengeance of Nero. The Sybils were sacred
virgins, which accounted for the veneration paid to them and their
oracles. St. Jerome expressly states that the gift of prophecy was
bestowed upon them in honour of their purity. As to the Sybil of Cumæ, she
was said to have rejected the advances of Apollo himself, though the God
offered to endow her with eternal youth and beauty; to which she preferred
the infirmities of mortal decrepitude in order to live and die in
chastity.
As society is now constituted, nothing founded on error, or the frauds
usually called pious, can be termed justifiable. Tarquin and the Augurs
probably understood the inauthenticity of the Sybilline books; but it was
their cue to create a deep veneration for them, and assign a divine origin
to the laws, which in those days might not otherwise have been respected
by the people.
In the time of Cicero, the Romans had learned to blush for their own
credulity; and in the following centuries, were confounded at seeing the
Fathers of the Christian Church return indirectly to ideas long fallen
into desuetude. St. Ambrose, however, denounced such doctrines; declaring
to the early Christians who were disposed to seek in the Sybilline books
exposition of their faith, that they were the idle production of fanatical
women.
The Sybils of old were apparently prophetesses after the manner of Joanna
Southcote and Madame Krudener in the present century. The Sybilline
books, as existent in the days of St. Ambrose, teemed with frauds and
anachronisms, proving the ignorance of their authors, as much as the
credulity of those who believed in them. The events of the Christian
dispensation are as clearly announced in them as in the Holy Writ. The
personages are even mentioned by their proper names. Isaiah wrote: "A
virgin shall conceive." The Sybil is made to say, "The Virgin Mary shall
conceive, and shall bring forth Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem." The Sybil
also announces the Baptism of the Messiah in the Jordan; the coming of the
Holy Ghost under the form of a dove; the circumstances of the Passion; and
the preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles. She pretends to have
witnessed events long after the coming of the Messiah; relates the second
conflagration of the Temple of Vesta, which took place one hundred and
seventy years after Jesus Christ, in the reign of Commodus, and affects to
have been in Noah's Ark; yet is so ignorant of the Holy Writings, that she
supposes Noah to have sojourned therein only forty and one days; while
Moses states him to have been an entire year. She also places Mount Ararat
in Phrygia instead of Armenia.
Such was the value of the last edition of the Sybilline volumes;
conceived, no doubt, with good intentions; but, as articles of faith,
little better than a fiction.