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ARTICLE VII.

SIBYLLINE ORACLES.

1. ΣΙΒΥΛΛΙΑΚΟΙ ΧΡΗΣΜΟΙ, hoc est SIBYLLINA ORACVLA ex vett. codd. aucta, renovata, et notis illustrata a D. IOHANNE OPSOPOEO BRETTANO, cum interpretatione Latina Sebastiani Castilionis, et Indice. Parisiis, MDCVII. Cum Privilegio Regis.

2. SIBYLLAE LIBER XIV. Editore et Interprete ANGELO MAIO, Ambrosiani Collegii Doctore. Additur Sextus Liber et Pars Octavi, cum multa vocum et versuum varietate. Mediolani. Regiis Typis. MDCCCXVII. 3. A Vindication of the Sibylline Oracles. To which are added the Genuine Oracles themselves, with the ancient citations from them, in their originals and in English; and a few brief Notes. By 'YILLIAM WHISTON, M. A., sometime Professor of the by thematics in the University of Cambridge. "Is he ie God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also."-Rom. III, 29. London. 1715.

THE Sibylline Oracles are a collection of early Christian writings in Greek hexameter verse. Up to the present century, only eight books were known. But Angelo Mai has recently discovered, and restored from palimpsests, books XI, XII, XIII and XIV. Books IX and X are still wanting, and there may be also others in existence. Servius, in the fifth century, mentions a hundred books (oo). Suidas, in the eleventh century, mentions twenty-four Chaldean Sibyls alone. These two writers may, however, have referred to smaller collections than the present Sibylline books.

The Sibyl among the Greeks and Romans was the impersonation of prophetic power, the embodiment of the spirit of prophecy. Bulla is the generic term. Pro

phetis, Pythia, Vates are more specific. Sibylla was also the appellation of dignity. She was the more ancient and venerable of the prophetic class, and her oracles, which were always written, were of the highest authority. Sibylla was clothed with the attributes of a female, in accordance with the Grecian ideal of prophecy, and perhaps primarily from the historical origin of the name. Bulla, being the generic name, we can at once account for the diversity of reports respecting the number of Sibyls. Hence also we may conclude that there was no individual and real Sibyl in the later ages of Greece and Rome; and, finally, that the real Sibyl was the Pythia at Delphi and at other places sacred to Apollo.

Sibylline oracles are of two kinds, those of a heathen and those of a Christian origin. The heathen Sibyl is both Grecian and Roman. The Christian Sibyl is both Jewish and Christian. The present discussion will embrace a consideration of the name and history of Sibyllathe heathen Sibyl with her oracles-and the Christian Sibylline Oracles.

The name iẞulla is commonly derived from σiós, Eolic for Oɛós, and Boul. It is also assigned to other Greek roots; but the above derivation significant and satisfactory, provided the word was cian in its origin. The word is also assigned to a Lass original, but here the derivation is very remote. Indeva, the nearest approximation is found in Sub Illa; and this root is assigned, because some divinity was supposed to be the secret agent in the Sibylline responses.

The word is also assigned to the Hebrew, as in 1 Sam. 28: 7, ie, the mistress of necromancy; also in Nahum 3: 4, ppa, mistress of sorceries. Here,

, with demonstrative, would give the word very nearly. Bochart assigns as the root, referring to the fabled sepulchre of the Cumaan Sibyl at Lilybæum. It is again derived from 2, he has received; from 2, he has borne; from 2, he has drunk to excess; and still again from 3, (1 Kings 10,) the Arabian queen Sheba. This derivation has some support from Pausanias, in his sketch of the Sibyls. Pausan, Phoci. X. c. 12. He says, "And after Demo, there flourished among the Hebrews, beyond Palestine, a prophetic woman named Záßßn. Some call her the Sibyl of the Babylonians; but

others, the Egyptian Sibyl." He also says, at the commencement of the same chapter, that Herophile, the first Sibyl, was called ißulla by the Libyans. Here then we may trace a foreign origin for the word and the historical personage called ißulla. It requires no very lively imagination to follow the queen of Sheba, on her return from her visit to the unrivalled Jewish monarch, and to witness her enthusiastic devotion as she proclaims in "the uttermost parts of the earth," both the traditionary and the written oracles of Solomon and of his heaven-instructed people. In time, the queen herself becomes inspired, and Fama with hundred tongues reëchoes the story of her prophetic wisdom along the northern shores of Africa, until the Ægean catches the heavenly breath and wafts to the admiring Greek the form of the soul of Σίβυλλα, The demi-gods of the Grecians may be traced in the history of the covenant people, and why not their prophets also?

There is still another class of derivations to the word Sibyl, deduced from the Arabic and the Persian tongues. Arabic, Sabal, to consecrate; Sab and Aloah, the vessel elect of God. Thos. Hyde, in his Rel. Vet. Pers., c. 32, p. 39, has traced the origin of the word in the astrology of the Persians and Arabians. He mentions a star in the constellation Virgo, which they call Sambul, or Sumbula. And, lastly, the Phoenicians and Chaldeans call a star, in the same constellation,, ißulla or Zißßula. These several classes of derivations may, however, according to a current theory of the original affinity of languages, be justified by a general form existing in the ancient tongues, appropriated to the idea of prophetic power.

We come now to the history of Sibyl. Heraclitus, B. C. 500, is the first writer who mentions the Sibyl. He says, according to Plutarch, de Pythiae Oraculis, "But Zipulla, without laughter, unadorned, and unanointed, speaking with prophetic mouth, has uttered divine oracles 1000 years." And again, Herac. in Epist. ad Hermod. VIII, "Sibylla, among many other things, has mentioned this: A wise man from the Ionian country shall come forth to the Italians." Plato, in his Phædrus, $ 47, says, "Sibyllaand others, responding with divine mania, have foretold many things to many men and thus rectified the future.". Pausanias testifies to the antiquity of the Sibyl in the

chapter quoted above, as follows: "at Delphi a rock impends over the earth, upon which, say the Delphians, Herophile, whose former name was ißulla, stood and sung her responses.' This statement also suggests the idea that Sibyl and the Pythia were, at Delphi, one and the same person; or, rather, that Sibyl was the spirit or genius of the place, while the Pythia was her mouthpiece.

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The high antiquity of the Sibyl is also substantiated by the Christian Sibylline books, in which the Sibyl wears. her ancient character in coincidence with the current opinions of the times. In Book III, the Sibyl speaks of Homer: "Then a certain old writer of falsehoods shall arise-a blind man, falsifying his country; but he shall flourish with vigorous mind, and shall sweetly tune his song in measure. He will call himself Xos, and will. write the fates of Troy, not indeed as they are; though he will use my words and measure. will unfold the writings of my books." He is the first who

Tatian, a contemporary of Justin Martyr, speaks of the Sibyl as anterior to Homer. Clement of Alexandria places the Sibyl before Orpheus. Lactantius, in Inst. Div. Lib. I, in quoting from Varro, says that "the Erythræan Sibyl, whom Apollodorus Erythræus boasts of as his civis, prophesied to the Greeks who sought to conquer Ilium, that Troy would perish and Homer would write lies." See also Dionys. Halicarnass., St. Augustine, Suidas and others.

The number of Sibyls varies from one to ten, and upwards. It was a question among the ancients, whether there was one or more, Σίβυλλα, οι Σίβυλλαι, Varro mentions ten, and is generally followed.

First. The Persian, Suidas says, Chaldæan or Persian, Sambethe.

Second. The Libyan, mentioned by Euripides in the prologue of Lamia.

Third. The Delphian, Suidas says, born at Delphi,— mentioned by Chrysippus de divinat.

Fourth. The Cumaean, Suidas says, Italian. Mentioned by Nævius in libris Punici belli, and by Piso in Annalibus.

Fifth. The Erythræan. Suidas says, she prophesied before the Trojan war.

Sixth. The Samian. Suidas calls her Phyto. Mentioned by Eratosthenes, as spoken of in the Samian annals.

Seventh. The Cumaean, called Amalthea, Herophile, Demophile. She is reported to have brought the nine Sibylline books to Tarquin Priscus; others say, to Tarquin Superbus.

Eighth. The Hellespontian; born in the Trojan country, in the village Marpessus. Heraclides Pontus speaks of her as having lived in the times of Solon and Cyrus. Ninth. The Phrygian, flourished at Ancyra.

Tenth. The Tiburtean, called Alburnea, worshipped at Tibur.

Eleventh. The European, mentioned only in an ancient codex.

Twelfth. Agrippina, others, the Egyptian. But the Egyptian was also called Sambethe, and Elian says, that she prophesied to Pharaoh.

This genealogy of Sibyl may be fitly closed by an extract from Pausanias, and one from Justin Martyr.

Pausanias Phocica, Lib. X, cap. 12, § 1-10. Herophile is later than the Libyan Sibyl, and appears also to have lived before the Trojan war. For she prophesied oracularly of Helena, that she would be brought up in Sparta for a destruction of Asia and Europe, and that Ilium would be laid waste on her account by the Grecians. The Delians mention a hymn of this woman to Apollo, in which she calls herself not only Herophile, but also Diana, next, the wife of Apollo, then, his sister, and then his daughter. But she evidently did this, while raging and inspired by divinity. Elsewhere in her responses she declares herself the child of an immortal mother, one of the Idæan nymphs, and of a human father. 'I go between the two, the mortal and the divine. The child of an immortal nymph, and my father, a whale-eater. My mother's country, Ida. My fatherland, red Marpessus. There is my mother worshipped and along the river Aidoneus.' There are," continues Pausanias, even now in the Trojan Ida the ruins of the city Marpessus, still containing about sixty inhabitants. The whole region around is reddish and very torrid, so that the river Aidoneus hides itself in the earth, again emerges, and finally disappears in the ground. The

VOL. XIII.NO. XLIX.

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