Erythraean Sibyl

The Erythraean Sibyl, by the name of Herophile, [Giovanni Boccaccio’s "Famous Women" translated by Virginia Brown 2001; Cambridge and London, Harvard University Press; ISBN 0-674-01130-9; p. 42] was the prophetess of classical antiquity presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Erythrae, a town in Ionia opposite Chios. The town was built by Neleus, the son of Codrus.

The word Sibyl comes (via Latin) from the ancient Greek word "sibylla", meaning prophetess. There were many Sibyls in the ancient world, but this oracle prophesied Alexander the Great's divine parentage, according to legend. His mother, Olympias, was said to have had an affair with Zeus, the King of the gods in Greek mythology.

The Erythraean Sibyl was from Chaldea a nation in the southern portion of Babylonia, being the daughter of Berosus who wrote the Chaldean history, and Erymanthe.

Apollodorus of Erythrae affirms the Erythraean Sibyl to have been his own countrywoman and to have predicted the Trojan War and prophesised to the Greeks who were moving against Ilium both that Troy would be destroyed and that Homer would write falsehoods.Sibyls would give answers whose value depended upon good questions - unlike prophets who typically answered with responses indirectly related to questions asked.

The word was first applied to the prophecies of the Erythraean Sibyl, which were written on leaves and arranged so that the initial letters of the leaves always formed a word.

Notes

References

*Lactantius, "Divinae institutiones I.6.8, 14"
*Augustine, "De civitate dei xviii.23"
*Isidore, "Etymologiae viii.8.1, 3, 4"