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Ancient writers refer to the existence of various women in such countries as Babylonia, Greece, Italy, and Egypt, through whom the gods regularly spoke. These sibyls were easy to confuse with the oracles, women who were likewise mouthpieces of the gods, at such sites as Apollo's temple at Delphi. The most famous sibyl was the Sibyl of Cumae in Italy, a withered crone who lived in a cave. Her prophecies were collected into twelve books, three of which survived to be consulted by the Romans in times of national emergencies. She is one of the five sibyls memorably depicted by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Examples of sibyl in a Sentence
Nancy Princenthal, New York Times, 24 Jan. 2024
In the left panel, van Eyck depicts separate moments in a narrative that leads our eyes in a snaking line from the foreground figures of Mary and John the Evangelist, past Mary Magdalene and a prophesying sibyl, then up to the soldiers and horsemen crowding around the cross.
—Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 14 Oct. 2020
It was deemed a line straight to God — staggering, the voice of an enchantress, a sibyl, a siren.
—Washington Post, 12 May 2021
There’s the Roman emperor Augustus and a sibyl in a 1435 painting by Konrad Witz.
—Brian T. Allen, National Review, 20 July 2019
Cite this Entry
“Sibyl.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sibyl. Accessed 5 Jul. 2025.
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