Sibyl

Also known as: Cumæan guide / Maiden of Cumæ / prophetess · Family: Cumæ · Role: prophetess · First appears: Fable 104

Life events

The Sibyl grants Æneas passage through Avernus to visit his father’s shade.(Fable104 · 📍 Avernus)
- With: Æneas
- “Yet, Trojan, lay aside {all} apprehension, thou shalt obtain thy request; and under my guidance thou shalt visit the abodes of Elysium”
Apollo offers the Sibyl eternal life and youth if she yields to his desires, but she refuses.(Fable104 · 📍 Cumæ)
- With: Apollo
- “But while he was hoping for this, while he was desiring to bribe me beforehand with gifts, he said: ‘Maiden of Cumæ, choose whatever thou mayst wish, thou shalt gain thy wish.’”
The Sibyl chooses years matching grains of sand but forgets to request lasting youth.(Fable104 · 📍 Cumæ)
- With: Apollo
- “I, pointing to a heap of collected dust, inconsiderately asked that as many birth-days might be my lot, as the dust contained particles.”
After rejecting Apollo’s offer, the Sibyl remains unmarried and undergoes prolonged aging.(Fable104 · 📍 Cumæ)
- “Having rejected the offers of Phœbus, I remain unmarried. But now my more vigorous years have passed by, and crazy old age approaches with its trembling step”

courtship with Apollo “Apollo is enamoured of the Sibyl, and, to engage her affection, offers her as many years as she can grasp grains of sand.”
with Æneas (The Sibyl acts as Æneas's guide.) “Yet, Trojan, lay aside {all} apprehension, thou shalt obtain thy request; and under my guidance thou shalt visit the abodes of Elysium, the most distant realms of the universe, and the beloved shade of thy parent.”
admirer: Apollo “Apollo is enamoured of the Sibyl, and, to engage her affection, offers her as many years as she can grasp grains of sand.”

Extracted from the original text of The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Made with Rho MD.