SIBYLLAE;
the Sibylls, Virgin-Prophesses so called from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which in the Laconic Tongue was the Genitive of the Word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Deliberation: Others derive it from the Hebrew Kibel and Kabala. Authors differ about the Number of the Sibylls, and concerning the Places where they uttered their Predictions: Martianus Capella reckons but two Sibylls, viz. Erophile of Troy, the Daughter of the Marpessus, whom he confounds with the Phrygian and Cumae∣an Sibylls; and Symachia born at Erithraea, a Ci∣ty of the Lower Asia, who came to Cumae, and there pronounced Oracles. Pliny, L. 34. C. 5. speaks of Three Statues of the Sibylls at Rome, near the Rostra, one erected by Pacuvius Taurus, the Aedile of the People; and the other Two by Messala, whom Solinus calls Sibyllae Cumeae, Delphicae and Erith••e. Elian L. 12. Hist. makes them to be Four, viz. Those of Erithrea, Samos, Egypt and Sardis, some have increased their Number even to Ten, as Varro does in his Six Books concerning Divine Things, dedicated to Julius Caesar, the Pontifex Maximus. The Persian Sibyll, of whom Nicanor speaks, was born accord∣ing to Suidas at Noa, a City near the Red-Sea, which they would have to be same as the Chal∣daean and Hebrew Sibyll, properly called Sambe∣tha, who foretold divers Things concerning the Messias, his Birth, Life, Circumstances of his Death, and second Coming. The Libyan Sibyll, of whom Euripides the Poet speaks in his Pro∣logue to Lamia, who was the Daughter of Ju∣piter and Lamia, Neptune's Daughter, as Pausa∣nias writes in his Phocica: The Grecians, says he, make her to be the Daughter of Jupiter and Lamia, Neptune's Daughter; the first of Womankind that delivered Oracles, and was called Sibylla by the Lybians: She spent a great part of her Life in the Isle of Samos, at Claros, a City of the Colophonians, at Delos and Delphi; she died in Troas. The Sibyll of Delphi, of whom Crysippus makes mention in his Book of Divina∣tion. Diodorus, L. 4. C. 6. calls her Daphne, the Daughter of Tiresias, whom the Argians, af∣ter the Destruction of Thebes, sent to Delphi, where she delivered Oracles, being inspired by Apollo, and sate upon the Tripod. Virgil, L. 6. Aen. speaks of her, where he introduces Ae∣neas entring into the Sibyll's Cave, and praying to unfold unto him the Will of the Gods viva voce, and not as she sometimes did upon the Leaves of Trees, which the Wind carried thi∣ther, and promising withal to build a magnifi∣cent Temple for Apollo, and to recommend his Oracles to his Posterity. Sibylla Cumaea, which was born at Cuma in Iona. Lactantius says, 'twas she that carried the Nine Books to Tarquinius Priscus. Sibylla Erytbraea, Apollodorus will have her to be his Fellow-Citizen, and that when the Grecians went to the Siege of Troy, she prophe∣sied to them, that they should take it: Eusebi∣us places her above 450 Years after the Siege of Troy, in the Reign of Romulus. Strabo speaks of several Sibylls of the same Name, one before and another after the Time of Alexander, whose Name was Athenaïs: Lactantius makes Babylon to be the Place of her Nativity, and calls her Erythraea, because she was born in the Country of the Erythreans, in a Place called Bata, where