In the
reign of one of the Tarquins there appeared before the king a
woman who offered him nine books for sale. The king refused to
purchase them, whereupon the woman went away and burned three of
the books, and returning offered the remaining books for the same
price she had asked for the nine. The king again rejected them;
but when the woman, after burning three books more, returned and
asked for the three remaining the same price which she had before
asked for the nine, his curiosity was excited, and he purchased
the books. They were found to contain the destinies of the Roman
state. They were kept in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus,
preserved in a stone chest, and allowed to be inspected only by
especial officers appointed for that duty, who, on great
occasions, consulted them and interpreted their oracles to the
people.
There were various Sibyls; but the Cumaean Sibyl, of whom Ovid and
Virgil write, is the most celebrated of them. Ovid's story of her
life protracted to one thousand years may be intended to represent
the various Sibyls as being only reappearances of one and the same
individual.
Young, in the "Night Thoughts," alludes to the Sibyl. Speaking of
Worldly Wisdom, he says:
"If future fate she plans 'tis all in leaves,
Like Sibyl, unsubstantial, fleeting bliss;
At the first blast it vanishes in air.
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