Sibyls: Prophecy and Power in the Ancient World

by Jorge Guillermo

Sibyls - from the Greek word for prophetess - commanded a remarkable amount of respect and devotion in the ancient world for their ability to foretell the future. And even as they receded from myths and stories, they remained an inspiration to many of history's greatest artists.

In his definitive and erudite book, Jorge Guillermo tracks the story of Sibyls through polytheism (in Greece and Rome), paganism, and into the seemingly disparate tenets of Christianity. With a remarkably rich set of historical and artistic examples that range from Homer to Virgil, from Boccaccio to Michelangelo, Guillermo pays tribute to the surprising and enduring history of these singular women.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Mythology, Religion

240 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 2013

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is an extraordinarily bad book. I would be quite interested in a history of the Sibyls of classical antiquity and the table of contents promised material on the Erythraean, Cumaean, Delphic and Tiburtine Sibyls as well a review of the appropriation of the sibylline tradition by the Christian Church. Rather than history, however, the author spends altogether too much time retelling old stories, myths and legends as if they were true, supplementing his accounts of everything from classical to renaissance tales with his own speculations and additions, treating the received texts of, say, Homer and Virgil as if they had some substantial factual background. If it hadn't been so short a book and if I'd not the habit of finishing books once begun I'd never have finished it. Terrible!

[Isabella · Rating 1 out of 5]

if you want to read about sibyls, you’re better off reading scholars like H.W. Parke—or even returning to the source and reading the classical texts. the prose style of this book is needlessly clunky and makes me want to cringe: “This intriguing if perhaps not entirely reliable account [by Pausanias] was written by a man who can be said to have had something quite significant in common with the woman who had so clearly captured his interest and piqued his curiosity.” Or, consider: “On an empty stomach her ride from Tibur would have seemed longer than usual, but at least the crisp morning air would have helped keep her head clear and her mind alert.” what 😭😭😭 while reading this book, i wish i could be directed to the author’s exact citations. several of his claims are incredibly disputable. additionally, if you consider just the sibyl of tibur chapter from which the above excerpts come, the content focuses mostly on the men in rome and tivoli. what’s the point of highlighting the dearth of scholarship around pagan women if you’re only going to talk about men? this phenomenon occurs throughout the book. the tiburtina sibyl chapter also lacks a focused deep-dive into the misogynistic christiological texts that transmuted sibyl…all in all, this book isn’t worth reading unless you know absolutely nothing about sibyls or women in the classical world.

[Sam Eccleston · Rating 1 out of 5]

The prose is enough to make you wince. Every quotation couched in a sycophantic and usually inaccurate description of the ‘poetic’ insight it supposedly displays. Unselfconscious speculation presented as historical fact. Dreadful.

[Roo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully researched and put things in context for me

[Hannah Prince · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I found this to be interesting and informative, I found that the validity of these Sybils to constantly be couched within the accuracy as confirmed by men

[maddie · Rating 2 out of 5]

interesting but i didn’t love it 💔

[Robin Rivers · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book, while an interesting perspective on the ever-elusive history of the Sibyls, is really a mess of opinion and unrelated historical rambling. I pawed through the chapters - that were supposed to be intimately dedicated to several of the more well-known Sibyls and struggled to find anything new related to them.

Was it interesting? Yes.

Would I ever recommend this book to anyone other than a person wanting to read an extremely biased interpretation of the life of Sibyls? No.