• Sibyl

    Origin

    Latin Sibylla, from Ancient Greek Σίβυλλα.

    Full definition of sibyl

    Noun

    sibyl

    (plural sibyls)
    1. A pagan female oracle or prophetess, especially the Cumaean sibyl.
      • Shakespeare Othello: Act III, Scene IV:A sibyl, that had number'd in the worldThe sun to course two hundred compasses,In her prophetic fury sew'd the work;
      • 1922 T. S. Eliot, The Wasteland: Epigraph (translated from 61 Petronius' The Satyricon: Chapter 8, Lines 80 -86)I used to read these tales in Homer when I was a lad. Then the Sibyl! I saw her at Cumae with my own eyes hanging in a jar; and when the boys cried to her, ‘Sibyl, what would you?' she'd answer, ‘I would die,'-- both of ‘em speaking Greek."

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