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Sibyls
The sibyls (, singular ) were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece. The sibyls prophesied at holy sites. A sibyl at Delphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC by PausaniasPausanias 10.12.1 when he described local traditions in his writings from the second century AD. At first, there appears to have been only a single sibyl. By the fourth century BC, there appear to have been at least three more, Phrygian, Erythraean, and Hellespontine. By the first century BC, there were at least ten sibyls, located in Greece, Italy, the Levant, and Asia Minor. History The English word ''sibyl'' ( or ) is from Middle English, via the Old French and the Latin from the ancient Greek (). Varro derived the name from an Aeolic ''sioboulla'', the equivalent of Attic ''theobule'' ("divine counsel"). This etymology is still widely accepted, although there have been alternative proposals in nineteenth-century philology suggesting Old Italic or Semitic derivation. The fir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samian Sibyl
Samian Sibyl - Scalzi, Venice Montfoort's rendering of the Samian Sibyl. Sibylla-Samia was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle near Hera's temple on the Isle of Samos, a Greek island. Published by Guillaume Rouillein in 1553. The Samian Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle near Hera's temple on the Isle of Samos, a Greek colony. The word Sibyl comes (via Latin) from the ancient Greek word ''sibylla'', meaning prophetess. There were many Sibyls in the ancient world but she is the one who prophesied the Birth of Jesus in the stable. The Samian Sibyl, by name Phemonoe, or Phyto of whom Eratosthenes wrote. The Suda's lexicon says that the Erythraean Sibyl was also called Samian. Pausanias confirms that the Erythraean Sibyl lived the greater part of her life in Samos (Phocis, 12, 5). The Samian Sibyl was known as Phyto, or better Foito, from the Greek word ''foitos'', which indicates the wandering, especially the mind's. Modern researchers of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phrygian Sibyl
In the extended complement of sibyls of the Gothic and Renaissance imagination, the Phrygian Sibyl was the priestess presiding over an Apollonian oracle at Phrygia, a historical kingdom in the west central part of the Anatolian highlands. She was popularly identified with Cassandra, prophetess daughter of Priam's in Homer's ''Iliad''. The Phrygian sibyl appears to be one of a triplicated sibyl, with the Hellespontine Sibyl and the Erythraean Sibyl and may be a doublet of the Hellespontine Sibyl. There was indeed an oracular site in Phrygia, but a single one, at Gergitis. The sibyls of Antiquity were increased to ten in Lactantius' ''Divine Institutions'' (i.6) a 4th-century work quoting from a lost work of Varro, (1st century BCE). The word Sibyl comes (via Latin) from the ancient Greek word ''sibylla'', meaning prophetess. There were several Sibyls in the ancient world, all of whom were re-employed in Christian mythology Christian mythology is the body of myths associa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erythraean Sibyl
The Erythraean Sibyl was the prophetess of classical antiquity presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Erythrae, a town in Ionia opposite Chios, which was built by Neleus, the son of Codrus. The word ''Sibyl'' comes (via Latin) from the ancient Greek word ''sibylla'', meaning prophetess. Sibyls would give answers whose value depended upon good questions — unlike prophets, who typically answered with responses indirectly related to questions asked. Presumably there was more than one sibyl at Erythrae. One is recorded as having been named Herophile. At least one is said to have been from Chaldea, a nation in the southern portion of Babylonia, being the daughter of Berossus (who wrote the Chaldean history) and Erymanthe. Apollodorus of Erythrae, however, says that one who was his own countrywoman predicted the Trojan War and prophesied to the Greeks both that Troy would be destroyed and that Homer would write falsehoods. The term acrostic has been applied to the proph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hellespontine Sibyl
The Hellespontine Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Dardania. The Sibyl is sometimes referred to as the Trojan Sibyl. The word Sibyl comes (via Latin) from the Ancient Greek word ''sibylla'', meaning prophetess or oracle. The Hellespontine Sibyl was known, particularly in the late Roman Imperial period and the early Middle Ages, for a claim that she predicted the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This claim comes from the Sibylline Oracles, which are not to be confused with the Sibylline Books. The Hellespontian Sibyl was born in the village of Marpessos near the small town of Gergis, during the lifetimes of Solon and Cyrus the Great. According to Heraclides of Pontus, Marpessus was formerly within the boundaries of the Troad. Sibylline Oracles The sibylline collection at Gergis was attributed to the Hellespontine Sibyl and preserved in the temple of Apollo at Gergis. Later, it was passed on to Erythrae Erythrae or Erythrai ( el, Ἐρυθ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oracles
An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word ''oracle'' comes from the Latin verb ''ōrāre'', "to speak" and properly refers to the priest or priestess uttering the prediction. In extended use, ''oracle'' may also refer to the ''site of the oracle'', and to the oracular utterances themselves, called ''khrēsmē'' 'tresme' (χρησμοί) in Greek. Oracles were thought to be portals through which the gods spoke directly to people. In this sense, they were different from seers (''manteis'', μάντεις) who interpreted signs sent by the gods through bird signs, animal entrails, and other various methods.Flower, Michael Attyah. ''The Seer in Ancient Greece.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. The most important oracles of Greek antiquity were Pythia (priestess to Apoll ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Description Of Greece
Pausanias ( /pɔːˈseɪniəs/; grc-gre, Παυσανίας; c. 110 – c. 180) was a Greek traveler and geographer of the second century AD. He is famous for his ''Description of Greece'' (, ), a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from his firsthand observations. ''Description of Greece'' provides crucial information for making links between classical literature and modern archaeology. Biography Not much is known about Pausanias apart from what historians can piece together from his own writing. However, it is mostly certain that he was born c. 110 AD into a Greek family and was probably a native of Lydia in Asia Minor. From c. 150 until his death in 180, Pausanias travelled through the mainland of Greece, writing about various monuments, sacred spaces, and significant geographical sites along the way. In writing ''Description of Greece'', Pausanias sought to put together a lasting written account of "all things Greek", or ''panta ta hellenika''. Living in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heraclitus
Heraclitus of Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἡράκλειτος , "Glory of Hera"; ) was an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Persian Empire. Little is known of Heraclitus's life. He wrote a single work, only fragments of which have survived. Most of the ancient stories about him are later said to be fabrications based on interpretations of the preserved fragments. His paradoxical philosophy and appreciation for wordplay and cryptic utterances has earned him the epithet "the obscure" since antiquity. He was considered a misanthrope who was subject to melancholia. Consequently, he became known as "the weeping philosopher" in contrast to the ancient philosopher Democritus, who was known as "the laughing philosopher". The central idea of Heraclitus' philosophy is the unity of opposites. One of his most notable applications of this idea was to the concept of impermanence; he saw the world as constantly in flux, changing as it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Burkert
Walter Burkert (; 2 February 1931 – 11 March 2015) was a German scholar of Greek mythology and cult. A professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, he taught in the UK and the US. He has influenced generations of students of religion since the 1960s, combining in the modern way the findings of archaeology and epigraphy with the work of poets, historians, and philosophers. He was a member of both the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He published books on the balance between lore and science among the followers of Pythagoras, and more extensively on ritual and archaic cult survival, on the ritual killing at the heart of religion, on mystery religions, and on the reception in the Hellenic world of Near Eastern and Persian culture, which sets Greek religion in its wider Aegean and Near Eastern context. First academic era Burkert was born in Neuendettelsau. He married Maria Bosch in 1957 and they had three chi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mari, Syria
Mari (Cuneiform: , ''ma-riki'', modern Tell Hariri; ar, تل حريري) was an ancient Semitic city-state in modern-day Syria. Its remains form a tell 11 kilometers north-west of Abu Kamal on the Euphrates River western bank, some 120 kilometers southeast of Deir ez-Zor. It flourished as a trade center and hegemonic state between 2900 BC and 1759 BC. The city was purposely built in the middle of the Euphrates trade routes between Sumer in the south and the Eblaite kingdom and the Levant in the west. Mari was first abandoned in the middle of the 26th century BC but was rebuilt and became the capital of a hegemonic East Semitic state before 2500 BC. This second Mari engaged in a long war with its rival Ebla and is known for its strong affinity with Sumerian culture. It was destroyed in the 23rd century BC by the Akkadians, who allowed the city to be rebuilt and appointed a military governor (''Shakkanakku''). The governors became independent with the disint ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Temenos
A ''temenos'' (Greek: ; plural: , ''temenē''). is a piece of land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially to kings and chiefs, or a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god, such as a sanctuary, holy grove, or holy precinct. A ''temenos'' enclosed a sacred space called a ''hieron''. It was usually surrounded by a wall, ditch, or line of stones. All things inside of the demarkated area belonged to the designated god. Greeks could find asylum within a sanctuary and be under the protection of the deity and could not be moved against their will. Etymology The word derives from the Greek verb (''temnō''), "I cut". The earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek , ''te-me-no'', written in Linear B syllabic script. The Latin language equivalent was ''fanum''. In religious discourse in English, ''temenos'' has also come to refer to a territory, plane, receptacle or field of deity or divinity. Examples * The race-course of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clarus
Claros (; el, Κλάρος, ''Klaros''; la, Clarus) was an ancient Greek sanctuary on the coast of Ionia. It contained a temple and oracle of Apollo, honored here as Apollo Clarius. It was located in the territory of Colophon, which lay twelve kilometers to the north, one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League. The coastal city Notion lay two kilometers to the south. The ruins of the sanctuary are now found north of the modern town Ahmetbeyli in the Menderes district of Izmir Province, Turkey. The Temple of Apollo at Claros was a very important center of prophecy, as in Delphi and Didyma. The oldest literary information about this sacred site goes back to the sixth and seventh centuries BC, through the Homeric Hymns, though Proto-Geometric pottery at the site betokens 9th century occupation. A sacred cave near the Temple of Apollo, which was an important place both in the Hellenistic and Roman eras, points to the existence of a Cybele cult in early periods here. Games cal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Frazer
Sir James George Frazer (; 1 January 1854 – 7 May 1941) was a Scottish social anthropologist and folklorist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion. Personal life He was born on 1 January 1854 in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of Katherine Brown and Daniel F. Frazer, a chemist. Frazer attended school at Springfield Academy and Larchfield Academy in Helensburgh. He studied at the University of Glasgow and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with honours in classics (his dissertation was published years later as ''The Growth of Plato's Ideal Theory'') and remained a Classics Fellow all his life. From Trinity, he went on to study law at the Middle Temple, but never practised. Four times elected to Trinity's Title Alpha Fellowship, he was associated with the college for most of his life, except for the year 1907–1908, spent at the University of Liverpool. He was knighted in 1914, and a public lectureship in social ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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