Aeneas and the Sibyls Author(s): J. B. Garstang Reviewed work(s): Source: The Classical Journal, Vol. 59, No. 3 (Dec., 1963), pp. 97-101 Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and South Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3294642 . Accessed: 20/03/2012 09:52Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

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AENEAS AND THE SIBYLS

THE interesting but elusive. It will be ismy purpose to give a brief outline of its nature rather than try to justify any one solution. The Sibyl during the process of her "broke up," as Warde development Fowler puts it,2 "into several Sibyls." Though there is a good deal of uncertainty about them and the details of their cult, it is generally agreed that the term 'Sibyl' was applied to women possessing certain powers of prophecy, who were already flourishing in western Asia before the time of the Trojan War and were often associated, in the Mediterranean world, either with Apollo or with some shrine of Apollo.3 It is with these Sibyls of the Mediterranean area, as viewed through the mists of legend and literature, that I am concerned. Now the geographical locations of these Mediterranean Sibyls, with one significant exception, correspond in a curious way, whether by statement or by suggestion, with the wanderings of the Trojans under Aeneas. The following brief summary will illustrate this point. (1) The Troad. According to tradition this district was a stronghold of Sibylline prophecy in antiquity. The Sibyl Herophile was born on Mount Ida before the Trojan War; her prophecies included the adultery of Helen and the

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fall of Troy; she claimed to be Apollo's wife, sometimes sister or daughter, and in one tradition was spoken of as the keeper of the temple of Sminthian Apollo. Thymbra in the Troad also had an oracle of Apollo in existence at the time of the Trojan War (Aen. 3.85). There is later evidence, too, for a 'Hellespontine Sibyl.'4 (2) Delos. The Sibyl Herophile dwelt there in the course of her journey from the Troad to the west. One may note too that the king of this island, Anius the contemporary of Anchises, is also Phoebi sacerdos (3.80). (3) The The harpy Celaeno, who Strophades. according to Vergil utters the 'famine' prophecy (3.255), is in fact quoting from a Sibyl. (4) Actium. Apart from the later temple of Apollo and its implications (3.275), one may assume that this district came under Herophile's influence during her journey in those parts. (5) Buthrotum. Helenus, speaking of the white sow (3.389), is also in fact quoting from a Sibyl's prophecy. A priestess, not a Sibyl, prophesied by divine inspiration in neighboring Dodona. (6) Chaonia (3.506-7). Here we have another prophetess of Sibyl type in the person of Phaemis (or Phainnis), daughter of the king of the Chaonians. (7) Libya. The 'Libyan' Sibyl, daughter of Zeus and a mythical queen of Libya, was supposed to have been the earliest of all the Sibyls. (8) Cumae in Italy had a Sibyl, independently of Vergil's nar-

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rative. (9) Latium also had a Sibyl, at Tibur. 5 Before considering further such correspondences, whether real or fancied, it will be relevant if I mention here another area of agreement in regard to the Sibyls. It seems, not only in the light of arguments from the name itself, that they were probably Oriental in origin. There was a 'Persian' Sibyl, also a Sibyl connected with the Hebrews. The earliest description of prophetic ecstasy in the Near East, according to Egyptian records, relates to the visit of Wenamon as the Pharaoh's representative to a prince of Phoenicia towards the end of the 12th century B.C., and we read of prophets in Canaan as early as the sixth chapter of the Book of Judges. The possibility that the earlier Hittite kingdom may have been a channel of such prophecy is borne out by the tradition that a Sibyl at one time uttered prophecies as far east (or as far west, according to the point of view) as Ancyra; and there was also a 'Phrygian' Sibyl.6 With the exception of the 'Erythraean' Sibyl (whom I shall discuss later), I believe that I have now mentioned all the recorded Sibyls. How far can we trust the evidence, especially for the locations which sugwith the Trojan gest correspondences is one of our Pausanias wanderings? he lived long aftmain sources. Though er Vergil, he was a native of western Asia, where most of the Sibyls are located, and there is no reason to assume that the details he records are fictitious. Moreover certain facts given by other later writers, for example Lactantius, suggest that they had other sources available besides Pausanias; and Pausanias also for his part seems to echo traditions as preserved by Strabo and early writers such as Heraclides Ponticus, the pupil of Plato.7 And apart from such writers who give us information

directly bearing on the Sibyls, the somewhat vague picture as outlined above seems to be at times unexpectedly illuminated by other traditions; for instance the legend of the Trojan Penates coming from Samothrace to the Troad and thence to Italy, also Terra et Caelum ... dei magni, especially the variant tradition according to which these were Neptune and Apollo.8 There is also the legend that Aeneas went inland with while Anfrom Buthrotum Helenus chises stayed with the fleet, and there is bea significant point of resemblance tween the oracular shrine visited on that occasion and that of the Cumaean Sibyl.9 In considering the trustworthiness of the evidence we may indeed feel that the history of the Sibyls is vague, belonging as it does to that ill-defined epoch antecedent to the formal history of the Greco-Roman world, where the chronology of early centuries was often as timeless as the Sibyls themselves; we may, however, assume, I think, that their geographical locations are reasonably certain, at any rate that with them connected the traditions moreover were consistently believed; that Vergil was well aware of all such traditions. Now for the problem. Vergil could have brought his Trojans to Italy by the simple route described by Livy (1.1.4: to Latium by way of Macedonia and Sicily), adding a detour to Libya and Dido in accordance with the demands of his story. Yet he takes them by the route with and complex circuitous which we are familiar; a route which, while contributing little to the narrative except a few oracles, makes their wanderings seem to correspond with the locations of the Meditergeographical ranean Sibyls. Does this point have any significance? come to The following suggestions my mind: (1) The apparent correspond-

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ence between the locations of the Sibyls and the wanderings of the Trojans was a coincidence; and although Vergil knew of the Sibyls and their locations, he devised that journey for his Trojans without any thought of the Sibyls in his mind. Those who are skeptical of new theories may favor this view. If on the other hand it was not a coincidence, I suggest that (2) the route was so chosen that the Trojans could receive the maximum assistance from oracular their journey. The shrines during shrines specified in the narrative are those of Apollo, already a supporter of the Trojans in the Iliad (in spite of his earlier hostility because of the crime of who now, perhaps in apLaomedon), preciation as it were of Augustus' favor,10 becomes even more closely identified with their fortunes. (3) If the Sibyls were indeed Oriental in origin, Vergil wished to draw attention to the possibility that the Troad and the Trojans may have been the channel by which they entered the Aegean area and the was in west. (4) The correspondence connected with parallel legends part about the sacra deosque, such as the bringing of the dei magni to Italy. (5) For these or other reasons Vergil during the early planning of his poem may have considered the idea of the Sibyls' coming from western Asia to Italy at the same time as (even in company with) the Trojans, as part of their contribution (e.g. 12.192) to the early settlement of Latium. If so, we should have to assume that when he removed from the narrative all traces of their joint arrival, he left certain indications, the noted above, as be'correspondences' not inconsistent with the poem as a ing whole. This latter suggestion may be viewed with suspicion, but it should not be dismissed without a hearing. To begin with there was the legend, had Vergil

wished to use it, that the all-embracing journey of the Sibyl Herophile brought her also to Cumae in Italy (Paus. 10. 12.8; Lact. 1.6.10). The narrative of the Aeneid, moreover, implies that the Sibyl arrived in Cumae only some twenty or thirty years, at the most, before the Trojans; for Evander was certainly not older than Anchises (8.159ff.), and Livy tells us that Carmenta, the mother of Evander, was revered as a prophetess before the arrival of the Sibyl in Italy (1.7.8; cf. Aen. 8.333-41). Besides, we should note in this connection the somewhat abrupt opening of Book 6. For though the fame of Aeneas was widespread, as shown by many details in the narrative of Books 1 and 3, and the Sibyl certainly knew all about him before their meeting (e.g. 6.52,83,126), this is not suggested by the nature of her opening words - if, that is to say, they represent her greeting to a stranger. While we might have expected a greeting at least as welcoming if not as flattering as that given to the Trojans by Dido (1.562-73) and later by Latinus (7.195-6) and Evander (8.154-6), in fact we find nothing of the kind. Her first words seem This is and querulous. unwelcoming not the moment, she says in effect, to look at pictures (in (6.37). Servius Aen. 6.37) gives one of his prosaic intersuggesting pretations of this passage, that Aeneas was in danger of missing the proper hour for oracular consultation; at the same time it will be appreciated that such a greeting would be quite natural if the Sibyl had been with the Trojans during their journey. Whatever may be the merits of this idea, if the possiblity can for one mothat is if Vergil ment be entertained, had indeed originally planned to bring the Sibyl to Italy with the Trojans, why did he finally present the narrative to us as we have it now? Why does he make no allusion even to the Sibyls in

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the Troad, and confine his only mention of a Sibyl to the priestess of Apollo at Cumae? Before elaborating this point let me first give some details about the 'significant exception' referred to at the outset, when I suggested that the locations of certain Mediterranean Sibyls corresponded with the wanderings of the Trojans. For the exception concerns Lydia, or the geographical area embraced by that name, which possessed a concentration of Sibyls in antiquity comparable only to that in the Troad. The 'Erywas probably thraean,' for instance, the most famous of all the Sibyls; the ubiquitous Herophile came to Claros in the district of Colophon during her journey; Samos, too, lying off the same coastline, was closely associated with that journey; and one wonders whether the Cumaean Sibyl, who according to one tradition made her journey from Cyme in Euboea, did not in fact come from Cyme farther up the Lydian coast. 11 It is in fact possible that Lydia, and not the Troad, was the main channel of Sibylline prophecy from east to west; and the suggestion accords well with the fact that this region, according to the thinking of modern scholarship, was once occupied by the powerful nation of Arzawa, the enemy of the Hittites, which in the fourteenth century overran part of the Hittite realm from the west;12 a nation therefore which could well have assimilated and transmitted such Oriental influences as were already established on the Anatolian plateau. In view of these considerations, a possible answer to our question, why Vergil mentions a Sibyl only at Cumae, becomes at once apparent; partly based, I suggest, upon the tradition recorded by Herodotus that the Etruscans migrated to Umbria from Lydia (1.94). It appears that there may never be una-

nimity among scholars in the matter of Etruscan origins, though the account of Herodotus is now accepted in many quarters as wholly or partly true; and to me at any rate it seems that Wainwright argues convincingly, on archaeological and other grounds, that the story in Herodotus reflects a historical racial movement of a people distressed by famine during or after the Trojan War.13 But whether we ourselves accept that legend does not really matter because - and this is the important point - Vergil certainly accepted it.14 He must have believed, therefore, that the Etruscans no less than the Trojans were the conveyors of Sibylline prophecy to Italy; and of the two races, if we remind ourselves of the story of Tarquin and the Sibylline Books and of the contributions made by the Etruscans to the science of augury and allied skills, it seems that the origins of Sibylline prophecy may well have owed more to the Etruscans. I therefore suggest that Vergil, in the light of such or of similar allows only the Cumaeconsiderations, an Sibyl in his narrative because he was unwilling to flatter the Etruscans more than necessary. This idea is moreover consistent with certain other details of the narrative, for instance the portrayal of Mezentius as a villain, and the fact, doubtless welcome to later Romans who viewed with distaste their early domination by Etruscan kings, that the main body of Etruscans gladly submit themselves to the command of Aeneas (10.153). We note, too, that in Vergil there is no connection between the two racial movements, so that the Trojans ignore the Lydian coastline on their journey, and the Etruscans are in Italy when the Trojans already while the Cumaean Sibyl, dearrive; scribed in an ageless and timeless manner, is portrayed as having no connection with either race.

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This latter point may indeed give us a clue for another and final, and possibly more satisfying, suggestion. For Vergil may have felt that the central theme of his poem, the association of Fate with the future Roman Empire, would be emphasized by the very fact that there should be only one Sibyl and that she should meet the Trojans first in Cumae. The great future in store for Aeneas and his descendants, being part of the fatorum arcana from the beginnings of time,15 were already part of her prophetic insight; and her revelation of this fact, for people who were in a sense strangers, was part of the emphasis. In this case the idea of one Sibyl,

possibly a 'blend of several known Sibof Vergil's yls,' would be illustrative for condensation and integrapassion tion, an aspect of the poet's art so eloquently discussed by Jackson Knight.16 I conclude by reaffirming the interest and elusiveness of this problem. It may be obvious to some that the problem does not exist; but the more I read the evidence the more convinced I am that it does, just as I am convinced that the suggestions put forward here are by no means the last. It is hoped that they may serve as a basis for further study in this field. J. B. GARSTANG McGill University

1 This article is based on a paper read at a of Canada meeting of the Classical Association in June 1962. 2 W. Warde Fowler, The religious experience of the Roman people (London 1911) 258; cf. J. G. Frazer on Pausanias 10.12.1-8. 3Vergil, Aen. 6.9-12; Strabo 13.1.46-8; Ovid, Met. Inst. 10.12.2-6; Lactantius, 14.130-53; Pausanias div. 1.6.7; Macrobius, Sat. 1.17.27-8; Servius, in Aen. 3.445; 6.36; cf. G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Rimer2 (Munich 1912) 293; Cyril Bailey, Religion in Virgil (Oxford 1935) 168. 4 Pausanias 10.12.1-3; Dion. Hal. 1.55; Tacitus, Ann. 6.12.4; Lactantius, Inst. div. 1.6.10; cf. Frazer, Op.cit. 10.12.1; Cornelia C. Coulter, "The of the Sibyl," CJ 46 (1950) 65-8. transfiguration 5 For these further geographical details see Aen. 3.255-7, cf. 3.394-5, 7.122-7; Dion. Hal. 1.55-6; Paus. 10.12.1,5,8,10; Lact. Inst. div. 1.6.9-12; Epit. 5; Servius, in Aen. 3.256; cf. William E. Gwatkin, "Dodona, Odysseus, and Aeneas," CJ 57 (1961) links see also 97-102. For the Epirus-Sicily-Italy W. F. Jackson Knight, Cumaean gates (Oxford 153. For an interesting discussion of the 1936) Cumaean Sibyl see J. H. Waszink, "Vergil and the Sibyl of Cumae," Mnemosyne 4 (1948) 42-58. 6 See references in note 5 above, also Paus. 10.12.9; Lact. 1.6.8; cf. Rzach, RE s.v. Sibyllen, 2073-6; also Jackson Knight, Op.cit. 30-31, esp. the bibliography listed. 7 Dion. Hal. 1.55; Tac. Ann. 6.12.4; Paus. 10.12.3; cf. Frazer, Op.cit. 10.12.1; also Henri Graillot, La culte de Cybdle (Paris 1912) 45. 8 Aen. 2.717,320; 3.12; 7.137,207-11; 8.679; 12.176-82; Varro, 1.1.5.58; 2.325; 3.148; Arnobius, 3.40; Augustine, Civ. Dei 7.282 Macrobius, Sat. 3.4.6ff.; Servius, in Aen. 1.378; 2.325; 3.119. For a discussion of these legends see especially G. Wissowa, Gesammelte zur r6mischen ReAbhandlungen ligions- und Stadtgeschichte (Munich 1904) 99-128; cf. Bailey, Op.cit. 91.

9 Dion. Hal. 1.51.1. In this matter see Gwatkin, Op.cit. 10 Cf. Warde Fowler, Op.cit. 441-3; Bailey, Op.cit. 164ff. 11 For these details see Dion. Hal. 4.62.4; Strabo 13.1.46-8,61ff.; 13.3.3,6; 14.1.34; Tac. Ann. 6.12.4; Paus. 10.12.1,5,7 and Frazer ad loc.; Lact. 16.11, cf. Hesiod, Works and days 633-40; Servius, in Aen. 3.441; 6.36; Frazer on Ovid, Fast. 4.257; Franz Altheim, A history of Roman religion (London 1938) 42, 352; Bailey, Op.cit. 168. 12 John Garstang and 0. R. Gurney, The geography of the Hittite empire (London 1959) 83ff. 13 G. A. Wainwright, "The Teresh, the Etruscans and Asia Minor," Anatolian studies 9 (1959) came 197-213; for the view that the Etruscans from the Danube as well as from Anatolia, cf. d Zacharie Mayani, Les Etrusques commencent parler (Paris 1961). 14 E.g. Aen. 2.781; 8.479; 9.10; 10.155 etc. We 'Tarcho' or 'Tarchon' may note also Vergil's (8.506; 10.153); cf. 'Tarhund,' a Hittite weather god and chief deity of the Neo-Hittite kingdoms, according to O. R. Gurney (The Hittites [London 1962] 138) identifiable with the Etruscan 'Tarchon,' in turn the basis of the personal name 'Tarquinius.' For Vergil's handling of another aspect of "Deos Anatolian influence see J. B. Garstang, Latio: western Asia Minor and the gods of Aeneas," Vergilius 8(1962)22-3. 15 For a fuller discussion of this idea see J. B. Garstang, "The crime of Helen and the concept of fatum in the Aeneid," CJ 57 (1962) 337-45. 16 W. F. Jackson Knight, Roman Vergil (London 1944) 82ff.; Vergil and Homer (British Virgil Society, London 1950) 14-19; Vergil's secret art (British Virgil Society, London 1961) 7-14; "Poetic sources and integration," Vergilius 8 (1962) 1-7; cf. Waszink, Op.cit. 58.