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| Michelangelo Cumaean Sibyl 1511 fresco Sistine Chapel, Vatican |
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| Agostino Veneziano Cumaean Sibyl in a Landscape holding a Basket of Sand 1516 engraving British Museum |
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| Antonio Tempesta Apollo granting the Cumaean Sibyl's wish 1606 etching (book illustration) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Domenichino Cumaean Sibyl 1616-17 oil on canvas Galleria Borghese, Rome |
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| Claude Vignon Cumaean Sibyl ca. 1630 drawing (design for print) Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Claude Lorrain Coast View with Apollo and the Cumaean Sibyl ca. 1645-49 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| François Perrier Aeneas consulting the Cumaean Sibyl 1646 oil on canvas National Museum, Warsaw |
from The Metamorphoses
When he'd passed this place to the right and Parthenope's city of Naples
Aeneas arrived on the shores of the marshy region of Cumae
and entered the cave of the long-lived Sibyl. His prayer was to traverse
the underworld kingdom in order to visit the shade of his father.
The prophetess held her gaze long fixed on the earth, till she raised
her head as her soul was possessed by the god, and finally uttered
in frenzy: 'You ask great things, you greatest of heroes, whose valour
was proved by your sword in the fray and whose love as a son and a father
was tested by fire. But, noble Trojan, you need not be troubled.
Your prayer shall be granted and I shall guide you to Pluto's realm,
where you'll see the Elysian Fields and meet your father's dear spirit.'
* * *
The Sibyl turned to Aeneas and, heaving a deep sigh, said to him:
'Goddess I never have been; and a mortal creature may not
be accorded the tribute of holy incense. Yet ignorance must not
lead you astray. Eternal life was there for the taking,
if only I'd offered my maidenhood up to the love of Apollo;
but while he hoped that I'd yield and desired to seduce me with gifts,
he said to me: 'Maiden of Cumae, now choose what you wish to be yours,
and your wish shall be granted.' I showed him a pile of dust that I'd gathered
and foolishly asked for my birthdays to equal the number of sand-grains,
failing also to ask that those years should always be youthful.
Yet Phoebus agreed and offered perpetual youth as well,
if I'd let him enjoy my body. I spurned his gift and remain
forever a virgin unwedded. But now the joy of my springtime
is past, and weak old age with its trembling gait is upon me,
age to be long endured. I have lived seven hundred years,
but still have to see three hundred harvests and seasons of vintage
to equal the number of grains in the pile. The time will arrive
when the length of days shall shrink my body from all it has been
to a tiny frame, and my age-worn limbs be reduced to the weight
of a feather. Then no one will ever believe that I once was adored
and desired by a god.'
– Ovid (8 AD), translated by David Raeburn (2004)
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| Giovanni Domenico Cerrini Apollo and the Cumaean Sibyl ca. 1650 oil on canvas Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia |
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| Salvator Rosa River Landscape with Apollo and the Cumaean Sibyl ca. 1655 oil on canvas Wallace Collection, London |
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| Salvator Rosa Apollo and the Cumaean Sibyl ca. 1660-65 etching British Museum |
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| Giovanni Francesco Romanelli Aeneas and the Cumaean Sibyl entering the Infernal Regions before 1662 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Jan Baptist Xavery Apollo and the Cumaean Sibyl 1742 marble relief Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Donato Creti Cumaean Sibyl ca. 1730 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Lake Avernus with Aeneas and the Cumaean Sibyl ca. 1814-15 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |