The Cave of the Sibyl and Hadrian's Villa
The first part of today's adventure was visiting the Cave of the Sibyl in Cuma. The Sibyl was the second-most famous oracle in the ancient world, after the Oracle of Delphi. Here we see our intrepid leader, Mr. Spearman, explaining the legends surrounding the Sibyl to the group.
According to legend, the god Apollo (whose responsibilities included oracles) offered the Sibyl anything she wanted if she would be his girlfriend. The Sibyl asked for the gift of true prophecy and immortality. When she did not follow through and give Apollo her virginity, Apollo seized on the technicality that she had not also requested eternal youth. As a result, the Sibyl continued to age, shrinking over the years ever smaller.
The Sibyl is said to have offered the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus (Tarquin the Snobby), nine books of prophecies for a price. Tarquin felt she demanded too much money and refused to pay. She left. When she returned the next day, she offered him six books of prophecies for the same price as nine the day before. Tarquin again refused. The third day she returned with only three books, again asking the same price as for the nine. Tarquin asked what happened to the other six.
"I burned them," she said.
At this point, Tarquin's advisors begged him to buy the three remaining books before the Sibyl burned them as well. The Romans established a priesthood dedicated to studying these books, looking for answers particularly when things were darkest. During the Second Punic War, the priests cited a passage that said the foreign invader (Hannibal) would only be expelled from Italy when the Great Mother was brought to Rome. The Great Mother, known in Latin as the Magna Mater or Bona Dea (Good Goddess), was a religious cult in the area near Troy in Asia Minor. The physical representation of the Great Mother was a meteoric rock about the size of the loaf of bread.
The Romans sent a special delegation to Asia Minor. They built a special ship from trees in a sacred grove on Mount Ida to carry the Great Mother. When the ship arrived at the mouth of the Tiber river, the leading women of Roman society carried the rock back to Rome in a relay.
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