Hellespontine Sibyl

The Hellespontic Sibyl is one of the ten Sibyls, who are given a geographical epithet. These additional terms are according to Lactantius attributed to Varro, a Roman writer of the 1st century BC.

The place of the oracle a Hellespontine Sibylle was ancient legend, on the Hellespont on the coast of Asia Minor. Among others, there rose the place Marpessos the claim, one of the oldest sanctuaries Sibyls ( Temenos ) to entertain. However, to be found in surviving sources of Greek and Roman antiquity hardly a direct indication of a Sibylle special about this place.

Following Lactantius understood Christian Middle Ages and Renaissance, the Hellespontic Sibylle as a nearly equivalent to the prophet, herald of a pagan God expectancy. Among the Sibyls were then two more listed from Asia Minor, the Samian Sibyl and the Cumaean Erythrai. Because of their geographical proximity, the three according to legend prophesying in this region Sibyls are often exchanged or equated with each other.

A separate Hellespontic Sibyl is represented in the art of Gothic and Renaissance usually based on the collection according to Varro as one in a series of Sibyls often. In juxtaposition to an often equal number of prophets of the Old Testament In the well -known pictorial representation of five Sibyls of Michelangelo in the fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel but is not a ' Hellespontica ' included, it is a ' Eritrea ' is shown.

In many other groups of Sibyls is found, however, from and to a particular designated ' Hellespontica ', such as in the following locations:

• Ulm, half - Gothic sculpture in the choir stalls of Ulm Minster, as one of ten Sibyls, the total work of art with numerous ancient scholars and prophets
• Trescores, Lombardy, Renaissance fresco in the Oratorio Suardi, in a series of seventeen medallions with Sibyls and Prophets by Lorenzo Lotto