Delphic Sibyl

The Delphic Sibyl was a woman who was a prophet associated with early religious practices in Ancient Greece and is said to have been venerated from before the Trojan Wars as an important oracle.

At that time Delphi was a place of worship for Gaia, the mother goddess connected with fertility rituals that are thought to have existed throughout the ancient Mediterranean world.

This Sibyl would have predated Pythia, the oracle and priestess of Apollo during the period of the religious traditions of Archaic Greece, who is dated to the eighth century BC.

As religious traditions changed and the cult of Apollo gained prominence at Delphi, it was said that after her "death", she became a wandering voice who still brought tidings of the future to the ears of humans, while wrapped in dark riddles.

The Delphic Sibyl experienced a revival in cultural depictions during the Renaissance in the fifteenth century AD and appears prominently among the frescoes of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling.