Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 42261
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Jurado , Helena Palacios,
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: La sibila en la Edad Media
  • Source: Revista Digital de Iconografia Medieval 10, 19 ( 2018): Pages 65 - 97. Available open access on the Revista Digital de Iconografía Medieval site: https://www.ucm.es/data/cont/media/www/pag-113798/8.%20Sibila%20Helena%20(digital).pdf.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Journal Article
  • Subject (See Also): Sibyls, Legendary Female Prophets from the Classical Age
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  • Abstract: The Sibyl was the archetype of the prophetess and priestess, woman of wisdom and vehicle of divine revelations. Because of its enormous prestige as augur, this legendary pagan seer was reworked by the Judeo-Christian monotheism, assuming a transcendental role in Christianity as a transmitter of the divine word, a bridge in the passage of late antiquity culture to medieval period. Sibyls were incorporated into Christian imaginary as prophetesses of the coming of the Messiah. Thus, those who most clearly seemed to predict Christ, such as the Cumana Sibyl (who in the Christian "translation" of her oracles predicted his coming to the world), and the Eritrean Sibyl (who announced future events in Rome, that in the Christian reinterpretation meant the end of the world and the second coming of Christ) were soon absorbed by the Christian world. Pagan voices that, already in the classical world, announced the arrival of the Christian savior. Therefore, the sibyl was soon included as a character also in ecclesiastical ceremonies, especially festivities that the Church assimilated to Christianism in a syncretism of proven efficacy. The sibyl thus transcended the pure iconographic representation related to Art to enter other worlds such as literary, musical... As a motif, it was an inexhaustible source for a cross-vision of all the fields of knowledge that we have called History of Culture.
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  • Author's Affiliation: Graduada en Historia
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2018.
  • Language: Spanish
  • ISSN/ISBN: 2254853X