Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database

53

Aelian, Varia Historia, 12.35

nan There were two Perianders, the one a philosopher, the other a tyrant: Three Miltiades; one who built Chersonesus, another the son of Cypsellus, the third a son of Cimon: Four Sibyls; the Erythraean, the Samian, the Egyptian, and the Sardinian. Others add six more, making them in all ten; among which they reckon the Cumaean and the Jewish. There were three Bacides; one of Hellas, another of Athens, and the third of Arcadia.

Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

6 results
1. Aristophanes, Peace, 1119 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE) 1119. ὦ παῖε τὸν Βάκιν. μαρτύρομαι.
2. Vergil, Aeneis, 6.72 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) 6.72. of the bold Trojans; while their sacred King
3. Suetonius, Augustus, 31.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
4. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 57.18.3-57.18.5 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) 57.18.3.  Later, when Marcus Junius and Lucius Norbanus assumed office, an omen of no little importance occurred on the very first day of the year, and it doubtless had a bearing on the fate of Germanicus. The consul Norbanus, it seems, had always been devoted to the trumpet, and as he practised on it assiduously, he wished to play the instrument on this occasion, also, at dawn, when many persons were already near his house. 57.18.4.  This proceeding startled them all alike, just as if the consul had given them a signal for battle; and they were also alarmed by the falling of the statue Janus. They were furthermore disturbed not a little by an oracle, reputed to be an utterance of the Sibyl, which, although it did not fit this period of the city's history at all, was nevertheless applied to the situation then existing. 57.18.5.  It ran:"When thrice three hundred revolving years have run their course, Civil strife upon Rome destruction shall bring, and the folly, too, of Sybaris . . ." Tiberius, now, denounced these verses as spurious and made an investigation of all the books that contained any prophecies, rejecting some as worthless and retaining others as genuine.
5. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 10.12.9 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) 10.12.9. Later than Demo there grew up among the Hebrews above Palestine a woman who gave oracles and was named Sabbe. They say that the father of Sabbe was Berosus, and her mother Erymanthe. But some call her a Babylonian Sibyl, others an Egyptian.
6. Origen, Against Celsus, 7.3 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) 7.3. Celsus goes on to say of us: They set no value on the oracles of the Pythian priestess, of the priests of Dodona, of Clarus, of Branchid, of Jupiter Ammon, and of a multitude of others; although under their guidance we may say that colonies were sent forth, and the whole world peopled. But those sayings which were uttered or not uttered in Judea, after the manner of that country, as indeed they are still delivered among the people of Phœnicia and Palestine - these they look upon as marvellous sayings, and unchangeably true. In regard to the oracles here enumerated, we reply that it would be possible for us to gather from the writings of Aristotle and the Peripatetic school not a few things to overthrow the authority of the Pythian and the other oracles. From Epicurus also, and his followers, we could quote passages to show that even among the Greeks themselves there were some who utterly discredited the oracles which were recognised and admired throughout the whole of Greece. But let it be granted that the responses delivered by the Pythian and other oracles were not the utterances of false men who pretended to a divine inspiration; and let us see if, after all, we cannot convince any sincere inquirers that there is no necessity to attribute these oracular responses to any divinities, but that, on the other hand, they may be traced to wicked demons- to spirits which are at enmity with the human race, and which in this way wish to hinder the soul from rising upwards, from following the path of virtue, and from returning to God in sincere piety. It is said of the Pythian priestess, whose oracle seems to have been the most celebrated, that when she sat down at the mouth of the Castalian cave, the prophetic Spirit of Apollo entered her private parts; and when she was filled with it, she gave utterance to responses which are regarded with awe as divine truths. Judge by this whether that spirit does not show its profane and impure nature, by choosing to enter the soul of the prophetess not through the more becoming medium of the bodily pores which are both open and invisible, but by means of what no modest man would ever see or speak of. And this occurs not once or twice, which would be more permissible, but as often as she was believed to receive inspiration from Apollo. Moreover, it is not the part of a divine spirit to drive the prophetess into such a state of ecstasy and madness that she loses control of herself. For he who is under the influence of the Divine Spirit ought to be the first to receive the beneficial effects; and these ought not to be first enjoyed by the persons who consult the oracle about the concerns of natural or civil life, or for purposes of temporal gain or interest; and, moreover, that should be the time of clearest perception, when a person is in close intercourse with the Deity.

Subjects of this text:

subject	book bibliographic info
aelian	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
aristophanes, birds	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
aristophanes, knights	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
aristophanes, peace	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
aristophanes	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
bacis	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
bouché-leclercq, auguste	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
chrêsmologos	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
dillery, john	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
divination, and authority	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
divinatory and prophetic writings, interest in, in flavian rome	Ashbrook Harvey et al., A Most Reliable Witness: Essays in Honor of Ross Shepard Kraemer (2015) 106
fontenrose, joseph	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
herodotus	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
jewish religion, in flavian ideology	Ashbrook Harvey et al., A Most Reliable Witness: Essays in Honor of Ross Shepard Kraemer (2015) 106
jewish writings, interest in, in flavian rome	Ashbrook Harvey et al., A Most Reliable Witness: Essays in Honor of Ross Shepard Kraemer (2015) 106
jewish writings, oracular character of	Ashbrook Harvey et al., A Most Reliable Witness: Essays in Honor of Ross Shepard Kraemer (2015) 106
josephus, and oracular character of jewish writings	Ashbrook Harvey et al., A Most Reliable Witness: Essays in Honor of Ross Shepard Kraemer (2015) 106
judean writings, on par with sibylline books, in flavian rome	Ashbrook Harvey et al., A Most Reliable Witness: Essays in Honor of Ross Shepard Kraemer (2015) 106
law (jewish), brought from the jerusalem temple to rome, after judean war	Ashbrook Harvey et al., A Most Reliable Witness: Essays in Honor of Ross Shepard Kraemer (2015) 106
mania, poet as'	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
mania	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
musaeus, as mantis	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
musaeus	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
onomacritus	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
pisistratus/pisistratids	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
religion, foreign, in flavian ideology	Ashbrook Harvey et al., A Most Reliable Witness: Essays in Honor of Ross Shepard Kraemer (2015) 106
rohde, e.	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 180
vespasian, confirmed as emperor by judean religion and texts	Ashbrook Harvey et al., A Most Reliable Witness: Essays in Honor of Ross Shepard Kraemer (2015) 106