Excerpt from A Treatise of the Sibyls, So Highly Celebrated, as Well by the Antient Heathens, as the Holy Fathers of the Church: Giving an Accompt of the Names, and the Number of the Sibyls, of Their Qualities, the Form and Matter of Their Verses About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

In antiquity a considerable number of books of prophecies went under the general title of Sybilline Oracles. Rulers consulted them in time of danger or crisis for advice and prognoses. One of the distinguishing characteristics of Sibyls was that they composed discursive verses for distribution the world at large. This is an authoritative account of a subject both rarely treated in recent decades and difficult of access for all but the most expert. In its pursuit of the sometimes elusive Sybils it ranges from Heraclitus to Eusebius, from Archaic Asia Minor to Christian Rome, throwing important light on religion, poetry and politics in the ancient world. -- From publisher's description.

The Sibyl was a legendary figure in Greco-Roman antiquity. J. L. Lightfoot describes how the verse prophecies attributed to her were taken over by Hellenistic Jews, and later by Christians, as a vehicle for their own understandings of prophecy, and provides an edition, translation, and commentary on the first and second books of extant oracles.