Sibylla by Diego Velasquez

Painting of the Spanish artist Diego Velasquez “Sibyl”. The size of the portrait is 62 x 50 cm, canvas, oil. Sibyls, legendary prophetesses, wandering prophetesses, mentioned by ancient authors; there were up to twelve sibyls. The activities of the Sibyls in the ancient ancient times of Greek history are timed mainly to the 8th and 7th centuries BC.

From history, the most famous is the Kum Sibyl, whose authorship is attributed to the “Sibylline books” – a collection of sayings and predictions, which served in future for official divination in ancient Rome. Kumskaya Sibyl, according to legend, lived for about a thousand years and was a contemporary of the king Tarquinius the Proud, whom the Cuma sibyl and offered to buy the so-called “Sibylline books”.