sibyl

Latin Sibylla, from Ancient Greek Σίβυλλα (Síbulla).

sibyl (plural sibyls)

1. A pagan female oracle or prophetess, especially the Cumaean sibyl.
   • c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals):

     : Act III, Scene IV:

     A sibyl, that had number'd in the world

     The sun to course two hundred compasses,

     In her prophetic fury sew'd the work;

   • 1922 T. S. Eliot, The Wasteland: Epigraph (translated from 61 Petronius' The Satyricon: Chapter 8, Lines 80 -86)

     I used to read these tales in Homer when I was a lad. Then the Sibyl! I saw her at Cumae with my own eyes hanging in a jar; and when the boys cried to her, ‘Sibyl, what would you?' she'd answer, ‘I would die,'-- both of ‘em speaking Greek."

• Sybil