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The Sixth Sibylline Oracle as a Literary Hymn
Usher, M D
Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Spring 1995; 36, 1; ProQuest
pg. 25

The Sixth Sibylline Oracle 
as a Literary Hymn 

M. D. Usher 

I N 1856 C. ALEXANDRE1 remarked that the twenty-eight-line 
poem that comprises Book 6 of the Dracula Sibyllina is "not 
so much a prophecy as a hymn, and, apart from the meter, 

nearly a lyric. "2 Subsequent commentators have used the term 
"hymn" to characterize Book 6, but no one has provided a 
formal literary analysis of the book as such, or tried to classify it 
within a larger hymnic tradition. 3 The following study is offered 
toward that end. 

I The following abbreviations will be used: Excursus=C. Alexandre, Excur­
sus ad Sibylla (Paris 1856); OracAp=H. W. Parke, The Oracles of Apollo in 
Asia Minor (London 1985); OS=J. Geffcken, Dracula Sibyllina (Leipzig 1902); 
SibProph=H. W. Parke, Sibyls and Sibylline Prophecy in Classical Antiquity 
(London 1988); SW=A. Kurfess, Sibyllinische Weissagungen (Berlin 1951); 
TU=J. Geffcken, "Komposition and Entstehungszeit der Dracula Sibyllina," 
Texte und Untersuchungen 23 (Leipzig 1902); VisDor=A. H. M. Kessels and 
P. W. van der Horst, "The Vision of Dorotheus (Pap. Bodmer 29)," VigChr 41 
(1987) 313-59. 

The following will be referred to by authors' names alone: J. J. COLLINS, 
"The Sibylline Oracles," in J. Charlesworth, ed., Old Testament Pseud­
epigrapha I (New York 1983) 317--472; E. HEITSCH, Die griechische Dichter­
fragmente der romischen Kaiserzeit (Gottingen 1961); R. JANKO, "The 
Structure of the Homeric Hymns: A Study in Genre," Hermes 109 (1981) 
9-24; L. KApPEL, Paian: Studien zur Geschichte einer Gattung (Berlin 1992); K. 
KEYSSNER, Gottes'Vorsteliung und Lebensauffassung in griechischen Hymnus 
(Stuttgart 1932); W. H. RACE, "Aspects of Rhetoric and Form in Greek 
Hymns," GRBS 23 (1982) 5-14; D. F. SUTTON, "P. Ross. Georg. 1.11," in 
Papyrological Studies in Dionysiac Literature (Oak Park, 11. 1987); J. J. 
THIERRY, Christ in Early Christian Greek Poetry (Leiden 1972). 

2 Excursus 615: "non vaticino, non historiae sed potius hymno similis ... 
paene lyricus." 

. J Collins (406) does not address the poem's hymnic or poetic qualities. 
Thierry but not Heitsch includes it in his collection. M. Lattke, Hymnus: 
Materialien zu einer Geschichte der antiken Hymnologie (Gottingen 1991) 25, 
has an up-to-date bibliography but no new contribution. 

25 



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26 THE SIXTH SIBYLLINE ORACLE 

The poem is best described as an "oracular hymn" that 
celebrates, as a vaticinium ex eventu, the career and apotheosis 
of Jesus of Nazareth. An unusually large number of bucolic 
diaereses and a relatively high poetic quality set Book 6 apart, 
statistically and stylistically, from the rest of the Sibylline 
corpus. 4 The poem's chief importance, however, derives from 
its status as our first extant piece of Christian hexametrical 
poetry. Lactantius' citation (Div. Inst. 14.15-22, published ca 
311) provides the decisive terminus ante quem and makes Book 
6 at least as early as P.Bodm. 29 ("The Vision of Dorotheus"), 
hailed by Kessels and van der Horst as "the earliest known 
specimen of Christian hexametric poetry." Their dating of the 
Dorotheus poem to the late third century, however, is nearly a 
century too early and has been convincingly refuted by J. N. 
Bremmer.s Book 6, then, written at least a generation before 
Lactantius and-as I shall argue-in Syria-Palestine by a Chris­
tian Middle Platonist during the Severan period (193-235), is the 
real beginning of Christian poetry. 

Part I of this study presents a text, translation, and line-by-line 
commentary on the poem with a new interpretation of some 
troublesome lines and stylistic and semantic parallels from 
hymns, oracles, and other relevant literature. Part II addresses 
the problem of the poem's mixed genre and its literary and 
historical contexts. This two-part format best facilitates 
discussion of this little known work within the larger context of 
Greek hymns. Impatient readers are invited to read the hymn 
and proceed directly to Part II . 

.. A 71 % incidence (20128 lines) as compared with 44% for the Orac. Sib. as 
a whole. I base these numbers on the text I produce below. In his study of the 
Sibylline hexameter based on Geffcken's edition, J.-M. Nieto Ibanez, EI 
Hexametro de los Oraculos sibilinos (Amsterdam 1992) 156-60, reckons 
64.2% for Book 6 (18/28), as compared with 60% for Theocritus, 58% for 
Nonnus, and 56% for Homer. 

S In J. den Boeft and A. Hilhorst, edd., Dei Laudes: Essays on Early Chris­
tian Poetry (Leiden 1993) 253-62. Bremmer also shows that the identity of 
Oorotheus as the son of Quintus Smyrnaeus is unfounded. The other Oor­
otheus poem from the Bodmer collection, an acrostic about Abraham and 
Isaac, is dated by E. Livrea, ·Un poema ineditio di Oorotheus: Ad Abramo," 
ZP E 100 (1994) 175, to the late fourth century. 



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M. D. USHER 27 

I 

Book 6 owes its current place in printed editions of the Dracula 
Sibyl/ina to Alexandre, the first to separate it from Book 7. Most 
Mss. of the major <I> and 'I' families include Book 6 with the sub­
scriptions AO"(Oe; EK'tOe;, CJttXOl lCrt.6 In establishing a text, given 
the complicated textual history of the Drac. Sib., I agree with 
Geffcken (and reproduce here with abbreviated apparatus) the 
Mischtext he concedes is inevitable. Where I have differed 
from him I have done so, following his own advice and prece­
dent,7 using parallels drawn from hymns and related literature. 

&.8cxvcl-tou Jle"(cxv UtOV &'OtOlJlOV EK CPPEVOe; cxUOro, 
cp 8povov u'I'lCJtOe; "(EvetTle; 1tCXpeOCOKE Aa13eCJ8cxl 
OU1tCO "(EvvTl8evn· E1td KCXtcl CJclPKCX to OlCJCJOV 
Tt,,(ep8Tl, 1tpOXOCXte; cl1tOAOUCJclJlEVOe; 1tOtCXJlOtO 

5 'Iopoclvou, oe; cpepEtCXl ,,(ACXUK411tOOt KUJlCXtCX CJupcov. 
EK 1tUpOe; EKcpEu~cxe; 1tprotOe; 8EOV 0'l'EtCXl itou 
1tVEUJl' E1tl,,(LVOJlEVOV, AEUKCXtc; 1ttEpU,,(ECJCJl1tEA.EtTle;. 
&.v81lCJEl 0' av80e; Kcx8cxpov, I3puCJouCJl OE 1tTl,,(cxt. 
Od~El 0' &.V8pro1tOlCJlV oOoue;, Od~El OE KEA.Eu80ue; 

10 oupCXVtCXe;· 1tclVtCXe; OE CJocpOte; JlU80lCJl OlOcl~El. 
a~El 0' £e; tE OtKflV KCXt 1t£lCJEl ACXOV cl1tEl8fl 
CXlVEtOV CXUX1lCJcxe; 1tCXtpOe; ,,(ey.oe; ouPCXVtOcxo· 
KUJlCXtCX 1tE~EUCJEl, vOCJov &'v8pro1tcoV cl1tOAUCJEl, 
CJt1lCJEl tE8vTlrotcxe;, cl1troCJEtCXl aA"(w 1tOAA.cl· 

15 EK OE Jllfle; 1tf\PTle; aptou KOpOe; £CJ(JEtCXl clVOprov, 

3 'to ~hooov cP 'II I a09Eloav n 6-7 EK 'I' cl» I oS n 9EOl> 5\jfE'tat r,au 
1tVeUJ.l' E1ttYWOJ.lEVOV Fabricius /9EOV 5\jfE'tat r,auv 1tVEUJ.lan YEVV119iv­
'ta n I 9EOS oS 'tE Kat r,OUV 1tVEl>J.lan YWOJ.lEVOV cl» I 9EOS (hE r,ouv 
1tVEUJ.lav'tt YWOJ.lEVOV 'I' 12 PPUOOUOt codd. aut ppUOUOt I Ppi9oUOt 
LactA.13 (Migne) 11 a~Et fI' 'I' I i1~£t n u1tEt9T\ Alexandre I U1tEx9T\ 
codd. 13-15 secundum Lact. 4.15, 25 15 m1P11 cf. Lact. 4.15 16/ 01tdp11S 
n /inC11S fI' 'I' 

6 Unobserved by Parke, SibProph 168, 171 n.5, who believed that "Book 6, 
the most explicitly Christian of the Oracula Sibyllina ... as transmitted ... is 
very short and probably defective." 

7 OS xxvi: "Es bleibt aber immerhin von Wert, einmal einen Blick auf die 
Parallelliteratur zu werfen." A full discussion and complete apparatus at OS 
ix-Iii, 13off. 



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28 THE SIXTH SIBYLLINE ORACLE 

OtKOC;; otaV daulo cpun CPUtov· EV XEpt 0' autou 
KOO~OC;; OAoC;; Kal yaia Kal oupavoc;; ..;oE 6a.A.aooa. 
aotpa.'I'El 0' E1tl yi\v, otov 1totE 1tp&ta cpavevta 
doov a1t' aA.A.ltA.rov 1tA.EUp&v Ouo YEvvTl6evtEC;;. 

20 EOOEtat, ilviKa yaia xaplt0Etal EA.1tiol1tal06c;;. 
001 OE ~ovn, :woo~itl yain, KaKel1tlt~ata KEltal· 

autll yelp ouocpprov tOY oov 6EOV OUK EvoTloac;; 
1tai~ovta 6vTltoiol Volt~aolv· aA.A.' a1t' aKa.v6TlC;; 
EOtE'I'ac;; OtECPa.VCP, cpo~EPllv OE XOA.llV EKepaooac;; 

25 dC;; ~p&atV Kal1t&~a· to OOl KaKel1tlt~ata tEU~El. 
i1 ~UA.OV i1 ~aKaplotOV, ECP' 0-0 6EOC;; E~Etavu06Tl, 

OUX £~El oe X6c.&v, aA.A.' oupavou oIKov EOO'l'El, 
ilviK' a1taOtpa.'I'ElE to oov, 6EOC;;, E~1tUPOV o~~a. 

19 'Y£VV1'\9EV'C£e; Alex. I 'Y£VV1'\9EV'C£ Hase I 'Y£VV1'\9EV'Ca. codd.23 
1ta.iCov'Ca. 9V1'\'Co~(n VOTlIla.OW Lact. 4.18, 20; cf. August. De av. D. 18.23: 
ipsa enim insipiens tuum Deum non intellexisti, ludentem mor­
talium mentibus, sed et spinis coronasti et horridum Jel miscuisti 25 
de; ~pro(nv Ka.t 1trofla. . 'Co OOt Ku rfess I de; u~pw Ka.t 1trofla. . 'Co OOt 
Alex. I de; U~plV Ka.t 1trofla. 'Ci OOt (1tVel>fla.'COe; OOt aut oi.) codd. 27 
oupa.vou Kurfess loupa.vov codd. 28 ao'Cpa.'I'Et(£) Geffcken IS' 
ao'Cpa'l'£t aut ao'Cpa'l'£te; aut ao'Cpa'l'll codd. 

Translation 

A great son, the subject of song, I sing from the heart 
immortal, 

To whom a begetter most high gave a throne to possess 
Before he was born. After he, in the flesh, has been a second 

time 
Raised, having bathed in the streams of the river 

5 Jordan, which moves with bright foot sweeping the waves, 
And having fled fire, he shall be the first to see God, 
A sweet spirit, alighting on the white wings of a dove. 
And a pure flower will blossom, and springs will surge. 
He will show people the ways and the paths, 

10 Heavenly ones, and will teach all with words of wisdom; 
And to justice will bring, and persuade, unpersuadable 

folk, 
Boasting praiseworthy descent from his father, son of 

Ouranos. 
He shall tread the waves, and cure human disease; 
He shall raise those who have died and banish much grief. 

15 And from one purse shall be surfeit of bread for mankind, 



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M. D. USHER 

When David's house shoots forth a sprout. In his hand 
The whole world rests, earth and heaven and sea. 

29 

He will hurl lightning to earth-just as once at his first 
manifestation 

They saw him, those two born from each other's sides. 
20 There will be a time when the earth shall rejoice in the hope 

of a child. 
For you alone, land of Sod om, is destined calamity. 

For you were malicious, and did not recognize your own 
God 

When he was here playing with mortal perceptions. With 
acanthus 

You crowned him, and terrible gall you mixed 
25 Into his food and his drink. That will cause you calamity. 

o wood, happy wood, upon which God was 
stretched, 

Earth shall not hold you, but you shall see a home in 
heaven 

When your fiery eye, 0 God, flashes forth like lightning. 

Commentary 

1. ci9uveX'tou ... ix: cpp£v6~: a9avu'to~ is possibly an adjective used 
absolutely as a noun (sc. geou) as Collins and Kurfess translate, but 
this leaves an awkward repetition of Jesus' father in the genitive then 
in the nominative ('Y£vhTl~). It is better taken as an adjective with 
cpp£v6~. Medea prophesies from an a9uvu'tou 0"'t6Ilu'to~ at Pind. Pyth. 
4.11 and in a Hellenistic epigram Apollo, the Sibyl's patron deity, 
possesses a cprovi1v a9u[vu)'tTlV (H. Lloyd-Jones, "The Seal of Posidip­
pus," JHS 83 [1963] 89). Because the Sibyl's own 'immortality' lacked 
agelessness (cf Ov. Met. 14.130), she was imagined as a perennially 
aged woman if not, with the conflation of yet another myth, a shriv­
elled-up cicada wishing very much to die (Hellanicus, FGrHist 4F140; 
Petron. Sat. 15.48; SibProph 57£), a motif first attested in the Hymn. 
Hom. Yen. in the myth of Eos and Tithonus. 

£IC cpp£v6~: The phrase amplifies the emotion with which the hym­
nist sings, i.e., "from the heart" as at Aesch. Cho. 107, Sept. 919; if. IL 
9.343, EIC SulloU cpiA.eov. For the resultant hyperbaton with a9uvu'tou 
cf [Longinus] who says that this figure is "the truest mark of 
strenuous emotion" (Subl. 22.3f). Here the emotional intensity 
inherent in the idiom EIC cpp£v6~ is heightened by the hyperbaton. 
Note also the prophetic CPPllv, which "sees something more than is 
apparent" that Prometheus offers as proof for the veracity of his 
prophecies to 10: O"T1Il£tU O"Ol 'tuB' EO"'tl 'tll~ Ellll~ cpp£v6~ cOs BEPIC£'tUl 
7tAEOV n'tou 7t£cpuO"IlEVOV (PV 842f; for this usage cf Nonnus Par. Jo. 



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30 THE SIXTH SIBYLLINE ORACLE 

1.53). The Sibyl is, in these opening lines, laboring under the weight 
of time and inspiration. 

a.oUhlLOV: "a subject of song." This, the only epithet of the anony­
mous son in this hymn, occurs only twice in the Orac. Sib., here and 
at 14.310 (a late 7th C. Jewish oracle) of an unnamed diabolical prince. 
Other than at Hymn. Orph. 72.5, where Tyche is hailed as a.oahl!o~, I 
find no example of it predicated of a Greek divinity. In Greek litera­
ture this somewhat rare word is variously used to describe prophets, 
poets, heroes, emperors, and villains. Predicated of Helen and Hector 
in Homer (II. 6.358), it means "notorious," a passage imitated/ 
parodied by Callimachus (Ap. 121), who uses the word of the I!avn~ 
Teiresias. Homer's a.Oi()lI!O~ in bucolic diaeresis was the model for its 
use in later prosody, though it has a more positive meaning at 
Hymn. Hom. Ap. 299, where it refers to the god's oracular sanctuary 
(vaov; cf Pind. Pyth. 8.59). 

With the meaning "famous for song" Pindar refers to himself as an 
a.O()lI!OV TIU::Pl()Cl)V 7tpocpa:tav (Paean 6.1-6), as does the Christian Do­
rotheus (VisDor 272). We also find the adjective in a Delphic oracle 
(ca )'.1 C. B.C.) predicated of the poet Archilochus (see further W. Peek, 
"Neues von Archilochus," Philologus 99 [1955] 4-50): 

u9uva't6!j; om 1ta'i~ Kat uoi/)~110!j; if> T£A£oiKA£~~. 
£o'ta~ EV uv9poo1tmotv, o~ aJl1tp&t6~ o£ 1tpoo£Ut£\ 
V1'\O~ U1toePOO\OKOV'ta <piA1'\V d~ 1ta'tpi/)a ra'iav. 

Note the syntactical parallels here with the hymn: a.9ava:t6~ and 
a.Oi()lI!O~ occupy the same position in the line; both texts use the fu­
ture tense and preserve the anonymity of the son in question. The 
occurrence of this Archilochus oracle at Anth. Pal. 14.113.1 suggests 
that it once circulated in a florilegium. The author probably modeled 
his first line on oracles available to him via such a source-perhaps 
this one. Eusebius (Praep. Evang. 5.32-33.1) quotes these lines (as far 
as a.v9pO)7tOl<HV) and knows that the unnamed 7ta.'i~ of the oracle is 
Archilochus. From this he concludes that Apollo is a false yrophet 
because the god sanctions so shameful a poet, the likes 0 which 
.. even the noble Plato banished from his Republic." This vehement 
disavowal suggests that someone (Christians?) used the oracle, 
divorced from its original context, as a prophetic proof-text. 

Herodotus' use of the adjective (2.79) to describe the mytho-his­
torical figure Linus is also apt: "called by various names," this Linus 
was a.O()lI!O~ throughout the Near East, the only-begotten son 
(7ta.'i()a. I!OUVOYEVEa.) of Egypt's first king, who died young and is 
since honored by laments. This same "Linus," the legendary tutor of 
Orpheus (Diod. 3.67; D.L. proem. 3), later becomes a pseudonymous 
authority for Greek hexameters composed by Jews and remained 
current in Christian circles as well (Aristobulus apud Eus. Praep. 
Evang. 13.12.13, 13.34; see further H. Attridge in Charlesworth 823f). 



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M. D. USHER 31 

IV Maccabees, a Hellenistic Jewish encomium, speaks of a martyr's 
life (10.15) and death (10.1) as aoUh)lo~ and is largely responsible for 
the meaning "of famous memory'" or "renowned'" in Christian 
hagiographies and sermons, where the martyr is e.g. ruS6K~)lO~)lEv 
1tapa. eeip, ao{~h)lo~ ~£ 1t(XPa. aVepclmO~~ (Basil Caes. PG XXXII 1272). 
Eulogy and encomium combine in two epigrams from the Anth. PaL: 
in a sepulchral epitaph the poem itself is a )lvll)la .. , aOl~~)lOV (669.1); in 
another, "Lord Christ gives the nod of assent'" (Eveuoev ... liva~ 
Xp~o'to~) to a Nicomedes who has entered into a ~lov ... aOl~l)lOV 
(8.141.1). In both poems aOl~l)lov is in the first line and in the same 
sedes as our hymn. From these uses of aOl~l)lo~ it is clear that Jesus is 
being analogized to a Greek hero, martyred in his prime. 

ai>8Cb: This denominative verb from the substantive au51l (which 
can mean "song'" or "ode,'" e.g. Pind. Nem. 9.10£) is related to ad~(t), 
"to sing,'" the verb par excellence for hymnic preludes Uanko 9f; Race 
Sf£) and is used in this way by e.g. Pindar (01. 1.7). In the hymnic 
prologue to the Orphic H ymns au~& at line-end is the single verb 
used to invoke a pantheon of twenty-five deities and daimones (line 
39). In oracles Apollo uses it, also at line-end ('tl~ oo<plq. 1tpiiho~ 
1tav't(t)v, 'tou't~ 'tPl1tO~' au~Cb, Diod. 9.3.2=L. Andersen, Studies in 
Oracular Verses: Concordance to Delphic Responses in Hexameter 
[=Historisk-filosfiske M eddelelser 53 (Copenhagen 1987)] no. 72). 
au~ro sets this first line, indeed the whole poem, squarely in both the 
hymnic and oracular traditions. 

2. ~: The relative pronoun (or adverb) whose antecedent is the god in 
the accusative case is a well-known hymnic feature Uanko 9£); cf. 
Hymn. Hom. Cer. 1.£, Mere. l£f, Bacch. 7.1£. 

9p6vov: Cf. o rae. Sib. 7.32: 'tip 'Yap 't' au'to~ E~(t)Ke eEO~ Spovov .... The 
throne or "seat'" occupied by a divinity is a topos in Greek literature: 
generally, cf. Il 5.360; specifically, Spovo~ is used of Apollo's oracular 
seat at Delphi (Eur. IT 1254, 1282). Theocritus' encomium to 
Ptolemy uses language similar to that here: 'tllvov Kal )laKapEOo~ 
1ta'tlu) o)lon)lov ESUKEVI aSava'tOle;, Kal oi XpUOEO~ Spovoe; iv ~l~ ~ 
~E~)l"'tal (Id. 17.16£). The NT concern with Jesus' accession to the 
royal "Throne of David'" (Lk 1:32, Heb 12:2, etc.), however, is 
paramount. In Peter's speech at Pentecost (Acts 2:30£) the possession 
of Christ's epovo~ is said to have been "foreseen'" (1tpOl~roV) by King 
David, a prophetic singer of alO)la'ta. (viz. Pss 132:11, 89:4, 16:10), 
and his foresi9ht is interpreted as referring to the resurrection (ava­
o'taOl~; cf. Tt'YepS" below) of Christ. Here the Sibyl foresees Christ's 
kingship from the pagan quarter-teste David cum Sibylla, as it were. 

iSV1.o'toC; yevh"c;: The word is'lfla'tO~, theological Gemeingut in the 
Greco-Roman world, is very common in the Orac. Sib. In VisDor it 
is the favorite appellation for God (lines 100, 134,231). In the "Mag­
nificat'" the Holy Spirit is the MVa)ll~ inVlo'tou descending upon Mary 



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32 THE SIXTH SIBYLLINE ORACLE 

(a NT prose hymn at Lk 1:35); in the "Benedictus'" John the Baptist 
is lauded as the 1tPO<pit'tl1~ il\jlicr'tO'u (Lk 1 :76; cf Pind. N em. 1.90-93 of 
Teiresias; also Nem. 11.2; Aesch. Eum. 28). In Aristonous, Apollo, 
the son of Zeus, is praised as crE~vov aY<XA~<X ... il\jlicr'tou (Kappel 385 
no. 42 line 7). The noun yeVhl1~ ("father'") is largely post-classical 
and relatively rare: only here and at Orac. Sib. fro 5.3. Nonnus (Dion. 
7.80) uses yeVE'tl1~ to express the father-son relationship between 
Zeus and Dionysus (7.80) in an oracle about his son, not yet born, 
that Zeus utters in/to primordial time (Aion), wherein he prophesies 
Dionysus' future exploits, beginning at his nativity. Zeus' promise 
to his son-Zl1vt cruv<xotpa.1t'tov't<X 8e8E~e't<Xt <xrOAO~ <xieitp (99)­
recalls the closing scene of our hymn (see ad line 28). 

3. OU1tCJ) y£vv11gevn: A fine paradox/oxymoron with yeVE'tl1~ prob­
ably referring to the pre-existence of Christ, a theology best known 
from the prologue to the Gospel of John. Nonnus' paraphrase of 
John's first verse is a poetic elaboration that also picks up the pre­
existence, sonship, and enthronement of Christ in one stroke: the 
Logos is yeveti\p~ o~itAl1C~ ino~ a.~it'tmp and a.'tEP~OVt c:ruvepov~ £8pll. 

£1t£1 lC<X'ta. cra.plC<X ..• lCtA.: Beginning with E1td and continuing 
to line 7 these lines describing the baptism of Jesus (Mk 1:9-11 pars.) 
present problems of interpretation on a number of levels. The 
language shows considerable (perhaps considered) ambiguity, and the 
text may be corrupt. An "embodiment" of Christ's pre-existent 
spirit at baptism seems to be envisioned. a.1tOAOUcra.~eVO~ and h:­
<peU~<X~ continue the temporal clause introduced by E1tel, which 
answers to 5'1'e't<Xt in line 6. The aorist after E1tel, however, is unusual 
with a main clause in the future. 'Iop8a.vou in line 5 may have been 
originally a marginal gloss on 1to't<X~OtO later filled out into a hex­
ameter line (without caesura), and the h: of Mss. 'I' and cI> corrupted 
to n's o~ to accommodate it. For a similar explanatory interpolation 
involving a river note II. 21.157f: E~ 'A~tou eUpU PEOVtoq 'A~wu, o~ 
lCa.AAtcr'tOV u1tmp t1tt y<Xt<XV tl1crw . EYelpm (in the passive) is the pre­
ferred NT verb for Christ's resurrection (e.g. Mt 28:6; Mk 16:6; 1 
Cor. 15:12f), but is not used of his birth as it seems to be used here. 
lC<Xta. cra.plC<X is a NT idiom used by Paul (in a neutral sense) for 
Christ's human lineage (e.g. Rom. 1:3; 4:1; 9:3, 5). The first begetting 
that this second one ('to 8tcrcrov) presupposes must be the heavenly, 
non-corporeal one implied at lines 2f. 

4-5. 1tPOxo<xtC; .•. crupmv: The personification of the Jordan River, in 
fact the hyperbole of the whole description, is strangely but pleas­
antly pastoral. The reading yA<xulCc.Om8t 1CU~<xn of n is possibly cor­
rect (cf Hes. Th. 587). YA<XUlCCJ> 1to8i is a bold metaphor making the 
Jordan a divinity (cf pede, Verg. Aen. 9.125, of the Tiber). Although 
(as the text now stands) the first reference in this relative clause is to 
the river Jordan, the context and vocabulary here suggest that the 
foot in question may also be Christ's. A god's gait is especially 



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M. D. USHER 33 

important in epiphanies. At the epiphany of Apollo in Callimachus 
the god "raps upon the doors with beautiful foot": 'tel. OupE'tpa 
ICaA4l7tool ... apaooEl (Ap. 3), ICaAcp 7toBl occupying the same sedes as 
yAaUICCP 7toBl in bucolic diaresis. Plutarch preserves an anapestic hymn 
to Dionysus in which the god is invoked to come ~OEPCP 7toSi (see W. 
R. Halliday, The Greek Questions of Plutarch [Oxford 1928] 128). 
Nonnus (Dion. 1.104f) also puts 7toBi in the same sedes but as here 
with the aquatic metaphor: the goddess Demeter uyp07tOPCP Be 
yAauICel. Blaoxi,El ~OECP 7toBl vro'ta OaAaOO%. Note Nonnus' con­
flation of two images in our hymn: the personified water, here with 
"sea-green back" (cf the Homeric EupEa vro'ta OaAaOOT\C;), and a 
divinity (Demeter) "who parts the waves with cow foot leaving a 
watery trail." With reference to Jesus ICaAcp 7toSl is brilliant hypallage 
for the color of the water and a superb word play on yAauICoc;. which 
can also mean "bright" or "gleaming" (for the ordinary meaning of 
"sea-green" cf Nonnus Dion. 20.353; 2.14). For oupmv used personally 
cf. Limenius' Paean to Apollo, where it describes that god's "tracing'" 
or "spreading" the foundations of his oracular shrine "with immortal 
hand" (a7t[A.€'touC; OE~EA(OUC; 't'] a~~po't~ XElpl oupmv. Klippel 390 no. 
46 line 24). Note also a hymn from Epidaurus in which the Mother 
of the Gods moves oupouoa pu'tel.[v] ICo~av (M. L. West, "The Epi­
daurian Hymn to the Mother of the Gods: CQ N.S. 20 [1970] 212f). 
If, in similar fashion, oupmv describes the motion (or its effect) of 
Jesus stepping into or out of the river, it may be meant to suggest 
his walking on water (Mk 6:45-52 pars.)-an intimation at baptism 
of that mark of his divine character described in line 13. 

6-7. ix: 1tUpOC; iICcpEu~ac; ... KEAdT\C;: Note the similarities in 
Orac. Sib. 7.66f: OUIC eyvmc; 'tOY qov OEOV, OV 7to't' E/youqCV' 'I6pOav~ Ev 
7tpolofiql ICal £7t'ta'to 7tVEUlLa m:Adn (see further Part II infra). ",Bu is 
printed by Kurfess and Alexandre, but it should be noted that this 
line has many variants in the Mss., most of them attempts to make 
the ",Bu masculine or put the Spirit in the dative. If ",SU is correct, 
then it modifies 7tVEU~a; the phrase 7tVEU~a ... i7tlYlVO~EVOV is in 
apposition to OEOV: thus "God, a sweet spirit alighting: etc. 

AEuICatc; 1tupuyeocJ1. 7tEAei"C;: The color of the baptismal dove is 
not specified in the Gospels. It is probable that Lactantius (Div. Inst. 
4.15) gets the color white from Orac. Sib. 6.7, for three other quota­
tions of Book 6 (not this verse) occur in his same chapter. 

1tEAe(T\: At Orac. Sib. 1.247 7tEAna is used of Noah's dove, but 
otherwise only here and at 7.67. The NT uses 7tEplo'tEpa at the bap­
tism, the same for Noah's dove in the LXX (Gen. 8:8). 7tEAdT\ may 
be simply metri gratia, for 7tEPlO'tEPa. is not well suited to the hex­
ameter (though metrical correption is frequent in this poem). 
ITEAnal at Paus. 7.21.2, 10.12.10 are the doves or dove-priestesses of 
the oracular shrine of Zeus at Dodona. Pausanias' excursus on Sibyls 
and Sibylline prophecy highlights these Peleiai (also "Peleiades") who 



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34 THE SIXTH SIBYLLINE ORACLE 

"though not called Sibyls by men give prophecies from God.'" To 
them, Pausanias reports, is ascribed the venerable oracle Zd)~ ~v. Z£u~ 
EO'tlV, Z£u~ Eoo£'tav C1 ~qaA£ Z£u-a theology consonant with 
Christian beliefs about deity (ef. Rev. 1:4, 8: 0 roy Kat 0 ~V Kat 0 
EpXO~£VO~). The appearance of an oracular bird adds a nice touch to the 
poem. 

8. ci.vO"O'£1. 8' avOoc; KCXOCXPOV, ppuoo'UO\ 8e 7I:111CX(: Cf. line 20: 
'Yaia xap,;o£'tal EA1tUh 1talM~ and also 8.475 (of Christ's nativity). 
Such sympathy of nature with the events recounted in the narrative, 
what Keyssner calls "the hyperbolic style," abounds in Greek hymns, 
and often accompanies the epiphany of the god (Keyssner 30-34), as 
at Apollo's nativity in the Hymn. Hom. Ap.-~£U)T\O£ 5£ 'Yai' U1tE­
V£pOEV (11M; ef. also 135, 139)-or Limenius' paean (Kappel 390 no. 
46 lines 7-10), where at the same event na[~ 5£ 'YlqaO£ 1tOAOC; 
ou pav wc;. For the collocation ou pavo~-'Ya'ia-OaAaooa ef. Hom. 
Hymn. Cer. 13f. ~puco, "a word belonging to the language of poetry 
and religion ... [for] ritual cries or the natural expression of religious 
exaltation" (Dodds ad Eur. Bacch. 107), occurs frequently in com­
pound epithets in the Hymn. Orph. As an expression of hope and 
happiness, or of a return of a Golden Age-primal restoration is 
hinted at in lines 18f (Adam and Eve's glimpse of Christ in the 
Garden of Paradise)-the sentiment is not unlike the cosmic 
sympathy attending the birth of the child in Vergil's fourth Eclogue, 
(esp. lines 19f, 23; ef. E. Norden, Die Geburt des Kindes [Leipzig 
1924]) 46-50, 58). 

avOo~: Cf. <jlu'tov below (16). In the Hymn. Hom. Mere. Apollo is 
described as having uvOo~ ... <jllAoIC'\.l5Eo~ i1~T\~ and in paeans Apollo is 
often an EPVO~ (e.g. Macedonius [Kappel 383 no. 41 line 4). In Hymn. 
Orph. 50.6 to Lysios/Lenaeus (=Dionysus) the god is praised as 'iepov 
uvOov (i. e., wine). For Lactantius the floral imagery of the hymn 
stemmed from Isaiah 11:1, which he quotes in Latin: Exiet virga de 
radiee Jesse et flos de radiee aseendit (where flos=LXX avOo~). 
Lactantius explains that Jesse autem [uit pater David ex euius radiee 
accensurum esse florem praeloeutus est, and quotes line 8 of Book 6 
as Sibylline support for his interpretation (Div. Inst. 4.13= Migne, 
PL XXXVII 485f, with the variant ~p{90'UOl 5£ 1tav'ta unreported by 
Geffcken and Thierry. For ~p{9co in an epiphanic context ef. Hom. 
Hymn. Cer. 473). Isaiah was probably foremost in the hymnist's 
mind as well. 

9-14. 8e£~£\ 8' ci.vOpO)7tO\OW 080u<; ... aA'Y£cx 7I:OAAcl: These 
lines are the hymnist's efficient epitome of Jesus' ministry. The 
whole section is akin to an aretalogy, and the healing mentioned at 
13f is the stuff for a paean to Asclepius-like Isyllus' where the god 
is 'tOy voocov 1tauo'topa, 5co'tllpa u'Yleia~ (Kappel 382 no. 40 E lines 
56£). In the same author's hexametrical aretalogy the Spartans au8,;o­
av't0t; aKouoav, oron:lpav <jl,;~av, 'AOKAa1tlE, Kal O<jl£ oacooa~ 



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M. D. USHER 35 

(Kappel 383 no. 40F lines 79f; for au&it()"(xv'toe; cf line 1 above). Lactan­
tius cites lines 13££ as caelestis indicia virtu tis. Interestingly L. but­
resses his argument with an oracle from "Milesian Apollo," which 
Parke regarded "as an authentic attempt of the prophets of Apollo to 
define their position with regard to the claims of Christianity" 
(OracAp 104). Apollo too acknowledges Jesus' miracles and cruci­
fixion, going so far as to use the Christian phrase lCa'teX oaplCa (see 
line 3) in his exposition (PL XXXVII 484): 

OVl1'tOt; £l1V lCata (JllplCa, O"ocpOt;. tEpatwaEO"lV £pyOlt; 
aU: il1tO xal()at(J)v lCPltWV 01tMHt; O"'IlvaA.coOdt; 
yO,.UPOlt; lCat O"lCoA.61tEO"O"l1tllCPTtV aVEtAl1O"E tEAtUttlV. 

10. 8d~E1. ..• oupav{ac;: Note the anaphoric repetition of 8d~£~ and 
the assonance 8~8a~£l/a~£l. oupavlae; here in enjambement emphasizes 
the quality of Christ's teaching. For "heavenly paths" cf Clement's 
Paedagogus hymn: ixvla XPlO'tOU/ oooe; oUpavla [sc. EO'tlV] (Thierry 10 
no. 7.34£). Cf also Christ's words in the Gnostic (anapestic) "Psalm 
of the Naasenes": J.LOpcpeXe; 8£ 9EroV E1tlaei~Q) 'teX lCElCpUJ.LJ.L£va 'tile; aYlae; 
baou (Thierry 13 no.8.21£). 

O'ocpoic; J1u901.c;: Keyssner 55 notes" Auch die oocpla des Gottes be­
greift gelegentlich seine Macht und seine Fahigkeiten in sich" and cites 
Macedonius' paean (Kappel 384 no. 41 line 17; cf the self-proclaimed 
oracular wisdom of Apollo cited above ad line 1). 

11. ndO'E1. Aa.OV aK£1.9i\ ... tc'tA.: Presumably the Jews are the 
·unpersuadable" or "disobedient people" (same collocation, same 
sedes at Orac. Sib. 1.204, 3.668; cf Is. 30:9). AaOe; is the usual, positive 
term for "Israelites" in LXX as opposed to e9v" who are "Gentiles." 

12. aiE'tov ..• oupa.vi8a.o: Christ here boasts of his "praiseworthy 
descent from his father, son of Ouranos." The rare patronymic oupa­
via"e; is very peculiar. It occurs only here in Orac. Sib. and in Greek 
epic only once in the singular in Hesiod (never in Homer or 
Nonnus) of Cronos (Th. 486; imitated by Oppian, Cyneg. 3.12). The 
word belongs to the language of theogonic myth-an idea very 
popular in the Orac. Sib. (Collins 334; Kurfess, "Homer and Hesiod 
in 1. Buch der Oracula Sibyllina," Philologus 100 [1956] 147-53). In a 
related passage, Orac. Sib. 7.69££ (see Part II infra), ·Ouranos has built 
three towers" for Christ who, as Logos, "donned flesh and swiftly 
flew to his father's home" (oaplCa 'tE 8UOaJ.LEVOe; 'taxile; '{1t'ta'to 1ta'tpoe; 
Ee; OilCOUe; 'tpE'ie; 8' au'tc!> 1tUpyoue; J.L£yac; OUpavoc; EO't"Pl~EV). Ouranos­
Hyperion is a mythological figure known from the Gnosticism of 
Valentinus whom Epiphanius accuses of plagiarizing the theogonies 
of Hesiod and Stesichorus, "changing only the names" 'in his 
elaborate system of thirty aeons and spiritual pleroma (Adv. Haer. 
31.2.4, 3.2). Thus, perhaps, oupavloT]c;=Helios, the son of Hyperion 
(Th. 374, 1011; Hom. Hymn. 31.4£)=Yahweh. This would explain the 
sun imagery at lines 26££ (q. v.). Though the language of Hesiod is 



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36 THE SIXTH SIBYLLINE ORACLE 

evident. identifying a Gnostic source for oupcx.viBl1e; is impossible. 
Unfortunately nothing in the only Valentinian hymn extant 
(Heitsch 155 no. 43) helps here. 

Alternatively YEVOe; may=Christians. a "praised race [belonging to] 
the father. son of Ouranos" of whom. out of the larger stock of 
Acx.ol (X1tEtge'ie; who reject him, Christ has "boasted." This use of YEVOe; 
originates in 1 Peter 2:9, where the author accommodates the phrase 
YEVOe; EAU:'tOV from Is 43:20 (of Israel). Thus. in apologetic literature 
Christians call themselves a 'tpi'tov yEVOe;. a third people alongside 
both Jews and pagans (Keryg. Petro 2) or elsewhere a Kcx.WOV ... YEVOe; 
(Ep. Diog. 1). 

15. £IC ae ~~ft~ 'ltitpl1~ •.• IC'tA.: This must be an allusion to the 
feeding miracles of Jesus (e.g. Mk 6:35-44 pars.). for which Lactantius 
reports "the disciples said they had five loaves and two fishes in pera" 
(Div. Inst. 4.15.16). The 'ltTtpcx. was a characteristic feature of Cynic 
costume (D.L. 6.22. 33). Thus the "one wallet" from which will come 
"surfeit of bread for men" (cf. Orac. Sib. 1.357) also evokes the 
disciples' vagabond lifestyle during Jesus' three-year ministry, for 
which period they are said to have shared a common purse 00.12:6. 
13:29; cf. also Acts 4:34f). 

17. IC6o~0e; OAoe; ... IC'tA.: A characteristic example of the hyper~olic 
style (see above line 8). for the sentiment cf. Hymn. Orph. 34.14-17 
to Apollo. 

18f. ao'tp&.vu .... : "He will hurl lightning to earth." For the image 
note esp. Lk 17:24: roonep yap il ao'tpcx.nTt aO'tpa.n'touocx. EK 'tile; uno 
'tOY oupcx.vov de; 'tTtv un' oupcx.vov Aa.~el. oihcoc; eo'tcx.l b uioe; av9pc.Onou 
EV 'ti\ ilJlEP<f cx.u'tou. In this hymn the verb is used absolutely and 
personally. I find no OT or NT precedent for such vividness. Even 
Satan gets a smile when he "falls like lightning from the sky" (Lk 
10:18). The lightning image is often associated with Yahweh, e.g. the 
theophany at Sinai (Ex 19:16), in a military prayer (Ps 143:6 LXX). 
an apocalyptic vision (Ezk 1 :13; cf Ap 4:5) and, of course, with 
Zeus. too: Orph. Hymn. 20, a hymn specifically to Astrapaios Zeus. 
Lightning is associated with Dionysus in P. Ross. Georg. 16££ 
(Sutton). a hymn about king Lycurgus' reluctant recognition of that 
god and his subsequent punishment. Thunder and lightning are signs 
attending him, given by his father Zeus because Zeus "honors him 
greatly": 

iyyilC; iorov [sc. Lycurgus] cA]96v'tu 11£'t' acr't£poltu"ic; ~t6V'\)crov 
u'i 1tUlCYul cr]£A.UYt~OV {)ltD ~[pov ]'tftcrt 9UI1£lmc; 
UlEOC; EPY' a{]OT)A.a ~tDC; I1Eya lCuoaivov'toC;. 

So too with Jesus' lightning (see line 28 below). Nonnus uses 
ao'tpa.n'tC.o in his paraphrase of that definitive NT indictment of dis­
belief. Jo. 3:19 (=par. Jo. 3:97-103). "The judgment upon an irre­
ligious world is this: From heaven came the light (<pe'Y'Yoe;) to earth. 



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M. D. USHER 37 

but the race of unstable men, though the light it up the sky (cpeYYEOe; 
a(J'tpa1t'tov'toe;), loved more gloom." 

otov 1tO'tE Kpco'ta cpav£V'ta .•. a1t' aAATtA.COV 1tAEUPCOV 8060 
y£VVT)9 £V'tEc;: "The two born from each other's sides" is an unparal­
leled circumlocution for Adam and Eve, who, the text implies, saw 
Christ in the Garden of Eden. The Christian apologist Justin Martyr 
explains the anthropomorphism of the Jewish God in the aT, in­
cluding the one in Eden (Dial. 131), as Christophanies, i.e., appear­
ances of a philosophic Logos personified. Though not called "Logos" 
in this poem, we find that term predicated of him in the related 
passage in at 7.83 (Part II, infra). In powerful hexameters Gregory 
Nazianzus hymns "the celebrated spark and aerial torch of the Logos 
«miv9T)p of: A(yyou Kal1tupooe; eXEp9de; ... eXoiotllOC; [ef line 1 above]), 
which pervaded the whole world" at Adam's fall from paradise (PG 
XXXVII 1231). The words E~1tUpOV and a1tao'tpa1t'tCl) juxtaposed have 
an astrological significance in a fantastic passage from Orae. Chald. (fr. 
146.7 Des Places). 

21. 001. 8£ Ilovn. Ioooilin yatT) ... K'tA.: A city may be 
"spiritually" (1tVEU~a'tlKCOe;) stylized a "Sodom" (Rev 11:8). The 
reference here as in Rev 11:8 is Judaea or Jerusalem. The Hebrew 
prophets speak of Judah in its worst days as Sodom (e.g. Is 1:9f; if. 
Ezk 16:46, 55). For 1t.q~a'ta KE'i'tat ef an oracle from Hdt. 1.67: 1tft~· 
E1tl 1t.q~a'tt KEi'tat (same sedes). 

22. ouocppcov ... 'tOY oov 9EOV OUK EVOT)Oae;: A heavily spondaic 
line for emphasis. Recognition of Christ is also important in the 
hymn-like piece to the Daughter of Sion (Orac. Sib. 8.335), recog­
nition that the song fosters. At 7.53 the inhabitants of Ilias 8EOV OUK 
EVOT)OaV (same sedes, as also at VisDor 74). 

23. 1tatCov'ta 9vT)'toio1. VOTtllao1.v: This is the oldest reading ap. 
Lactantius, probably followed by Augustine. Of all editors only 
Thierry prints it. Geffcken rejected the reading on no certain grounds 
(aS xxviii n.1), though he accepted Lactantius' 1t.qpT)e; in line 15 over 
o1tdpT)e; in nand pieT)e; in «I> and 'I' (aS xxix). The vividness of the 
image is the stuff we have come to expect of this poet. Thierry 
adroitly compares Ps. 2:4: b Ka'tOtKCOV EV oupavoie; EK'YEAaQ't£'ta1. 
aU'toue; Kal b ripwe; EKIlUlC'tUI;>tEi au'toue;-that in response to the 
previous verse where "kings and rulers have allied themselves against 
the Lord and His Annointed (xpto'toe;)." Christ's "playing with 
mortal perceptions" is also much in the Dionysiac tradition, e.g., the 
hallucinations of Pentheus and Agave in Eur. Baeeh. At P. Ross. 
Georg. (lines 29f) the god "pours an illusion" (rVOaA~ov EXEUV) over 
Lycurgus such that he, mistaking his children's consoling arms for 
snakes, slaughters them. For the "playing" ef Hymn. Hom. Baeeh. 
7.14f, where bonds fall miraculously from Dionysus' hands and the 
god "smiles" (~EtOtaCl). There, unlike here, a lone helmsman "recog-



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38 THE SIXTH SIBYLLINE ORACLE 

nized" or "understood" (v011oa~, 15) Dionysus' godhead. At Bacch. 
497-518 Dionysus faces danger with sweet abandon. Christ displays 
the same attitude in the Acts of John 94ff, where, before going off to 
die, he sings a lengthy hymn and dances with his disciples. A 
Dionysiac recognition motif is crucial for the Acts of John hymn: cf. 
esp. 67-70: b XOPEUWV VOE~ 0 1tpaoow, on oov Eonv 'tou'to 'to av9proxou 
na90~ 0 ~£AAW naOXElv (Thierry 36). 

23ff. an' alCcXv9T}e; ... a't£<pavcp ... XOA-TtV ... lC'tA-.: A drastic 
change of mood from "playing" to the vile elements and mockery of 
the Passion. Is it in the vein of mock-pastoral that we are to read the 
odd use of the singular alCav9T} (Vergil's acantho? Eel 4.20)? The NT 
and early Christian fathers use the plural for the crown of thorns. 
The detail of the poison/gall, found also at o rae. Sib. 8.303, 1.367; 
Mk 15:18,23 (pars.), is ultimately dependent on LXX Ps. 69:21 (as in 
Kurfess' emendation Pproow for uPpw): e5wKav de; 'to ppro~a ~ou 
XOATtV Kal d~ 'ti1v 5hvav ~ou E1tOnaaV ~E o~o~. For the Synoptic 
writers the sop given Jesus on the Cross was the fulfillment of 
prophecy; here it is that, but it also fills out the pathos of the scene. 
For Lactantius, line 24 (which he cites) brought Jer. 11:19 to mind, 
where that prophet describes himself as "slaughtered like a lamb with­
out blemish" whose enemies propose to put "wood in his bread" 
(lignum [=~UAOV LXX] in panem [=a.p'tov LXX] eius) and "eradicate" 
him from the earth. Lactantius' allegorization of the Jeremiah passage 
is indicative of the metaphorical potential of bread (15) and Cross 
(26) in our hymn: Lignum autem crucem sign ijica t, et panis corpus 
eius [sc. Jesus], quia ipse est cibus, et vita omnium qui credunt in 
carnem quam portavit, et in crucem qua pependit (Div. Inst. 4.18.28). 

26. cb ~UAOV. cb ~alCap\a't6v ... lC1:A-.: The word ~UAOV ("Cross") 
is a favorite in kerygmatic passages in Acts (5:30, 10:39, 13:29). 
According to the apostle Paul (Gal. 3:13, quoting LXX Dt. 21 :33) 
Christ's "hanging on the Cross" made him a" curse," but a beneficial 
one, for the Cross was believed to release Gentiles and Jews from the 
commands of Mosaic law, making them fellow sons of God, and 
"setting them free" to "serve each other in love." Some such para­
doxical view of the Crucifixion informs our author's qualification 
~aKap~o'tov of what otherwise was an instrument of torture and not 
an object of Christian veneration until the early Byzantine period (G. 
Snyder, Ante Pacem: Archaeological Evidence of Church Life before 
Constantine [Macon (Ga.) 1985] 27). The ~UAOV is apostrophized here 
metonymically for Christ. Most commentators have taken the 
hymnist to mean that the Cross literally will ascend to heaven. This 
literalist reading is based largely on a later vague tradition to this 
effect: examples in A. Rzach, "Sibyllinische Orakel," RE 2A.2 (1923) 
2141. The legend, however, does not seem to antedate our hymn and 
was demonstrably influenced by it. Sozomen certainly was (HE 1.1.6, 
2.1.10). We do best not to foist their literalism upon the hymnist. 



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M.D. USHER 39 

;UAOV is perfectly understandable by metonymy as Christ-a view 
supported by the vast majority of Mss., in which at 8.31 'to ;UAoV as 
Christ in the famous Sibylline acrostic takes a masculine participle 
(cpco'tiCcov). In the Wisdom of Solomon (14.7) ~UAOV rounds off a bril­
liant literary conceit in a sententia where, initially used for a pagan's 
"crooked" idol (;UAOV (JK:OAU)V, 13.13), it becomes, by catachresis, 
metonymy, and synecdoche, the saving agent of Noah's ark: £,)AO­
'Y'l'tUl yap ~u'Aov ~l' ot yiV£'tUl ~lK:UlO(JUVl1. Similarly, an interpolation 
at Orac. Sib. 5.261 plays on ;UAOV used in a periphasis for Jesus' 
profession as a carpenter, but certainly also used ironically for ·cruci­
fixion" (see line 26 below; cf. also Orac. Sib. 1.291, 7.49). The hymnist, 
under the spell of theological paradox and poetic conceit, has 
abruptly reversed the lurid details of the Passion with this unex­
pected benediction to the device of death. 

28. U2tuCJ'tPcX'I'£t£ .•• £~utUpov o~~u: (X1tU(J'tPcX1t'tCll=" flash like light­
ning forth" (cf. line 18). Although at Rev. 1:14 the heavenly Christ 
has fiery eyes (cf.19:12) and could be represented as a Helios figure 
with horse and chariot, as he was in a mausoleum under St Peter's 
(Snyder 62 pI. 31), "God the Father" seems to be the recipient of this 
second apostrophe. Cf. Synes. Hymn. 1.368: (Jov ~. o!J.~u, mX'tEp. 9E6~ 
here is nominative for vocative as often. The indefinite temporal 
clause states when the action of the main verb (£(Jo'lfu) will be ful­
filled: Jesus (=;UAOV) will see his "home in heaven" (objective or 

. appositive genitive; Smyth §1322, 1332-33) when God, as it were, 
gives the signal. For lightning as a divine sign cf. IL 9.237f: ZEU~ ... 
(JTt!J.u'tu CPUlCllV a,Q'tP(X7t'tU. Cf. the prophecy in Nonnus Dion. 7.99 
(cited ad line 2), where father Zeus and son Dionysus are to be 
reunited in heaven amidst flashes of lightning. At pdr. Jo. 3:69f the 
Son of Man inhabits a "starry home (a,(J'tEPOEV'tl !J.£AcX9p'!l) in the 
ethereal land of his Father (1tcX'tpwv oMu~ ... ui9ipu). Justin Martyr 
describes Christ's relation to the Father as that of light emanating 
from the sun (DiaL 128), a metaphor that finds its muse in Synesius 
(Hymn 5; Thierry 23 no. 13): u,)'to~ cpro~ d 1tuyu'iov (JUAAcX!J.'I'U~ 
a,K:'tl~ 1tu'tPi. 

As for o!J.!J.u, Helios is 1tU!J.CPUE~ Ui9Epo~ o!J.!J.u in an Orphic-style 
hymn embedded at Nonnus Dion. 40.379 (see F. Braun, Hymnen bei 
Nonnos von Panopolis [Konigsberg 1915] 8f). In hymns from the 
Magical Papyri, Helios is in fact identified with "lao" (i.e., Yahweh; 
Heitsch 183 no. 5=PGM III 198-228 line 14). The Orphic Hymns 
laud the o!J.!J.u t1iK:11~ (62.1, 69.15; cf. Procl. Hymn 1.38) and the t1l0~ 
o!J.!J.u 'tEAUOV (59.13). An oracle at Macrob. Sat. 1.20.13 calls Serapis 
o!J.!J.u 't£'tl1A.auyE~ AU!J.1tpOV cp&.~ T,£AlOW, and Apollo Didymus extols 
his "swift eye" (OracAp 78). Gregory Nazianzus, in hymning 
Christ's cosmic rule, describes the sun as the KUK:AOV ... E!J.1tUPOV and 
the moon as the o!J.!J.u 'to VUK:'to~. Perhaps due to the solar religion of 
the Severans and, later, the emperor Julian, o!J.!J.u was a popular word 



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40 THE SIXTH SIBYLLINE ORACLE 

in late antique oracles. The Christian editor of the Tubingen Theos­
ophy shows a special interest in oracles mentioning the o~~a of Zeus, 
notably ZTlVO~ 1taVB£plC£O~ acpe~'tov o~~ (Wolff no. 7 239; see also 
Orac.Af 207). These astrological, apocalyptic, and majestic connota­
tions 0 the author's choice of words in this last verse create a grand 
pyrotechnic finale. 

II 

The hymnic structure of Book 6 may be outlined as follows: 8 

I. Invocation in the er-Stil (1) 
II. Pars Epica/Narrative and argument (2-20) 

A. Heavenly preparations for Christ's birth and kingship 
(2-3a) 

B. Epiphany at baptism (3b-7) . 
C. Career of Jesus (8-17) 
D. Christophany in Eden and Christ's advent compared 

(18H) 
III. Apostrophe I: Rejection/failed recognition of Christ by 

mortals (21-25) 
IV. Apostrophe II: Makarismos on the Cross and Ascension 

(26ff) 

As outlined, this formal structure, unique among pre-Constan­
tinian Christian hymns, doxologies, and prayers, 9 resembles the 
shorter Homeric Hymns. Some peculiar features, however, not­
ably the double apostrophe-one of admonition (21-25), one of 
blessing (26ff)-bring the hymn to a close. A similar juxtapo­
sitioning of admonition and blessing (in that order) occurs at 
Hom. Hymn. Cer. 480ff, referring to initiation into the mys­
teries at Eleusis. The first apostrophe of our hymn entails the 
condemnation of a city. Although this is not characteristic of 
the hymn, the condemnation of cities is very Sibylline and gives 
the hymn its distinctively oracular quality. The second apos­
trophe, the macarism of lines 26£f, is a common feature, usually 

8 "Er-Stil" is E. Norden' term for third-person, as opposed to second-per­
son, invocations: Agnostos Theos (Leipzig 1923) 143-76. For general overviews 
of hyrnnic form and style and further explanation of the terminology used 
here, see Janko, Race, and Keyssner and J. Bremmer, "Greek Hymns," in H. 
S. Vernel, ed., Faith, Hope and Worship (Leiden 1981) 193-214. 

9 The most comprehensive collection of early Christian material is still W. 
Christ and M. Paranikas, edd., Anthologia Graeca Carminum Christiano rum 
(Leipzig 1871); note also C. Del Grande, Liturgiae preces hymni Christi­
anorum e papyris collecti (=Biblioteca Filologica Loffredo 3 [Naples 1934]). 



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M.D. USHER 41 

found near the end of the Greek hymn. 10 "0 happy the race of 
those mortals ... which builds a temple to lord Apollo" sings 
Philodamus, for example, in his Paean to Dionysus. 11 The final 
element in a hymn, however, is most often a request or some 
expression of XaPl<;. addressed to the god directly in the imper­
ative or optative mood. The request is based on an argument 
consisting in the accumulation of divine attributes and epithets 
(e.g. in the Orphic Hymns) or, as in this hymn, implied in the 
pars epica (a narrative of the past glories of the deity). In our 
hymn the fictive futurity of the events described and the 
oracular persona assumed by the hymnist render the argument 
a priori: Christ merits praise because the Sibyl has prophetically 
intuited his divine paternity, career, death, and ascension. 
Accordingly, the notion of XaPl<;. in addition to coming earlier 
than usual in our hymn (before both apostrophes in line 20), is 
presented as a fact, not couched as a request. Thus, though 
clearly working within the traditions of classical and Hellenistic 
hymnody, the author seems to have adapted the genre. 

The Hymn as an Oracle-The Sibyl as a Hymnist. Lactantius 
cites this poem four times, each as if it were a Sibylline 
prophecy. Why was this hymn read in antiquity as a Sibylline 
oracle? The intrusion of prayers and hymns into other collec­
tions of 'popular' religious literature such as the Greek Magical 
Papyri and the Corpus Hermeticum is well known. 12 Thus the 
early identification of the poem as a Sibylline prophecy and its 
inclusion in the collection are most easily explained as accidents 
of manuscript transmission or the caprice of ancient editors. As 
I have tried to show in the commentary, however, the oracular 
quality of Book 6 is also a literary affectation of its author. We 

10 E.g. Hom. Hymn. Cer. 486£; Hom. Hymn. nos. 30.7 to Ge, 25.4f to 
Apollo and the Muses=Hes. Th. 94-97. 

\I -;on lJ.(lx:up oAPiu tE X:ElvvCJ)v 'YE[VEU] PPOtrov ... a lCtiOT]l vuo[v] avux:[tt] 
~iPCJ)t, Kappel no. 39 lines 118-21. 

12 For the papyri see E. Heitsch, ·Zu den Zauberhymnen,» Philologus 103 
(1959) 216-20, 223f; for the Hermetic corpus see G. Fowden, The Egyptian 
Hermes (Princeton 1993) 84ff. In the Sibylline corpus the didactic poetry of 
[Phocylides] is inserted between 2.55 and 149 (Mss. '¥ only). See further P. W. 
van der Horst, The Sentences of Pseudo-Phocylides (= Studia in Veteris Testa­
ment; Pseudepigrapha [Leiden 1978]). The longer narrative poems about 
Christ at Orac Sib. 1.323-86, 8.251-336, which may also be intrusions, are 
closer generically to paraphrases of biblical passages, on which see in general 
M. Roberts, Biblical Epic and Rhetorical Paraphrase in Late Antiquity 
(Liverpool 1985). 



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42 THE SIXTH SIBYLLINE ORACLE 

find precisely this type of affect at Vito Plot. 128, where Por­
phyry (or his source) passes off a hymn in praise of Plotinus as 
an oracle of Apollo. He likens the hymn to the Delphic oracle 
about the wisdom of Socrates. As Harder notes, "es ist hier auf 
sehr besondere Weise platonischen Philosophie in den Formen 
einer zeitgenossischen Kunstepik oder besser Kunsthymnik 
(und nicht im iiblichen Orakelstil) ausgesprochen. "13 Por­
phyry's 'oracle' begins, in true hymnic fashion, with an invoca­
tion of the Muses and ends with the apotheosis of Plotinus. Our 
author has done much the same for Jesus with the Sibyl as his 
~~~ . 

The Sibyl did in fact have a reputation for hymnody in 
antiquity. Plutarch for example can, without special emphasis, 
use the verb uJlveuro to cite the Sibyl (Mor. 388F). Pausanius, 
who prided himself on a firsthand acquaintance with oracular 
literature (10.12.11), believed her to be an authoress of hymns as 
well (10.12.2; cf SibProph 40; 49 n.31). Pausanias reports that 
the Delians in his time claimed that a hymn to Apollo used at 
Delos was written by a Sibyl named Herophile, whom he 
places in the Troad and the local historian Apollodorus of 
Erythrae identifies as Erythraean. 14 That Herophile's alleged 
hymn is none other than the famous "Homeric" Hymn to 
Delian Apollo (SibProph 44) can be seen from what is agreed to 
be a genuine fragment of this Erythraean Sibyl, 15 in which she 
'predicts' the literary career of Homer, alluding to his blindiness 

. and calling him the Chian (Drac. Sib. 3.419-22; c(. Thuc. 3.104) 
-details of Homer's identity that stem ultimately, perhaps ex­
clusively, from the Hymn to Delian Apollo (172).16 The Ery-

13 R. Harder, ed., Plotins Schriften 5c (Hamburg 1958) 116. 
14 FGrHist 422; cf. Paus. 10.12.7. Parke, I think confusedly, says Pausanias 

co-identifies Herophile of Erythrae with a Delphic Sibyl (SibProph 38). But 
Pausanias speaks (10.12.5) only of her occasional (o7tOte Be cl<pllCOl'tO) presence 
at Delphi in order to chant her oracles from a rock. She is nowhere said to be 
resident at Delphi and was apparently itinerant, having spent time in Samos, 
Claros, and Delos as well as the Troad ('Viz. Marpessus) where, as a temple 
attendant (verolCopo<;) to Apollo Smintheus, she died. 

15 Collins 359, following Geffcken, TU 13; also Parke, Sib Pro ph 44. The cor­
respondence of the subject matter in Orac. Sib. 3.401-88, corroborated by a 
report from Apollodorus of Erythrae in Varro (ap. Lact. Di'V. Inst. 1.6= 
FGrHist 422), is the basis for identifying this section as ultimately Erythraean. 

16 Semonides of Amorgos (fr. 29 Diehl) places him in Chios without 
mentioning his blindness. 



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M. D. USHER 43 

thraean Sibyl's implicit indictment of Homer for plagiarism 17 is 
very telling if she is in fact Pausanias' Herophile, reputed com­
poser of the Homeric Hymn, which that blind man from Chios 
in the poem itself claims as his own. 18 It is less pertinent here 
whether an historical Sibyl named Herophile actually composed 
the Hymn to Delian Apollo, nor even if she ever was in fact 
Erythraean. Rather, the allusion of Orac. Sib. 3 to the Delian 
hymn she is thought to have composed shows that readers in 
Pausanias' time did not distinguish sharply between authors of 
oracles and authors of hymns. After all, 'Orpheus' bridged the 
two genres. Of course the hexameter and epic diction used in 
both oracles and hymns encouraged intertextuality, even 
verbatim borrowing. 19 

Date and Provenance. The date and provenance of this hymn 
depend upon the relationship of Book 6 to Book 7. The close 
connection of fire, water, and the dove at Christ's baptism 
(Orac. Sib. 6.3-7) has a puzzling parallel in the ritual prescription 
at Orac. Sib. 7.76-86, where a fire is sprinkled with water and a 
white dove (1tI::A.Elll) is released to heaven. 2o The rite, apparently 
Christian, seems to involve the commemoration of the partici­
pant's baptism, a re-enactment of Jesus' own, and is accom­
panied by a ritual cry (~oft(Ja~): 

roc; O£ AOYOV Y£VVll0£ 1ta't"p, (hap OpVlV eXCPl11Ca 
o~uv eX1ta'Y'Y£A'tl1pa AOYOlV AOYOV, u~aolV ayvo'ic; 
f>aivOlV oov ~eX1t'tlOIJ.lX, ~t' ot 1tUpOC; £~£cpa&vellc;.21 

. It is clear from 7.76-86 that "the begetting of Christ is closely 
associated, if not identified, with his baptism" but to interpret it 

17 Drac. Sib. 3.423ff: Edrov yap EllillY IlE'tprov Kpa'tlJ(J£t. 1tpill'toC; yap 
K£paUll<JtV EJ.LixC; ~\~A.o'\lC; ava1t/..W(J£t. 

18 As Alexandre (Excursus 12) notes, however, the charge of plagiarism 
against Homer was common: cf. Diod. 4.66. 

19 E.g. the famous Homeric line (from the description of Achilles' shield) on 
the -tireless sun and the moon waxing into her fullness" (T\£AtOV 'taKallav'ta 
(J£AlJVlJV 't£ 1tAlJOO'\l(Jav, II. 18.484), which turns up once at Drac. Sib. 3.21 and 
in the entirely unrelated Hymn to all the Gods from Epidaurus (line 9). 

20 Geffcken emended 7.79 to ayp\l1V (Ju 1tEAttaV on rather questionable 
grounds: -die wilde Taube f1iegt schneller davon, in aile Welt, man kann sie 
nicht verfolgen, gerade so wie der AoyoC; sich zum Himmel aufschwingt" (TU 
34 n.4). Wilamowitz's apyll'ta (·white") dove is better and reflects the con­
nection of this passage with Bk 6. 

21 -Just as the Father begat the Logos, I have released a bird, the Logos, a 
swift messenger of words, sprinkling your baptism with holy waters, through 
which you appeared from fire." 



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44 THE SIXTH SIBYLLINE ORACLE 

as a "theophany by fire,"as do Collins and Geffcken, is, strictly 
speaking, inaccurate. 22 The participant in this ritual is said to 
have" emerged" from fire much as Christ" escaped" in Book 6. 
I suggest rather that Christ's "flight from fire" in Book 6 is best 
understood as his descent from the empyrean realm of the 

·Y£VEtTlC; U'I't<JtOC; at line 2 to become "embodied" at baptism in 
accordance with the cosmology of Middle and Neoplatonism, a 
cosmology promulgated in the (hexametrical) Chaldaean 
Oracles, through which (we might imagine) these ideas reached 
our author. In the Ncoplatonic universe fire was the dwelling 
place of the supreme, transcendent 'father' 23-an empyrean 
region created by a second god, the father's "intellectual 
power"24 who was identified as his son. 25 This cosmology per­
meated popular culture. It underlies a theological oracle of 
Clarian Apollo (3 rd c.) in Lact. Div. Inst. 1.71.1,8 26 and is found 
in hymns from the Magical Papyri. 27 

Proponents of Middle and Neoplationism, the more promin­
ent of whom hailed from Syria-Palestine, made much of the 
"rational man passing through the ... sublunary universe (YEV­
£<JtC;) and returning to his celestial home." 28 In particular, Nu-

22 Collins 409. Geffcken overemphasized the epiphanic nature of the fire at 
baptism in Book 6 because he saw in it an echo of the (non-extant) Gospel of 
the Ebionites, which supposedly began with the baptism and included a 
Feuererscheinung: Eu9i>~ 7tEplO.a!l'l'E tov t67tov <pro~ !l£ya (ap. Epiph. Haer. 
30.13.7). J. G. Gager, "Some Attempts to Label the Dracula Sibyllina, Book 
7," HTR 65 (1972) 94, however, has rightly pointed out that light, not fire, is 
mentioned and the description in Bk 6 is actually closer to Justin Martyr's 
report of the event: 7tUP uvTjq>OTl EV tql 'IopMvn (DiaL 88.3). 

23 Fr. 3: 0 7tatTtP llp7tacrcrEv eaut6v Ou/)' EVen /)UVU!lEl VOEP~ lCA.tlcra" i/)lOV 
7tUP (E. Des Places, ed., Oracles Chaldafques: avec un choix de commentaires 
anciens [paris 1971] 13). 

24 Fr. 5.3f: YOU yap v6o" Ecrtlv 0 lC6cr!loU tEXVttTJ~ 7tUptOU (Des Places 124). 
25 A.-J. Festugiere, La revelation d'Hermes Trismegiste (Paris 1949-54) III 54 

n.2. 
26 G. Wolff, Porphyrii de philosophia ex oraculis haurienda librorum reli­

quiae (Berlin 1856) 234 no. 2: Ecr9' U7tEP oupavlou 7tupO" uq>Oitou ai9o!l£VTJ <pA.6~; a 
shorter version in the Tubingen Theosophy (Wolff no.1 line 15) speaks of 
God EV 7tEpl vatwv. A. S. Hall, ZPE 32 (1978) 263, cited in Parke, OracAp 66, 
has shown that yet another version of the Clarian oracle, found inscribed in 
the city wall of Oenoanda and datable to the late third century, actually 
formed part of a shrine to the "Most High God" (,'Y'I'lcrto,,9E6,,). 

27 One of four versions of a hymn to the sun from P G M reads: "HA.lE ... 
/)l£7tWV <pMyo" UlCu!latOV 7tUP (Heitsch 181 no. 4 line 2). 

28 R. LAMBERTON, Homer the Theologian (Berkeley 1986: hereafter 
'Lamberton') 53. 



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M.D.USHER 45 

menius of Aramea developed his allegorization of the Odys­
sean Cave 0 the Nymphs along these lines,29 in which refer­
ence to water and wave in Homer and Plato's myths were inter­
preted as symbols for the world of 'YEV£<JlC; (cf. Lamberton 71). 
Numenius loosely cites "the prophet" of Gen. 1:2 ("the Spirit of 
God hovered over the waters") as additional ancient support 
that "souls settle upon God-inspired water. "30 The resonances 
with our hymn are striking: a pre-existent Christ (as the 1tV£UI.UX 
... £1tt'Yl.VOJ.l.£VOV in line 7) descends from the empyrean world of 
the Most High God (1-4), is materialized upon the water (5-8) 
as the human Jesus, and returns to his fiery home (oh:ov ... 
EJ.l.1tUPOV oJ.l.J.l.a, lines 27f). It is worth noting that when the 
author of Orac. Sib. 7 speaks of a "baptism through which you 
appeared from fire," he uses the verb £~£cpaav8T\C; at line end, 
the same metrical position as at Od. 12.441-the book of sea 
adventures culminating in that 'rational man's' escape from 
Charybdis (i.e., the world of 'YEV£O'tC;).31 Numenius may well 
have been familiar with the life of Jesus. Origen reports that he 
"published a story about Jesus, not mentioning his name, which 
he allegorized" (Fr. lOa Des Places=Orig. c. eels. 4.51). Numen­
ius, if not our anonymous hymnist, is thus the model from 
which to sketch a profile: a Syrian religious philosopher conver­
sant in pagan, Jewish, and Christian literatures. Celsus, a percep­
tive critic of early Christianity, actually mentions a Christian 
group called the Sibyllistae. But who these Sibyllistae were, 
whence they came, and whether Sibyllistae was their own label 
or Celsus' is unclear. 

The relationship of the ritual passage in Book 7 to Book 6 is 
closer than Geffcken and Collins have allowed. Alexandre and 
Kurfess rightly insist that much else in Book 7 stems from 
Book 6, especially lines 64-95, which are introduced by a woe 
pronounced upon Coele-Syria for "not recognizing your God 
when the Jordan washed him in its streams and the Spirit soared 
in (the form of) a dove" (OUK EYVOOC; 'tov O'ov 8£ov, OV 1tOt' 
fA.ouO'£v 'Iopoavoc; 1tpOxonO't Kat E1tta'tO 1tV£UJ.l.a 1t£A£ln). Book 
6 and 7.64-95 also show especially strong (non-formulaic) 

29 Od. 13.110ff; Numenius frr. 30f, 33 Des Places. 
30 Fr. 30.3-6 Des Places: ICal tOY 7tpog!1itnv dpTlICEval E~<pEptaeal EmlVCl) tOU 

{)&xtO~ etOU 7tVtu~. 
31 Same position at Il. 4.468, 13.278; Sutton line 4. 



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46 THE SIXTH SIBYLLINE ORACLE 

verbal affinities. 32 To the arguments of Kurfess and Alexandre 
in favor of the relationship between the two books, I would add 
two further observations: (1) the Drac. Sib. 's only two refer­
ences to the Jordan River by name occur in Books 6 and 7, and 
(2) the mythological figure OUpavoc; at 7.71 parallels the odd use 
of the rare patronymic oupavlOao at 6.12. In both passages Ou­
ranos is linked contextually to each book's description of the 
baptism of Jesus, which involves the unusual (non-NT) manifes­
tation of fire. Furthermore, in the n Mss. Books 6 and 7 often 
form one continuous book; this suggests that ancient editors, 
among whose ranks may well be our hymnist, felt the 
similarities. Alexandre thought that the same author did in fact 
have a hand in both books;33 if so, the verses against Tyre, Coele­
Syria, and Berytus (7.64ff), coupled with warnings of the time 
"when another warlike tribe of Persians will come to rule" 
(7.40ff), referring to the establishment of the Sassanid dynasty in 
224, point to a Syro-Palestinian provenance34 and a date roughly 
in the Severan period. 35 Alexandre's suggestion (Excursus 384ff) 
of 233-235, compensating for the ex eventu nature of Sibylline 
prophecy, is eminently sound. 

In further support of a Syro-Palestinian provenance I offer 
the case of the Christian apologist Justin Martyr, a Greek from 
Samaria and one of only two other authors to refer to fire at 

32 Alexandre persuasively demonstrated this point but subsequent commen­
tators have neglected his discussion: Excursus 382f; cf. esp; Drac. Sib. 6.11 with 
7.24ff, 6.16 with 7.31. 

33 Cf. Excursus 380: "doctrina, sententiis ipsisque aliquando verbis ita inter 
se conveniant ut plane ab eadem manu profecti videantur." Kurfess, in E. 
Hennecke, W. Schneemelcher, M. Wilson, edd., New Testament Apocrypha 
(London 1963-65) II 708. Gager's discussion of Book 7 (supra n.22: 91-97) 
does not treat evidence from Book 6. 

34 Geffcken (TU 31, following Mendelsohn) speculated a Syrian provenance, 
seeing an Ebionite influence in the conjunction of fire and baptism. Collins 
and Kurfess (SW 313) rightly object that nothing in Bk 6 necessarily indicates 
a sectarian much less Ebionite origin. Collins (406), however, who like Geff­
cken minimizes the relationship of Books 6 and 7, dismisses the hypothesis of 
a Syrian locale. 

35 In 194 Septimius Severus divided Roman Syria into two provinces, "Syria 
Coele" stretching north and east of Mount Lebanon, and "Syria Phoenice" to 
the south, including Palestine. But, as F. Millar notes (The Roman Near East: 
31 BC-AD 337 [Cambridge (Mass.) 1993] 21, 423£), Septimius' designation of 
the northern reaches as "Syria Coele" was "against all previous usage," for 
epigraphic and numismatic evidence shows that Greek cities of the Decapolis 
(trans-Jordan) described themselves as belonging to Coele Syria decades 
before and after Septimius officially divided the province. 



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M.D.USHER 47 

Jesus' baptism (Dial. Tryph. 88.3)-a detail for which h.e is 
probably dependent upon local Levantine traditions. The details 
of the hymnic argument too are remarkably close to Justin's, 
who in a compressed passage (Apol. 1.30) cites Christ's ful­
fillment of Old Testament prophecy and his miracles as 
evidence for his divinity and the truth of Christian teaching-a 
teaching that he believed was also adumbrated by Greek 
philosophers and poets including the Siby1.36 With Justin our 
author shares an interest in pre-existence, miracles, and 
Christoph any (see ad Iff, nff, 18f). With a deft touch, an apolo­
gist's criteria have been carefully interwoven to form the fabric 
of our hymn. Justin also anticipates our author's developed 
symbolic, metaphorical interest in the Cross (lines 26£f), seeing 
visual reminders of it in the shape of the human body, a ship's 
mast, even the standards of the Roman army (Apol. 1.55).37 

Two Parallels. Finally and briefly, the relation of this poem to 
other ancient literature. We have seen how in Book 6 the 
author's use of prosopopoeia evokes the authenticating power 
of the Sibyl for early Christian apologetic: the hymnist sings as a 
Sibyl and by so doing wields the great authority of pagan 
antiquity. This prophetic impersonation has an intriguing 
prototype in Lycophron's Alexandra, which Parke aptly called 
"a Sibylline oracle transmuted into high literature." The first­
person persona and the predominant use of the future tense for 
narrative action in Lycophron's iambic poem certainly 
anticipate the technique employed in our hymn, also charac­
terized by the future tense, which in the pars epica is a feature 
virtually unknown in other hymns. 

It will be more readily observed that Book 6 shares many sty­
listic and thematic features with Verg. Eel. 4. Kurfess has dis­
cussed the possible influence of Sibylline oracles on Eel. 4 and 
(more persuasively) the influence of Eel. 4 on the Drac. Sib. 
(notably at 7.146-49),38 though he does not mention Book 6 in 

36 Apol. 1.30, alluding to Drac. Sib. 3.42f. The Sibyl is proffered as pagan 
testimony to a final eschatological conflagration for which Justin also cites the 
Stoic doctrine of ekpyrosis. 

37 Cf. H. Rahner, in J. Campbell, ed., Pagan and Christian Mysteries: Papers 
from the Eranos Yearbooks, trr. R. Manheim and R. F. C. Hull (New York 
1963) 186. 

, . 31 CVirgil's vierte Ekloge und die Oracula Sibyllina," HI 73 (1954) 120-27; 
."'Virgil's 4. Ekloge und die christlichen Sibyllinen," Gymnasium 62 (1955) 
.l1Off. 



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48 THE SIXTRSIBYLLINE ORACLE 

either study. Nonetheless, Vergil'sSibylline posture,39 his use of 
the future tense to describe narrative action,40 the nativity/ 
epiphany of an ominous child,41 his cosmic destiny42-all of it 
clothed in natural imagery, rooted in agricultural metaphors-is 
present in our hymn as well. 43 It is unlikely that our author read 
Lycophron. As for influence from Vergil, as Norden says of in­
fluence in the opposite direction, this is "schwer zu antwor­
ten."44 Greek translations of Vergil did exist in the second and 
third centuries,4s and a Greek translation of virtually the entire 
Eel. 4 is cited by the Emperor Constantine in his speech Ad 
sanctorum coetum (delivered at Antioch in 325), where he 
offers the earliest surviving Messianic interpretation of the 
poem and cites the Sibyl to support it. 46 I leave open whether or 
not we have in Book 6 a rare case of Greek dependence on 
Latin poetry. If nothing else, clearly the Eel. 4 illustrates how 
hymnic (or encomiastic) and Sibylline elements may co-exist in 
the same poem. 

Whatever its classical and Hellenistic prototypes, Book 6 is 
surely a welcome exception to Norden's claim that "Die 
Sibyllistik war kiinstlerisch so wertlos, dass sie kaum Poesie 
heissen darf." This oracular hymn, probably written by a 
Christian Middle Platonist in Syria-Palestine in the Severan 
period, is also without question the first bloom of a poetic 
tradition of late antiquity that will reach full flower in an author 
like Nonnus of Panopolis, whose hexameter paraphrase of 
John's Gospel is a bold attempt to lift the Gospel story to the 
level of epic drama. In Nonnus, Jesus virtually carries the 

39 Cumaei ... carminis (4); non me carminibus 'lJincet nec Thracius Orpheus 
(55). 

40 sol'IJent (14), accipiet ... 'lJidebit (15), 'lJidebitur (16), reget (17), fundet (20), 
etc. 

41 nO'lJa progenies caelo demittitur alto (7); eara deum suboles, magnum IO'IJis 
incrementum (49). 

42 paeatumque reget patriis 'lJirtutibus orbem (17). 
43 For pastoral description in Orac. Sib. 6, cf lines 5, 8, 16-20, (23£), and 

comm. ad. Ioec. 
44 Die Geburt des Kindes (Leipzig 1924) 145. 
45 B. Baldwin, "Vergilius Graecus," AlP 97 (1976) 361-68; E. A. Fischer, 

"Greek Translations of Latin Literature in the Fourth Century A.D.," YCS 27 
(1982) 173-215. 

46 R. Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians (New York 1986) 647-52, attributes 
the translation and Messianic interpretation to Lactantius-an intriguing 
suggestion given Lactantius' interest in Bk 6; see above comm. ad 9-14, 23ff. 



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M.D.USHER 49 

thyrsus,47 and the depiction of Christ as a Dionysus is no less 
bold, or perhaps intentional in our hymn. The apostrophe to 
the Cross in particular, found first (so far as I know) in this 
hymn, has had a long literary life. Fortunatus develops this 
motif into a conceit in his famous hymn Pange lingua (Misc. 
2.2), to which Robert Herrick adds an Alexandrian touch, 
rounding off his H esperides with His Anthem, to Christ on 
the Crosse, a cross-shaped poem to "the sacred tree."48 

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 

July, 1995 

47 E.g. Par. Jo. 7.185=Jo. 7:49. Conversely in Nonnus' Dion. a Christie 
Dionysus appears now and again, displaying behavior inconceivable without 
a literary/theological influence from Christianity. For this view of Nonnus see 
G. W. Bowersock, Hellenism in Late Antiqutiy (Ann Arbor 1990) 41-54. For· 
the syneresis of Christ and Dionysus on late antique sarcophagi see E. C. 
Olsen, Dionysiac Sarcophagi in Baltimore (Baltimore 1941). 

48 I would like to thank C. A. Faraone and Peter White for carefully reading 
earlier drafts of this paper and making excellent suggestions for its 
improvement.