tory is carried to completion in a
series of pictures illustrating the life of Christ. The last named
frescoes were painted by various artists some years before
Michelangelo's work on the ceiling.

The number of sibyls was given as ten or twelve, and of these
Michelangelo selected five. His idea here, as with the prophets,
seemed to be to represent some in old age and some in youth.

[Illustration: THE DELPHIC SIBYL. _Sistine Chapel, Rome._]

The Delphic sibyl is the youngest and most beautiful of them all. She
presided over the temple of Apollo in the Greek town of Delphi, where
it was long customary for the priestess, or _pythia_, as she was
called, to be a young woman selected from some family of poor country
people.

The temple at Delphi was one of great celebrity. In the centre was a
small opening in the ground, whence arose an intoxicating vapor, and
over this sat the pythia, on a three-legged seat, or tripod, and
delivered the oracle communicated to her by the god. These oracles
were delivered in verse.

The Delphic sibyl, or pythia, of Michelangelo's picture, has the
splendid stature of an Amazon. Her head is draped with a sort of Greek
turban, beneath which her hair escapes in flying curls. Her face and
expression show her at once to be unlike an ordinary woman. She has
the look of a startled fawn, which has suddenly heard the call of a
distant voice. She turns her head in the attitude of one listening.
She looks far away with eyes that see visions, but what those visions
are none can guess. There are other pictures of the same sibyl
carrying a crown of thorns, showing that she predicted the sufferings
of Christ. Perhaps this is the meaning of the sorrowful expression in
these wide eyes.

The scroll which she unrolls in her left hand is the scroll of her
prophecy. The two little figures holding a book, just behind her right
shoulder, are genii, or spirits, symbolic of her inspiration. One
reads eagerly from the volume while the other listens with rapt
attention.

The picture makes a very interesting study in the composition of
lines. Starting from the topmost point of the turban, draw a line on
the right, coming across the shoulder along the outer edge of the
drapery to the toe. On the left, let the line connecting the same two
points follow the outer curve of the scroll, along the slanting edge
of the mantle, and we get a beautiful pointed oval as the basis of the
composition.

The sibyl's left arm