esponsible to
society. A similar progress in civilized feeling appears among the old
Hebrews; the incoherency of the earlier prophets[1719] gives way to the
thoughtful discourses of the ethical leaders.[1720] The manner and the
expression of revelation always conform to existing social usages.

+935+. Of a still different character is the figure of the Sibyl,
created by the Greeks and adopted by the Romans.[1721] She, too, is
possessed by a god and sometimes, at least, raves in ecstasy; but she
does not officiate at a shrine and is not controlled by any official
body. She dwells in a cave or a grotto, has her life in the open air,
and gives her answers on the leaves of the forest. She represents the
divine voices that are heard by early men everywhere in the world; in
the myth, when she displeases Apollo she is condemned to fade finally,
after a long life, into a voice.[1722] She is not, like the Pythia, an
actual human being--she is never seen except in legends and myths. She
is a creature of Greek imagination, the embodiment of all the divine
suggestions that come to man from the mysterious sounds around him.

+936+. The historical origin of the fully developed figure of the Sibyl
is obscure.[1723] In the literature she appears first in the sixth
century B.C. along with the Pythia, but she was then thought of as well
established and ancient. She is not mentioned by Homer or Hesiod, but
their silence is not proof positive that the conception of the character
did not exist in their time; they may have had no occasion to mention
her, or the figure may have been so vague and unimportant as not to call
for special mention. For such a figure it is natural to assume a long
development, the beginnings of which are, of course, enveloped in
obscurity. However this may be, the Sibyl appears to have received full
form under the religious impulse of post-Homeric times, under conditions
the details of which are not known to us.

+937+. In the scant notices of the figure that have been preserved the
indications are that there was originally only one Sibyl--she was the
mythical embodiment of divine revelation, as the muse was the embodiment
of intellectual inspiration. At a later time many sibyls came into
being; Varro reckons ten and other authors give other numbers.
Apparently a process of local differentiation went on; when the idea of
the revealer was once established and the historical beginnings of the
figure were unknown, ma