The Cumaean Sibyl Deiphobe was the daughter of Glaucus, as Virgil names her when Aeneas arrives at Apollo's temple at Cumae to seek passage to the underworld.
⚠ Virgil identifies the Sibyl as 'Deiphobe Glauci' but which Glaucus is meant — the sea deity, a mortal priest, or another figure — is debated among commentators.
The Cumaean Sibyl guided Aeneas through the underworld in Virgil's Aeneid, leading him past the horrors of Tartarus to Elysium where he met the shade of his father Anchises.
The Cumaean Sibyl composed the Sibylline Books and offered all nine volumes to Tarquinius Superbus, burning six when he haggled before he purchased the final three at the original price.
The Cumaean Sibyl offered Tarquinius Superbus nine books of prophecy at an exorbitant price, and when he refused she burned three, then three more, until he bought the final three at the original price — these became the Sibylline Books, Rome's sacred oracle of last resort.
Apollo granted the Cumaean Sibyl the gift of prophecy and offered her long life. She was cursed to age without dying, eventually shriveling to a voice trapped in a jar, wishing only for death.
The Sibyl brandished the Golden Bough before Charon at the bank of the Styx, and the ancient ferryman, recognizing the sacred token, carried her and Aeneas across the dark water in his groaning bark.
The Sibyl dwelt in a vast cave at Cumae carved into the Euboean cliffside, where she delivered prophecies through a hundred openings as Apollo seized her with prophetic fury.
The Cumaean Sibyl commanded Aeneas to seek the Golden Bough hidden in the forest, declaring that without it no living soul could descend to the underworld and return.
In the Aeneid, the Sibyl invoked Hecate as 'powerful in heaven and hell' before leading Aeneas into the underworld. Hecate's chthonic authority sanctioned the Sibyl's passage through the realm of the dead.
The Sibyl instructed Aeneas that the Golden Bough must be offered as a gift to Proserpina, queen of the underworld, whose sacred grove concealed the branch and whose favor alone permitted the living to return from the dead.
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