View source for Epigraph Annotations

Go back to [[Shoring Up Fragments Against Our Ruin: Quotations and Allusions]]

Go to [[The Waste Land Text]]

==Epigraph==

''"Nam Sibyllam quiden Cumis ego ipse oculis meis''

''vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent''

''Σιβυλλα τι θελεις; respondebat illa:αποθανειν θελω."''


   
== Translation ==

    '''"Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis'''
    "For on one occasion I myself saw, with my own eyes, the Cumaean Sibyl 
     
     '''vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent:'''
     hanging in a cage, and when some boys said to her:
     
     '''Σιβυλλα τι θελεις; respondebat illa:αποθανειν θελω.”'''
     'Sibyl, what do you want?' she replied, 'I want to die.' "



== Historical Sybil ==

There were actually ten Sybils in the Ancient World, all of whom were prophetesses.  The Cumaean Sybil, to whom the epigraph refers, was perhaps the most famous of these, and delivered her prophecies in Greek hexameter verse, making her both a prophetess and poet.  She wrote her prophecies down and placed them outside of her cave, and if no one retrieved them, they were abandoned to the elements, and disappeared forever.  

The importance of prophecy, especially to artists, underwrites much of "The Waste Land."  Perhaps 
Eliot is indicating that he views himself as a poet-prophet, who writes his poetry-prophecies without care for their impact--merely because he must.



== Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'' ==

In exchange for her virginity, Apollo grants Sybil one wish.  She wishes to live almost an infinitely long time, but forgets to ask for eternal youth.  This particular portrayal of Sybil would  most probably refer to the overall themes of fertility and sterility of the poem, and perhaps, refer to a culture that straggles on, but bears no new fruit, as Eliot sees it.  


== Virgil's ''Fourth Eclogue'' ==

Using Virgil's ''Fourth Eclogue'', Christians believed that the Cumaean Sybil possibly foretold the coming of Christ.  If Eliot equates himself to her, then perhaps he believes he also possesses the power to foretell humankind's salvation.    

== Petronius' ''Satyricon'' ==

This particular epigraph is a direct quotation from Petronius' ''Satyricon'', and is said by the character Trimalchio while he tells tales of wonder, intending to impress.  Before he relates the story of Sybil, he conflates Hercules with Ulysses, and thus, shows himself to be a braggart, and perhaps, merely tells the story to demonstrate his knowledge of Greek.  

Considering the multilingualism and mythicism of the poem and the poet, perhaps it is Eliot's way of humbling himself, or perhaps, merely making light of possible critiques of his work.  

(Rainey 75).



Go back to [[Shoring Up Fragments Against Our Ruin: Quotations and Allusions]]

Go to [[The Waste Land Text]]

--Courtney Handy 23:25, 9 September 2012 (CDT)