Σίβυλλα

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Possibly from Doric Greek Σίοβολλα (Síobolla), akin to Attic Θεοβούλη (Theoboúlē, “divine will”), derived from θεός (theós, “god”) + βουλή (boulḗ, “volition, will”).

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /sí.byl.la/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈsi.byl.la/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈsi.βyl.la/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈsi.vyl.la/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈsi.vi.la/

Proper noun

Σῐ́βυλλᾰ • (Sĭ́bullă) f (genitive Σιβύλλης); first declension

Sibyl

Inflection

First declension of ἡ Σῐ́βυλλᾰ; τῆς Σῐβύλλης (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ Σῐ́βυλλᾰ hē Sĭ́bullă	τὼ Σῐβύλλᾱ tṑ Sĭbúllā	αἱ Σῐ́βυλλαι hai Sĭ́bullai
Genitive	τῆς Σῐβύλλης tês Sĭbúllēs	τοῖν Σῐβύλλαιν toîn Sĭbúllain	τῶν Σῐβυλλῶν tôn Sĭbullôn
Dative	τῇ Σῐβύλλῃ tēî Sĭbúllēi	τοῖν Σῐβύλλαιν toîn Sĭbúllain	ταῖς Σῐβύλλαις taîs Sĭbúllais
Accusative	τὴν Σῐ́βυλλᾰν tḕn Sĭ́bullăn	τὼ Σῐβύλλᾱ tṑ Sĭbúllā	τᾱ̀ς Σῐβύλλᾱς tā̀s Sĭbúllās
Vocative	Σῐ́βυλλᾰ Sĭ́bullă	Σῐβύλλᾱ Sĭbúllā	Σῐ́βυλλαι Sĭ́bullai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

Σῐβυλλαίνω (Sĭbullaínō)
Σῐβύλλειος (Sĭbúlleios)
Σῐβυλλῐᾰ́ω (Sĭbullĭắō)
Σῐβυλλῐστής (Sĭbullĭstḗs)

Descendants

English: Sibyl
Greek: Σίβυλλα (Sívylla)
Latin: Sibylla

References

“Σίβυλλα”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited, page 1,025
Σίβυλλα in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “sibyl”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.