The Greco-Roman Seeress Cybele
- Creator: Jakob Sigurðsson 1727-1779
- Description: The goddess and prophetess Cybele from the Greco-Roman classical era is equated in the manuscript ÍB 299 with the unnamed völva in the eddic poem Völuspá. Cybele is identified as a völva at the top of the illustration and the illustration is situated directly opposite the beginning of Völuspá within the manuscript. The iconography associated with Cybele includes her distinctive crown, the key in her hand, the lion at her feet, and the books in the background-which presumably are the Sybilline books.
- Source: IB 299 4to
- Folio or Page: 1v.
- Medium: ink drawing on paper with coloured ink wash
- Date: 1764
- Dimensions (mm): 135 x 165
- Provenance:
- Rights:
Images from IB 299 4to are displayed with permission from The Icelandic National Library in Reykjavik. Link to E-manuscript. This image is from f. 1v.
-
Research notes, early print reviews, etc.:
P. A. Baer comments that the tradition of equating Germanic and Old Norse gods with Roman gods was noted in the annuals of Tacitus in the first century A.D. and continued in the works of antiquarian scholars in the seventeenth century such as Olaus Verelius, Olaus Rudbeck, and others. However, the association of Cybele with the völva in Völuspá in the manuscript ÍB 299 may be entirely on the part of Jakob Sigurðsson and/or his patron. - Bibliography:
Primary Source: Manuscript
Reykjavik: Icelandic National Library. ÍB 299 4to. 1764. Hand copied paper manuscript.Secondary Sources
Baer, Patricia Ann. An Old Norse Image Hoard: From the Analog Past to the Digital Present. Diss. U. of Victoria, 2013. Web.Cleasby, Richard and Vigfússon Guðbrandur . An Icelandic-English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957.Simek, Rudolf. Angela Hall . Dictionary of Northern Mythology. W Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2007.Tacitus, Cornelius. The Complete Works of Tacitus: The Annals. The History. The Life of Cnaeus Julius Agricola. Germany and Its Tribes. A Dialogue on Oratory. Translated by Alfred J. Church and Willliam J. Brodribb, and edited by Moses Hades , New York: Modern Library, 1942 - Identity Number: IB299-001v
- Download size: 2.7 MB
- Source code of this document: [XML]