SIBILLINI MOUNTAIN RANGE: THE LEGEND BEFORE THE LEGENDS

MICHELE SANVICO THE APENNINE SIBYL A MYSTERY AND A LEGEND SIBILLINI MOUNTAIN RANGE: THE LEGEND BEFORE THE LEGENDS1 1. The Apennine Sibyl and Pontius Pilate don't live here anymore The Sibillini Mountain Range is a most gorgeous mountainous scenery which raises its lofty peaks in the middle of the Italian peninsula, between the provinces of Marche and Umbria. A portion of the Apennine chain, its impressive fastenesses, marked by dizzying crests and precipitous ravines, are inhabited by sinister legends that were once known throughout Europe, and used to attract many visitors from abroad, in search of the cave of a sensual, prophesying Sibyl, and the lakes in which the dead body of a Roman prefect, Pontius Pilate, was believed to rest unquietly. Two places 1 Released on November 5th , 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 17th, 20th, 21st, 24th, 26th and 27th November 2019 (http://www.italianwriter.it/TheApennineSibyl/TheApennineSibyl_LegendBefore_new.asp) 1 endowed with a strong mythical spell, featuring different and apparently unrelated tales, and set on different peaks lying only a few miles apart, and in full mutual sight. Places of daring adventures. Places of mystery and magic. Two sites where a Sibyl of the Apennine had established her legendary subterranean abode, and necromancers went by the rocky shore of a small lake to consecrate their spellbooks. But where does it all come from? The origin of the legends of the Apennine Sibyl and the Lakes of Pilate was the subject of a comprehensive, in-depth analysis within a series of papers we have released across the last two years. In The Knights of the Sibyl - Guerrino and his forefathers we were able to trace a number of literary ancestors of narrative episodes which are present in the fifteenth-century romance Guerrino the Wretch, one of the two primary sources for the Apennine Sibyl's legend. In further papers, including Antoine de La Sale and the magical bridge concealed beneath Mount Sibyl and The literary truth about the magical doors in 'The Paradise of Queen Sibyl', we pointed out the illustrious legendary traditions which lie behind the enchanted contrivances depicted by French gentleman Antoine de la Sale in his fifteenth-century account of a visit to Mount Sibyl, the second fundamental source for the same legend. The above clues, together with the lack of references to the legend in the centuries which precede the fifteenth, as detailed in the paper The Apennine Sibyl: a journey into history in search of the oracle, led our enquiry in a direction that had never been sufficiently investigated before: we began to understand that many additional literary layers were concealing the true core of the myth which lived amid the Sibillini Mountain Range, in central Italy. In this stimulating framework, we confronted with a new exciting task: we needed to identify and clean out the vast collection of literary elements that had been conferred to the two Italian legends throughout hundreds and hundreds of years, from classical antiquity and up to the fifteenth century. Our objective was to get closer and closer to the native core of the legend, 2 so as to unveil the true origin of the fascinating tales of the Sibyl's Cave and Pilate's Lake. This research work was conducted by addressing the two legends separatedly and one after the other. In our first paper Birth of a Sibyl: the medieval connection, we explored the literary layers which seem to have been superimposed to a basic mythical core connected to the presence of a sinister cave on what is known as Mount Sibyl. We soon encountered a number of significant results: 'Sibyl' was a traditional character often recurring within the romances and poems belonging to the Matter of Britain and the Arthurian cycle. Her first appearance as a powerful necromancer, just as powerful as Morgan le Fay, King Arthur's half-sister, dated back to 1185 and the poem Erec, written by German poet Hartmann von Aue. From that time on, Sibyl began to be staged as Morgan's companion and best friend in many medieval works, with an increasing confusion and mix-up between the figures of the two enchantresses. Lechery, captivity of knights, and magical dwellings set beneath mountains, in one case raising even in Italy, were all characters attached to both necromancers, in their unrelenting journey across the centuries, and through many literary works and an incessant flow of oral narratives, which seemed to point straight to a transplant of a version of their story into the remote peaks of the Sibillini Mountain Range: a mountainous chain which seemed fit enough, for some unspecified reasons, to host a legendary narrative centered on a necromantic Sibyl housed in a cave set beneath a rocky crest. A Sibyl that was not born there, as it is clear that she belongs to a different mythical tradition coming from northern, faroff countries. A second paper, A legend for a Roman prefect: the Lakes of Pontius Pilate, was devoted to a thorough exploration of the myth of the Lake of Pilate in the Sibillini Mountain Range. In this specific case, the task to remove the additional legendary layers proved to be much easier. It is actually well known to scholars the story and origin of the legend of Pilate, which concerns its multiple, demonic burial places scattered across a number of sites in Europe, including Vienne and the river Rhône, in France, SaintChamond in the same country, Lausanne and Lucerne in the Swiss Alps. Following the footsteps of this ancient legend from the classical authors into the Middle Ages, we found out that no mention of the Sibillini 3 Mountain Range as one of Pilate's resting place is ever found, and we are forced to get to Antoine de la Sale to retrieve the first reference of this sort. Once again, it was easy to show that no Pontius Pilate has ever been cast into the small lake nested within the glacial cirque of Mount Vettore, the most impressive peak in the Sibillini Mountain Range: as for the Sibyl's Cave, the site had been able to attract a legendary narrative which did not belong to, nor was originated from, this Italian setting. Fig. 1 - A satellite tridimensional vision of the Sibillini Mountain Range with the locations of the Lakes of Pilate and the Sibyl's Cave On concluding the two listed papers, we could set down the new questions that would be at the center of our subsequent research work: what sort of magnetic pull did attract the magical tales of the Arthurian cycle on the sinister peak of Mount Sibyl? Why a gloomy tale concerning the cursed 4 burial place of Pontius Pilate did come to settle right in the middle of what we know today as the Sibillini Mountain Range, in the Italian Apennines? For what kind of fated chance did such foreign legends come to rest, like a ball spinning on a roulette wheel, right into the positions marked by these remote Italian mountain and lake? We knew, for sure, that this has not happened by mere chance. We believe that a legend, some sort of native, original myth was already there before the Apennine Sibyl and Pontius Pilate came to these territory with their foreign, extraneous narratives. The Cave and Lake were already inhabited by an earlier legendary tale. And, subsequently, the tales on a chivalric Sibyl queen and a burial place for Pontius Pilate established themselves right here, under the mythical pull of the two sites set in the Sibillini Mountain Range. Centuries of oral narratives and then literary works brought the two listed foreign legends here, and they found a most fit and inviting setting where to settle down. This is the fundamental issue of our whole search, the most critical one: it actually appears that both the Lakes of Pilate and the Apennine Sibyl arose from some odd condensation of a peculiar nature which marks this place, the Sibillini Mountain Range. There is a sort of original core pertaining to both myths: a legend before the legends, something that was not transplanted from any other place or tradition, something that was born right here instead, and possibly connected to the fact that this location is some sort of very special site. In this new paper, we will start to address this odd condensation. We intend to highlight the peculiar nature of this remote corner of the land of Italy. To achieve this goal, we will first try to understand what the Sibyl's Cave and the Pilate's Lakes have in common as to their legendary renown. Are their respective mythical traits utterly different? Or, maybe, do they feature anything which connects them one another? Can we get a glimpse of their potential, yet still unknown, common legendary core, if any? 5 If we were able to detect any shared features which link the two legends of the Sibyl's Cave and the Pilate's Lake together, we would be on the verge of a new exciting finding: the two legends might be closely tied, owing to specific common traits that mark both of them. And we might even succeed in understanding why they have been able to unleash so powerful a might as to attract illustrious, outlandish mythical narratives, such the ones concerning a chivalric Sibyl and the cursed body of Pontius Pilate, into their sinister gloominess, set at the very centre of Italy. Let's start a new travel. This time we will not be looking for superimposed layers, belonging to distinct, unrelated legendary traditions. This time we will be looking for what the Cave and Lakes share together. We will be hunting for common attributes. And we will find out many of them. 2. The common traits Oddly enough, researchers are accustomed to consider the Sibyl's Cave and the Lakes of Pilate as two thoroughly distinct narratives. The two legends are usually addressed and studied separatedly. The first is a story of an enchanted realm of love and sin concealed beneath a mountain and ruled by a prophetess and sorceress called Sibyl; the second is a tale of a demonic lake, in which the corpse of Pontius Pilate would have ended up its fiendish journey in search of a resting place. However, there is a factual element that is thoroughly undisputable: we know that the two sites are placed within the same Sibillini Mountain Range, and they are so close to each other that they can even see each other. How can we be so preposterously blind as to assume that their respective legendary tales are distinct and unrelated? In order to highlight the common traits shared by both, we had first to reach a full awareness as to the fact that the legends concerning the Apennine Sibyl ad the Lakes of Pilate are both marked by manifest narrative 6 superpositions, as layers and layers of legendary tales born elsewhere and transferred to the Sibillini Mountain Range veil the true core of the local, original myth. Fig. 2 - An unimpeded line of sight: the glacial cirque of Mount Vettore, in which the Lakes of Pilate are nested, as seen from Mount Sibyl's cliff We have shown that the first tale is a superimposed narrative which is derived from a northern-European legendary tradition belonging to the Matter of Britain, concerning magical castles and mountains, and featuring as main characters the necromantic figures of Morgan le Fay and her companion Sebile; the second legend is manifestly an Italian version of the medieval narrative on Pontius Pilate and his cursed corpse, a tale which has established an abode into a small lake nested within the crests of Mount Vettore. So we find ourselves before two different superimposed legends, which are basically mutually unrelated: a subterranean kingdom ruled by a Sibyl, and a resting place for the cursed body of a Roman prefect. With such unlike superpositions, the Sibyl's Cave and the Pilate's Lake appear to be fully distinct places and legends. So much so that the Sibillini Mountain Range seems to win for itself a peculiar renown as a land able to host many multifarious, dissimilar mythical narratives. 7 However, actually this is not the case. Fig. 3 - Apennine Sibyl, a fresco painted by Adolfo the Carolis in 1908 (Ascoli Piceno, Palazzo del Governo) When we stop focusing on the figures of the Sibyl and Pontius Pilate, both belonging to a lore which is extraneous to this portion of the Italian territory, we begin to be able to consider different aspects of the legends of the Cave and Lake. Aspects that they have in common. Specific traits that both of them seem to share. Thus, once we remove the listed legendary superpositions, we start to see the common links which connect the two legends. A glimpse of the possible original legendary core. And not only out of close distance. In the following paragraphs, we will explore three peculiar aspects that appear to mark both places, the Sibyl's Cave and the Lakes of Pilate. We will highlight their common features, a triple link which connects them 8 together, across the 5.2 miles which separate Mount Sibyl from the glacial cirque of Mount Vettore. Fig. 4 - Jesus before Pontius Pilate, fresco by Gaudenzio Ferrari, 1513 (Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Varallo Sesia, Italy) We will analyse necromancy. We will deal with legendary fiendish entities. We will consider tempests and devastation. The above features will impress their sinister stigma on both sites. Possibly telling us which direction to take if we want to get closer to their common significance, and most veiled secret. 9 3. Necromancy as a shared feature 3.1 Necromantic rituals by the icy waters The first common aspect we are going to address is a well-known one. Both places, the Lake and the Cave, are marked by necromancy. For centuries, people have been visiting the two sites to celebrate magic rituals in them or by their side, with the specific purpose to address legendary otherwordly entities to reach some purpose and/or get forbidden knowledge. A mere illusion, of course: a fallacious and legendary credence, an irrational belief, yet assigned enough credit to attract self-styled wizards and necromancers as far as this remote Lake, hidden within the cliffs of the Sibillini Mountain Range. This aspect is most easily detected when we confront with the legendary renown which has enshrouded the Lake of Pilate since the early references provided by Antoine de la Sale in his fifteenth-century The Paradise of Queen Sibyl: «In the middle there is a small islet made of one boulder which was once walled all around, and the lower portion of this wall is still extant in many points. From the shore to the small island there is a narrow walkway submerged by the water which is five feet high as people told me; that passage was broken down by the local residents so as to make it impracticable, so that those who reached the island to consecrate their books by the art of necromancy wouldn't be able to find it anymore. That island is strictly guarded and protected from the local people on the ground that when anybody comes to it covertly and performs the art of the Fiend...». [In the original French text: «Au milieu a une petite islete dun rochier qui jadis fut muree tout en tour encores y sont les fondemens du mur en plusieurs lieux. De la terre à celle isle a une petite chausse couverte deaue a la haulteur de v piez comme les gens me dirent laquelle fust rompue tant quon ne la peust cuier par les gens du pais affin que ceulz qui aloient en lisle consacrer leurs livres pour lart dingromance ne la peussent trouver. La 10 quelle isle est moult gardee et deffendue des gens du pais pource que quant aucun y vient seleement et a fait son art de l'ennemy...»]. Fig. 5 - The passage on the Lake Pilate's islet in Antoine de la Sale's The Paradise of Queen Sibyl (manuscript no. 0653 (0924), Bibliothèque du Château (Musée Condé), Chantilly, France, folium 4v) Thus, the Lake of Pilate was a place of choice to perform magical, forbidden arts. And would-be necromancers often met their own doom by the icy waters of the lake, as Antoine de la Sale himself reports: «Not much time has elapsed since two men were caught, one of them being a priest. The priest was brought to the said town of Norcia and there was martyred and burnt. The other was slaughtered into pieces and then thrown into the lake from the very people who had caught them both». [In the original French text: «Navoit pas long temps quel y fut prins deux hommes dont lun estoit prestre ce preste fut admene a la dicte cite de norce et la fut martire et ars. Lautre fut taille a pieces et puis boute dedens le lac par ceulz qui les avoient prins»]. 11 Fig. 6 - The killing of supposed necromancers at the Lake of Pilate in Antoine de la Sale's The Paradise of Queen Sibyl (manuscript no. 0653 (0924), Bibliothèque du Château (Musée Condé), Chantilly, France, folium 5r) In 1474 the Italian scholar Flavio Biondo published his De Italia illustrata (Italy illustrated), subsequently translated into Italian in 1542, in which he provided a reference to the magical arts performed at the Lake: Fig. 7 - Flavio Biondo's De Italia illustrata, the excerpt on the Apennine Sibyl from the 1542 Italian edition 12 «Further above, in the territory of Norcia, there is that renowned lake where according to false rumours the waters would be replete of evil spirits rather than fish; and the fame of [...] the lake has attracted a great number of lunatics committed to such foolish thing as necromancy, in search of knowledge and understanding of those sorcerous teachings; and a lot more in past centuries, as is reported, they were lured up to those lofty, imposing mountains, with great exertion, and utterly in vain». [In the original Italian text: «Poco più su è quel lago famoso nel territorio di Norcia, dove dicono falsamente, che in vece di pesci, è pieno di demoni, e la fama [...] del lago ha ne di nostri tirati molti pazzi dati a queste poltronarìe de la negromantia, et avidi di sapere et intendere di queste novelle magiche, e più ne secoli passati, come si raggiona, gli ha tirati dico a sallire su questi altissimi monti, et alpestri, con gran fatica, e vana»]. Between 1496 and 1499, the German knight Arnold von Harff carried out a journey across many countries, which he described in his Pilgrimage, a travel account. In it he portrayed, once more, the necromantic character of the Lake set within the Sibillini Mountain Range: «After midday he [the lord of the place] rode with us up the mountain to where was a little lake. By this lake was a little chapel like a holy house, in which was a small altar. He told us that in former times, when the art of necromancy was abroad in the world, certain persons frequented this altar [...], performing their necromancy there. [...] [...] When the people could not suffer this no longer, they made complaint to the castellan of this castle, who thereupon set up gallows between the holy house and the lake, and forbad that anyone should thenceforth exercise necromancy at the altar, and that any who did so should be hanged on the gallows». [In the original German text: «Nae myttaghe reyt he mit vns oeuen off desen berch. Daer off stund eyn kleyne staynde see. By deser see stunt eyn kleyn cappelgen wie eyn heyligen huyss. Dae inne stunt eyn kleyn altair. Dae van saicht he vns, dat vurtzijden doe die kunst der nigermancien in der werlt vmb gynck, doe lieffen dese seluigen off desen altair [...], drijuende dae yere nigremancie. [...] Item dit en wolde dat volck nyet me lijden ind claget dem castelangen dys sloss, der van stund an eyn vpgereckde galge leyss settzen tusschen dat heyligen huyssgen in die see ind dede verbieden 13 dat niemans me off dem elter nigermancie doyn en suyldt, der aber dat dede den seuldt man an die galge hangen»]. Fig. 8 - Left: Arnold von Harff as a pilgrim from the opening of his Die Pilgerfahrt des Ritters Arnold von Harff (manuscript Bodl. 972, Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, folium 1r); right: the excerpt on the Lake of Norcia from a printed edition of “Die Pilgerfahrt des Ritters Arnold von Harff” edited by E. Von Groote (Cologne, 1860) We find additional mentions about the Lake as we proceed further through the centuries. In 1550 Leandro Alberti, a Dominican friar, wrote the following words in his Descrittione di tutta l'Italia (A general description of Italy): «Then further high above in the Apennines, in the land of Norcia, there is the Lake [...] which is called the Lake of Norcia [...] a few men coming from a far-away country [...] came to this place to consecrate evil, fiendish books to the devil, so as to have their wicked whishes fulfilled, of riches, fame, pleasures and the like. [...] after drawing the Circle, and having marked the required characters with their impious rituals [...] so many necromacers used to come, up to those rugged, elevated mountains». [In the original Italian text: «Poscia alquanto più in su nell'Apennino nel territorio Nursino, evi il Lago [...] addimandato Lago di Norsa [...] alcuni huomini di lontano paese [...] venero a questi luoghi per consagrare libri scelerati et malvaggi al diavolo, per potere ottenere alcuni suoi biasimevoli desiderii, cioè di ricchezze, di honori, di amenosi piaceri et di simili cose. [...] havendo disegnato il Circolo, et fatti i debiti caratteri colle 14 escomunicate cerimonie [...] tanto concorso di incantatori, che salivano sopra questi asperi et alti monti»]. Fig. 9 - Leandro Alberti's Descrittione di tutta l'Italia, original edition published in 1550, with the excerpt dedicated to the cave of the Sibyl (pag. 248 and 249) How old is such necromantic renown? We can go back through the centuries and open the pages of the Dittamondo, a poem written between 1350 and 1367 by Fazio degli Uberti, a fourteenth-century poet from Tuscany. Here are the words written by the man of letter on the gloomy legend which already enshrouded the Lake in the second half of the fourteenth century: «I don't want to overlook the renown of the Mount of Pilate, where a lake is - which in summers is carefully guarded by watches on duty - because here Simon the Sorcerer ascends to consecrate his spellbook...». [In the original Italian text: «la fama qui non vo’ rimagna nuda - del monte di pillato, dov’è il lago - che si guarda l'estate a muda a muda - però che qua s’intende in Simon mago - per sagrar il suo libro in su monta...»]. 15 Fig. 10 - The opening folium of Fazio degli Uberti's Dittamondo and the verses on the Lake of Pilate from a manuscript dating to 1447 (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Italien 81, folia 1r and 95v) However, the most important reference concerning the Lake of Pilate is the most ancient that scholars have ever retrieved. It is found in the Reductorium Morale, a work written by the French benedictine monk and abbot Petrus Berchorius (Pierre Bersuire), who lived between 1290 and 1362. In this passage, we find no mention of Pilate, yet we already meet with necromancers who attend the Lake's cold waters: «I heard a remarkable, horrific tale about Norcia, the Italian town, that was reported to me as an absolutely proven truth [...] amid the peaks which raise near that town there is a lake [...] today, no men but necromancers can get to the lake...». Fig. 11 - The excerpt on the Lake of Norcia taken from the Reductorium Morale by Petrus Berchorius (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Latin 16786, folium 301v) 16 [In the original Latin text: «Exemplum terribile esse circa Norciam Italie civitatem audivi pro vero et pro centies experto narrari [...] inter montes isti civitati proximos esse lacum [...] ad quem nullus hodie praeter necromanticos potest accedere...]». So necromancers used to pay visits to the Lake set within the lofty crests of Mount Vettore well before his renown as a resting place for the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate was mentioned in the work written by Antoine de la Sale. Therefore, it seems that necromancy represents an original trait of what we know today as the Lakes of Pilate: a fundamental point to start from if we want to understand the true origin of this legend, to which an additional myth relating to Pilate was subsequently added, as we illustrated in our previous paper A legend for a Roman prefect: the Lakes of Pontius Pilate. Is this necromantic aspect also present in the legendary narrative concerning the Sibyl's cave? Let's go ahead with our journey into the two legends. And we can anticipate that the answer will be fully positive. 3.2 Conjurations at the cave's entrance We saw that necromantic rituals are an integral part of the legendary tale concerning the Lakes of Pilate. Can we state the same as to the Cave named after the Apennine Sibyl? Apparently, the Sibyl's Cave shows no direct, original link to forbidden, necromantic arts, even though the place is obvioulsy connected to powerful magic being practised within its gloomy recesses. It is Andrea da Barberino, in his fifteenth-century romance Guerrino the Wretch, who narrates of the loathsome transformations of the inhabitants of the cave, who every saturday and sunday are turned into serpents, dragons, toads, worms and other abominable animals: a sign of a mighty magical power at work in the cave. And the same account is reported by Antoine de la Sale in 17 The Paradise of Queen Sibyl, in which he offers the reader a similar scene of ghastly transmutations occurring in the cavern. Fig. 12 - Guerrino beholds a transformed Sibyl in a drawing taken from a printed edition of Guerrino the Wretch published in Italy in 1841 Fig. 13 - The Sibyl and her retinue turned into ghastly beasts as portrayed in a miniature drawn from Antoine de la Sale's The Paradise of Queen Sibyl (manuscript no. 0653 (0924), Bibliothèque du Château (Musée Condé), Chantilly, France, folium 15v) 18 Neither Andrea da Barberino nor Antoine de la Sale include in their respective works any straight description of magical rituals being performed by visitors in the cave or by its entrance. Nonetheless, necromancy and necromancers are set at the very foundation of the legend of the Sibyl's cave, as we already proved in our previous paper Birth of a Sibyl: the medieval connection, in which the ascendancy of the Apennine Sibyl is to be traced back to Sebile, the skilled fairy and necromancer who is presented as a mate of, and alter-ego to, Morgan le Fay, King Arthur's half-sister in the legendary cycle of the Matter of Britain, with Morgan being compared to a Sibyl, possibly the Cumaean, as to their unprecedented necromantic powers in the German poem Erec, written by Hartmann von Aue in 1185: «If she wanted, she could turn someone into a bird or animal. After that she could quickly give him his usual shape. She knew all sorts of magic arts. She lived much against God: for under her command were the birds of the wild, of forests and fields, and what is most important to me, the evil spirits, which are called demons, were all under her control. [...] Since the Sybil died, and Ericto perished, of which Lucanus tells us, and sorcery which they could command had died away ages ago, with her it all came back (about which I don't want to say much at this time, since it would take too long). Since then, the earthly realm probably has had no better mistress of the magic arts than Morgan le Fay» [In the original Old German text: «vnd ſo ſy des began - ſo mochte ſy den man - Ze vogel oder ze tiere - darnach gab ſy im ſchiere - wider ſein geſchafft - ſÿ kunde doch zaubers die kraft - sÿ lebete vaſt wider got - wann es wartette jr gepot - das gefugl zu dem wilde - on walde vnd on geuilde vnd daz mich daz maiſte - die vbeln geiſte - die da tiefln ſint genant - die waren alle vnnder jr handt [...] Seyt daz ſibilla erſtarb - vnd Ericto verdarb von der vns Lucanuſ zalt - daz jr zauberlich gewalt - wem ſÿ wolte gepot der dauor was lanng todt - daz er erſtund wol geſunt - von der ich euch hie zeſtund - nu nicht mer fagen wil - wann es wurde ze vil - sy gewan das erdtrich - das wiſſet warlich - von zauberlichen ſÿnne - nie beſſer maiſterÿnne - dann Famurgan»]. 19 Fig. 14 - The comparison between Morgan the Fay and the Sibyl from Hartmann von Aue's Erec (Codex Vindobonensis Ser. Nova 2663 Ambraser Heldenbuch, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Wien, folium 40v) Such is the necromantic lineage of Sibyl - Sebile - Morgan as investigated in our preceding research papers. And, tough not addressed directly by Andrea da Barberino and Antoine de la Sale, necromancy is fully part of the legendary heritage of the Sibyl's Cave, as we can spot in subsequent authors. In his General description of Italy, the same Leandro Alberti we quoted from when addressing the Lakes of Pilate provides us with a significant hint to the magical benefits that might arise from a visit to the Sibyl «The huge, frightful, ghastly hollow which was named after the Sibyl: about which a popular lore (or rather a foolish rumour) maintains [... that] those who were there and then succeeded in coming out from would be endowed by the Sibyl with so many advantages that they subsequently live their life in sheer happiness» [In the original Italian text: «La larga, horrenda et spaventevole spelunca nominata Caverna della Sibilla. De la quale è volgata fama, anzi pazzesca favola [... che] quelli che vi erano stati et poi ritornarano fuori, gli sono fatte tante gratie et privileggi, da la Sibilla, che felicissimamente poi passano i suoi giorni»]. 20 Fig. 15 - The passage on the gifts bestowed at the Sibyls Cave from Leandro Alberti's Descrittione di tutta l'Italia (p. 248) According to her legendary renown, the Apennine Sibyl, when duly addressed and served, may bestow great gifts. But is all that achieved by some kind of necromantic ritual? The answer is yes. And we find a full illustration of that in the work written by Pierre Crespet, also known as 'Crespetus', a French Celestinian monk who lived in the second half of the sixteenth century. More than one hundred fifty years after Guerrino the Wretch and The Paradise of Queen Sibyl, Crespetus explains the necromantic arts that are to be played not at the Lakes of Pilate, but directly at the Sibyl's cave: «A renowned magician whose name was Domenico Mirabelli [...] and his stepmother Marguerite Garnier, who were arrested in Mantua with their spellbooks that they were fetching to the Sibyls, the goddesses of sorcerers, to consecrate them so as to render their books more powerful [...] he went to take advice from the renowned Sibyl about whom the travellers to Italy maintain she is to be found in a cave near the town of Norcia in Italy [...] the Sibyl gave to him a consecrated book, and into a ring he had on his finger she put a spirit; by means of these book and spirit he would be able to travel any place he wished to be transferred to, provided the wind was not blowing against him». 21 Fig. 16 - The excerpt on a visit to the Sibyl's Cave taken from De la hayne de Satan et malins esprist contro l'homme, by Pierre Crespet (Crespetus), published in Paris in 1590 (Livre I, Discours VI, p. 92-93) [In the original French text: «Un insigne magicien nommé Dominique Mirabille Italien [...] & à sa belle mere Marguerite Garnier, qui furent apprehendez à Mante avec leur livres de magie qu'ils portoient aux Sibylles deesses des magiciens pour etre consacrez, à fin d'avoir plus d'effet [...] il avoit esté consulter la Sibylle fameuse que les voyageurs d'Italie asseurent etre en une grotte ou carriere proche de la ville de Nurse en Italie [...] laquelle luy donna un livre consacré, & luy meit dans un agneau qu'il avoit au doigt un esprit, par le moyen desquels livre & esprit il eust la puissance d'aller en tous lieux où il souhaittoit estre transporté moyenant que le vent ne fust contraire.»] 22 The above words are taken from Crespetus' De la hayne de Satan et malins esprist contro l'homme (Livre I, Discours 6), published in Paris in 1590. Further details on the necromantic rituals to be performed at the Sibyl's cave are provided later in the same text (Discours 15): «Circles are traced so that the Fiend is not allowed to enter them or hurl himself on those who summon him; they are made safe by bearing crosses and other holy tokens from which the Fiend recoils». [In the original French text: «Les cercles se font, afin que le diable n'ait entree ou force sur ceux qui l'invoquent & appellent à leur secours, & sont munis de croix & autres expiations que le diable redoubte»]. Thus, just like the Lakes of Pilate, the Sibyl's Cave was the stage for magical, necromantic rites. The aim was to win for themselves fame and earthly richies, to be obtained through the favour and action of evil entities, as Crespetus explains: «In the plea that was found on them addressed to the Sibyls who presided over Necromancy and Magic arts, the following requests were included, that they besought the Sibyls to consecrate their books so that the evil spirits shall fulfill their commanding spells without any harm for them, that they shall become visible in the form of a handsome man [...] and ready to appear at day or night, whenever conjured up. They also asked the Sibyls to mark their spellbooks, which were three in number, with their power, so that they would be able to summon the above spirits, and prevent any arrest by the Justice, and be lucky in all and every business, well received by Kings, Princes and Lords, always winners in games, and able to gather a rich wealth, at the same time scorning any unfriendly attack». [In the original French text: «Car en la requeste qu'on leur trouva pour presenter au Sibylles qui president sur la Necromance, & Magie, ces choses estoient contenues, qu'ils supplioient les Sibylles de consacrer leur livres à tels effects que les mauvais esprits fissent tout ce que leur seroit enjoint par leur coniuration sans faire aucun mal, apparoissans en forme de bel homme, & qu'on ne fust contrainst de faire aucun cercle n'y en leurs maisons, ny aux champs, & qu'ils fussent prompts à venir de nuist & de jour, quand ils seroient evoquez. Les supplioient aussi d'apposer à leurs dits livres de Magie, qui estoient trois en nombre, leur caractere, afin qu'ils 23 eussent plus de puissance pour appeller lesdits esprits, & qu'ils ne fussent repris de Iustice, ains qu'ils fussent fortunez en toutes leurs entreprises, bien aymez des Roys Princes, & grands Seigneurs, ne perdissent jamais aux jeux, ains fussent chanceux & gaignassent quand ils voudroient, que leurs ennemis ne pourtassent nuysance»]. Fig. 17 - A further excerpt on the same visit to the Sibyl's Cave taken from De la hayne de Satan et malins esprist contro l'homme, by Pierre Crespet (Crespetus), published in Paris in 1590 (Livre I, Discours XV, p. 245-246) In this framework, the Sibyl's Cave is not considered as the entryway to a hidden, subterranean realm inhabited by handsome damsels and a fairy queen, ready to bestow blissfulness and a ceaseless life of sin on daring visitors. In this case, the Cave appears to be something very different. It is a place where necromancy is carried out, to consecrate spellbooks and win for oneself forbidden advantages. A legendary fame, unreasonable and mythical as it certainly is; and yet it reminds us of another place, not far from this gloomy cavern. It brings to our mind the Lakes of Pilate. Only a few miles away. 24 3.3 The common role of necromancy in the two legends After this initial phase of our analysis on the common traits which mark the legends of the Sibyl's Cave and the Lakes of Pilate, we have reached a first significant conclusion: in both legends, necromancy plays a major role. Actually necromancy, intended as the staging of magical rituals for the summoning of evil entities so as to demand forbidden services, has been carried out at both sites throughout many centuries. In the previous paragraphs, we noted that evil-minded people have been visiting the Lake set within the crests of Mount Vettore for hundreds of years, with no interest at all in the story of Pontius Pilate, a foreign narrative which just covered and embellished the true local tale: an original tradition concerning consecration of spellbooks and the staging of impious rituals to be carried out after having duly conjured up some sort of legendary fiendish entities. This tale was known since the first half of the fourteenth century, and we already demonstrated, in our previous paper A legend for a Roman prefect: the Lakes of Pontius Pilate, that Pilate was just an extraneous superposition to a local myth, which was already present at the site. Fig. 18 - The Lakes of Pilate as they appear today 25 We also noted that the same sort of malevolent people used to visit the Sibyl's Cave, set on the peak of Mount Sibyl, a few miles away from the Lake, to perform the same kind of forbidden rituals. Necromancers were not coming to the Cave in search of a Queen Sibyl and her magnificent court, in which love and eternal joy and perdition of one's soul could be experienced: they looked for magical mights instead, to be summoned and enslaved so as to fulfill one's evil wishes. They looked for power, and paid no heed to the chivalric story of an Apennine Sibyl, another extraneous tale which came from far-away countries, a narrative concerning Morgan le Fay and her fairy mate Sebile, with their apparel of emprisoned knights, hidden castles and magical mountains, popular themes in the romances and poems belonging to the Matter of Britain, in which both are depicted as powerful enchantresses and necromancers: an ascendancy we already traced in our previous paper Birth of a Sibyl: the medieval connection. Fig. 19 - Mount Sibyl So necromancy is one of the common aspects which mark both legendary tales, the Lake's and Cave's. A common aspect which is also mentioned by a fifteenth-century Pope, Pius II Piccolomini, who, in his most famous letter, written on January, 15th 1444 to his cousin and friend Gregorio Lolli (which we already presented in our previous article Pope Pius II Piccolomini's original letter on the Sibyl's cave published for the first time ever), so depicts both sites without discriminating between them as to the necromantic rituals being carried out at the two places: 26 «In discussing the subject, it came to my mind that there is a place, in Umbria - which is known as the province of the Duchy - not far from the town of Norcia, where a craggy mountain opens into a huge cavern, through which running waters flow. I remember I once heard that witches are found there and fiends and nocturnal wraiths; there those who house a bold heart can hear the voices of fiendish spirits, and talk to them and learn from them the magical arts. [...] he once mentioned to me the name of the lake and also provided a description of the place». [In the original Latin text: «Inter conferendum autem venit in mentem locum esse in umbria, quae provincia ducatus dicitur, non longe ab Urbe Nursia ubi preruptus mons ingentem speluncam facit per quam aquae fluunt. Illic memini audisse me striges esse et Demones ac nocturnas umbras, ubi qui audaces animo sunt, spiritus nequam audiunt, alloquunturque et artes ediscunt magicas. [...] haec mihi vera esse asseveravit lacum nominavit et locum descripsit»]. Fig. 20 - The excerpt on the Cave and Lake of Norcia as drawn from Pio II Piccolomini's letter De Monte Veneris (manuscript Latin 8578, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, folium 96r) 27 In Piccolomini's text, the Lake and Cave are considered as belonging to a same sinister setting, in which summoning is performed, and entities conjured up. Thus, certainly necromancy is one of the marking traits of the two legendary sites which are located in the Sibillini Mountain Range, in Italy. Are there further traits that mark both places, the Sibyl's Cave and the Lakes of Pilate? Yes, there are. And we have just started meeting them when discussing necromancy. Because necromancy just summons some malevolent thing. Mythical evil presences are conjured up. We are now about to confront with the fiendish entities that, according to the legendary tales, haunt both the Cave and Lake. 4. Fiendish entities as a shared feature 4.1 Mythical demons under the water In the previous chapter, we explored necromancy as a shared character featured by both legendary tales living in the Sibillini Mountain Range, in central Italy. According to a number of sources, people used to attend not only the Lakes of Pilate, but also the Sibyl's Cave with the aim to perform magical rituals, consecrate spellbooks and conjure up some kind of evil entities, looking for power, fame, riches, and other wordly advantages. Thus, people used to visit those places in search of a forbidden contact with unholy beings. Of course, no such entities have ever inhabited the crystal-clear waters of the Lakes of Pilate in actual reality, this is just a gloomy legendary tale. Yet, the notion certainly marks this place, odd as it may appear. But what sort of legendary being were the visitors to the Lake so eager to meet? 28 According to the many literary sources we already quoted from in our research papers, a belief was widespread that demons lived at both the Lake and Cave. The renown of the Lake of Pilate as an abode for unquiet demons is attested ever since the earliest mentions of the legend, and this sinister feature perfectly sets itself in the superimposed literary tradition and lore concerning the cursed body of Pontius Pilate, which features its own agitated demons. As fully described in our previous paper A legend for a Roman prefect: the Lakes of Pontius Pilate, the issue concerning how to dispose of the loathsome corpse of the roman prefect who sentenced Jesus Christ to death led to the elaboration across many centuries of a complex narrative, whose apex is to be retrieved in the Legenda Aurea written by Jacobus de Varagine, dating to the end of the thirteenth century. In this work, Pontius Pilate'body is initially thrown into the river Tiber, then into the river Rhône, subsequently in the territory of Lausanne, and eventually into a pit in the Alps. At each of the listed stages, demons are always present to welcome the cursed corpse, as shown in the following excerpts: «But abominable, fiendish demons, rejoicing of that fiendish, abominable corpse, began to stir amazing waves [in the Tiber] [...] But the evil spirits did not desert this place, just like it had occurred in Rome: they acted the same way, so the people there, unable to bear such a haunting plague of demons [in the Rhône] [...] They were overwhelmed by that same plague as described before [in Lausanne] [...] they hurled the body into a certain pit set amid the mountains, from which people say that deceptive illusions created by the demons are visible in their agitation still today [in the Alps]». [In the original Latin text: «Spiritus vero maligni et sordidi corpori maligno et sordido congaudentes et nunc in aquis nunc in aere rapientes mirabiles indundationes in aquis movebant [...] Sed ibi nequam spiritus effluunt, ibidem eadem operantes, homines ergo illi tantam infestationem daemonum non ferentes [...] Qui cum nimis praefatis infestationibus gravarentur [...] in 29 quodam puteo montibus circumsepto immerserunt, ubi adhuc relatione quorundam quaedam dyabolicae machinationes ebullire videntur»]. Fig. 21 - Demons welcoming the dead body of Pontius Pilate as they appear in various excerpts drawn from the Legenda Aurea (manuscript NAL 1747, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, folium 93v) In the long story of the legend of Pontius Pilate across the centuries, his many resting places have always been haunted by the presence of demons, an idea which is also contained in the eleventh-century Rescriptum Tiberii, also known as the Epistola Tiberii ad Pilatum, in which chief priest Caiaphas dies during his journey into exile and, when buried, the ground refuses to receive his corpse, and casts him out. So we find a reference to these same demonic inhabitants in Antoine de la Sale's description of the Lake. In the printed version of The Paradise of Queen Sibyl, published in 1527, necromancers are staged while the reach the boulder at the center of the Lake to perform their abominable rituals: «... Those who reached the small island to consecrate their books to conjure up the devils...» [In the original French text: «... ceuls qui aloyent en l'islecte consacrer leurs livres pour invocquer les dyables...»]. 30 Fig. 22 - The demons in the Lake as mentioned in Antoine de la Sale's La Salade, printed in 1527 in Paris In 1474 Flavio Biondo fully confirms this sinister fame by writing the following words in his De Italia illustrata: «Not much higher in the Apennines that renowned lake is found, in the territory of Norcia, in which according to a silly, fake rumour the place would be replete of evil spirits rather than fish». [In the original Latin text: «paulo superius est lacus ille in nursinorum agri appenino, quem vano ferunt mendacio piscium loco daemonibus scatere»]. Fig. 23 - Demons in the Lake of Norcia as referenced in the original manuscript of Flavio Biondo's De Italia illustrata (Ottobonian Latin n. 2369, Vatican Apostolic Library, folium 50r) 31 In Leandro Alberti's Descrittione di tutta l'Italia, published in 1550, we find the following passages: «On the eastern side of this remarkably tall mountain [Mount Vettore], that renowned Lake is to be seen, of which people say that demons are conjured up under the command of enchanters, who speak to them. [...] Then further high above in the Apennines, in the land of Norcia, there is the Lake [...] which is called the Lake of Norcia, of which unlearned people believe demons swim in it [...] here Demons live, and provide answers when addressed». [In the original Italian text: «Vedesi alla parte de quest'altissimo monte [Monte Vettore], che riguarda all'oriente, quel tanto famoso Lago del quale se dice che vi appareno i demoni costretti dagli incantatori, et che qui vi parlano con essi. [...] Poscia alquanto più in su nell'Apennino nel territorio Nursino, evi il Lago [...] addimandato Lago di Norsa, nel quale dicono gli ignoranti nottare i diavoli [...] quivi soggiornano i Diavoli, et danno risposta a chi gli interroga»]. Fig. 24 - Demons at the Lake from Leandro Alberti's Descrittione di tutta l'Italia, original edition published in 1550 (p. 248) Additional references are easily found in other authors, including Pope Pius II Piccolomini; yet we must consider that legendary demons are present at this site even before the legendary tale of Pontius Pilate settled in this remote Italian lake. According to Petrus Berchorius and his fourteenth32 century Reductorium Morale, from which we already quoted, fiendish beings manifestly inhabit the icy waters of the Lake: «Amid the peaks which raise near that town [Norcia] there is a lake, which from antique times is sacred to demons and conspicuously inhabited by them». [In the original Latin text: «Inter montes isti civitati [Norcia] proximos esse lacum ab antiquis daemonibus consecratum et ab ipsis sensibiliter inhabitatum»]. Fig. 25 - Evil beings in the Lake of Norcia from the Reductorium Morale by Petrus Berchorius (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Latin 16786, folium 301v) The Lake and the demons: an inseparable relationship, mythical as it may be. We will see that, together with necromancy, this feature will allow our investigation to progress further in search of the true meaning which lies behind the legend. But what about the Sibyl's Cave? Is it likewise inhabited by legendary demons? The answer, of course, is yes. Another common trait which the Cave shares with the Lake. 4.2 Mythical demons in the cavern The legendary tale concerning the Lakes of Pilate features demons as resident entities who would inhabit the cold waters set in the middle of the Sibillini Mountain Range. Have similar demons ever inhabited the bowels of the Sibyl's Cave as well? 33 At first sight, the Apennine Sibyl as described by Andrea da Barberino in his romance may appear as something different. The Sibyl herself seems to openly mark a difference with demons, at least with reference to her asserted bodily nature, when she rebukes Guerrino with the following harsh words: «You false Christian, your commands can do nothing to me because I am no wraith, I have flesh and bones as you yourself [...]; go and command demons and fiedish spirits if you wish, they do not have a body». [In the original Italian text: «O falso christiano le tue sconiuratione non me posseno nocere impero che io non sono corpo fantastico ma sono e fui de carne e ossa come che tu sei [...]; ma sconiura li demonii li quali non hano corpo e li spiriti imondi»]. Fig. 26 - The Sibyl speaks on her own nature from Andrea da Barberino's Guerrino the Wretch (Chapter CLII in the edition printed in Venice in 1480) However, it is clear that a fiendish might is heavily at work in the Cave. Guerrino is fully aware that the kingdom of the Sibyl, including castles and palaces and gardens, cannot exist in actual reality within the limited space of a cave, so what he was beholding was to be the result of an enchantment («vide molte castelle e molte ville molti palacii e molti ziardini et imaginò questi tutti essere incantamenti, per ché in poco loco de la montagna non era possibile che tante cose vi fosseno»). In many occasions Guerrino invokes the name of Lord Jesus as a shelter against the wicked lures offered to him by the Sibyl, asking for salvation of his soul: a clear sign that supernatural evil is present in the cavern. In addition to that, the recurrent transformation of the queen of the place and her companions into hideous worms and serpents did not provide any strong confirmation to the Sibil's assertion not to be a demon. 34 And, as a sort of seal to the above dispute, it is Andrea da Barberino himself who indicates the nature of the place, by inserting in his narrative a powerful image at the very moment of Guerrino's entrance into the inner recesses of the cave: «He walked ahead and after a short while he found a door, made of metal, and at each side of the door a demon was sculpted, and they looked like if they were alive». [In the original Italian text: «Pocho andò che trovò una porta di metalo et da ogni latto era Scolpito uno dimonio che propio pareano vivi»]. Fig. 27 - The sculpted demons that await the visitors in the inner recesses of Sibyl's Cave as they appear in Andrea da Barberino's Guerrino the Wretch (manuscript no. MA297, Biblioteca Civica Angelo Mai, Bergamo, folium 138r) To further corroborate the evidence of a legendary demonic presence at the Sibyl's Cave, let's open the pages of Antoine de la Sale's The Paradise of Queen Sibyl, in which we find the same menacing, evil seal to the cave as the one mentioned by Andrea da Barberino in his work: 35 «At the end of this subterranean room, two dragons are found, on the two sides, artifacts at all evidence but they really seem to be alive, except that they do not make a move, and their eyes are so brilliant that they cast much light all around». [In the original French text: «Au bout de ceste cave, trouve l'en deux dragons, des deux lez, qui sont faiz artificiallement mais il est advis proprement quilz soient en vie, fors de tant quilz ne se bougent, et ont les yeulz si reluysans quilz donnent clarté tout entour eulx»]. Fig. 28 - The fiendish dragons depicted by Antoine de la Sale in his The Paradise of Queen Sibyl (manuscript no. 0653 (0924), Bibliothèque du Château (Musée Condé), Chantilly, France, folium 12r) Demons are at work in the cavern, and Antoine de la Sale unambiguously states that fact when he recounts the story of the long stay in the cave of the German knight: «One day [...] his heart began to bleed [..] he had acted against God's will and commandments [...] and for three hundred days he had be a companion of the Fiend, because it was clear that there were fiendish beings, owing to the fact that each Friday, after midnight, his companion abandoned him and 36 went to the queen [...] and they all stayed in special chambers and other suitable places, turned into snakes and serpents». [In the original French text: «Un jour [...] le cuer lui commança à douloir [...] il avoit faictes encontre son vouloir et ses commandemens [of God] [...] par l'espace de iii cens jours, pour soy acompaigner avec son ennemy, car certainement apperceut-il bien que l'ennemy estoit-il vraiement, pour ce que, quant venoit le vendred, après la mienuyt, sa compaigne se levoit d'emprès lui et s'en aloit à la royne [...] et la estoient toutes en chambres et en autres lieux ad ce ordonnez, en estat de couleuvres et de serpens». Fig. 29 - Fiendish presences within the Sibyl's Cave from Antoine de la Sale's The Paradise of Queen Sibyl (manuscript no. 0653 (0924), Bibliothèque du Château (Musée Condé), Chantilly, France, folia 15r15v) And one of the concluding remarks of de la Sale's The Paradise of Queen Sibyl is against «all wraiths and Devil's contrivances [...] through which the demons used to deceive people» («toutes fantosmes et toutes deableries [...] de quoy les deables decevoient le gens»), now rendered harmless and turned into nothing thanks to the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Because, he adds, this is but a «fake Sibyl, which the Fiend by his power, 37 and by taking advantage of our feeble faith, has rendered famous to deceive the naive people» («ceste faulse Sibille que le deable par son pouvoir a cause de nostre faible creance a mis la renommee sus pour decevoir les simples gens»). Fig. 30 - The Sibyl as a fiendish wraith from Antoine de la Sale's The Paradise of Queen Sibyl (manuscript no. 0653 (0924), Bibliothèque du Château (Musée Condé), Chantilly, France, folia 25r and 27r) So it really appears that the Sibyl's Cave, just like the Lakes of Pilate, contains a mythical demonic presence. As a further confirmation of this legendary tradition, the subsequent centuries will see the categorisation of the Apennine Sibyl into a very specific class of demons, as reported by a Flemish priest, Martino Delrio, in his Disquisitionum magicarum libri sex, published in 1599, who quotes from an earlier work written by Johannes Trithemius: «The fifth kind of demons is called subterranean: they are the ones who reside in caverns and caves and hollows placed under remote peaks. The power of such demons is utterly evil: they especially seize those who dig tunnels in search of metallic ore, and those who look for treasures hidden under the ground. They are most willing to harm human beings [...] They ask for nothing more (quoting from Trithemius) than raise terror and awe in the heart of men. We know that at times they lead simple, gullible people down into their hidden recesses under the mountains to show them splendid illusory images, as if down there would lie the abode of blessed souls, and falsely proclaiming themselves friends of mankind». 38 [In the original Latin text: «Quintum genus subterraneum dicitur, quod in speluncis et cavernis montiumque remotis concavitatibus demoratur. Et isti demones affectione sunt pessimi; eosque invadunt, maxime, qui puteos et metalla fodiunt, et qui thesauros in terra latentes querunt, in pernicie humani generis paratissimi [...] Nihil magis quarunt [...] quam metum hominum et admirationem. Unde habemus compertum, quod simpliciores hominum quosdam nonnumquam in sua latibula montium duxerunt, stupenda mirantibus ostendentes spectacula, et quasi beatorum ibi sint mansiones, amicos virorum se mentiuntur»]. Fig. 31 - Subterranean demons in Trithemius' definition as reported by Martino Delrio in his Disquisitionum magicarum libri sex (p. 254-255) To this fiendish class belongs the Apennine Sibyl, as explicitly stated by Martino Delrio: «It is from such guiles that the fairy tales about Mount Venus arise, which is mentioned in a letter written by Pope Pius II and in the description of a Sibyl's Cavern placed in the region of Ancona as reported by Antoine de la Sale; in addition to that, we also have a mount of the White women near Kempenfent and the “She-Elf mount” in the Netherlands; and in Italy the 39 cave lying near Norcia with a Sibyl living in it, as recorded by Pius II in his letter n. 46». [in the original Latin text: «Ex huiusmodi ludibriis natae sunt fabulae de monte Veneris, cuius mentio apud Pium II in epistola et Speluncae Sibyllae quam in Ancona describit Antonius de la Sale; et montis Albarum foeminarum apud Kempenfem, et in Branbantia 'den Alvinnen berch'; et in Italia de Specu Nursino et de Sibylla illic degente, cuius meminit D. Pius II [in] epistola 46...»]. Fig. 32 - The Sibyl's Cave in Martino Delrio's Disquisitionum magicarum libri sex (p. 255) And this demonic aspect of the Apennine Sibyl is fully present in the work by the French Celestinian monk Crespetus, from which we already quoted. In his treatise De la hayne de Satan et malins esprist contro l'homme, he recounts the criminal trial held in 1586 against Domenico Mirabelli, a necromancer who was caught on his way to Mount Sibyl. In his narrative the Sibyl is depicted as in full command of ranks of fiendish beings: «They besought the Sibyls to consecrate their books so that the evil spirits shall fulfill their commanding spells without any harm for them, that they shall become visible in the form of a handsome man; they also asked not to be forced to draw any circles in their houses nor in the fields, and that demons be ready to come to them at day or at night whenever they summoned them. They also begged the Sibyls to mark on their three spellbooks their sibilline mark, so that the books may have power enough to conjure up the said spirits». 40 [In the original French text: «Ils supplioient les Sibylles de consacrer leur livres à tels effects que les mauvais esprits fissent tout ce que leur seroit enjoint par leur coniuration sans faire aucun mal, apparoissans en forme de bel homme, & qu'on ne fust contrainst de faire aucun cercle n'y en leurs maisons, ny aux champs, & qu'ils fussent prompts à venir de nuist & de jour, quand ils seroient evoquez. Les supplioient aussi d'apposer à leurs dits livres de Magie, qui estoient trois en nombre, leur caractere, afin qu'ils eussent plus de puissance pour appeller lesdits esprits»]. Fig. 33 - Demons conjured up at the Sibyl's Cave as depicted by Pierre Crespet (Crespetus) in De la hayne de Satan et malins esprist contro l'homme (p. 246) The demonic character of the Sibyl's legend appears to be fully compatible with the similar character proper to the superimposed legend of Morgan/Sebile, as specified in our previous paper Birth of a Sibyl: the medieval connection. We must remember that Morgan le Fay, the illustrious ancestor of the Apennine Sibyl, was described by German poet Hartmann von Aue, more than two centuries before Andrea da Barberino and Antoine 41 de la Sale, as a sort of evil queen who ruled over the fiendish powers of the underworld: «She lived much against God: for under her command were the birds of the wild, of forests and fields, and what is most important to me, the evil spirits, which are called demons, were all under her control [...] She also had kin deep in Hell; the devil was her companion. He paid tribute to her, even from the flames, however much she wanted. And whatever she wanted from the earthly realm, that she took enough of without any bother». Fig. 34 - The passage on Morgan le Fay and the demons from Hartmann von Aue's Erec (Codex Vindobonensis Ser. Nova 2663 Ambraser Heldenbuch, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Wien, folium 40v) [In the original Old German text: «sÿ lebete vaſt wider got - wann es wartette jr gepot - das gefugl zu dem wilde - on walde vnd on geuilde - vnd daz mich daz maiſte - die vbeln geiſte - die da tiefln ſint genant - die waren alle vnnder jr handt [...] - auch het ſÿ mage - tieff in der helle - der teufl was jr gefelle - der ſant jr ſteure - auch aus dem feure - wieuil ſy des wolte - vnd was ſÿ haben ſolte - von erdtriche - des nam ſÿ im angſtliche - alles ſelb genug»]. 42 From the listed excerpts, it is apparent that the legend of the Apennine Sibyl's Cave is a legend of demons, just like the mythical narrative concerning the Lakes of Pilate. At the cavern set on the peak of Mount Sibyl, people came to perform unholy rituals, and to summon the servants of the Fiend, which according to the legend the Sibyl was able to control. The Cave and the Lake. And legendary demons in both of them. A common trait which marks both legends. A few miles from one another. 4.3 Sinister legendary dwellers reside at both sites After a perusal of the main literary sources of the legends concerning the Sibyl's Cave and the Lakes of Pilate, we found out a further remarkable evidence: not only both sites are connected to the performance of necromantic rituals, but they are also inhabited by some kind of resident, legendary demons. Both of them. As to the Lakes of Pilate, this is actually no news: the whole medieval tradition concerning Pontius Pilate's burial places features lots of demons, portrayed in the act of welcoming the prefect's cursed body with unrestful agitation, as it is plunged into the waters of a river, be it the Tiber or the Rhône, or a pit set amid the Alps. And the same demons are also present in Petrus Berchorius' description of our Italian Lake nested within the Sibillini Mountain Range: yet this description bears no references at all to the renowned Roman official. With regard to the Sibyl's Cave, many contemporary scholars and authors appear to have more or less intentionally neglected or thoroughly disregarded the demonic marks of the sibilline myth. As we will see in future articles, they have rather preferred to consider the positive, matriarchal character of a wise Sibyl, in her capacity as a queen and a seer and a teacher of crafts to local communities of women: a sort of forerunner of modern feminist instances, whose image is definitely not retrievable in any of the ancient sources concerning the Sibyl of the Apennines, and has no known philological background nor the least scientific evidence. 43 Fig. 35 - A vision of the Lakes of Pilate at sunset All of the ancient retrievable manuscripted and printed sources tell a wholly different story. Sinister legendary dwellers reside at both sites. A 'good' Sibyl is never staged. As a further confirmation to the above point, we can quote once more from the letter written by Pope Pius II Piccolomini, who in 1444 provides a reference to both sites, the Lake and the Cave; and for both he reports that «witches are found there and fiends and nocturnal wraiths; there, those who house a bold heart can hear the voices of fiendish spirits, and talk to them and learn from them the magical arts». The Lake and the Cave. Both in the Sibillini Mountain Range, in Italy, and set a few miles from one another, in mutual line of sight. At both sites necromantic rituals are staged. And mythical demons seem to live at both places. 44 Fig. 36 - Sunrise on Mount Sibyl Similarities are beginning to pour in. And we have more than two. We also have a third. A third common trait, which is present at both sites. And the third common trait is tempests. 5. Tempests as a shared feature 5.1 Tempests and destruction raising from the Lake We are still working on our search of the common traits which mark two apparently different legends, the Sibyl's Cave and the Lakes of Pilate, both placed in the Sibillini Mountain Range, in Italy, at 5.2 miles only from each other, and in full mutual line of sight. In our previous articles, we saw that both legends share two common aspects: necromancy performed at both sites, and legendary demons 45 present at both places. We are now going to explore a third, stunning aspect which links the Lake and the Cave. This third aspect is tempests and destruction. And we start from the description of the Lake as provided by Antoine de la Sale in his fifteenthcentury The Paradise of Queen Sibyl: «That island [a rocky boulder set at the center of the lake] is strictly guarded and protected by the local people on the ground that when anybody comes to it covertly and performs the art of the Fiend, after the operation is made a storm so violent raises in the region that all crops and goods in the country get spoiled». [In the original French text: «La quelle isle est moult gardee et deffendue des gens du pais pource que quant aucun y vient seleement et a fait son art de l'ennemy apres se fait se lieve une tempeste si grant par le pais qui gaste tous les fruiz et biens de la contree»]. Fig. 37 - The remarkable passage on the tempests which are raised by art of necromancy at the Lake of Pilate in Antoine de la Sale's The Paradise of Queen Sibyl (manuscript no. 0653 (0924), Bibliothèque du Château (Musée Condé), Chantilly, France, folium 4v) So we find that necromantic arts performed at the Lake of Pilate seem to unleash some kind of unknown might: violent storms occur, and devastation of neighbouring land takes place. Devastation arising from the Lake is also mentioned in the pages of the Dittamondo, a poem written by Fazio degli Uberti and dating to the 46 fourteenth century. In a most famous excerpt, the Tuscan poet describes the effects of necromantic activities at the Lake: «I don't want to overlook the renown of the Mount of Pilate, where a lake is - which in summers is carefully guarded by watches on duty - because here Simon the Sorcerer ascends to consecrate his spellbook - so that troublesome tempests are aroused - according to what local people say». [In the original Italian text: «la fama qui non vo’ rimagna nuda - del monte di pillato, dov’è il lago - che si guarda l'estate a muda a muda - però che qua s’intende in Simon mago - per sagrar il suo libro in su monta - onde tempesta poi con grande smago - secondo che per quei di là si conta»]. Fig. 38 - Fazio degli Uberti's verses on the Lake of Pilatus drawn from his Dittamondo (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Italien 81, folium 95v) And in a fifteenth-century manuscript of the same Dittamondo (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Italien 81, folium 110r), in commenting a passage which mentions Norcia, its territory and the small river Torbidone, the scribe, Andrea Morena from Lodi, adds the following note: «This rivulet starts some two miles from Norcia, and it is called Torbedone, and the people in Norcia believe it flows from the lake who is visited by those who perform the art of necromancy to consecrate their spellbooks, so 47 that for this reason the region is troubled by scourge and famine or other afflictions. Then this streamlet ends up into the river Nera some nine miles across from Norcia». [In the original Italian text: «Questo fiumicello nasce sopra Norcia, quasi due miglia, e chiamasi Torbedone, e quelli da Norcia credono abbia il suo origine dal lago ove vanno a sacrare i libri suoi quelli che usano arte di nigromantia; però che [danno?] che surge e a loro infelice o di morbo o di carestia o de altro infortunio. E poi questo cotale fiume mette capo nella Negra (Nera) nove miglia longi da Norcia»]. Fig. 39 - Andrea Morena's annotation on the Lake of Pilate from Fazio degli Uberti's Dittamondo (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Italien 81, folium 110r) And this sinister lore about storms and a ravaged land continues into the subsequent centuries. In Arnold von Harff's Pilgrimage, written between 1496 and 1499, the German knight writes the following words: «In former times, when the art of necromancy was abroad in the world, certain persons frequented this altar and vowed themselves to evil spirits, performing their necromancy there. Item when this happened the water of this little lake was swept up into a cloud and descended in a thunderstorm, flooding all the land for three or four miles around, so that that year was no corn there». [In the original German text: «Vurtzijden doe die kunst der nigermancien in der werlt vmb gynck, doe lieffen dese seluigen off desen altair ind beswoeren dae den boesen geyst, drijuende dae yere nigremancie. Item as dat dan geschiet was hoyff sich off dat wasser des cleynen sees in eynen wolcken ind quam dan weder her aeff mit eyme donresslage, 48 verdrenckende dat gantze lant dae vmbtrijnt drij off vier mylen, so dat dat jair geyn korn dae en woyss»]. Fig. 40 - The tempests raising from the Lake of Norcia from a printed edition of Die Pilgerfahrt des Ritters Arnold von Harff edited by E. Von Groote (Cologne, 1860, p. 38) Fifty years later, the dominican friar Leandro Alberti further elaborates on the subject in his work Descrittione di tutta l'Italia: «... the Lake of Norcia, of which unlearned people believe demons swim in it, for they repeatedly see the waters raise and lower in a way that this vision amazes those who behold the lake, as it appears to be an eerie occurrence, being veiled the reason for this motion [...] It is certainly true that if we diligently look for the reason for the said motion, we clearly see that it is the wind, which unceasingly urges the waters across the small lake surrounded by high cliffs, and owing to this urge the waters are seen to alternatively raise and lower, to the greatest amazement by the beholders». [In the original Italian text: «... Lago di Norsa, nel quale dicono gli ignoranti nottare i diavoli, imperoché continouamente se veggiono salire et abassare l'acque di quello in tal maniera che fanno maravegliare ciascuno che le guarda, parendogli cosa sopranaturale, non intendendo la cagione di 49 tal movimento [...] Ben è vero che cercando diligentemente la cagione de'l detto movimento de le acque, chiaramente conobbino esser i venti, i quali continouamente conducevano l'acque per il stretto Lago intorniato da alte ruppi, et così conducendole, se veddono mo alzate et poi abbassate, con gran maraviglia di che le vede»]. Fig. 41 - The excerpts on the raising waters of the Lake of Norcia from Leandro Alberti's Descrittione di tutta l'Italia (p. 248 and 249) We may consider that these tempests and water raising and devastation seem to represent the same sort of agitations, also including hail, vapours and flames, already described across the long, millennial tradition concerning Pontius Pilate and his many troubled burial places, which we have thoroughly perused in our previous article A legend for a Roman prefect: the Lakes of Pontius Pilate. This is true, but only partly, because demonic unrest appears to haunt the Lake independent of the superimposed legendary tale about the Roman prefect. As we will see in the following investigation. The earliest reference to the agitation of the waters in which Pilate had been cast is found in the Chronica de duabus civitatibus, written by Otto of Freising at the middle of the twelfth century: «... He [Pilate] was exiled to Vienne, the town of Gaul, and subsequently drowned into the river Rhône. From this occurrence the local people say that ships are endangered when passing by that spot» (in the original Latin text: «... Eum apud Viennam urbem Galliae in exilium trusum ac post in Rhodano mersum dicant. Unde usque hodie naves ibi periclitari ab incolis affirmantur»). 50 Fig. 42 - Turbulence in the river Rhône as Pilate's body is thrown in it (Otto of Freising's Chronica de duabus civitatibus, manuscript Car. C. 33 (247), Zentralbibliothek, Zürich, folium 42r) The hazardous character of Pontius Pilate's burial place in the river Rhône is better detailed in a passage from twelfth-century poem De Vita Pilati: Fig. 43 - Demonic agitation in the river Rhône (De Vita Pilati, manuscript LIP 51, Leiden University, folium 117v) 51 «It was devised that his corpse was not to be buried - it was to be brought far away and cast - into the Rhône, concealed beneath the swirling eddies of the river - But in that place frenzied commotions began to occur - so that any ship that travelled by that spot - immediately vanished into the whirlpool and sank to the abyss». [In the original Latin text: «Hunc exstinctum non miserunt tumulari - sed procul a patria jusserunt praecipitari - in Rhodanum, latuitque diu sub fluminis unda - Sed huic mansit rabies quaedam furibunda - nam naves quaecunque locum transire volebant - gurgitis extemplo pereuntes ima petebant»]. As De Vita Pilati narrates, to secure the place the local residents decide to transfer that unrestful body elsewhere. So Pilate's corpse is cast into a hellish pit set in the Alps, «from which direful flames visibly erupt. - They dragged Pilate and cast him into it - to be consumed by the fire of Hell, as he deserved. - Often the voices of demons can be heard there» (in the original Latin text: «horrifer et flammas a se proferre probatur - In quem Pilatum traxerunt praecipitandum - atque gehennali, sicut decet, igne cremandum. Vox ibi multotiens auditur daemoniorum»). So the place is not quiet nor safe, and demons are the reason for all the trouble. Fig. 44 - A burial place in the Alps erupting hellish flames (De Vita Pilati, manuscript LIP 51, Leiden University, folium 117v) This same agitation, now attributed to some sort of fiendish storm, is encountered at the pit, set not far from Vienne, which is mentioned by Stephen of Bourbon in his thirteenth-century Tractatus de diversis materiis predicabilibus: «And not far from that same place, on a mount near St. Chamon, he [Pilate] was hurled into a pit; from this pit, when a stone is thrown into it, people say vapours are issued, and storms arise» (in the 52 original Latin text: «et ibi prope in monte supra Saint Chamon in puteo projectus; ubi, quando lapis proicitur, fumus inde egredi dicitur, de quo tempestas concitatur»). Fig. 45 - The excerpt on Pilate's burial place from Stephen of Bourbon's Tractatus de diversis materiis predicabilibus (manuscript Latin 15970, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, folium 180r) More storms are mentioned in further medieval works concerning the curse of Pontius Pilate. In a thirteenth-century anonymous commentary to the Speculum regum, written a century earlier by Godfrey of Viterbo, we find the following words: «His body was thrown into the river Tiber, but the demons put the town at risk with his corpse. For this reason Tiberius had his body taken off the river and brought near Amona [Vienne], where he was thrown into the river Rhône. But there, too, the demons raised many storms and hail around his corpse [...] The people took Pilate's body off the Rhône and, after having reached the mountains not far from Lausanne, in the proximity of Lucerne, hurled him into a marsh. And sure enough, when anybody throws an object, small as it may be, into the marsh [pit], at once storms and hail and lightnings and thunders hit the land». [In the original Latin text: «Mortuus repertus in Tiberim proiectus, et demones cum corpore suo multa pericula intulerunt in patria. Quare a Tiberi levatus et iuxta Amonam [Viennam] in Rodanum ductus est et projectus; ubi similiter demones multas tempestates et grandines iuxta corpus suum fecerunt [...] Ideo patrioti experti de corpore Pilati, de Rodano receperunt et in montanis circa Losoniam prope Lucernam in quandam paludem proiecerunt. Et certum est, quod quandocumque aliquis homo 53 aliquid quantumcumque parvum mittit in paludem [foveam], tunc in continenti fiunt tempestates, grandines, fulgura et tonitrua»]. Fig. 46 - Unquiet resting places for Pontius Pilate from manuscripts containing Godfrey of Viterbo's Speculum regum (from Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Tomus XXII Scriptorum, Hannover 1872, p. 71, transcription by George Waitz) The myth about the storms raised by the demons as they welcome the prefect's cursed body is ultimately set by the Legenda Aurea, written by Jacobus de Varagine at the end of the thirteenth century: «After having tied his dead body to a heavy weight, it was thrown into the river Tiber. But abominable, fiendish demons, rejoicing of that fiendish, abominable corpse, began to stir amazing waves, carrying it off now in the water and now in the air, and aroused lightnings, storms, thunders and hail up in the air so appallingly, that everybody was seized by a ghastly dread». [In the original Latin text: «Moli igitur ingenti alligatur et in Tyberim flumen immergitur. Spiritus vero maligni et sordidi corpori maligno et sordido congaudentes et nunc in aquis nunc in aere rapientes mirabiles indundationes in aquis movebant et fulgura, tempestates, tonitrua et grandines in aere terribiliter generabant, ita ut cuncti timore horribili tenerentur»]. According the Legenda Aurea, after a second plunge into the Rhône and a further burial in the territory of Lausanne, the dead body of Pontius Pilate ends up its ghastly travel into a pit lost amid the mountains, possibly the Alps, «from which people say that deceptive illusions created by the demons are visible in their agitation still today» (in the original Latin text: «ubi adhuc relatione quorundam quaedam dyabolicae machinationes ebullire videntur»). 54 Fig. 47 - Pontius Pilate's resting places from the Legenda Aurea (manuscript NAL 1747, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, folium 93v) We may tend to consider the agitation of the Lake of Pilate, as narrated by Antoine de la Sale, as a direct heir of the antique tradition concerning the burial place of the Roman prefect. However, this is not the case. As a matter of fact, the narrative relating to Pontius Pilate, featuring its own troubled burial places across Europe, just met a suitable place in Italy to attach to. Because the Lake located in the glacial cirque of Mount Vettore already had its own agitated waters, even before the legendary tale about Pilate came to settle there. We already saw that Petrus Berchorius' Reductorium Morale, written in the fourteenth century, provides a reference to the sinister Lake set in the Sibillini Mountain Range, without mentioning the name of Pontius Pilate at all. And demonic agitation in the waters, together with the devastating storms, is already present, in the ghastly framework of a ritual killing: «Each year that town [Norcia] sends a single man, a living man, beyond the walls that encircle the lake, as an offering to the demons, who immediately and in full view tear apart and slaughter that man; and people say that if the town does not comply, the country would be razed by the storms». 55 [In the original Latin text: «Civitas illa omni anno unum hominem vivum pro tributo infra ambitum murorum iuxta lacum ad daemones mittunt, qui statim visibiliter illum hominem lacerant et consumunt, quod (ut aiunt) si civitas non facet, patria tempestatibus deperiret»]. Fig. 48 - Demonic agitation in the waters of the Lake of Norcia taken as they appear in the Reductorium Morale by Petrus Berchorius (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Latin 16786, folium 301v) We will come back to Berchorius' gruesome description in a future paper; for the time being, it is manifest that our Lake is as unrestful as the many resting places assigned to Pontius Pilate by his ancient legend. However, here the unrestfulness needs no presence of any Roman prefect, because this small Italian Lake is already haunted by itself, and uses to generate its own tempests and devastation of the neighbouring land. That's what happens at the Lake set in the Sibillini Mountain Range. Does anything similar happens at the Sibyl's Cave, too? Apparently, no reference to such disturbances seems to have ever been written by any author with respect to the cavern in which the legendary Apennine Sibyl dwells. However, we have one. Let's see it in the following paragraph. 5.2 Devastation arising from the cavern Have legendary tempests and devastating storms ever originated from the Cave of the Apennine Sibyl, in today's Sibillini Mountain Range? 56 In the previous paragraph, we saw that this was the case for the Lake of Pilate, as attested by an ancient tradition. However, if we turn to the renowned cavern, we find no reference to such occurrences neither in Andrea da Barberino's romance Guerrino the Wretch, nor in Antoine de la Sale's account The Paradise of Queen Sibyl. Nonetheless, we do find mentions of tempests and storms in a later excerpt concerning that cavern set on the peak of Mount Sibyl. We read again from Crespetus' work, De la hayne de Satan et malins esprist contro l'homme, a book published in Paris in 1590 which contains extensive references to the Sibyl of Norcia: «The Pope has duly guarded the cavern where that Sibyl dwells, to prevent any communications with her, so that only wizards may have encounters with her out of their ability to become invisible; because when the Sibyl is addressed, by magicians or others, tempests and lightings unleash horribly on the whole territory». Fig. 49 - The excerpt on the tempests which raise from the Sibyl's Cave taken from De la hayne de Satan et malins esprist contro l'homme, by Pierre Crespet (Crespetus), published in Paris in 1590 (Livre I, Discours VI, p. 93-94) 57 [In the original French text: «Le Pape fait soigneusement garder la ditte carriere où est la ditte Sibylle, pour empescher la communication avec elle, & n'y a que ceux qui sont magiciens, & y peuvent invisiblement entrer qui la puissent aborder, à cause que quand on communique avec elle, soyt magicien ou autre, les tempestes & foudres s'esmouvent horriblement par tout le païs»]. Thus, the very same legendary occurrences which happen by the Lake of Pilate are attached to the sibilline myth as well. Necromancy and necromancers stir mighty powers from the bowels of the Sibyl's Cave, so that the neighboring land is endangered by the ruinous effects which ensue from the forbidden visits to the place. And to his own account Crespetus adds an additional reference to the magical, divine quality of such tempests and winds, which he says he draws from «Palingenius, an Italian poet»: «Heavenly Gods or maybe the stars themselves send those winds Often it happens that when a Wizard wants to find treasures hidden beneath the ground or consecrate his spellbook or by a sorcerous ritual subjugate some god to his will, I heard that winds raise, and sudden storms». [In the original Latin text: «Hos ventos vel Dii aerii vel sydera mittunt, Sepae etenim cum thesauros tellure latentes, Vult auferre Magus vel consecrare libellum, Vel magico ritu quemquam sibi subdere divum, Audivi exortum ventum, subitamque procellam»]. We will see that this supernatural character of winds, which Crespetus quotes from a sixteenth-century work, the Zodiacus Vitae by Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus, is to be considered as an important part of the legendary core of both the Sibyl's Cave and the Lake of Pilate. But we are going too far. 58 Fig. 50 - Supernaturally-raised winds from Zodiacus Vitae by Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus (edition printed in Basel, 1537, p. 357) For the time being, it is enough to note that the Sibyl's Cave, too, has its own storms, which are peculiarly generated by the action of necromancers, just like a well-established legendary tradition records as occurring at the Pilate's Lake. Another shared trait. Another similar character, the third, that the two sites have in common. In the enchanted land where the fastnesses of the Sibillini Mountain Range raise. 6. Treading the path to the the legendary core In our search of the true core of the legends concerning the Sibyl's Cave and the Lakes of Pilate, we have reached a further result of remarkable significance. A result that has never been duly highlighted in any earlier research work. 59 Both sites, set in the same fastnesses of the Sibillini Mountain Range, in Italy, a few miles apart from one another, share a few remarkable characters, actually at least three. First, the two of them were believed to be inhabited by legendary demonic presences. Second, the two of them beheld the performance of necromantic rituals, also involving the summoning of the local, mythical demons. And third, at both sites the disturbances stirred by necromancers were such that tempests and storms were raised, with devastating effects on the neighbouring land. All this is a strong hint towards some common origin and character which seem to mark both legends. Fig. 51 - Mount Sibyl As we already noted at the very beginning of the present article, the two legends that narrate of the Sibyl's Cave and the Lake of Pilate are usually considered as different, distinct myths, which by an odd chance seem to live only a few miles away from each other. In fact, at a first inspection there is no meaningful relation between a tale on a sibilline prophetess and sorceress who dwells within the eerie darkness of a Cave, and a narrative 60 on a Lake which contains the body of dead Pontius Pilate, together with scores of demons. But we have already made it clear that that Sibyl is the offspring and local representative of legendary Sebile, a typical character who appears in many chivalric poems and romances belonging to the Matter of Britain, a friend and necromantic companion of Morgan le Fay, with their apparel of hidden castles and captive knights; and that Pontius Pilate already has his own bimillennial legendary tale and burial places scattered across Europe, so that this specific Lake is nothing but an Italian version of that legend, and a local adaptation of it. Fig. 52 - The Lakes of Pilate When we take out the two superimposed legendary tales, namely the narrative layer concerning the Apennine Sibyl and the layer related to Pontius Pilate, we start to perceive the common characters. The two legends now appear to share the same basical traits: a mythical demonic presence; the performance of necromantic rituals; the winds, the tempests, the devastation. 61 We begin to get glimpses of the original, common core of the two legends. There is something with the Cave and Lake which has nothing to do with the Apennine Sibyl and Pontius Pilate. Some thing deeper. Some thing more ancient. We are gettin closer and closer to the true nucleus of the legends that inhabit the Sibillini Mountain Range, in Italy. However, our journey into the mystery which lies at the core is not ended yet. After having highlighted the three listed common traits, now we need to highlight a fourth shared aspect, which we have not yet mentioned. This is entryway. Entryway to the Otherworld. As we will see in the next series of articles. Michele Sanvico 62