The Sibyl: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Sibyl: Analysis of Major Characters" explores the intricate relationships and profound themes surrounding the character of the Sibyl, an oracle at Delphi, and her interactions with significant figures in her life. The Sibyl, an old woman who served a dual role as the bride of a Delphic god, struggles with her identity after violating her oracle duties through a passionate affair with a mortal man. This relationship ends tragically, leading to the birth of a son, who represents a divine lineage. The narrative also introduces Ahasuerus, known as the Wandering Jew, who seeks wisdom from the Sibyl but leaves with more questions about life’s mysteries. Her son, conceived during a prophetic trance, ultimately disappears, suggesting themes of ascension and loss. Other characters, including her lover, parents, and the priest of the temple, further enrich the story, reflecting the Sibyl's isolation and the burdens of her prophetic role. This analysis delves into how these characters embody the complexities of desire, destiny, and the intertwining of divine and human experiences.
The Sibyl: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Pär Lagerkvist
First published: Sibyllan, 1956 (English translation, 1958)
Genre: Novel
Locale: Delphi
Plot: Philosophical
Time: The second century a.d. (well after Christ's crucifixion and before the decline of the Delphic oracle in the late third century)
The Sibyl, an old woman who occupied the position of pythia, or oracle, at Delphi. She was given by her parents into the service of the Delphic god of prophecy, who, in this story, is a combination of Apollo (represented by serpents) and Dionysus (represented by goats). Having spent her adolescence and much of her young womanhood as the bride of the god, she violates her office by having sexual union with a man whom she loves. The man very shortly meets his death, and the Sibyl gives birth, not to his son, as she had expected, but to the son of the Delphic god. She listens to the story of a male visitor to her mountain hut and then relates her own story, while her son, now an aging idiot, sits silent and perpetually smiling in her presence.
The Sibyl's visitor, a man with the features of early middle age who is recognizable in the story of himself that he relates to the Sibyl as Ahasuerus (ah-hah-sew-AY-ruhs), The Wandering Jew. He had had a wife and son in the city of his birth. One day, he refused to let a man, who was carrying a cross, rest against his house. The man, whom people later identified as God's son, laid on Ahasuerus the curse of eternal life without rest. Ahasuerus seeks from the Sibyl advice and an answer to the mystery of life and the inscrutability of the deity. Her story impresses him but does not lessen his perplexity, and he departs from her to continue his endless wandering.
The Sibyl's son, who is to be understood as a son of God. He was conceived by the Sibyl during one of her prophetic trances, when she was invaded by the temple god in the form of a goat. The Sibyl, expelled from the temple for her infidelity to the god, later gives birth to her son in a mountain cave. She is attended by protective goats, who lick clean the newborn boy and his mother. While his mother tells the visitor her story, the son disappears. The Sibyl and her visitor track him by his footprints in the snow. The footprints come to a stop in an open space, and the conclusion is that this son of God has ascended to his Father.
The Sibyl's lover, a man of twenty-five or thirty who has lost one arm as a soldier and has returned to do his family farming. His inability to complete an embrace and his shock at the Sibyl's excessive sensuality combine to indicate the Sibyl's destiny never to live with a human mate. After he and the Sibyl have entered into their affair, he is found dead in the rapids of a river; he is drained of blood but without visible wounds, and he is clutching a twig of the tree sacred to the Delphic god, the laurel.
The Sibyl's parents, simple farming people. Both die—first the mother, then the father—while the Sibyl serves as the pythia.
The little servant of the oracle, the custodian of the temple and its precinct and the Sibyl's only true friend.
The priest of the temple, an unpleasant man. He is often impatient with the Sibyl in her duties as the pythia.