Between the Marche and Umbria rises a mountain range whose name preserves the memory of a prophetess: the Sibillini Mountains. Here, according to a tradition that ran through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the Apennine Sibyl lived in a cave, queen of an underground realm of delights and enchantments. Not far away, at the foot of Monte Vettore, a small glacial lake was believed to be the tomb of Pontius Pilate and a destination for necromancers. Two neighbouring legends, which have made these mountains among the most evocative places in the Italian imagination.
The Sibyl and her cave
On the summit of Monte Sibilla there was a cavity that tradition identified as the entrance to the prophetess's realm. In the ancient world sibyls were inspired women who uttered oracles; the Middle Ages inherited the figure and transformed it. The Sibyl of the Umbrian-Marchigian mountains is no longer just a seer but a fairy queen, surrounded by maidens, mistress of an underground palace where time flows differently.
Whoever entered her realm, the legends said, found pleasures and riches, but risked never being able to return. The motif of the enchanted kingdom from which one comes out changed, or does not come out at all, is ancient and widespread throughout Europe.
Guerrin Meschino
The legend spread extraordinarily thanks to Guerrin Meschino, a chivalric romance written by Andrea da Barberino at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The hero, a knight in search of his origins, reaches the Sibyl's cave to ask her about his parents. He resists the seductions of the realm and, after a long stay, manages to leave.
The romance was hugely successful and was read and reprinted for centuries: for generations of readers the Sibyl of the mountains was first and foremost Guerrino's Sibyl.
Antoine de La Sale's journey
In 1420 the French man of letters Antoine de La Sale climbed up to the cave and left an account of it, later collected in the work known as The Paradise of Queen Sibyl. He describes the entrance, the inscriptions and the stories told by local people, including that of a German knight who was said to have entered the realm. The text is precious because it combines direct observation of the places with a record of local traditions.
Many scholars have noted the similarity between the legend of the Sibyl and the German legend of the Venusberg, the mountain of Venus entered by the knight Tannhäuser. The precise relationship between the two traditions is debated, but the thematic kinship is clear.
Lake Pilato
Beneath the cliffs of Monte Vettore lies a small high-altitude lake which, when the water is low, splits into two basins and takes the shape of a pair of spectacles. Its traditional name is Lake Pilato.
The legend tells that after his death the body of Pontius Pilate was shut in a cart drawn by oxen that were left free to go wherever they wished. Running without a driver, the animals reached the Sibillini and threw themselves into the lake with their load. Ever since, the waters were thought to be inhabited by restless forces.
The necromancers
Because of this reputation the lake became a destination for those who practised the magical arts. It was believed to be a fitting place to consecrate books of magic and summon spirits. The local authorities, those of Norcia in particular, long tried to keep necromancers away, with surveillance and severe penalties, partly because it was feared that their practices would unleash storms on the fields and pastures.
The fame of these mountains reached the learned Renaissance: in his Autobiography Benvenuto Cellini recalls a necromancer who proposed going to the mountains of Norcia to consecrate a book.
A real lake, a unique ecosystem
Leaving legend aside, Lake Pilato is also a precious natural site. Its waters are home to Marchesoni's fairy shrimp, a small crustacean that lives only here. To protect it, access to the shores is regulated. It is a curious case in which a place considered for centuries to be haunted by mysterious presences really does harbour a creature that exists nowhere else in the world.
What these legends tell us
The traditions of the Sibillini show some recurring themes of European folklore.
- The mountain as threshold. Peaks and caves were perceived as points of contact between the human world and an elsewhere.
- The underground realm. The Sibyl's paradise is a variant of the fairy world, a place of pleasure and danger.
- The cursed place. Lake Pilato concentrates the memory of a guilt and projects it onto the landscape.
- The border between learned and popular magic. Novelists, travellers, necromancers and shepherds built the same legend together.
In short
- The Sibillini Mountains owe their name to the legend of a Sibyl, queen of an underground realm.
- Andrea da Barberino's Guerrin Meschino spread the legend for centuries.
- Antoine de La Sale visited the cave in 1420 and left an account of it.
- Lake Pilato was believed to be the tomb of Pontius Pilate and a destination for necromancers.
- The lake is home to Marchesoni's fairy shrimp, a crustacean found only there.
