A Time Before the Oracles

Long before the famous Oracle of Delphi in Greece, there were the Sibyls — women revered for their prophetic powers and ancestral wisdom. Unlike the Delphic oracle, who was tied to the temple of Apollo and managed by priests, the Sibyls were independent seers. Ancient writers described them as women from tribal cultures of Anatolia, Greece, and Italy, whose voices carried both divine authority and political weight.

They emerged across the Mediterranean world, embodying the raw, feminine force of intuition passed from mother to daughter — a lineage outside male-dominated priesthoods.

Origins of the Sibyls

The earliest reference to the Sibyls comes from Heraclitus (6th century BCE), who described “a woman raving in frenzy” whose inspired words would endure for a thousand years. By the Hellenistic and Roman periods, authors such as Plato, Varro, and Plutarch recorded multiple Sibyls, each tied to a specific sacred place.

Two of the most important Sibyls came from Anatolia (modern-day Turkey):

• The Erythraean Sibyl (from Ionia) — said to have predicted the Trojan War and, later, the coming of Christ. Early Christian writers such as Lactantius cited her verses to prove the truth of Christian prophecy.

• The Phrygian Sibyl (from the Anatolian highlands) — associated with the cult of Cybele, the Great Mother, showing how early matriarchal and tribal traditions informed prophetic traditions later absorbed into Greece and Rome.

These origins suggest that prophecy in the Mediterranean was first shaped by tribal and matrilineal cultures, where women were recognized as the keepers of sacred foresight.

The Sibyls in the Sistine Chapel

Even the Catholic Church, which often sought to silence feminine spiritual authority, could not erase the Sibyls. When Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508–1512), he placed five Sibyls alongside the male prophets. Their inclusion signalled their continuing importance in Western thought.

Among them were:

The Delphic Sibyl (Greece)

The Erythraean Sibyl (Turkey)

The Cumaean Sibyl (Italy)

Painted with muscular strength and monumental presence, they stand as equals beside Old Testament men — a striking reminder that women’s intuition and prophecy were too essential to be erased, even by the institutional Church.

Intuition as a Sacred Legacy

The Sibyls were valued as political and religious authorities. Roman leaders consulted their writings — the Sibylline Books — in moments of crisis, treating their words as state-level guidance. This demonstrates how feminine foresight shaped the fate of nations.

Their knowledge was understood to pass maternally, from mother to daughter, echoing older tribal traditions. As historian H.W. Parke notes in Sibyls and Sibylline Prophecy in Classical Antiquity (1988), the Sibyls embodied “a lineage of inspired women, preserved outside the control of priesthoods.”

For early Christians, the Sibyls became proof that women had long foreseen the arrival of Christ. The Erythraean Sibyl’s acrostic prophecy was cited by Augustine and others as divine testimony — a striking example of how even patriarchal religions relied on women’s prophetic voices when it served them.

The Bow Jewelry: Honoring the Sibyls with Quartz

The Sibyls show us that intuition was once a recognized and indispensable power, carried through feminine lineage. To honour this power, The Bow Jewelry is creating a new collection in silver and quartz.

Quartz is associated with clarity, amplification, and intuition. In this collection, ear cuffs set with quartz serve as talismans — wearable reminders to trust the inner voice that once guided queens, cities, and empires.

Adornment becomes a modern echo of feminine foresight.

Echoes of Prophecy

The Sibyls remind us that intuition is an ancient, feminine force that guided history itself. Their voices, recorded by philosophers, emperors, and even painted on the ceiling of the Vatican, prove that feminine prophecy was once indispensable.

This collection is a reminder that intuition is our inheritance, and listening to it connects us back to the sacred feminine energy that once shaped civilizations.