The Cave of the Sibyl

According to the Roman poet Virgil, the entrance to the underworld lies inside the Cave of the Sibyl, a hole cut into the cliff that circumscribes Lake Avernus, a volcanic lake northwest of Naples, Italy.

Outside the sibyl's cave, you can see a sign carved into stone:



The quote is from Virgil's Aeneid, Book VI, verses 42-4

Excisum Euboicae latus ingens rupis in antrum,
quo lati ducunt aditus centum, ostia centum;
unde ruunt totidem voces, responsa Sibyllae.

John Dryden translates:

"Thro' the hill's hollow sides: before the place,
A hundred doors a hundred entries grace;
As many voices issue, and the sound
Of Sybil's words as many times rebound."

From E. Fairfax Taylor's version:

"Into the lofty temple now with speed,—
A huge cave hollowed in the mountain's side,—
The priestess calls the Teucrians. Thither lead
A hundred doors, a hundred entries wide,
A hundred voices from the rock inside
Peal forth, the Sibyl answering. "

The modern visitor is provided a map of the inner labyrinth:



Unfortunately, this map only charts the upper chambers of the cave, and does not include the netherworld below.

For that, you're advised to bring a well-worn copy of Dante's Inferno.

Shall we go inside?

Lake Avernus

In November 2005, I took a trip to Italy to research some of the places I was writing about in my novel, Devil's Lair.

I had been to Rome the year before, researching my first book, Valentino: a play in verse.

On this second trip, I went to Florence, Naples, Venice, and Padua, but more importantly I needed to visit Lake Avernus and the Cave of the Sibyl.

Lake Avernus is a volcanic crater lake near Naples.

For the ancient Romans, this was the entrance to Hades, and "Avernus" was another name for the underworld. The name means "without birds." It was thought that the smell of brimstone rising from the lake was so poisonous that birds would not fly over it.

In Virgil's Aeneid, Aeneas enters the underworld through the Cave of the Sibyl at Lake Avernus.

In Dante's Inferno, the pilgrim Dante is lost in a dark wood and enters hell through an unidentified cave.

In Devil's Lair, Giovanni Boccaccio identifies Dante's entrance with Virgil's, and leads his pilgrims south to Lake Avernus, where they hope to find and enter the gate of hell.

The entrance is described as "...a trapezoidal slit that looked like a keyhole in the crater."

Actually, it looks like this:



Next, we'll go inside...