The Sibyl of Cumae

4x5" solar etching, edition of 60. This is an illustration of the epigraph of T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land." The Sibyl of Cumae was a powerful prophet who lived in a cave on the shores of Italy and wrote her visions on leaves. She was granted immortality by Apollo, but not eternal youth. With age, her power declined, her body became decrepit, but she couldn't die. The epigraph, which is from Petronius's SATYRICON translates, "For once I myself saw with my own eyes the Sibyl at Cumae hanging in a cage, and when the boys said to her, 'Sibyl, what do you want?' she replied, 'I want to die.'