Octavian counters that only some people believe that the books burned, but Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano would not authorize a quest (because she is not stupid, according to Hazel). However, it is widely believed the books burned when Rome fell. Hazel Levesque then explains to Percy that the Sibylline Books are books of prophecy and that ancient Rome would consult them whenever there were any major disasters. Octavian, the augur, remarks that the idea of an Oracle was cute because the camp has never had one. The Sibylline Books are first mentioned when Percy Jackson asks if Camp Jupiter had an Oracle so they could be given a prophecy. The three books were placed in a temple and called 'the Sibylline Books'.Įlla the harpy, only known reader of the books. It is also agreed on that after that woman had departed from him she was never seen in any place again. Tarquin's face suddenly grew grave and his mind more attentive, and he began to understand that her steadfastness and audacity was not to be spurned wherefore he purchased the three remaining books for no smaller a price than that which had been sought for all of them. At that very instant, she immediately burned three others and calmly asked him again to buy the remaining three for that same price. But Tarquin only laughed more, saying that the old woman was without a doubt insane. At which she brought forth a lit brazier before him, burned three of the books, and asked the king again whether he wished to purchase the remaining six for the same price. The king, as if the woman had grown foolish in her old age, merely derided her. Tarquin asked the price, whereupon the woman demanded an excessive and immense amount of money. An old woman once approached Tarquinius Superbus as a guest bearing nine books, which she claimed to contain divine oracles she desired to sell them. In the ancient texts, the history of the Sibylline Books is related thus. The Cumaean Sibyl, author of the Sibylline Books

The dark prophecy book without cover