Sibyl

For over 2000 years, people have turned to the words of the Roman poet Virgil for prophetic advice about their future. Indeed, so revered was he that Dante, writing his Divine Comedy, gave Virgil the part of the guide to the underworld. Virgil's most famous work, the epic poem 'Aeneid', was used by the Romans and medieval Europeans to determine their future by drawing the Sortes Virgilianae - the "Virgilian lottery" - by turning to a random page in his work and reading the passage their finger pointed to.

As a bonus, this app also includes the Sibylline Oracles. Legend tells us that the original nine Sibylline books were offered to a Roman king, but he refused to purchase them. The sibyl who offered the books burned three of them, then offered the other six to the king for the same price. He refused, and the sibyl burned three more then offered the remaining three to the king at the same price as all nine! This time the king relented, and bought the remaining books. Since then, anonymous Jews and Christians have written their own prophecies on the future, and our modern-day copy of the Sibylline Oracles provides a fascinating insight into the mythology of the early Christian church.

This app provides to you the same opportunity as the Romans, except now it's truly random: press a button and you'll be presented with one passage from the Aeneid or from the Sibylline Oracles. What does it mean? That's for you to decide, but if you don't like it just press the "burn it" button to get a new prophecy!

Please remember that this app is just for fun; these words were written 2000 years ago for a very different world.