The Sibyl’s Leaves

A prophecy scattered by wind and a vision slipping from memory

A message can be true and still fail to reach its hearer intact. Helenus warns that the Sibyl’s written leaves can lose their order, and Aeneas asks her to speak instead. Dante recalls their scattering when his vision exceeds what memory can keep.

1. Aeneid 3.441–452
2. Aeneid 6.71–76
3. Paradiso 33.58–66