the name of the Cumasan Sibyl, who offered to Tarquinius Superbus nine books containing the Roman destinies, and demanded 300 pieces of gold as their price. The monarch disregarding her demand, she threw three of them into the fire, and returning asked the same price for the remaining six; which being also denied, she burnt three more, and returning demanded the same price for the three that were left. Tarquin, astonished at her behaviour, consulted the pontiffs, who advised him to buy them. These books were so highly esteemed, that two magistrates (duumviri) were created to consult them upon extraordinary occasions.—See Roman History, xix.

in Pagan Mythology, daughter of Melissa, king of Crete, and nurse of Jupiter, whom she fed with honey and goats' milk. According to others, Amalthea was a goat, which Jupiter translated into the sky, with her two kids, and gave one of her horns to the daughters of Melissa, as a reward for their care over his infant years. This horn had the peculiar property of furnishing them with whatever they wished for, and was thence called the cornu copiae, or horn of plenty.