πέτρα δέ ἐστιν ἀνίσχουσα ὑπὲρ τῆς γῆς· ἐπὶ ταύτῃ Δελφοὶ στᾶσάν φασιν ᾆσαι τοὺς χρησμοὺς γυναῖκα ὄνομα Ἡροφίλην, Σίβυλλαν δὲ ἐπίκλησιν. τὴν δὲ πρότερον γενομένην, ταύτην ταῖς μάλιστα ὁμοίως οὖσαν ἀρχαίαν εὕρισκον, ἣν θυγατέρα Ἕλληνες Διὸς καὶ Λαμίας τῆς Ποσειδῶνός φασιν εἶναι, καὶ χρησμούς τε αὐτὴν γυναικῶν πρώτην ᾆσαι καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν Λιβύων Σίβυλλαν λέγουσιν ὀνομασθῆναι.
ἡ δὲ Ἡροφίλη νεωτέρα μὲν ἐκείνης, φαίνεται δὲ ὅμως πρὸ τοῦ πολέμου γεγονυῖα καὶ αὕτη τοῦ Τρωικοῦ, καὶ Ἑλένην τε προεδήλωσεν ἐν τοῖς χρησμοῖς, ὡς ἐπʼ ὀλέθρῳ τῆς Ἀσίας καὶ Εὐρώπης τραφήσοιτο ἐν Σπάρτῃ, καὶ ὡς Ἴλιον ἁλώσεται διʼ αὐτὴν ὑπὸ Ἑλλήνων. Δήλιοι δὲ καὶ ὕμνον μέμνηνται τῆς γυναικὸς ἐς Ἀπόλλωνα. καλεῖ δὲ οὐχ Ἡροφίλην μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ Ἄρτεμιν ἐν τοῖς ἔπεσιν αὑτήν, καὶ Ἀπόλλωνος γυνὴ γαμετή, τοτὲ δὲ ἀδελφὴ καὶ αὖθις θυγάτηρ φησὶν εἶναι.
ταῦτα μὲν δὴ μαινομένη τε καὶ ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ κάτοχος πεποίηκεν· ἑτέρωθι δὲ εἶπε τῶν χρησμῶν ὡς μητρὸς μὲν ἀθανάτης εἴη μιᾶς τῶν ἐν Ἴδῃ νυμφῶν, πατρὸς δὲ ἀνθρώπου, καὶ οὕτω λέγει τὰ ἔπη· εἰμὶ δʼ ἐγὼ γεγαυῖα μέσον θνητοῦ τε θεᾶς τε, / νύμφης ἀθανάτης, πατρὸς δʼ αὖ κητοφάγοιο, / μητρόθεν Ἰδογενής, πατρὶς δέ μοί ἐστιν ἐρυθρή / Μάρπησσος, μητρὸς ἱερή, ποταμός τʼ Ἀιδωνεύς. /
ἦν δὲ ἔτι καὶ νῦν ἐν τῇ Ἴδῃ τῇ Τρωικῇ πόλεως Μαρπήσσου τὰ ἐρείπια καὶ ἐν αὐτοῖς οἰκήτορες ὅσον ἑξήκοντα ἄνθρωποι· ὑπέρυθρος δὲ πᾶσα ἡ περὶ τὴν Μάρπησσον γῆ καὶ δεινῶς ἐστιν αὐχμώδης, ὥστε καὶ τῷ Ἀϊδωνεῖ ποταμῷ καταδύεσθαί τε ἐς τὴν χώραν καὶ ἀνασχόντι τὸ αὐτὸ αὖθις πάσχειν, τέλος δὲ καὶ ἀφανίζεσθαι κατὰ τῆς γῆς, αἴτιον ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν ἐστιν ὅτι λεπτή τε κατὰ τοῦτο καὶ σηραγγώδης ἐστὶν ἡ Ἴδη. ἀπέχει δὲ Ἀλεξανδρείας τῆς ἐν τῇ Τρῳάδι τεσσαράκοντα ἡ Μάρπησσος καὶ διακόσια στάδια.
τὴν δὲ Ἡροφίλην οἱ ἐν τῇ Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ ταύτῃ νεωκόρον τε τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος γενέσθαι τοῦ Σμινθέως καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνείρατι τῷ Ἑκάβης χρῆσαί φασιν αὐτὴν ἃ δὴ καὶ ἐπιτελεσθέντα ἴσμεν. αὕτη ἡ Σίβυλλα ᾤκησε μὲν τὸ πολὺ τοῦ βίου ἐν Σάμῳ, ἀφίκετο δὲ καὶ ἐς Κλάρον τὴν Κολοφωνίων καὶ ἐς Δῆλόν τε καὶ ἐς Δελφούς· ὁπότε δὲ ἀφίκοιτο, ἐπὶ ταύτης ἱσταμένη τῆς πέτρας ᾖδε.
τὸ μέντοι χρεὼν αὐτὴν ἐπέλαβεν ἐν τῇ Τρῳάδι, καί οἱ τὸ μνῆμα ἐν τῷ ἄλσει τοῦ Σμινθέως ἐστὶ καὶ ἐλεγεῖον ἐπὶ τῆς στήλης· ἅδʼ ἐγὼ ἁ Φοίβοιο σαφηγορίς εἰμι Σίβυλλα / τῷδʼ ὑπὸ λαϊνέῳ σάματι κευθομένα, / παρθένος αὐδάεσσα τὸ πρίν, νῦν δʼ αἰὲν ἄναυδος, / μοίρᾳ ὑπὸ στιβαρᾷ τάνδε λαχοῦσα πέδαν. / ἀλλὰ πέλας Νύμφαισι καὶ Ἑρμῇ τῷδʼ ὑπόκειμαι, / μοῖραν ἔχοισα κάτω τᾶς τότʼ ἀνακτορίας. / ὁ μὲν δὴ παρὰ τὸ μνῆμα ἕστηκεν Ἑρμῆς λίθου τετράγωνον σχῆμα· ἐξ ἀριστερᾶς δὲ ὕδωρ τε κατερχόμενον ἐς κρήνην καὶ τῶν Νυμφῶν ἐστι τὰ ἀγάλματα.
Ἐρυθραῖοι δὲ—ἀμφισβητοῦσι γὰρ τῆς Ἡροφίλης προθυμότατα Ἑλλήνων—Κώρυκόν τε καλούμενον ὄρος καὶ ἐν τῷ ὄρει σπήλαιον ἀποφαίνουσι, τεχθῆναι τὴν Ἡροφίλην ἐν αὐτῷ λέγοντες, Θεοδώρου δὲ ἐπιχωρίου ποιμένος καὶ νύμφης παῖδα εἶναι· Ἰδαίαν δὲ ἐπίκλησιν γενέσθαι τῇ νύμφῃ κατʼ ἄλλο μὲν οὐδέν, τῶν δὲ χωρίων τὰ δασέα ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἴδας τότε ὀνομάζεσθαι. τὸ δὲ ἔπος τὸ ἐς τὴν Μάρπησσον καὶ τὸν ποταμὸν τὸν Ἀϊδωνέα, τοῦτο οἱ Ἐρυθραῖοι τὸ ἔπος ἀφαιροῦσιν ἀπὸ τῶν χρησμῶν.
τὴν δὲ ἐπὶ ταύτῃ χρησμοὺς κατὰ ταὐτὰ εἰποῦσαν ἐκ Κύμης τῆς ἐν Ὀπικοῖς εἶναι, καλεῖσθαι δὲ Δημὼ συνέγραψεν Ὑπέροχος ἀνὴρ Κυμαῖος. χρησμὸν δὲ οἱ Κυμαῖοι τῆς γυναικὸς ταύτης οὐδένα εἶχον ἐπιδείξασθαι, λίθου δὲ ὑδρίαν ἐν Ἀπόλλωνος ἱερῷ δεικνύουσιν οὐ μεγάλην, τῆς Σιβύλλης ἐνταῦθα κεῖσθαι φάμενοι τὰ ὀστᾶ.
ἐπετράφη δὲ καὶ ὕστερον τῆς Δημοῦς παρʼ Ἑβραίοις τοῖς ὑπὲρ τῆς Παλαιστίνης γυνὴ χρησμολόγος, ὄνομα δὲ αὐτῇ Σάββη· Βηρόσου δὲ εἶναι πατρὸς καὶ Ἐρυμάνθης μητρός φασι Σάββην· οἱ δὲ αὐτὴν Βαβυλωνίαν, ἕτεροι δὲ Σίβυλλαν καλοῦσιν Αἰγυπτίαν.
Φαεννὶς δὲ θυγάτηρ βασιλεύσαντος ἀνδρὸς ἐν Χάοσι καὶ αἱ Πέλειαι παρὰ Δωδωναίοις ἐμαντεύσαντο μὲν ἐκ θεοῦ καὶ αὗται, Σίβυλλαι δὲ ὑπὸ ἀνθρώπων οὐκ ἐκλήθησαν. τῆς μὲν δὴ πυθέσθαι τὴν ἡλικίαν καὶ ἐπιλέξασθαι τοὺς χρησμούς Ἀντιόχου γὰρ μετὰ τὸ ἁλῶναι Δημήτριον αὐτίκα ἐς τὴν ἀρχὴν καθισταμένου γέγονε Φαεννίς. τὰς Πελειάδας δὲ Φημονόης τε ἔτι προτέρας γενέσθαι λέγουσι καὶ ᾆσαι γυναικῶν πρώτας τάδε τὰ ἔπη· Ζεὺς ἦν, Ζεὺς ἐστίν, Ζεὺς ἔσσεται· ὦ μεγάλε Ζεῦ. / Γᾶ καρποὺς ἀνίει, διὸ κλῄζετε Ματέρα γαῖαν. /
χρησμολόγους δὲ ἄνδρας Κύπριόν τε Εὔκλουν καὶ Ἀθηναίους Μουσαῖον τὸν Ἀντιοφήμου καὶ Λύκον τὸν Πανδίονος, τούτους τε γενέσθαι καὶ ἐκ Βοιωτίας Βάκιν φασὶ κατάσχετον ἄνδρα ἐκ νυμφῶν· τούτων πλὴν Λύκου τῶν ἄλλων ἐπελεξάμην τοὺς χρησμούς. τοσαῦται μὲν ἄχρι ἐμοῦ λέγονται γυναῖκες καὶ ἄνδρες ἐκ θεοῦ μαντεύσασθαι· ἐν δὲ τῷ χρόνῳ τῷ πολλῷ καὶ αὖθις γένοιτο ἂν ἕτερα τοιαῦτα.
There is a rock rising above the ground. The Delphians say that on this rock Herophile, surnamed Sibyl, used to stand and chant her oracles. . . . The earlier Sibyl belonged, I find, to the most ancient times. She is said by the Greeks to have been a daughter of Zeus and Lamia, daughter of Poseidon, and to have been the first woman who chanted oracles ; and they say that she was named Sibyl by the Libyans. Herophile was younger, but still even she is known to have been born before the Trojan war ; and she foretold in her oracles that Helen would grow up at Sparta to be the bane of Asia and Europe, and that Ilium would be taken by the Greeks on her account. The Delians remember a hymn which she composed on Apollo, and in which she calls herself not only Herophile, but likewise Artemis ; also she says sometimes that she is Apollo’s wedded wife, sometimes that she is his sister, or again his daughter. These poetical statements she made under the influence of frenzy and the inspiration of the god. But elsewhere in her oracles she says that her mother was an immortal, one of the nymphs of Ida, but that her father was a man. The verses run thus :— By birth I am half a mortal and half a goddess, For my mother was an immortal nymph, but my father was a corn-eating man. By my mother’s side I am Ida-born, but my fatherland was red Marpessus (sacred to the Mother) and the river Aidoneus.
On Trojan Ida there are still ruins of the city of Marpessus with a population of about sixty souls. The soil of the country all round about Marpessus is reddish and exceedingly parched ; and the fine and porous nature of the soil in this part of Ida is, as it seems to me, the cause why the river Aidoneus sinks into the earth, and rises again only to sink again till it finally disappears underground. Marpessus is distant two hundred and forty furlongs from Alexandria in the Troad.
The people of this city of Alexandria say that Herophile was keeper of the temple of Sminthian Apollo, and that, in reference to Hecuba’s dream, she predicted in an oracle the things which we know came to pass. This Sibyl dwelt most of her life in Samos, but she also came to Clarus in the district of Colophon, and to Delos, and to Delphi; and whenever she came to Delphi, she used to stand on this rock and sing. However, she died in the Troad, and her tomb is in the grove of the Sminthian god with an elegiac inscription on the monument :— Here am I, the plain-speaking Sibyl of Phoebus, Hidden under this tomb of stone ; A voiceful maiden once, now voiceless for ever, Here fettered by strong fate. But I lie under the sod near the Nymphs and this Hermes, As a reward for having kept the temple of the Far-Shooting god. The Hermes stands beside the tomb: it is a stone figure of the square shape. On the left there is water falling into a basin and images of the nymphs.
The Erythraeans, who urge their claim to Herophile with more warmth than any other Greek people, point to a Mount Corycus and a cave in it, in which they say that Herophile was born, she being a child of Theodorus, a shepherd of the country, and a nymph. The only reason, say they, why the nymph got the surname of Idaean was that wooded places were called in those days idai. They strike out of the oracles the verse about Marpessus and the river Aidoneus. The next woman who similarly gave oracles is said by the historian Hyperochus of Cumae to have been a native of Cumae, in the land of the Opici, and to have been called Demo. The Cumaeans have no oracle of hers to produce, but they point to a small stone urn in a sanctuary of Apollo, alleging that in it are deposited the bones of the Sibyl.
After the time of Demo there lived amongst the Hebrews who dwell above Palestine a prophetess of the name of Sabbe: they say that her father was Berosus, and her mother Erymanthe ; but some call her a Babylonian, others an Egyptian Sibyl. Phaennis, daughter of a king of the Chaonians, and the Peleae (‘doves’) at Dodona, also prophesied by divine inspiration, but were not called Sibyls. To ascertain the date of Phaennis and read her oracles . . . for Phaennis was born at the time when Antiochus came to the throne immediately after the capture of Demetrius. But the Peleads (‘doves’), they say, were still older than Phemonoe, and were the first women who sang these verses :— Zeus was, Zeus is, Zeus shall be: O great Zeus! The Earth yields fruits, therefore glorify mother Earth. They say that there have been the following prophetic men: Euclus, a Cyprian; Musaeus, an Athenian, son of Antiophemus ; Lycus, son of Pandion ; and a Boeotian Bacis who was possessed by the nymphs. I have read the oracle of all of them except Lycus. Such is the list of women and men down to my time who are said to have prophesied by the inspiration of God. But in the long course of time such things may happen again.
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