§10.12.1πέτρα δέ ἐστιν ἀνίσχουσα ὑπὲρ τῆς γῆς· ἐπὶ ταύτῃ Δελφοὶ στᾶσάν φασιν ᾆσαι τοὺς χρησμοὺς γυναῖκα ὄνομα Ἡροφίλην, Σίβυλλαν δὲ ἐπίκλησιν.
There is a rock rising up above the ground; upon this, the Delphians say, a woman stood and sang her oracles, whose name was Herophile, but her surname was Sibyl.
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.
As for the one who lived before her, I found her to be as ancient as those who were the most ancient, whom the Greeks say was the daughter of Zeus and Lamia, the daughter of Poseidon, and they say she was the first of women to sing oracles and was named Sibyl by the Libyans.
§10.12.2ἡ 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.
But Herophile, though younger than she, yet clearly lived also before the Trojan war, and she foretold in her oracles that Helen would be nurtured in Sparta for the ruin of Asia and Europe, and that Ilium would be taken by the Greeks because of her.
Δήλιοι δὲ καὶ ὕμνον μέμνηνται τῆς γυναικὸς ἐς Ἀπόλλωνα.
And the Delians also remember a hymn of this woman to Apollo.
καλεῖ δὲ οὐχ Ἡροφίλην μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ Ἄρτεμιν ἐν τοῖς ἔπεσιν αὑτήν, καὶ Ἀπόλλωνος γυνὴ γαμετή, τοτὲ δὲ ἀδελφὴ καὶ αὖθις θυγάτηρ φησὶν εἶναι.
And she calls herself in her verses not only Herophile but also Artemis, and says she is the wedded wife of Apollo, and at one time his sister, and again his daughter.
§10.12.3ταῦτα 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.
These things indeed she composed when she was mad and possessed by the god; but in another part of her oracles she said that her mother was an immortal, one of the nymphs on Ida, and her father was a human, and her verses run thus: "And I am born midway between a mortal and a goddess, An immortal nymph, and on the other hand a fish-eating father, By my mother of Idaean birth, and my homeland is the red Marpessus, sacred to my mother, and the river Aidoneus.
" §10.12.4ἦν δὲ ἔτι καὶ νῦν ἐν τῇ Ἴδῃ τῇ Τρωικῇ πόλεως Μαρπήσσου τὰ ἐρείπια καὶ ἐν αὐτοῖς οἰκήτορες ὅσον ἑξήκοντα ἄνθρωποι·
"And there were still even now on the Trojan Ida the ruins of the city of Marpessus, and in them about sixty inhabitants; and all the land around Marpessus is reddish and terribly dry, so that even the river Aidoneus sinks into the earth and, rising again, suffers the same thing once more, and finally disappears underground.
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.
The cause of this, in my opinion, is that Ida is thin in this place and full of caverns.
ἀπέχει δὲ Ἀλεξανδρείας τῆς ἐν τῇ Τρῳάδι τεσσαράκοντα ἡ Μάρπησσος καὶ διακόσια στάδια.
And Marpessus is two hundred and forty stades distant from Alexandria in the Troad.
§10.12.5τὴν 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.
And the people in this Alexandria say that Herophile became a temple-keeper of Apollo Smintheus, and that she gave an oracle on the dream of Hecuba, which things indeed we know have been fulfilled.
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.
This Sibyl lived for the most part of her life in Samos, but she also came to Claros of the Colophonians, and to Delos, and to Delphi; and whenever she came, she stood upon this rock and sang.