Sibyl rock
This is an outcropping of rock on the site of Delphi, standing just to the south of the Polygonal Wall. Pausanias, a visitor to the site in the 2nd century C.E., writes in his travel log, "There is a rock rising up above the ground. The Delphians say a woman stood there and chanted the oracles. Her name was Herophile, whose surname was Sibyl. I find that she was the previous Sibyl, just as ancient as any other, whom the Greeks say to be a daughter of Zeus by Lamia, daughter of Poseidon, and the first woman to chant oracles. They also say that she was named Sibyl by the Libyans." [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.]
References
- Pausanias, 10.12.1.
