Miscellanies 1.21.108
Summary: The Sibyl, of whom there were several, is older than Orpheus.
Greek text · Stählin 2:69–70
Καὶ οὔτι γε μόνος οὗτος, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡ Σίβυλλα Ὀρφέως παλαιοτέρα· λέγονται γὰρ καὶ περὶ τῆς ἐπωνυμίας αὐτῆς καὶ περὶ τῶν χρησμῶν τῶν καταπεφημισμένων ἐκείνης εἶναι λόγοι πλείους, Φρυγίαν τε οὖσαν κεκλῆσθαι Ἄρτεμιν καὶ ταύτην παραγενομένην εἰς Δελφοὺς ᾆσαι· ὦ Δελφοί, θεράποντες ἑκηβόλου Ἀπόλλωνος, ἦλθον ἐγὼ χρήσουσα Διὸς νόον αἰγιόχοιο, αὐτοκασιγνήτῳ κεχολωμένη Ἀπόλλωνι. ἔστι δὲ καὶ ἄλλη Ἐρυθραία Ἡροφίλη καλουμένη· μέμνηται τούτων Ἡρακλείδης ὁ Ποντικὸς ἐν τῷ Περὶ χρηστηρίων. ἐῶ δὲ τὴν Αἰγυπτίαν καὶ τὴν Ἰταλήν, ἣ τὸ ἐν Ῥώμῃ Κάρμαλον ᾤκησεν, ἧς υἱὸς Εὔανδρος ὁ τὸ ἐν Ῥώμῃ τοῦ Πανὸς ἱερὸν τὸ Λουπέρκιον καλούμενον κτίσας.
English · Claude translation
Not only he, but the Sibyl too is older than Orpheus. For there are several accounts of her name and of the oracles attributed to her: that, being a Phrygian, she was called Artemis, and that she came to Delphi and sang: “O Delphians, servants of far-shooting Apollo, I have come to declare the mind of aegis-bearing Zeus, angry with my own brother Apollo.” There is also another, the Erythraean, called Herophile; Heraclides of Pontus mentions them in his work On Oracles. I pass over the Egyptian and the Italian, who lived in the Carmalum at Rome, whose son Evander founded at Rome the shrine of Pan called the Lupercal.
About this passage
Notes
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (wrong accent on the relative ἣ): καὶ τὴν Ἰταλήν, ἥ τὸ ἐν Ῥώμῃ → καὶ τὴν Ἰταλήν, ἣ τὸ ἐν Ῥώμῃ.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.21.108 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/21/108/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.21.108 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/21/108/).
Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)
Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text