In some studies, the phrase "know thyself" (γνῶθι σεαυτόν), found inscribed at the entrance to theTemple of Apollo at Delphi, has been attributed to her. Some writers seem to have placed her atDelos instead of Delphi;[4] andServius identifies her with theCumaean Sibyl.[5] The tradition which ascribed to her the invention of the hexameter, was by no means uniform;Pausanias, for example, as quoted above, calls her the first who used it, but in another passage[6] he quotes an hexameterdistich, which was ascribed to thePeleiades, who lived before Phemonoe: the traditions respecting the invention of the hexameter are collected by Fabricius.[7] There were poems which went under the name of Phemonoe, like the old religious poems which were ascribed toOrpheus,Musaeus, and the other mythologicalbards.Melampus, for example, quotes from her in his bookPeri Palmon Mantike ("On Twitches") §17, §18;[8] andPliny quotes from her respecting eagles and hawks, evidently from some book ofaugury, and perhaps from a work which is still extant in MS., entitledOrneosophium.[9] There is anepigram ofAntipater of Thessalonica, alluding to a statue of Phemonoe, dressed in apharos.[10]
^Pausanias 10.5.7, 10.6.7; Strabo, 9 p. 419; Pliny the Elder, H. N. 7.57; Clement of Alexandria,Stromata i. pp. 323, 334; Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 1094; Eustathius Prol. ad Iliad.; and other authors cited by Fabricius.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Smith, Philip (1870)."Phemonoe". InSmith, William (ed.).Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 3. p. 256.