She was said to have been the daughter of Apollo, his first priestess at Delphi,[2] or of his possible son Delphus, and the inventor of the hexameter verses, a type of poetic metre.
[3] In some studies, the phrase "know thyself" (γνῶθι σεαυτόν), found inscribed at the entrance to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, has been attributed to her.
Some writers seem to have placed her at Delos instead of Delphi;[4] and Servius identifies her with the Cumaean Sibyl.
Melampus, for example, quotes from her in his book Peri Palmon Mantike ("On Twitches") §17, §18;[8] and Pliny quotes from her respecting eagles and hawks, evidently from some book of augury, and perhaps from a work which is still extant in MS., entitled Orneosophium.
[9] There is an epigram of Antipater of Thessalonica, alluding to a statue of Phemonoe, dressed in a pharos.