I have taken notice of several cities called Omphalian, and have observed, that they generally had oracular temples: but by the Greeks they were universally supposed to have been denominated from a navel. There was a place called [[746]]Omphalian in Thessaly: and another in Crete, which had a celebrated [[747]]oracle. It is probably the same that is mentioned by Strabo, as being upon mount Ida, where was the city Elorus. Diodorus speaks of this oracle, named Omphalian; but supposes that the true name was ομφαλος, omphalus: and says, that it was so called (strange to tell) because Jupiter, when he was a child, lost his navel here, which dropped into the river Triton: [[748]]Απο τουτου τοτε συμβαντος Ομφαλον προσαγορευθηναι το χωριον: from this accident the place had the name of Omphalus, or the navel. Callimachus in his hymn to Jupiter dwells upon this circumstance:
[[749]]Ευτε Θενας απελειπεν επι Κνωσσοιο φερουση,
Ζευ πατερ, ἡ Νυμφη σε (Θεναι δ' εσαν εγγυθι Κνωσσου)
Τουτακι τοι πεσε, Δαιμον, απ' ομφαλος, ενθεν εκεινο
Ομφαλιον μετεπειτα πεδον καλεουσι Κυδωνες.
Who would imagine, that one of the wisest nations that ever existed could rest satisfied with such idle figments: and how can we account for these illusions, which overspread the brightest minds? We see knowing and experienced people inventing the most childish tales; lovers of science adopting them; and they are finally recorded by the grave historian: all which would not appear credible, had we not these evidences so immediately transmitted from them. And it is to be observed that this blindness is only in regard to their religion; and to their mythology, which was grounded thereupon. In all other respects they were the wisest of the sons of men.
We meet in history with other places styled Omphalian. The temple of Jupiter Ammon was esteemed of the highest antiquity, and we are informed that there was an omphalus here; and that the Deity was worshipped under the form of a navel. Quintus Curtius, who copied his history from the Greeks, gives us in the life of Alexander the following strange account, which he has embellished with some colouring of his own. [[750]]Id, quod pro Deo colitur, non eandem effigiem habebat, quam vulgo Diis Artifices accommodârunt. Umbilico maxime similis est habitus, smaragdo, et gemmis, coagmentatus. Hunc, cum responsum petitur, navigio aurato gestant Sacerdotes, multis argenteis pateris ab utroque navigii latere pendentibus. The whole of this is an abuse of terms, which the author did not understand, and has totally misapplied. One would imagine that so improbable a story, as that of an umbilical Deity with his silver basons, though patched up with gold and emeralds, would have confuted itself. Yet Schottus in his notes upon Curtius has been taken with this motly description: and in opposition to all good history, thinks that this idle story of a navel relates to the compass. Hyde too has adopted this notion; and proceeds to shew how each circumstance may be made to agree with the properties of the magnet. [[751]]Illa nempe Jovis effigies videtur semiglobulare quiddam, uti est compassus marinus, formâ umbilici librarii, seu umbonis, tanquam ενθεον quoddam adoratum, propter ejusdem divinum auxilium: utpote in quo index magneticus erat sicut intus existens quidam deus, navigiorum cursum in medio æquore dirigens. These learned men were endued with a ready faith: and not only acquiesce in what they have been told, but contribute largely to establish the mistake. The true history is this. Most places in which was the supposed oracle of a Deity, the Grecians, as I have before mentioned, styled Olympus, Olympia, and Olympiaca: or else Omphale, and Omphalia, and the province χωριον Ομφαλιον. These terms were thought to relate to a navel: but, if such an interpretation could have been made to correspond with the history of any one place, yet that history could not have been reiterated; nor could places so widely distant have all had the same reference. What was terminated ομφαλος was [[752]]Omph-El, the oracle of God, the seat of divine influence: and Al-Omphi was a name given to mountains and eminences upon the same account. An oracle was given to Pelias in Thessaly: and whence did it proceed? from the well wooded omphalus of his mother Earth.
[[753]]Ηλθε δε ὁι κρυοεν
Πυκινῳ μαντευμα θυμῳ
Παρα μεσον ομφαλον