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33 Ευτε Θείας απελειπεν επι Κνωσσοιο φέρεση,

Ζευ πατερ, ἡ Νύμφη σε (Θεναι δ' εσαν εγγύθι Κνωσσε)
Τετακι τοι πεσε, Δαιμον, απ' ομφαλος, ενθεν εκείνο
Ομφαλίον μετεπειτα πεδον καλέεσι Κύδωνες.

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

33 Callimachus. Hymn to Jupiter, v. 42.

from the Greeks, gives us in the life of Alexander the following strange account, which he has embellished with some colouring of his own. 34 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. "Illa nempe Jovis effigies videtur semiglobulare quiddam, uti est compassus marinus, formâ umbilici

34 Quintus Curtius. 1. 4. c. 7. p. 154. Varior.

35

Hyde of the Umbilicus. Relig. vet. Persarum. Appendix 3. p. 527.

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librarii, seu umbonis, tanquam eo 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 χωριού Ομφάλιον. 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 oupaλos was 36 Omph-El, the oracle of God, the seat of divine influence: and

36 That Olympus and Olympia were of Egyptian original, is manifest from Eusebius; who tells us, that in Egypt the moon was called Olympias; and that the Zodiac in the heavens had

antiently the name of Olympus. Ἡ γαρ Σεληνη παρ' Αιγυπτίοις κυρίως Ολυμπίας καλείται, δια το κατα μηνα περιπολείν τον Ζωδιακον κυκλον, ον οι παλαιοί αυτων ΟΛΥΜΠΟΝ εκαλόν. Chronicon, p. 45. 1. 9. The reason given is idle: but the fact is worth attending to. Olympus was the supposed præceptor of Jupiter. Diodorus. 1. 3. p. 206.

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.

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In other words, it proceeded from the stately grove of Hestia, where stood an oracular temple.

In respect to the omphalus of Ammon, which Curtius has translated umbilicus, and garnished with gold and jewels, the whole arises from a mistake in terms, as in the many instances before. It was Omphi El, the oracle of Ham, or the Sun: and the shrine, from whence it was supposed to proceed, was carried in a boat. The Pateræ, represented as so many silver basons, were in reality the interpreters of the oracle. They were the priests, who in the sacred processions walked on each side, and supported both the image and the boat in which it was carried. They are said to have been eighty in number; and they pretended

37 Pindar. Pyth. Ode 4. p. 241.

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to bear the Deity about, just as they were by the divine impulse directed. The God, says 38 Diodorus Siculus, is carried about in a ship of gold by eighty of his priests. They bear him upon their shoulders, and pursue their way by instinct, just as the divine automaton chances to direct them. These persons, who thus officiated, were probably the same as the Petiphare of the antient Egyptians, but were called Pateræ by the Greeks. It was a name, and office, by which the priests of Delphi, and of many other places besides those in Egypt, were distinguished: and the term always related to oracular interpretation. Hence Bochart describes these priests, and their function, very justly. 39 Pateræ Sacerdotes Apollinis, oraculorum interpretes. Pator, or Petor, was an Egyptian word; and Moses speaking of Joseph, and the dreams of Pharaoh, more than once makes use of it in the sense above. It occurs Genesis. c. 41. v. 8.-v. 13. and manifestly alludes to an interpretation of that divine intercourse, which

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38 Ετι νέως περιφέρεται χρυσης ύπο Ιέρων ογδοήκοντα (ὁ Θεός). Ούτο, δέ επι των ωμων φεροντες τον θεον προαγεσιν αυτοματως, ὑπὲ άγοι το τε θες νευμα τον πορειαν. Diodorus. 1. 17. p. 528,

It is observable, that this historian does not mention an omphalus but says, that it was a statue, oavor, which was carried

about.

39 Bochart. Canaan. 1. 1. c. 40.

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