Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

The Delphic Omphalos 169
(^) The Delphic Omphalos.
The occurrence of an oinp/ialds-dind-^\\\^.r at Byzantion leads
us to reconsider the shape of the omphalos at Delphoi. Here, if
anywhere, was the centre of the earth. Here, if anywhere, the sky
would need a supporting column, an Agjie?is-pi\\a.r. Accordingly
local tradition told how the oracle had been established by Pagasos
and divine Agyieus, sons of the Hyperboreoi^ And 'the author of
the Etiropia teaches us that the image of Apollon at Delphoi is a
pillar in the following lines :
That we might hang for the god a tithe and trophy
From his pure doorposts and his lofty pillar^.'
These allusions at once become intelligible, if we assume that the
omphalos at Delphoi, like the omphalos at Byzantion, was originally
topped b)' an Agyiefts-'^xWz.x. Let us be bold and make that assump-
tion. Our pillar, erected at a time when men believed in a circular
earth and a central sky-prop, would with increasing knowledge
come to be viewed as the axis of a spherical world*. Nonnos de-
scribes the Delphic omphalos as the 'mid-navel axis^'— a description
Deultum no. 1-2 (' Telesphorus stans '), Mionnet Descr. de tnt'd. ant. Suppl. ii. 294 no. 562
(' Telesphore deb.').
^ Pans. 10. 5. 7 f. Boicb 5e iirix^pi-o- yvvr] Troirjaaaa vfxvov AfXcpois 'i(prj KaTaaKevdcraadai
TO /xavT€tov tCj d€(^ Toiis a,dTas, TrpCiTos \ 5' dpxaiwv eireiov TeKTdvar docddu.
On Boio see G. Knaack in Pauly— Wissowa Real-Enc. iii. 633 f.
Prof. J. M. MacGregor drew my attention (March 21, 1917) to the fact that Euripides
mentions both dyvidi [Ion 460) and dYuictTtSes depawelai (Ion 186) in connexion with
Delphoi.
^ Emnel. /ra£. n Kinkel a/>. Clem. Al. strotn. \. 24 p. 102, 26 ff. Stahlin dXKk Kai 6
Tr]v Evpojiriav (Evpujweiav Dindorf) TroL-rjaas laTOpei to iv A€\