Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

The Delphic Omphalos 173
unseen for example by Pausanias', was kept—as Varro knew— 'in
the temple at one side-.' Delphic building-accounts of the year
343—342 B.C. and a little later prove that the omphalos had a
porch in front of it and was protected by carefully surfaced walls
supporting a roof ^—circumstances which suggest that, like the ompJialos
at Argos**, it stood in a small chapel of its own^ H. Pomtow
provisionally locates it in the niche between the second and third
columns of the north aisle, though he admits that it may equally
* On this much-disputed point see Frazer Pausanias v. 316 ft., F. Studniczka in
Hermes 1902 xxxvii. 263, H. Pomtow in Philologiis 1912 Ixxi. 59f., W. H. Roscher
Omphalos Leipzig 1913 p. 72 f. It was reserved for F. Courby in the Comptcs renins de
I'Acad, des inscr. et belles-lettres 1914 p. 259
f. and in the Fouilles de Delphes ii. i. 72 to
appreciate the simple truth. Yet Paus. 10. 24. 5 es 5^ tov vaoO to ta'WTdTco, wapiacrL re es
avTO oKlyoi k.t.X. drops a broad enough hint, as G. Karo saw (Daremberg—.SagHo Diet.
A)tt. iv. 199 'I'omphalos lui-meme etait invisible pour le grand public').
- Varr. de ling. Lat. 7. 17 et terrae medium non hoc, sed quod vocant Delphis in
aede ad latus (sic cod. F., allatus codd. G. H., illatits cod. a., ablatics cod. b. Lobeck cj.
arquattim, Roscher lanatutnl) est quiddam ut thesauri specie, quod Graeci vocant
dfj.