Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

i8o The Delphic Omphalos
in all probability worshipped at Delphoi. And it is interesting to
find that as far back as Homeric times the Pythian ApoUon was
called aphe'tor, 'he that lets fly^' This appellation, which occurs but
once, was and is still a bone of contention to Homer's expositors-.
It looks as though Apollon had stepped into the place of Zeus and
inherited his local title. The archer as well as the thunderer ' lets
fly.' Under the rule of Apollon the eagles, however, were felt to be
a mistake. Attempts were made to rewrite the myth with the somewhat
cheap substitution of swans or ravens^ Perhaps Philomelos
the Phocian, who seized the temple {c. 356 B.C.) and appropriated
the golden eagles'*, salved his conscience with the reflection that
after all eagles were not the rightful birds of Apollon. Whether
the eagles melted down by Philomelos were subsequently renewed
in gold, we cannot say for certain. But it appears that in later
days a pair of eagles was represented in mosaic on
the floor to right and left of the omphalos^.
The evidence of literature may be supplemented by
that of art. An electrum stater of Kyzikos, struck
c. 450-400 B.C., shows two eagles, beak to beak,
perched awkwardly enough on the sides of a filleted
omphalos (fig. 123)''. This coin presumably depicts the
^
famous oniplialos at Delphoi, not—as \V. H. Roscher
would make ouf—a counterpart of it at Branchidai.
^ //. 9. 404 f. 01)5' oaa XdiJ'os ovhh% a