Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

—
398 From Daimon to Olympian [ch.
This outside omphalos has been found by the French excavators 1
Fig. 109.
' vfm
just on the very spot where Pausanias saw it, and is shown in Fig. 110.
As he described it, it is not a stone but ' made of white stone.' It
is covered with an agrenon, a net oi
fillets copied here in stone. We have
then simply a holy Stone, and the
evidence of Pausanias and the vases
is confirmed. The discovery of an
actual omphalos, we are told, is ' ex-
ceedingly interesting,' but we are not
one jot better off than we were as to
its meaning. The old question faces
us. What is the reason of its
sanctity ?
We turn to literary tradition and
literary tradition comes as a salutary
shock. It is to Varro we owe a
tradition as to the omphalos that is
of capital importance. Epimenides
1 By kind permission of the Director of the Ecole Francaise I was allowed to
publish it in the Bulletin
as the title of my article
de Correspondance Hellenique, 1900, p. 254, Fig. 2. But
Aegis-Agrenon—shows, its object was only to discuss the
decoration. I had previously (Delphika, J. H. S. xix. 1899, p. 225) discussed the
value of the omphalos itself, and to this article I must refer for many details. A
number of illustrations of omphaloi will be found in Prof. Middleton's article in
J. H. S. 1888, p. 296 ff. By far the best account of the omphalos known to me is
that by Dr G. Karo in Daremberg and Saglio's Dictionnaire des Antiquites Grecques
et Romaines, s.v. omphalos. By the kindness of Prof. Svoronos I have just received
his monograph on oi 6/j.(pa\ol tGiv Hvdiwv, but not in time to utilize his researches.