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

ix] Omphalos as Grave-mound 399
of Phaistos—having an omphalos of his own in Crete, though
he did not assign this as the reason— impiously denied that the
omphalos at Delphi was the centre of the earth 1
. Varro 2 agrees
with him, and not only, he says, is the omphalos at Delphi not
the centre of the earth but the human navel is not the centre
of the human body. He then goes on to say that
What the Greeks call the omphalos is something at the side of the temple
at Delphi, of the shape of a thesaurus, and they say it is the tumulus of Python.
The omphalos then according to literary tradition is not a fetich-
stone but a grave-mound, and moreover, for this is cardinal, it is
not a grave-mound commemorating a particular dead man, it is
the grave-mound of a sacred snake, the sacred snake of Delphi.
The testimony of Varro does not stand alone. Hesychios 3 in
explaining the words Togiov /3ov
v
09, ' Archer's Mound/ says
It is of Apollo in Sikyon, but according to a better tradition it is the
place in Delphi called Nape (ravine). For there the snake was shot down.
And the omphalos of Earth is the tomb (rdcpos) of the Python.
Monumental fact then says that the omphalos is a holy Stone,
tradition says it is the grave of a daimon-snake. Which is right ?
Happily both. The question once fairly stated almost answers
itself. A holy Stone is not a grave, but a holy Stone may stand
upon a grave, and such a complex of tomb and tombstone is the
omphalos.
Tomb and tombstone, grave-mound and stele are known to us,
of course, from Homer. When Sarpedon was carried to the rich
land of wide Lycia his kinsmen and clansmen buried him
With mound and stele—such are dead men's dues 4 .
Grave-mounds are found all over the world. They are, when
the ground is soft, the simplest form of sepulture ; you dig a hole,
heap a mound, plant a stone or memorial pillar to mark the spot.
You may have the mound without the stone, or the stone without
the mound, but for a complete conspicuous tomb you want both.
1 Plut. de defect, orac. i. The myth here related is purely aetiological to account
for the birds on the omphalos. It does not here concern us.
2 De ling. Lat. vn. 17 Praeterea si quod medium id est umbilicus, ut pilae, terrae,
non Delphi medium. Sed terrae medium non hoc sed quod vocant Delphis in
aede ad latus est quiddam ut thesauri specie, quod Graeci vocant dfupaXov, quem
Pythonos aiunt tumulum.
8 s.v. To££ov /3ow6s.
4 II. XVI. 675 TVfijiq) re ctttjXt; tc to yap yipas earl Oavovruv.
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