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

402 From Daimon to Olympian [CH.
but a certain one—the keystone of the great vault is a terminal
cone like the Delphic omphalos, the chamber of death was crowned
by the primitive symbol of life. It is no stele commemorating an
individual man, still less is it a mere architectural or decorative
feature; it is there with solemn magical intent to, ensure, to induce,
the renewal of life, reincarnation.
The ' Tomb of Tantalos ' is of great importance because it fixes
beyond a doubt the nature of an omphalos stone. But if Asia
Minor is felt to be too remote we have evidence, though somewhat
less explicit, nearer home. On the road from Megalopolis to
Messene, Pausanias 1 saw a sanctuary of certain goddesses called
Maniae, which name he believed to be a title of the Eumenides.
With the sanctuary was associated the story of the madness of
Orestes.
Not far from the sanctuary is a mound of earth of no great size and set
up upon it is a finger made of stone. And indeed the name of the mound is
Finger's Tomb.
Fig. 113.
Pausanias goes on to recount a purely aetiological myth about
Orestes in his madness biting off one of his fingers.
What '
Finger's Tomb '
must
have looked like may be seen in
have the
Fig. 113 the design from a black-figured lekythos 2 . We
1
viii. 34. 2 ...ov Troppci) de tov iepov yijs x^M" iffTiv ov fieya, iirldr)na. ex " M0ov
TreTronj/jLei'ov 5o.ktv\oi>, kcu 5t/ /ecu 6vop:a ru> ^ui^ari ecrrt AixktvXov /Avrj/jia..
2 In the Naples Museum. For full details see my Delphika in J.H.S. xix. 1889,
p. 229.