ei de ta onta eirekasi.]
_At no great distance is a place called the Omphalus, or navel; which is
the centre of the whole Peloponnesus, if the people here tell us the
truth_. At Enna in [738]Sicily was an Omphalus: and the island of Calypso
is represented by Homer as the umbilicus of the sea. The Goddess
resided--[739][Greek: Nesoi en amphirutei hothi t' omphalos esti
thalasses.] The AEtolians were styled umbilical; and looked upon themselves
as the central people in Greece, like those of Delphi. But this notion was
void of all truth in every instance which has been produced: and arose from
a wrong interpretation of antient terms. What the Grecians styled Omphalus
was certainly Ompha-El, the same as Al-Ompha; and related to the oracle of
Ham or the Sun: and these temples were Prutaneia, and Puratheia, with a
tumulus or high altar, where the rites of fire were in antient times
performed. As a proof of this etymology most of the places styled Olympian,
or Omphalian, will be found to have a reference to an oracle. Epirus was
celebrated for the oracle at Dodona: and we learn from the antient poet,
Reianus, that the natives were of old called Omphalians:

[740][Greek: Sun te Parauaioi, kai amumones Omphalieeis.]

There was an Omphalia in Elis; and here too was an oracle mentioned by
[741]Pindar and Strabo: [742][Greek: Ten de epiphaneian eschen (he Olumpia)
ex arches dia to manteion tou Olumpiou Dios.] _The place derived all its
lustre originally from the oracular temple of Olympian Jove._ In this
province was an antient city [743]Alphira; and a grove of Artemis
[744]Alpheionia, and the whole was watered by the sacred river Alpheus. All
these are derived from El, the prophetic Deity, the Sun; and more
immediately from his oracle, Alphi. The Greeks deduced every place from
some personage: and Plutarch accordingly makes Alpheus[745]--[Greek: Heis
ton to genos aph' heliou katagonton], one of those who derived their race
from the Sun. The term Alphi, from whence the Greeks formed Alphira,
Alpheionia, and Alpheues, is in acceptation the same as Amphi. For Ham being
by his posterity esteemed the Sun, or El; and likewise Or, the same as
Orus; his oracles were in consequence styled not only Amphi, and Omphi, but
Alphi, Elphi, Orphi, Urphi.

I have taken notice of several cities called Omphalian, and have observed,
that they generally had oracular temples: but by the Greeks they were
universally supposed to have been denominated