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from a navel. There was a place called [746]Omphalian in Thessaly: and another in Crete, which had a celebrated [747]oracle. It is probably the same that is mentioned by Strabo, as being upon mount Ida, where was the city Elorus. Diodorus speaks of this oracle, named Omphalian; but supposes that the true name was [Greek: omphalos], omphalus: and says, that it was so called (strange to tell) because Jupiter, when he was a child, lost his navel here, which dropped into the river Triton: [748][Greek: Apo toutou tote sumbantos Omphalon prosagoreuthenai to chorion]: _from this accident the place had the name of Omphalus, or the navel_. Callimachus in his hymn to Jupiter dwells upon this circumstance: [749][Greek: Eute Thenas apeleipen epi Knossoio pherouse,] [Greek: Zeu pater, he Numphe se (Thenai d' esan enguthi Knossou)] [Greek: Toutaki toi pese, Daimon, ap' omphalos, enthen ekeino] [Greek: Omphalion metepeita pedon kaleousi Kudones.] Who would imagine, that one of the wisest nations that ever existed could rest satisfied with such idle figments: and how can we account for these illusions, which overspread the brightest minds? We see knowing and experienced people inventing the most childish tales; lovers of science adopting them; and they are finally recorded by the grave historian: all which would not appear credible, had we not these evidences so immediately transmitted from them. And it is to be observed that this blindness is only in regard to their religion; and to their mythology, which was grounded thereupon. In all other respects they were the wisest of the sons of men. We meet in history with other places styled Omphalian. The temple of Jupiter Ammon was esteemed of the highest antiquity, and we are informed that there was an omphalus here; and that the Deity was worshipped under the form of a navel. Quintus Curtius, who copied his history from the Greeks, gives us in the life of Alexander the following strange account, which he has embellished with some colouring of his own. [750]Id, quod pro Deo colitur, non eandem effigiem habebat, quam vulgo Diis Artifices accommodarunt. _Umbilico_ maxime similis est habitus, smaragdo, et gemmis, coagmentatus. Hunc, cum responsum petitur, navigio aurato gestant Sacerdotes, multis argenteis _pateris_ ab utroque navigii latere pendentibus. The whole of this is an abuse of terms, which the author did not understand, and has totally misapplied. One would imagine that
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