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