Anomphalosis a religious stoneartefact.InAncient Greek,the wordὀμφᾰλός(omphalós) means "navel".Among the Ancient Greeks, it was a widespread belief thatDelphiwas the center of the world. According to the myths regarding the founding of theDelphic Oracle,Zeus,in his attempt to locate the center of the Earth, launched two eagles from the two ends of the world, and the eagles, starting simultaneously and flying at equal speed, crossed their paths above the area of Delphi, and so that was the place where Zeus placed the stone.[1]TheLatinterm isumbilicus mundi,'navel of the world'.
Omphalos is also the name of the stone given toCronus.
Delphi
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Most accounts locate the Delphi omphalos in theadyton(sacred part of the temple) near thePythia(oracle). The stone sculpture itself, which may be a copy, has a carving of a knotted net covering its surface and a hollow center, widening towards the base. The omphalos represents the stone whichRheawrapped in swaddling clothes, pretending it was Zeus, in order to deceiveCronus.(Cronus was the father who swallowed his children so as to prevent them from usurping him as he had deposed his own father,Uranus.)
Omphalos stones were believed to allow direct communication with the gods. Holland (1933) suggested that the stone was hollow to allow intoxicating vapours breathed by the Oracle to channel through it.[2]Erwin Rohdewrote that thePythonat Delphi was an earth spirit, who was conquered byApolloand buried under the Omphalos. However, understanding of the use of the omphalos is uncertain due to destruction of the site byTheodosius IandArcadiusin the 4th century CE.[3]
Art
editOmphalosis a public art sculpture byDimitri Hadziformerly located in theHarvard Square,Cambridge, Massachusettsunder theArts on the Lineprogram.[4]As of 2014[update],the sculpture has been deinstalled; it will be relocated toRockport, Massachusetts.[5]
Omfalosis a concrete and rock sculpture by the conceptual artistLars Vilks,previously standing in theKullabergnature reserve,Skåne County,Sweden.[6]As of 2001, the sculpture belongs to the collections ofModerna MuseetinStockholm,Sweden.[7]
Literature
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In literature, the wordomphaloshas held various meanings but usually refers to the stone at Delphi. Authors who have used the term include:Homer,[8][9]Pausanias,D.H. Lawrence,James Joyce,Philip K. Dick,[10]Jacques Derrida,Ted Chiang,Sandy Hingston andSeamus Heaney.For example, Joyce uses the term in the novel,Ulysses:
"Billy Pitt had them built," Buck Mulligan said, "when the French were on the sea but our's is the omphalos." [Chapter 1]
One of her sisterhood lugged me squealing into life. Creation from nothing. What has she in the bag? A misbirth with a trailing navelcord, hushed in ruddy wool. The cords of all link back, strandentwining cable of all flesh. That is why mystic monks. Will you be as gods? Gaze in your omphalos. [Chapter 3]
[...] to set up there a national fertilising farm to be named Omphalos with an obelisk hewn and erected after the fashion of Egypt and to offer his dutifulyeomanservices for the fecundation of any female of what grade of life soever who should there direct to him with the desire of fulfilling the functions of her natural. [Chapter 14]
InTed Chiang's short story "Omphalos" (2019), the protagonist is forced to question her belief about where the center of the world is located.
In “The Toome Road”, aSeamus Heaneypoem from the 1979 anthologyField Work,Heaney writes about an encounter with a convoy of armoured cars in Northern Ireland, “… O charioteers, above your dormant guns, It stands here still, stands vibrant as you pass, The invisible, untoppable omphalos.”
Omphalos syndrome
editOmphalos syndromerefers to the belief that a place of geopolitical power and currency is the most important place in the world.[11][12]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^Voegelin E. (2000).Order and History, Volume 2.University of Missouri Press. p. 31.ISBN9780826263933.
- ^Holland, Leicester B. (1933). "The Mantic Mechanism at Delphi".American Journal of Archaeology.37(14):204–214.doi:10.2307/498438.JSTOR498438.S2CID191389544.
- ^Rohde, Erwin(1925).Psyche.
- ^"Public art".Cambridge, Ma website.Archived fromthe originalon 29 July 2012.Retrieved15 July2012.
- ^Edgers, Geoff (11 November 2013)."Hadzi sculpture in Harvard Square to get fixed, then moved".Boston Globe.Retrieved28 December2013.
- ^Edwards, Catherine (2 December 2019)."#AdventCalendar: The micronation in a southern Swedish national park".The Local Sweden.Retrieved16 September2020.
- ^"Den 1:a på Moderna: Lars Vilks".Moderna Museet i Stockholm(in Swedish).Retrieved16 September2020.
- ^"Homer, Odyssey, Book 1, line 50".www.perseus.tufts.edu.Retrieved4 March2017.
- ^"Homer, Odyssey, Book 1, line 50 (" navel ")".www.perseus.tufts.edu.Retrieved4 March2017.
- ^Peake, Anthony (2013).A Life of Philip K. Dick The Man Who Remembered the Future.Arcturus Publishing.
- ^Murphy C. (2007).Are We Rome?: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America.Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 44.ISBN9780618742226.
- ^Winther, Rasmus Grønfeldt (2014)."Cartouche of the Canadian Cartographic Association 89:15-21 (2014)".PhilPapers.
Further reading
edit- Burkert, Walter(1985).Greek Religion.
- Farnell, Lewis R. (1896).The Cults of the Greek States.
- Goodrich, Norma L. (1990).Priestesses.F. Watts.ISBN9780531151136.
- Guthrie, W.K.C.(1955).The Greeks and their Gods.Beacon Press.ISBN9780807057933.
- Harrison, Jane Ellen(1912)."Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion".p. 396.
- "Homeric Hymn to Pythian Apollo".The Medieval and Classical Literature Library.
- Oswald, Pierre Jean &Kitsikis, Dimitri(1977).Omphalos.Paris.
{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Shafer, Joseph R. (2011).Literary Identity in the Omphalos Periplus.
- Trubshaw, Bob (February 1993)."The Black Stone - the Omphalos of the Goddess".Mercian Mysteries.Vol. 14.
