so
improbable a story, as that of an umbilical Deity with his silver basons,
though patched up with gold and emeralds, would have confuted itself. Yet
Schottus in his notes upon Curtius has been taken with this motly
description: and in opposition to all good history, thinks that this idle
story of a navel relates to the compass. Hyde too has adopted this notion;
and proceeds to shew how each circumstance may be made to agree with the
properties of the magnet. [751]Illa nempe Jovis effigies videtur
semiglobulare quiddam, uti est compassus marinus, forma umbilici librarii,
seu umbonis, tanquam [Greek: entheon] quoddam adoratum, propter ejusdem
divinum auxilium: utpote in quo index magneticus erat sicut intus existens
quidam deus, navigiorum cursum in medio aequore dirigens. These learned men
were endued with a ready faith: and not only acquiesce in what they have
been told, but contribute largely to establish the mistake. The true
history is this. Most places in which was the supposed oracle of a Deity,
the Grecians, as I have before mentioned, styled Olympus, Olympia, and
Olympiaca: or else Omphale, and Omphalia, and the province [Greek: chorion
Omphalion]. These terms were thought to relate to a navel: but, if such an
interpretation could have been made to correspond with the history of any
one place, yet that history could not have been reiterated; nor could
places so widely distant have all had the same reference. What was
terminated [Greek: omphalos] was [752]Omph-El, the oracle of God, the seat
of divine influence: and Al-Omphi was a name given to mountains and
eminences upon the same account. An oracle was given to Pelias in Thessaly:
and whence did it proceed? from the well wooded omphalus of his mother
Earth.

[753][Greek: Elthe de hoi kruoen]
[Greek: Pukinoi manteuma thumoi]
[Greek: Para meson omphalon]
[Greek: Eudendroio rhethen materos.--]

In other words, it proceeded from the stately grove of Hestia, where stood
an oracular temple.

In respect to the omphalus of Ammon, which Curtius has translated
umbilicus, and garnished with gold and jewels, the whole arises from a
mistake in terms, as in the many instances before. It was Omphi El, the
oracle of Ham, or the Sun: and the shrine, from whence it was supposed to
proceed, was carried in a boat. The Paterae, represented as so many silver
basons, were in reality the interpreters of the oracle. They were the
priests, who in the sacred processions walk