often call the oracles, or places where the oracles were delivered, the ομφαλοι, or, as it is interpreted, the navels of the earth. These ομφαλοι της γης, (so Euripides, in Medea, calls Delphi,) are by the scholiasts said to be the navels or centres of the earth; now, as Delphi could not be considered the centre by the Greeks, and as they had many ομφαλοι or centres, it is evident that the true meaning of the word was unknown to them.
The Jews consider Jerusalem to be the navel of the earth.[1]
The above etymon of the word does not quite meet all the circumstances, does not quite satisfy me—unless we consider this mystic word to have had more meanings than one. We have seen that ομφαλος meant a navel. It is the name given to Delphi: and Delphi, as Mr. Faber has observed, has the meaning of the female organ of generation, called in India Yoni, the Os Minxæ. Jones says, ΟΜΦΗ Oracle, ΔΕΛΦΥΕ—Matrix, womb. In one of the plates in Moore’s Hindoo Pantheon, Brahma is seen rising from the navel of Brahme-Maia with the umbilical cord uncut: this justifies the last rendering of Jones, Matrix. Closely allied to ομφη seems to be the word ομφαλη, or ομφαλος. I find φαλη or φαλος to mean Phallus or Linga, the membrum virile, constantly used for the generative power. Then ομφαλη will mean the generative power Ομ, or the generative power of Om. I find the oracle or Divina vox at Delphi called Omphalos, and the word Delphi or Δελφυς means the female generative power; and in front of the temple at Delphi, in fact constituting a part of the religious edifice, was a large Phallus or Linga, anointed every day with oil. This, all taken together, shews very clearly that Omphale means the oracle of the generative (androgynous) power of Om. But it might also come from the sacred word Ομ and φαλος—Benignus—the benignant Om. In the religious ceremonies at Delphi a boat of immense size was carried about in processions; it was shaped like a lunar crescent, pointed alike at each end: it was called an Omphalos or Umbilicus, or the ship Argo. Of this Argo I shall have very much to say hereafter. My reader will please to recollect that the os minxæ or Δελφυς is called by the name of the ship Argo. The Aum of India, as might well be expected, is found in Persia, under the name of Hom, and particularly in the mountains of Persia, amongst the Arii, before they are said to have migrated, under Djemchid, to the South. As usual, we get to the North-east, for the origin of things.[2]
Bacchus was called Omestes, explained the devourer. This is in fact the Om-Esta,[3] of Persia. “Ista-char, or Esta-char, is the place or temple of Ista or Esta, who was the Hestia Ἑςια of the Greeks, and Vesta of the Romans.” This Persian ista or esta, is the Latin ista and est, he or she is; it is also Sanscrit, and means the same as the Jah of the Hebrews. Bacchus, at Chios and Tenedos, was also called Omadius. This is correctly the God, or the holy Om.
3. Mr. Bryant connects the word Olympus with the Omphe. He observes, that wherever there was an Olympus, of which there were a great number, there was also an Omphi or Ompi, and that the word came from the Hebrew Har-al-ompi, (Har means mount,) which al-ompi was changed by the Greeks into Ολυμπος Olympus.[4] The word means the mount of the God Omphi, according to Bryant’s exposition; but more correctly, I think, the mount of the Phi, or the prophetic voice or oracle of the God Om: whence tri-om-phe chaunted in the mysteries at Rome, the triple Omphe. Mr. Bryant’s etymon completely fails in accounting for the syllable Om. He probably did not know of the Hindoo Aum, Om. In his work cited above may be found
