Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 2,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (thunder and lightning): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1925)

i8o The Delphic Omphalos

in all probability worshipped at Delphoi. And it is interesting to
find that as far back as Homeric times the Pythian Apollon was
called aphetor, 'he that lets fly1.' This appellation, which.occurs but
once, was and is still a bone of contention to Homer's expositors2.
It looks as though Apollon had stepped into the place of Zeus and
inherited his local title. The archer as well as the thunderer ' lets
fly.' Under the rule of Apollon the eagles, however, were felt to be
a mistake. Attempts were made to rewrite the myth with the some-
what cheap substitution of swans or ravens3. Perhaps Philomelos
the Phocian, who seized the temple (c. 356 B.C.) and appropriated
the golden eagles4, salved his conscience with the reflection that
after all eagles were not the rightful birds of Apollon. Whether
the eagles melted down by Philomelos were subsequently renewed
in gold, we cannot say for certain. But it appears that in later
days a pair of eagles was represented in mosaic on
the floor to right and left of the omphalos'0.

The evidence of literature may be supplemented by
that of art. An electrum stater of Kyzikos, struck
c. 450-400 B.C., shows two eagles, beak to beak,
perched awkwardly enough on the sides of a filleted
omphalos (fig. 123)". This coin presumably depicts the
famous omphalos at Delphoi, not—as W. PI. Roscher
would make out7—a counterpart of it at Branchidai.

1 //. 9. 404 f. ovd' oaa \&lvos ovdbs dcpTjropos ivrbs eepyei., j <i>oi/3ou'AttoXXwcos, IIi>#oi
evi ireTprjecari cited by Diod. 16. 56, Strab. 420 f., Ail. var. hist. 6. 9 Kaibel Epigr. Gr.
no. 545, i, Porphyrii de philosophia ex oracidis hatirienda ed. G. Wolff Berolini 1856 .
p. 236 Oraculorum Appendix 26 eprjualos de XeXet^ercu ovSbs dcp-qrup, ct. mag. p. 177, 21 f.,
p. 546, 44 f., schol. Kallim. h. Ap. 35, h. Artem. 250, and by Ioul. or. 2. 80B (with eepye).
The same passage is the stock in trade of schol. 77. 9. 404, Eustath. in II. p. 759, 63 ff.,
Apollon. lex. horn. p. 49, 15 ff. Bekker, Hesych. s.vv. dcpriropos, <py)Tw (but note the gloss
d(pr)Topua ' fxavreia), Souid. s.z\ apropos, Scholl—Studemund anecd. i. 267 'EirideTa.
AttoXXowo? 5 dcprjTopos, i. 278 ' AttoWwv. .. dcprjTwp, i. 283 'E^t^era 'AttoWwvos. .. acprjrcop.

2 Consult O. Jessen in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 2719, Prellwitz Etym. Worterb.
d. Gr. Spr? p. 68, Boisacq Diet, e'tym. de la Langue Gr. p. 106.

3 Plout. de dep. or. 1 aerovs rivas 7) kvkvovs, Strab. 419 oi deroi oi dtpeOevres virb rod
Aids,...01 <5e KopaKas <paai.

4 Schol. Pind. Pyth. 4. 7b p. 95, 24 ff. Drachmann.

5 Schol. Loukian. de salt. 38 p. 188, 25 ff. Rabe \eyovcriv iv Ae\(pols 6p.<pahbv elvai
ewl tov edd<povs rod vela Kal irepi avrbv aierbv (derby cod. R. H. N. Ulrichs Reiseii und
Eorsehtcngen in Griechenland Bremen 1840 i. 92 f. n. 59 cj. derovs. F. Wieseler in the
Ann. d. Inst. 1857 xxix. 172 cj. aieruj) yeypdepdat dwb avvdeaews XlOlov Kal tovto ecpaaKov
to p.icrov aTrd(T7]s tt)s yfj'i.

6 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Mysia p. 32 pi. 8, 7, Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii. 2. 1453 f.
pi. 177, 24, Head Hist, num." p. 525, W. Greenwell in the Num. Chron. Third Series
1887 vii. 58 f. pi. 1, 23, J. H. Middleton in the Jonrn. Hell. Stud. 1888 ix. 295 fig. 1,
Anson Num. Gr. iv. 43 no. 421 pi. 8. I figure a specimen in the McClean collection.

7 W. H. Roscher Omphalos Leipzig 1913 p. 50 f. pi. 1, 1, cp. ib. p. 36 ff.