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)

192 The Delphic Omphalos

quent in uncivilised or semi-civilised communities1. To quote a
typical case:

'among the Maoris, when the navel-string dropped off, the child was carried
to a priest to be solemnly named by him. But before the ceremony of naming
began, the navel-string was buried in a sacred place and a young sapling was
planted over it. Ever afterwards that tree, as it grew, was a tohu oranga or sign
of life for the child2.'

Analogous practices have survived here and there in modern
Greece3. Thus in Lesbos the severed portion of the cord is wrapped
in cloth and thrown into the school, or the church, or the fields. It
is believed that, if the cord falls in the school, the child will become
a teacher ; if in the church, a priest; if in the fields, a farmer. So,
when a child hangs about a place, his mother gets angry and says
to him: 'Did they throw your navel there?4' Similar usages are
reported from Kephallenia/'Aigina, Limnobria ? (Burdur) in Pisidia,
Sinasos in Kappadokia, etc., and there can be little doubt that from
time immemorial the Greeks have believed in a sympathetic rela-
tion existing between the infant and the umbilical cord. It is
therefore reasonable to conjecture that in Phokis, as in Crete, the
navel-string of Zeus—or rather of a local king (Python ?) personating
the sky-god5—was deposited in a holy place. And where could it
be more safely bestowed than beneath the central support of heaven
itself? To make security doubly secure, the mound in which the
relic lay buried was covered by the agrenon with its numerous
knots6. So far as I can see, nothing short of this hypothesis will

1 See the examples collected by H. Ploss Das Kind in Branch und Sitle der Vblker-
Leipzig 1884 i. 15—18, ii. 194, 199 f. and Frazer Golden Bough3: The Magic Art i.
182—201, ii. 56, id.3: Taboo p. 48, id.'3: Adonis Attis Osiris3 ii. 167 ff., id.3: Balder the
Beautiful ii. 160 ff.

2 Frazer Golden Bough3: The Magic Art i. 182, citing R. Taylor Te Ika A Maui, or
New Zealand and its Inhabitants'2, London 1870 p. 184.

:! They were collected, at the request of W. H. Roscher, by N. G. Polites in Aaoypa<pta
1912 iii. 6986°., cp. P. D. Sepherles id. 1913 iv. 322, K. I. Mantzouranes id. 1913 iv.
323 f. See W. H. Roscher Omphalos Leipzig 1913 pp. 18 f., 131 f.

4 G. Georgeakis and L. Pineau Le Folk-Lore de Lesbos (Litteratures populaires cle
toutes les nations xxxi) Paris 1894 p. 331 f. : ' Quand on a coupe le nombril du nouveau-
ne, on l'attache dans un morceau de linge, et on le jette soit.dans l'ecole, soit dans l'eglise
ou dans un champ : l'enfant alors sera ou instituteur ou pretre ou agriculteur. C'est
pourquoi, quand un enfant va tres souvent dans le meme lieu, sa mere, en colere, lui dit :
" C'est la que Ton a jete ton nombril ! " '

8 On kings impersonating Zeus see Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 299 ff., supra i. 853 f. Index,
infra Index ; and on the Delphic kings in particular, Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 402 ff.

fi Knots as protective amulets are discussed by Frazer Golden Bough3 : Taboo p. 306 ff.,
1'. Wolters ' Faden und Knoten als Amulett' in the Archiv f. Rel. 1905 viii Beiheft
pp. 1—22, F. W. von Bissing ' Agyptische Knotenamulette ' id. pp. 23—26, J. Heckenbach
De nuditate sacra sacrisqne vinculis Giessen 1911 pp. 4 f., 23, 69 ff., J. Pley De lanae in
antiquoruni ritidits usu Giessen 1911 pp. 30 ff., 80 ff., I. Scheftelowitz Das Schlingen-
und Netzmotiv im Glatiden und Branch der Volker Giessen J912 pp. 38—49.