There was an Omphalia in Elis; and here too was an oracle mentioned by [741]Pindar and Strabo: [742]Την δε επιφανειαν εσχεν (ἡ Ολυμπια) εξ αρχης δια το μαντειον του Ολυμπιου Διος. _The place derived all its lustre originally from the oracular temple of Olympian Jove._ In this province was an antient city [743]Alphira; and a grove of Artemis [744]Alpheionia, and the whole was watered by the sacred river Alpheus. All these are derived from El, the prophetic Deity, the Sun; and more immediately from his oracle, Alphi. The Greeks deduced every place from some personage: and Plutarch accordingly makes Alpheus[745]--Ἑις των το γενος αφ' ἡλιου καταγοντων, one of those who derived their race from the Sun. The term Alphi, from whence the Greeks formed Alphira, Alpheionia, and Alpheüs, is in acceptation the same as Amphi. For Ham being by his posterity esteemed the Sun, or El; and likewise Or, the same as Orus; his oracles were in consequence styled not only Amphi, and Omphi, but Alphi, Elphi, Orphi, Urphi. I have taken notice of several cities called Omphalian, and have observed, that they generally had oracular temples: but by the Greeks they were universally supposed to have been denominated from a navel. There was a place called [746]Omphalian in Thessaly: and another in Crete, which had a celebrated [747]oracle. It is probably the same that is mentioned by Strabo, as being upon mount Ida, where was the city Elorus. Diodorus speaks of this oracle, named Omphalian; but supposes that the true name was ομφαλος, omphalus: and says, that it was so called (strange to tell) because Jupiter, when he was a child, lost his navel here, which dropped into the river Triton: [748]Απο τουτου τοτε συμβαντος Ομφαλον προσαγορευθηναι το χωριον: _from this accident the place had the name of Omphalus, or the navel_. Callimachus in his hymn to Jupiter dwells upon this circumstance: [749]Ευτε Θενας απελειπεν επι Κνωσσοιο φερουση, Ζευ πατερ, ἡ Νυμφη σε (Θεναι δ' εσαν εγγυθι Κνωσσου) Τουτακι τοι πεσε, Δαιμον, απ' ομφαλος, ενθεν εκεινο Ομφαλιον μετεπειτα πεδον καλεουσι Κυδωνες. Who would imagine, that one of the wisest nations that ever existed could rest satisfied with such idle figments: and how can we account for these illusions, which overspread the brightest minds? We see knowing and experienced people inventing the most childish tales; lovers of science adopting them; and they are finally recorded by the grave historian: all which would not appear credible, had we not these evidences so immediately transmitted from them. And it is to be observed that this blindness is only in regard to their religion; and to their mythology, which was grounded thereupon. In all other respects they were the wisest of the sons of men.