[31\3: Varro, _LL._ vii, 17, p. 124 Sp.^2, compares the shape of the Omphalos with a _thesaurus_, i.e. with one of the vaulted buildings which used to be called treasuries, but which have now been undoubtedly proved to be really vaulted graves. On a smaller scale (as vase paintings show) the ~omphalo/s~ had the shape generally given to the dwelling-places made for the spirits of the departed who dwelt below the earth, as well as that of the abodes of other earth-spirits; even the ~cha/sma gê=s~ over the cavern of Trophonios was of this shape, Paus. 9, 39, 10. Was this dome-shape especially connected with earth-spirits who had mantic powers? The Delphic "omphalos" was even used as a technical expression to describe this "tholos" shape; thus the ~omphaloi/~ (of ~phia/lai~) ~kai\ tô=n balanei/ôn hoi _tho/loi_ paro/moioi~, Ath. 501 D. E. (cf. Hesych. ~Balaneiompha/lous~, _AB._ 225, 6). It was called ~omphalo/s Gê=s~ because sacred to the earth-goddess. It was later interpreted "navel", i.e. middle point of the earth, by mistake, and then fabulous accounts made up to explain this.] [32\3: Modern writers have adopted the view that Dionysos was buried under the Omphalos: e.g. Enmann, _Kypros u. Ursp. Aphrod._, S. Petersb., 1886, p. 47 ff. But closer examination shows that all that we have good authority for is that the ~omphalo/s~ was _Pythonis tumulus_ (Varro, _LL._ vii, 17, p. 124 Sp.), ~ta/phos tou= Pu/thônos~ (Hesych. s. ~Toxi/ou bouno/s~). _Dionysos_, on the other hand, was buried at Delphi, ~para\ to\n Apo/llôna to\n chrusou=n~ (Philochoros ap. Sync. 307, 4 ff. Di.; Eus. Arm. = Hier. _Chr._, pp. 44-5 Sch.; Malal., p. 45, 7 Di., from Africanus acc. to Gelzer, _Afric._ i, 132 f.), i.e. he was buried in the ~a/duton~ (cf. Paus. 10, 24, 5), or, what comes to the same thing, ~para\ to\ chrêstê/rion~ (Plu., _Is. et O._ 35, 365 A.), ~para\ to\n tri/poda~ (Call. ap. Tz. Lyc. 208; cf. _E.M._ ~Delphoi/~). The tripod stood in the Adyton (D.S. 16, 26; Str. 419; cf. Hdt. vii, 140). Whether the ~omphalo/s~ also stood in the Adyton (or whether as some think, in the _Cella_ of the Temple) cannot be made out for certain though it seems probable. No one, however, made the grave of Dionysos under the Omphalos except Tat., _Gr._ viii, p. 40 Ott. [p. 9, 16 ff. Schw.]: ~ho omphalo\s ta/phos esti\ Dionu/sou~, and the statement of this very careless pamphleteer cannot stand against the witness of Varro, etc. It is plain that Tatian confused the two "graves", as Hyg. 140 and Serv. (_A._ iii, 92; iii, 360; vi, 347) did, reversing the process and making the tripod into the grave of the Python. The real tradition knew, besides the grave of Dionysos near the tripod, the grave of Python in the Omphalos of his mother Gaia. This was never seriously denied; doubt might rather have been believed to linger over the question, who then was preserved in the tripod? Porph., _VP._ 18, p. 25, 6 ff. N., says that it was Apollo himself, or possibly _an_ Apollo the son of Silenos.