Delphi, The “Omphalos”
The marble omphalos was found in the area to the northeast of the temple of Apollo. It probably reproduced the form of the “omphalos” that used to stand in the adyton, where the prophetic responses were being given via the Pythia. It is regarded as a Hellenistic or Roman copy of that omphalos. lts relief decoration represents the named “agrenon“, the woolen net which originally wrapped the sacred object.
According to mythology the omphalos marked the center of the earth, the point where the two eagles released by Zeus from two opposite ends of the world eventually met. According to a recent theory, the marble omphalos originally crowned the top of a 13 meters high columns, the so called the dancers’ column.
Omphalos and tripod are the main iconographic symbols associated to Delphi and Apollo. A magnificent krater from Spina Necropolis near Ferrara and attributed to The Kleophon Painter shows Apollo inside his temple in Delphi. The good is sitting on the throne, wears a laurel wreath in his hair and holds a laurel branch leant on his right shoulder. The omphalos and two tripods are represented just in front of the temple sacaellum.
Source: Museum notice
Marble sculpture
Height: 123 cm, diameter: 92 cm
Hellenistic Period
Delphi, Archaeological Museum
Delphi, The “Omphalos”
The marble omphalos was found in the area to the northeast of the temple of Apollo. It probably reproduced the form of the “omphalos” that used to stand in the adyton, where the prophetic responses were being given via the Pythia. It is regarded as a Hellenistic or Roman copy of that omphalos. lts relief decoration represents the named “agrenon“, the woolen net which originally wrapped the sacred object.
According to mythology the omphalos marked the center of the earth, the point where the two eagles released by Zeus from two opposite ends of the world eventually met. According to a recent theory, the marble omphalos originally crowned the top of a 13 meters high columns, the so called the dancers’ column.
Omphalos and tripod are the main iconographic symbols associated to Delphi and Apollo. A magnificent krater from Spina Necropolis near Ferrara and attributed to The Kleophon Painter shows Apollo inside his temple in Delphi. The good is sitting on the throne, wears a laurel wreath in his hair and holds a laurel branch leant on his right shoulder. The omphalos and two tripods are represented just in front of the temple sacaellum.
Source: Museum notice
Marble sculpture
Height: 123 cm, diameter: 92 cm
Hellenistic Period
Delphi, Archaeological Museum