Note 741 — OMPHI,

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.