Note 754 — OMPHI,

In respect to the omphalus of Ammon, which Curtius has translated umbilicus, and garnished with gold and jewels, the whole arises from a mistake in terms, as in the many instances before. It was Omphi El, the oracle of Ham, or the Sun: and the shrine, from whence it was supposed to proceed, was carried in a boat. The Pateræ, represented as so many silver basons, were in reality the interpreters of the oracle. They were the priests, who in the sacred processions walked on each side, and supported both the image and the boat in which it was carried. They are said to have been eighty in number; and they pretended to bear the Deity about, just as they were by the divine impulse directed. The God, says [754]Diodorus Siculus, is carried about in a ship of gold by eighty of his priests. They bear him upon their shoulders, and pursue their way by instinct, just as the divine automaton chances to direct them. These persons, who thus officiated, were probably the same as the Petipharæ of the antient Egyptians, but were called Pateræ by the Greeks. It was a name, and office, by which the priests of Delphi, and of many other places besides those in Egypt, were distinguished: and the term always related to oracular interpretation. Hence Bochart describes these priests, and their function, very justly. [755]Pateræ Sacerdotes Apollinis, oraculorum interpretes. Pator, or Petor, was an Egyptian word; and Moses speaking of Joseph, and the dreams of Pharaoh, more than once makes use of it in the sense above. It occurs Genesis. c. 41. v. 8.—v. 13. and manifestly alludes to an interpretation of that divine intercourse, which the Egyptians styled Omphi. This was communicated to Pharaoh by a dream: for the Omphi was esteemed not only a verbal response, but also an intimation by [756]dreams—Ομφη, φημη θεια, θεια κληδων—ονειρου φαντασματα. Hesychius. So it likewise occurs in Eusebius; who quotes a passage from the oracles of Hecate, wherein the Gods are represented, as insensibly wafted through the air like an Omphean vision.