Omphalos
- World Navel
Located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, the Oracle of Delphi stood at the
crossroads of the ancient world.
The
story goes that - once upon a time - Zeus, the chief Olympian
god, released two eagles. One he released from the
East [the Ascendant], the other he released from the West [the Descendant].
At
the point where the two eagles met in the middle, Zeus then threw
a Sacred Stone marking the center of Earth - the navel of the
world
-
at Delphi.
For
thousands of years, the Sacred Stone of Delphi was zealously
guarded by a fearsome snake, Python.
Moving
forward in time... the great Zeus and a lesser goddess Leto
became lovers. After the goddess Leto became pregnant by Zeus
- Hera,
the wife
of
Zeus (some versions say: "soon to be wife"), became outraged
with jealousy. Being married to Zeus, Hera quite often found
herself
getting outraged at all of her husband's many love affairs.
Anyway...
Hera forbid all places on Earth - whether on terra firma or on
islands out at sea - to give shelter to the pregnant Leto.
Birth
of Apollo
As a result of Hera's harsh decree, the only place on earth where Leto was
finally able to seek out shelter was on the floating island of Delos. It's
said that, by way of a technical legal loophole, because Delos was a floating
island - it was not considered to be breaking
either of Hera's prohibitions.
So...
after striking a deal with the floating island of Delos, Leto
was able to give birth to the twins gods Apollo and
Artemis.
Parenthetically,
during Leto's search for a place to give birth, the aforementioned
snake Python of
Delphi (having been warned that Leto's son would be the snake's
undoing) attempted to kill Leto as she'd passed by on her
way to Delos.
It's
in Homer's hymn we're told that after the birth of
Apollo on Delos, he [Apollo] then - in revenge for his mother's
near death experience - went to Delphi and killed the snake
Python with
his bow.
Then
Apollo appropriately, for justice sake of the gods, went into
exile for many years to make atonement for his crime of killing
of
the
snake.
Upon his return, the Sun god Apollo then took his rightful place
as the god and conqueror of Delphi.
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