Abstract
Throughout the annals of history, many societies have imagined that places integral to their religious, political, or cultural life should be considered “centers.” These centers are often represented by symbolic constructions, mythologies, and ideological statements. In many cases, notions of centrality are accompanied by claims that a particular space should be considered the “center” or “middle” of the earth; in the Classical World, such a place may also be referred to as the “navel of the earth,” with the omphalos connected to the oracle at Delphi being the example par excellence. Yet Delphi did not hold a monopoly on Classical notions of centrality. From the archaic period to Late Antiquity, critical responses to Delphi emerged, sparking the appearance of other, competing, centers throughout the Mediterranean. New centers show striking similarities to one another in their associated ideologies, physicality, and mythography, and could be represented through programmatic cartographic, literary, and architectural statements. Regardless of the medium, all avenues of representation are indicators of the myriad ways in which these societies understood their physical and metaphorical place in relation to other civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean. This paper will argue that, through intense cultural contact, societies of the ancient world created imagined centers as a direct—and oftentimes competitive—response to other imagined centers in the Mediterranean, and beyond. All of these reconfigurations and manipulations of fictional and real space can be associated with fundamental shifts in the socio-cultural operations of the society in which the new “center” appears.
Acknowledgements
My heartfelt thanks go out to Gina Konstantopoulos, for organizing an enriching and enjoyable conference, and for her great care in commenting upon drafts of this article in its several iterations. I am likewise grateful for the thoughtful remarks of the anonymous peer reviewers for JANEH, with whose aid the argument has been much improved. Any errors remaining are mine, and mine alone.
References
Aicher, P.J. 2004. Rome Alive: A Source-Guide to the Ancient City, Vol. I. Wauconda, Ill.: Bolchazy-Carducci.Search in Google Scholar
Alexander, P.S. 1999. Jerusalem as Omphalos of the World: On the History of a Geographical Concept. Pp. 104–119 in Jerusalem: Its Sanctity and Centrality to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, ed. L.I. Levine. New York: Continuum.Search in Google Scholar
Aujac, G. 1987. The Foundations of Theoretical Cartography in Archaic and Classical Greece. Pp. 130–147 in The History of Cartography Vol 1: Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, ed. J.B. Harley and D. Woodward. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar
Barchiesi, A. 2017. Colonial Readings in Vergilian Geopoetics: The Trojans at Buthrotum. Pp. 151–166 in Imagining Empire: Political Space in Hellenistic and Roman Literature, ed. V. Rimell and M. Asper. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter.Search in Google Scholar
Behrwald, R. 2009. Die Stadt Als Museum? Der Wahrnehmung Der Monumente Roms in Der Spätantike. Klio Beiheft 12. Berlin: de Gruyter.10.1524/9783050048543Search in Google Scholar
Bowden, H. 2005. Classical Athens and the Delphic Oracle: Divination and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Brodersen, K. 1996/1997. Miliarium Aureum Und Umbilicus Romae: Zwei Mittelpunkte Des Römischen Reiches? Würzburger Jahrbücher Für Die Altertumswissenschaft 21: 273–283.Search in Google Scholar
Butterworth, E.A.S. 1970. The Tree at the Navel of the Earth. Berlin: de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110820287Search in Google Scholar
Ciholas, P. 2003. The Omphalos and the Cross: Pagans and Christians in Search of a Divine Center. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Clarke, K. 1999. Between Geography and History: Hellenistic Constructions of the Roman World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Coarelli, F. 1996. Mundus. Pp. 288–289 in Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae Vol. 3, ed E.M. Steinby. Rome: Qasar.Search in Google Scholar
Cole, S.G. 2010. “I Know the Number of the Sand and the Measure of the Sea:” Geography and Difference in the Early Greek World. Pp. 197–214 in Geography and Ethnography: Perceptions of the World in Pre-Modern Societies, ed. K.A. Raaflaub and R.J.A. Talbert. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.10.1002/9781444315653.ch13Search in Google Scholar
Collins, J. 1999. Between Athens and Jerusalem: Jewish Identity in the Hellenistic Diaspora. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.Search in Google Scholar
Couprie, D. 2011. Heaven and Earth in Ancient Greek Cosmology: From Thales to Heraclides Ponticus. New York: Springer.10.1007/978-1-4419-8116-5Search in Google Scholar
Couprie, D., R. Hahn, and G. Naddaf. 2003. Anaximander in Context: New Studies in the Origins of Greek Philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press.Search in Google Scholar
Day, J.W. 1980. The Glory of Athens: The Popular Tradition as Reflected in the Panathenaicus of Aelius Aristides. Chicago: Ares Press.Search in Google Scholar
De Bruyn, T.S. 1990. Jerusalem versus Rome: The Religious and Philosophical Context of Augustine’s Assessment of the Roman Empire in the City of God. Pp. 53–67 in Christianity and the Classics: The Acceptance of a Heritage, ed W.E. Helleman. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.Search in Google Scholar
Dilke, O.A.W. 1985. Greek and Roman Maps. London: Thames and Hudson.Search in Google Scholar
Diller, A. 1975. Agathemerus, Sketch of Geography. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 16(1): 59–76.Search in Google Scholar
Edgerton, S.Y., Jr. 1987. From Mental Matrix to Mappamundi to Christian Empire: The Heritage of Ptolemaic Cartography in the Renaissance. Pp. 10–50 in Art and Cartography: Six Historical Essays, ed. D. Woodward. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar
Edwards, C. 1996. Writing Rome: Textual Approaches to the City. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Elderkin, G.W. 1962. Related Religious Ideas of Delphi, Tara and Jerusalem: A Study of the Dionysiac Tradition. Springfield: Pond-Ekberg.Search in Google Scholar
Eliade, M. and P. Mairet. 1961. Images and Symbols. New York: Sheed & Ward.Search in Google Scholar
Elsner, J. 2000a. From the Culture of Spolia to the Cult of Relics: The Arch of Constantine and the Genesis of Late Antique Forms. Papers of the British School at Rome 68: 149–184.10.1017/S0068246200003901Search in Google Scholar
Elsner, J. 2000b. The Itinerarium Burdigalense: Politics and Salvation in the Geography of Constantine’s Empire. The Journal of Roman Studies 90: 181–195.10.1017/S0075435800031385Search in Google Scholar
Fontenrose, J. 1980. Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins. Berkeley: University of California Press.Search in Google Scholar
Georgacas, D.J. 1947. The Names of Constantinople. Transactions of the American Philological Association Vol 78: 347–367.10.2307/283503Search in Google Scholar
Goodman, M. 2007. Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations. New York: Vintage Books.Search in Google Scholar
Gorski, G.J. and J.E. Packer. 2015. The Roman Forum: A Reconstruction and Architectural Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511894640Search in Google Scholar
Hölscher, F. 2006a. Das Capitol—Das Haupt Der Welt. Pp. 75–99 in Erinnerungsorte Der Antike. Die Römische Welt, ed. E. Stein-Hölkeskamp and H. Karl-Joachim. Munich: C. H. Beck.Search in Google Scholar
Hölscher, T. 2006b. Das Forum Romanum – Die Monumentale Geschichte Roms. Pp. 100–122 in Erinnerungsorte Der Antike. Die Römische Welt, ed. E. Stein-Hölkeskamp and H. Karl-Joachim. Munich: C. H. Beck.Search in Google Scholar
Horowitz, W. 1998. Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography. Mesopotamian Civilizations 8. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.Search in Google Scholar
Humphries, M. 2007. A New Created World: Classical Geographical Texts and Christian Contexts in Late Antiquity. Pp. 33–68 in Texts and Culture in Late Antiquity: Inheritance, Authority, and Change, ed. J.H.D. Scourfield. Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales.10.2307/j.ctvvnb1n.7Search in Google Scholar
Jones, A. 2012. Ptolemy’s Geography: Mapmaking and the Scientific Enterprise. Pp. 109–128 in Ancient Perspectives: Maps and Their Place in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece & Rome, ed. R.J.A. Talbert. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226789408.003.0005Search in Google Scholar
Kähler, H. 1964. Das Funfsäulendenkmal für die Tetrarchen auf dem Forum Romanum. Cologne: M. Dumont Schauberg.Search in Google Scholar
Kahn, C.H. 1985. Anaximander and the Origins of Greek Cosmology, 3rd ed. Philadelphia: Centrum.Search in Google Scholar
Kline, N.R. 2001. Maps of Medieval Thought: The Hereford Paradigm. Suffolk: The Boydell Press.Search in Google Scholar
Krautheimer, R. 1983. Three Christian Capitals: Topography and Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press.10.1525/9780520312845Search in Google Scholar
Kupfer, M. 2014. The Jerusalem Effect: Rethinking the Centre in Medieval World Maps. Pp. 353–368 in Visual Constructs of Jerusalem, ed. B. Kühnel, et. al. Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages 18. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols.10.1484/M.CELAMA-EB.5.103091Search in Google Scholar
Lefebvre, H.(trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith). 1992. The Production of Space. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar
Matthews, J. 2012. The Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae. Pp. 81–115 in Two Romes: Rome and Constantinople in Late Antiquity, ed. L. Grig and G. Kelly. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199739400.003.0004Search in Google Scholar
Maul, S. 1997. Die Altorientalische Hauptstadt—Abbild Und Nabel Der Welt. Pp. 109–124 in Die Orientalische Stadt: Kontinuität, Wandel, Bruch, 1. Internationales Colloquium Der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, 9.-10. Mai 1996, ed. G. Wilhelm. Halle/Saale: Saarbrücken.Search in Google Scholar
Michalowski, P. 2010. Masters of the Four Corners of the Heavens: Views of the Universe in Early Mesopotamian Writings. Pp. 147–168 in Geography and Ethnography: Perceptions of the World in Pre-Modern Societies, ed. K.A. Raaflaub and R.J.A. Talbert. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.10.1002/9781444315653.ch10Search in Google Scholar
Millard, A. 1987. Cartography in the Ancient near East. Pp. 107–116 in The History of Cartography Vol 1: Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, ed. J.B. Harley and D. Woodward. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar
Moynihan, R. 1985. Geographical Mythology and Roman Imperial Ideology. Pp. 149–162 in The Age of Augustus: Interdisciplinary Conference Held at Brown University, April 30-May 2, 1982, ed R. Winkes. Providence, R.I.: Centre for Old World Archaeology and Art, Brown University.Search in Google Scholar
Müller, W. 1961. Die Heilige Stadt: Roma Quadrata, Himmlisches Jerusalem Und Die Mythe Vom Weltnabel. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer Verlag.Search in Google Scholar
Munn, M. 2006. The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion. Berkeley: The University of California Press.10.1525/9780520931589Search in Google Scholar
Naddaf, G. 2005. The Greek Concept of Nature. Albany: State University of New York Press.10.1353/book4910Search in Google Scholar
Neiman, D. 1980. Ethiopia and Kush: Biblical and Ancient Greek Geography. Ancient World 3: 35–42.Search in Google Scholar
Neusner, J. 1985. Genesis and Judaism. Brown Judaic Studies 108. Atlanta: Scholars Press.Search in Google Scholar
Nicolet, C. 1991. Imperial Geographies: Space, Geography, and Politics in the Early Roman Empire. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.10.3998/mpub.12416Search in Google Scholar
Perrone, L. 1999. ‘The Mystery of Judaea’ (Jerome, Ep. 46): The Holy City of Jerusalem between History and Symbol in Early Christian Thought. Pp. 230–239 in Jerusalem: Its Sanctity and Centrality to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, ed. L.I. Levine. New York: Continuum.Search in Google Scholar
Platner, S.B., and T. Ashby. 1929. A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Retrieved from viaperseus.tufts.edu.Search in Google Scholar
Purcell, N. 2007. Urban Spaces and Central Places: The Roman World (B). Pp. 182–202 in Classical Archaeology, ed. S. Alcock and R. Osborne. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar
Richardson, L., Jr. 1992. A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.10.56021/9780801843006Search in Google Scholar
Roller, D. 2015. Ancient Geography: The Discovery of the World in Classical Greece and Rome. Library of Classical Studies 9. London: I.B. Tauris.10.5040/9780755624300Search in Google Scholar
Roscher, W.H. 1913. Omphalos. Leipzig: Teubner.Search in Google Scholar
Rowlands, M., M. Larsen, and K. Kristiansen (eds.). 1987. Centre and Periphery in the Ancient World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Schmidt, Th-M. 1981. Konstantinoupolis. Zum städtebaulichen Programm des “Zweiten Rom.” Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena 30: 431–439.Search in Google Scholar
Scott, J. 2002. Geography in Early Judaism and Christianity: The Book of Jubilees. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511549977Search in Google Scholar
Scott, M. 2014. Delphi: A History of the Center of the Ancient World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9781400851324Search in Google Scholar
Secord, J. 2012. The Cultural Geography of a Greek Christian: Irenaeus from Smyrna to Lyons. Pp. 25–33 in Irenaeus: Life, Scripture, Legacy, ed. P. Foster and S. Parvis. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.10.2307/j.ctt22nm648.9Search in Google Scholar
Shinan, A. 1999. The Many Names of Jerusalem. Pp. 120–129 in Jerusalem: Its Sanctity and Centrality to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, ed L.I. Levine. New York: Continuum.Search in Google Scholar
Ska, J.-L. 2006. Introduction to Reading the Pentateuch. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.Search in Google Scholar
Stadter, P.A. 2014. Plutarch and His Roman Readers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198718338.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Stein, G. 1999. Rethinking World Systems: Diasporas, Colonies, and Interaction in Uruk Mesopotamia. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.Search in Google Scholar
Swain, S. 1996. Hellenism and Empire: Language, Classicism, and Power in the Greek World AD 50–250. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Search in Google Scholar
Talbert, R.J.A. 2012. Urbs Roma to Orbis Romanus: Roman Mapping on the Grand Scale. Pp. 163–192 in Ancient Perspectives: Maps and Their Place in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece & Rome, ed. R.J.A. Talbert. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226789408.003.0007Search in Google Scholar
Terrien, S. 1970. The Omphalos Myth and Hebrew Religion. Vetus Testamentum 20(3): 315–338.10.1163/156853370X00336Search in Google Scholar
Tierney, J.J. 1962–1964. The Map of Agrippa. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature vol. 63: 151–166.Search in Google Scholar
Van Dam, R. 2007. The Roman Revolution of Constantine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511819476Search in Google Scholar
Van Dam, R. 2010. Rome and Constantinople: Rewriting History during Late Antiquity. Waco: Baylor University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Verzàr, M. 1976/1977. L’Umbilicus Urbis. Il Mundus in Eta Tardo-Repubblicana. Dialoghi Di Archaeologica 9–10: 378–398.Search in Google Scholar
Wensinck, A.J. 1916. The Ideas of the Western Semites Concerning the Navel of the Earth. Amsterdam: Johannes Müller.Search in Google Scholar
Whitmarsh, T. 2005. The Second Sophistic. Greece & Rome: New Surveys in the Classics no. 35. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1017/S0533245100030881Search in Google Scholar
Wolf, B. 2010. Jerusalem Und Rom: Mitte, Nabel—Zentrum, Haupt: Die Metaphern ‘Umbilicus Mundi’ Und ‘Caput Mundi’ in Den Weltbildern Der Antike Und Des Abendlands Bis in Die Zeit Der Ebstorfer Weltkarte. Bern: Peter Lang.Search in Google Scholar
Woodward, D. 1987. Medieval Mappamundi. Pp. 286–370 in The History of Cartography Vol 1: Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, ed. J.B. Harley and D. Woodward. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar
Zaccagnini, C. 2012. Maps of the World. Pp. 865–874 in Leggo! Studies Presented to Mario Fales on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday, ed. G. B. Lanfranchi et al. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz.Search in Google Scholar
Zanker, P. 1988. The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.10.3998/mpub.12362Search in Google Scholar
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter Inc., Boston/Berlin
