an ancient Greek festival, in honour of Bacchus, surnamed Omophagus, i.e. eater of raw flesh. This festival was observed in the same manner with the other festivals of Bacchus, in which they counterfeited madness. What was peculiar to it, was, that the worshippers used to eat the entrails of goats, raw and bloody, in imitation of the god, who was supposed to do the same thing.

OMPHACINE oil, a viscous brown juice extracted from green olives. With this oil the ancient athletæ, when going to wrestle, anointed themselves; and when that gymnastic exercise was over, they rolled themselves in the sand, which, mixing with the oil and sweat on their bodies, constituted the strigmenta so highly esteemed in the cure of several diseases. This precious medicine was carefully scraped off the body of the athletæ with a kind of instrument something like a comb, which was called strigilis; and such was the demand for the scrapings, that they were a very lucrative article of trade.