Anomphalous

Anomphalous (pronounced uh-non-muh-luhs or un-no-muh-luhs)

(1) Having no navel; without an umbilicus.

(2) In biology (especially botany), an organism or structure lacking a central point or depression (ie a feature resembling a navel).  The best known use is of an anomphalous fruit (one lacking a central scar or mark where it was attached to the plant).

1742: A Latinized compound from the Ancient Greek, the construct being an- + (from ὀμφαλός (omphalosi) (navel)), from the primitive Indo-European hm̥bhl, from hnebh (navel, centre), the cognates including the Sanskrit नभ्य (nabhya), the Latin umbilīcus and the Old English nafola (from which English gained “navel”).  The an- prefix was an alternative form of on-, from the Middle English an-, from the Old English an- & on- (on-), from the Proto-Germanic ana- (on), from the Ancient Greek ἀν- (an-).   It was used to create words having the sense opposite to the word (or stem) to which the prefix is attached; it was used with stems beginning either with vowels or “h”.  It was used in anomphalous in the sense of “without” (ie the opposite of the usual case of “with”).  The use in marine biology is exemplified by the shells of the Anomphalidae, an extinct family of gastropods (molluscs including snails and slug in the family Anomphalidae).  The Anomphalidae lived during the Paleozoic (the geologic era within the Phanerozoic eon that comprises the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian periods (542-250 million years ago)).  The name is gained from the shells in which the aperture is oval, without exhalent slit or crease.  Anomphalous & anomphalic are adjectives and anomphalously is an adverb.

An emulated oil on canvas painting of an anomphalous Lindsay Lohan (digitally altered image).

One thing which did trouble some medieval artists was the matter of whether Adam and Eve had navels.  The theological proposition is they had no navels because the pair were not born to parents in the conventional manner and that must be right because there were no flesh & blood parents to be born from; Adam and Eve were the first human beings, created in the image of God himself.  So, no need for umbilical cords thus no navels, another implication of course being the “made in His own image” thing being God must have no navel and although it’s doubtful medieval theologians often commented on that, whether or not God could be said to have a bodily human form was discussed, the usual conclusion being he did not and that depictions in art were merely to facilitate worship.

Creazione di Adamo by Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel, The Vatican, Rome. In some medieval art, Adam and Eve were depicted as anomphalous, respecting the theology and emphasizing the pair had been created directly by God rather than born of a woman and thus unique.  It was though not a universal practice and on the basis of the surviving paintings, not all that common to “go anomphalous”.  Michelangelo’s (Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni; 1475–1564) famous fresco Creazione di Adamo (The Creation of Adam) which is a component of Sistine Chapel's ceiling (1508–1512) depicts the part of the Biblical creation narrative from the Bible’s Book of Genesis in which God gives life to Adam, the first man.  Michelangelo gave Adam a navel and concerned Christians have over the years explained that too, pointing out God thought ahead and knew there would be offspring and didn’t want his two creations to be getting tiresome questions from children asking about why they had navels when mom & dad did not.  Christianity has an answer for anything.

De aanbidding van het Lam Gods (the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb; better known in the English-speaking world as The Ghent Altarpiece), oil on oak polyptych winged altarpiece by Hubert (circa 1387–1426) & Jan (circa 1385-1441) van Eyck.  One of the landmark works which marked the transition from medieval to Renaissance art, Adam & Eve appear (with navels) on the panels to the far left & right.

Adam and Eve by Jan van Scorel (1495-1562): tempera on panel (circa 1527; left, omphalous) and tempera on panel (circa 1540; right, anomphalous).  Nor were artists always theologically committed, some sometimes including navels on their Adam & Eve and sometimes omitting the feature.  It was an age of artistic patronage and it may be some cardinals insisted things be done anomphalously and some were less emphatic.  They may also have had some say in the size of the fig leaves.