'''Omphace''' or '''Omphake''' ({{langx|grc|Ὀμφάκη}}) was an ancient Sicanian town in the Greek territory of Gela,<ref name="ecs">{{cite encyclopedia | editor-last=Stillwell | editor-first=Richard | editor2-last=MacDonald | editor2-first=William Lloyd | editor3-last=McAllister | editor3-first=Marian Holland | title =Butera ("Omphake") Sicily | encyclopedia =The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites | publisher =Princeton University Press | date =1979 | url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0006:entry=butera | accessdate = 2016-01-30}}</ref> and is one of very few cities we know from literary sources to have been in this territory.<ref name="polis">{{cite journal | last =Fischer-Hansen | first =Tobias | editor-last=Heine Nielsen | editor-first=Thomas | title =Reflections on Native Settlements in the Dominions of Gela and Akragas - as Seen from the Perspective of the Copenhagen Polis Center | journal =Even More Studies in the Ancient Greek Polis | volume =6 | issue =162 | pages =134–136 | publisher =Franz Steiner Verlag | location =Copenhagen | date =2002 | language =English | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=maTd3nJQGQAC | issn =0341-0056 | isbn = 9783515081023 | accessdate = 2016-01-30}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last1 =Griffo | first1 =Pietro | last2 =von Matt | first2 =Leonard | title =Gela; the Ancient Greeks in Sicily | publisher =New York Graphic Society | date =1968 | pages =[https://archive.org/details/gelaancientgreek00grif/page/n71 68] | language =English | url =https://archive.org/details/gelaancientgreek00grif | url-access =registration | accessdate=2016-01-30}}</ref>
Various scholars have identified modern Butera as ancient Omphace.<ref>{{cite book | last =Morris | first =Sarah P. | authorlink =Sarah P. Morris | title =Daidalos and the Origins of Greek Art | publisher =Princeton University Press | date =1995 | pages =200–202 | language =English | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=Zqtx2tpGAk4C | isbn = 9780691001609 | accessdate=2016-01-30}}</ref> If it was indeed Butera, the site's location is a formidable one: located on a high mountain on the plain of Gela, ideal for the defense of the fertile plain.<ref name="ecs"/> Other scholars have identified it as Monte Bubbonia. The name of the town presumably comes from the ancient Greek word "ómphax", which means "wild, bitter grape".<ref name="brill">{{cite encyclopedia | last=Salsano | first=Deborah | title =Omphace | editor-last=Cancik | editor-first=Hubert | editor2-last=Schneider | editor2-first=Helmuth | encyclopedia =Brill's New Pauly | publisher = | date =2006 | url=http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/omphace-e830910 | isbn =9789004122598 | accessdate = 2016-01-30}}</ref>
There exists a story from the ancient geographer Pausanias in which Antiphemus from Gela colonized the city of Omphace and carried off a statue made by the mythological Daedalus.<ref>Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' 8.46.2, 9.40.4</ref>
In a story from the historian Philistus,<ref>Philistus, ''POxy.'' 665</ref> the city was occupied by mercenaries from Syracuse, the former garrison of Gela, who after the fall of the Deinomenids retreated to Omphace to continue waging a campaign against Gela.<ref name="polis"/><ref>{{cite book | last =De Angelis | first =Franco | authorlink =Franco De Angelis | title =Archaic and Classical Greek Sicily: A Social and Economic History | publisher =Oxford University Press | series =Classical Culture and Society Series | date =2016 | pages =164, 210 | language =English | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=ohBOCwAAQBAJ | isbn = 9780195170474 | accessdate=2016-01-30}}</ref>
Archaeologically, the city shows ancient Greek influence from the 7th century BCE. There is some evidence that in the 4th century BCE the city benefited from the reconstruction program of Timoleon in Sicily.<ref name="ecs"/>
There was a sanctuary there, and a cult for a deity called "Polystephanos Thea", which was likely a nymph of a character similar to the goddess Artemis.<ref name="ecs"/>
==Notes== {{Reflist|2}}
{{Archaeological sites in Sicily}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Archaeological sites in Sicily Category:Cities and towns in Sicily Category:Gela Category:7th-century BC establishments in Italy