Omphalos Stone: the rock Cronos swallowed instead of the infant Zeus

The Omphalos Stone is the stone the Titaness Rhea gave the Titan Cronos to swallow instead of the newly born Zeus. Ages later it turns up again in the stomach of that same Titan, and Kratos cuts it out in Tartarus at the request of a smith god who wants him dead. (God of War II; God of War III; Theogony)

What is the Omphalos Stone?#

It is the stone that stood in for a god: the rock handed to Cronos in place of the infant Zeus, swallowed whole by a Titan who never noticed the difference. In Hesiod, Cronos had overthrown his father Ouranos, and he had learned from Gaia and Ouranos that one of his own children would do the same to him. So he swallowed every one of Rhea's children whole: Hestia, Hades, Demeter, Poseidon and Hera. (Theogony)

When Zeus was due, Rhea, on the advice of Gaia and Ouranos, hid the newborn in Crete and gave Cronos a great stone wrapped in swaddling clothes. He swallowed it whole. Zeus grew up and forced his father to bring back up the children he had swallowed, the stone first of all, and Zeus set the stone up at Pytho, the site of Delphi. (Theogony)

Gaia tells her own version of the story to Kratos in God of War II. In her account Rhea was forced to watch her children eaten one by one, and when Zeus was born she commanded an eagle to carry him to Gaia. A rock wrapped in cloth was placed on the sacrificial altar in his place, and Cronos swallowed it without noticing. (God of War II)

Where do you get the Omphalos Stone in God of War III?#

Hephaestus sends you for it, and he does so hoping the errand kills you rather than because he has any use for the rock at the end of it. Once it became clear to the smith god that his daughter Pandora's life might be in danger, he settled on killing Kratos with the stone as his pretext. He offered help, told the Spartan to travel to the Pit of Tartarus and find the Omphalos Stone so that a weapon could be made from it. Kratos had weapons enough already. Hephaestus insisted this one would be special. (God of War III)

In Tartarus Kratos found the Titan Cronos. He worked out where the stone was, killed the Titan and pulled the Omphalos from his stomach. He came back furious, certain he had been sent to his death. Hephaestus pleaded innocence and said he had known the Ghost of Sparta could handle himself. (God of War III)

Then the god took the stone and crafted the Nemesis Whip from it with his bare hands. He gave the new weapon to Kratos and made one last attempt on his life, trying to electrify him with his ring. Kratos shook off the effect and impaled Hephaestus on his own anvil. (God of War III)

Loose ends#

The stone that saved Zeus in his first hours ended up as one supporting factor in his death. Both Hephaestus and Rhea used it in schemes to protect their own child, and both of those children, Pandora and Zeus, died at the hands of the same man. (God of War II; God of War III)

In Hesiod, Cronos vomits the stone back up before any of his children, and Zeus sets it at Delphi. God of War III ignores that and still has the stone lodged in the Titan's stomach until Kratos opens him with the Blade of Olympus. Whether the rock ever had any genuine power is never said, given that Hephaestus wanted it mainly as a ruse. (Theogony; God of War III)