In the entire painting, of the birds or ibises one i.< lying down at ease, another is standing up without fear or apprehension ; a third, perched on some paling, is looking over the heads of the people ; and a fourth is standing on the back of a Sphinx, nearly adjacent to the temple, in the front of it. It deserves notice that this altar (and the other also) has at each of its four corners a rising, which continues square to about half its height, but from thence is gradually sloped off to an edge or a point. ' These arc no doubt the horns of the attar, and probably this is their true figure (see Exod. xxvii, 2, etc. ; xxix, 12 ; Ezek. xliii, 15). The priest is blowing up the lire, apparently with a fan, so as to avoid the pollution of the breath. The other figure, which we give more in full, shows the horns of the altar, formed on the same principle as the foregoing ; but this is seen on its angle, and its gen- eral form is more elevated. It has no garlands, and perfumes appear to be burning on it. In Vnh picture the assembly is not so numerous as in the other ; but almost all, to the number of ten or a dozen persons, are playing on musical instruments.
Grseco-Egyptian Alt
The idolaters in the first ages of the wrorld, who generally worshipped the sun, appear to have thought it improper to confine the supposed infinity of this imaginary deity within walls, and therefore they gen- erally made choice of woods and mountains, as the most convenient places for their idolatry ; and when, in later times, they had brought in the use of temples, yet for a long time they kept them open- roofed. With such a form of worship notions of gloomy sub- limity were associated, and so prevalent was the cus- tom, that the phrase " worshipping on high places," is frequently used to signify idolatry in the Old Tes-
r
Antique Altars on High-plaops. From Ker Porter'B Travels in Persia.
tament. The worshipping on high-places was strict- ly forbidden to the Jews ; not merel}' because the cus- tom had a tendency to produce idolatry, but also be- cause the customary form of that idolatry was the worst, the most cruel, and the most debasing. See High-place. It was before these altars, in groves and mountains, that human sacrifices were most fre- quently offered, that parents whose natural affections were blighted and destroyed by dark superstitions made their children pass through the fire to Moloch ; and it was in such places that licentiousness and de- pravity were systematically made a part of public worship. See Idolatry. It does not appear from the monuments that altars on high-places were com- mon in Egypt, though there are some traces of wor- ship in groves. See AsHERAH.
The heathens at first made their altars only of turf, afterward of stone, marble, wood, and other materials. They differed in form as well as material, some being round, some square, and others triangular. All their altars turned toward the east, and stood lowTer than the statue of the god, and were adorned with sculp- tures representing the deity to whom erected, or the appropriate symbols. These altars were of two kinds, the higher and the lower; the higher were intended for the celestial gods, and were called by the Romans at/aria ; the lower were for the terrestrial and infer- nal gods, and were called ar<v. Those dedicated to the heavenly gods were raised a great height above the ground ; those of the terrestrial gods were almost even with the surface, and those for the infernal dei- ties were only holes dug in the ground, called scrohi- culi. Most of the ancient Greek altars were of a cu- bical form; and hence, when the oracle of Apollo at DelmM commanded that a new altar should be pre-
ALTAR
180
ALTAR
pared exactly double the size of that which already stood in the temple, a problem was given surpassing the powers of science in those days, which is well known to mathematicians under the name of the dupli- cation of the cube. The great temples of Rome gen- erally contained three altars ; the first, in the sanctu- ary at the foot of the statue, for incense and libations ; the second, before the gate of the temple, for the sac- rifice of victims ; and the third, like the table of shew- I read, was a portable one for the offerings and vessels to lie upon.
Altars represented on Roman Coins.
The Altar at Athens, inscribed " to the unknown God." — Paul, discoursing in that city on the resurrec- tion of the dead, was carried by some of the philoso- phers before the judges of the Areopagus, where he uses this expression (Acts xvii, 22, 23) : "Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too super- stitious" (over-fond of gods) ; " for as I passed by, and beheld your sacred instruments, I found an altar with this inscription, 'To the unknown god;' him, therefore, whom ye worship as lunhnown,'him declare" (represent, announce) " I unto J'ou." The question is, What was this altar thus consecrated to the "unknown god?" Jerome says that it was inscribed " to the gods of Asia, Europe, and Africa — to the unknown and strange gods ;" and that the apostle uses the singular form be- cause his design was only to demonstrate to the Athe- nians that they adored an unknown god (Comment, ad Tit. i, 12). Some, as Grotius, Vossius, Beza, believe that Paul speaks of altars extant in several places of Attica, without any inscription, erected after a solemn expiation for the country, by the philosopher Epimen- ides (Diog. Laert. Vit. Epim. i, 20). Others conceive that tins altar was the one mentioned by Pausanias (i, 1) and Philostratus (Vit. Ap. vi, 3), who speak of altars at Athens consecrated "to the unknown gods." Lucian (Philopatr. § 9) swears "by the unknorcn god at Athens." He adds, " Being come to Athens, and finding there the unknown rjod, we worshipped him, and gave thanks to him, with hands lifted up to heav- en" (but see Niemeyer, Interp. Orat. Pauli in Areop. hub.). Peter Comestor relates that Dionysius the Areopagite, observing while he was at Alexandria the eclipse which, contrarj' to nature, happened at the death of our Saviour, from thence concluded that some unknown god suffered ; and not being then in a situa- tion to learn more of the matter, he erected at his re- turn to Athens this altar " to the unknown god," which gave occasion to Paul's discourse at the Areopagus. Theophylact, (Ecumenius, and others, give a different account of its origin and design, but each of their opin- ions, as also those we have noticed, has its difficulties. Augustine bad no doubt that the Athenians, under the appellation of the unknown God, really worshipped the true one (coin]). Hales, Analysis, iii, 519-531). See Athens. The most probable appears to be the con- jecture of Eichhorn (Allgem. Biblioth. iii, 414), to which Niemeyer subscribes, that there were standing at Athens several very ancient altars, which had orig- inally no inscription, and which were afterward not destroyed, for fear of provoking the anger of the gods to whom they bad been dedicated, although it was no longer known who these gods were, lie supposes, therefore, that the inscription iiyvwGTy Qtfy, to an