DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.898#0083
ALTARS. 19
sacred by putting a crown upon them, anointing them with
oil, and then offering prayers and oblations to them. Some-
times they added an execration against all that should pre-
sume to profane them. At the same time they inscribed
upon them the name of the deity, and the cause of their
dedication. Altars were not confined in their use to animal
sacrifices: upon some only meal or cakes or fruit was of-
fered; upon others incense fumed, and libations of wine and
oil were poured. Some altars merely denoted a place set
apart for prayer. Wherever an altar was erected, the god
to whom it was dedicated was believed to be in that place
more immediately present.
Altars varied with regard to their qualities, the uses to
which they were applied, and the objects to which they were
appropriated. Hence we read of altars sacred to gods, he-
roes, virtues, vices, diseases, &c. and of inner and outer, of
stationary and portable, of public and private altars. They
were not only placed in and adjacent* to the temples of their
respective gods, but were erected upon mountains and high
places, in groves, or under the shade of a single tree, on the
sea-coast, and by the way side, on the boundaries of fields,
in the public places of cities, and in the lariaries or private
chapels of domestic habitations.
On public festivals they were hung with wreaths of flowers,
and ornamented with the leaves and branches of the trees
sacred to the respective gods to whose service they were set
* Vide Vignette Uli
sacred by putting a crown upon them, anointing them with
oil, and then offering prayers and oblations to them. Some-
times they added an execration against all that should pre-
sume to profane them. At the same time they inscribed
upon them the name of the deity, and the cause of their
dedication. Altars were not confined in their use to animal
sacrifices: upon some only meal or cakes or fruit was of-
fered; upon others incense fumed, and libations of wine and
oil were poured. Some altars merely denoted a place set
apart for prayer. Wherever an altar was erected, the god
to whom it was dedicated was believed to be in that place
more immediately present.
Altars varied with regard to their qualities, the uses to
which they were applied, and the objects to which they were
appropriated. Hence we read of altars sacred to gods, he-
roes, virtues, vices, diseases, &c. and of inner and outer, of
stationary and portable, of public and private altars. They
were not only placed in and adjacent* to the temples of their
respective gods, but were erected upon mountains and high
places, in groves, or under the shade of a single tree, on the
sea-coast, and by the way side, on the boundaries of fields,
in the public places of cities, and in the lariaries or private
chapels of domestic habitations.
On public festivals they were hung with wreaths of flowers,
and ornamented with the leaves and branches of the trees
sacred to the respective gods to whose service they were set
* Vide Vignette Uli