DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.898#0084
20 ALTABS.
apart. In the times of public calamity they were crowded
with prostrate suppliants deprecating impending dangers or
present evils, and amongst these suppliants the larger por-
tion were women, who, in the phrensy of grief, tore their
dishevelled hair, beat with wild fury their breasts, and
mingled with their loud lamentations the most piercing
shrieks*.
The ancients also, on all solemn occasions, in making al-
liances, confirming treaties of peace, and in taking an oath,
swore upon and by the altar. Before them nuptials were
solemnized, vows were made, and friendships were ce-
mented.
Altars afforded an asylum or place of refuge to slaves
from the cruelty of their masters, to insolvent debtors, and
to criminals; where it was reckoned impious to touch them,
and whence it was unlawful to drag them. We can trace
their sanctity to the earliest times. Upon Troy being taken,
Priam fled for protection to the altar of Jupiterf. Po-
lyxena, who was to be sacrificed to appease Achilles's
ghost, is advised to go to the altars ;£; and they continued
- *. Has lacrymis sparsere Deos, hse pectora duro,
Afflixere solo, lacerasque in limine saero
Attonitae fudere comas votisque vocari
Assuetis, crebris feriunt ululatibus aures:
Nee cuncto siimmi templa jacuere Tonantis,
Divisere Deos, et nullis defuit aris
-Invidiam factura parens. Lucan. lib. 1.
f Pausanias, Corinth. J Euripides Hecuba, ver. 146.
apart. In the times of public calamity they were crowded
with prostrate suppliants deprecating impending dangers or
present evils, and amongst these suppliants the larger por-
tion were women, who, in the phrensy of grief, tore their
dishevelled hair, beat with wild fury their breasts, and
mingled with their loud lamentations the most piercing
shrieks*.
The ancients also, on all solemn occasions, in making al-
liances, confirming treaties of peace, and in taking an oath,
swore upon and by the altar. Before them nuptials were
solemnized, vows were made, and friendships were ce-
mented.
Altars afforded an asylum or place of refuge to slaves
from the cruelty of their masters, to insolvent debtors, and
to criminals; where it was reckoned impious to touch them,
and whence it was unlawful to drag them. We can trace
their sanctity to the earliest times. Upon Troy being taken,
Priam fled for protection to the altar of Jupiterf. Po-
lyxena, who was to be sacrificed to appease Achilles's
ghost, is advised to go to the altars ;£; and they continued
- *. Has lacrymis sparsere Deos, hse pectora duro,
Afflixere solo, lacerasque in limine saero
Attonitae fudere comas votisque vocari
Assuetis, crebris feriunt ululatibus aures:
Nee cuncto siimmi templa jacuere Tonantis,
Divisere Deos, et nullis defuit aris
-Invidiam factura parens. Lucan. lib. 1.
f Pausanias, Corinth. J Euripides Hecuba, ver. 146.