a place upon which sacrifices were anciently offered to some deity.

The heathens at first made their altars only of turf; afterwards they were made of stone, of marble, of wood, and even of horn, as that of Apollo in Delos.

Altars differed in figure as well as in materials. Some were round, others square, and others triangular. All of them were turned towards the east, and stood lower than the statues of the gods; and were generally adorned with sculpture, representing either the gods to whom they were erected, or their symbols. See the PAGAN ALTARS represented on Plate XVII. Upon the sides of fig. 1, a trident and two dolphins are exhibited, which denote it to have been dedicated to Neptune. Fig. 2, a four-square altar, was dedicated to the Nymphs, as the inscription imports. Fig. 3, exhibits a Bacchanal holding a thyrsus in his hand, a mark of the altar's being built to Bacchus: it had two other sides, which made it appear triangular. Of fig. 4, which was also triangular, each face or side exhibited a genius, one of whom (on the side represented) carries an ear upon his neck, which seems to denote it an altar of Neptune. Fig. 5, an altar of a round shape, is inscribed Ara Neptuni: the god himself is there represented, all naked, having the pallium upon his shoulder; and holding in his left hand a trident, and in his right a dolphin.

The height of altars also differed according to the different gods to whom they sacrificed. According to Servius, those altars set apart for the honour of the celestial gods, and gods of the higher clasps, were placed on some pretty tall pile of building; and for that reason were called altaria, from the words alia and ara, "a high elevated altar." Those appointed for the terrestrial gods were laid on the surface of the earth, and called arae. And, on the contrary, they dug into the earth and opened a pit for those of the infernal gods, which they called ἀνακάλυψις, ἀνακάλυψις. But this distinction is not everywhere observed: the best authors frequently use ara as a general word, under which are included the altars of the celestial and infernal, as well as those of the terrestrial gods. Witness Virgil, Eccl. 5.

En quatuor aras,

where arae plainly includes altaria; for whatever we make of Daphnis, Phoebus was certainly a celestial god. So Cicero, pro Quint. Aras delubraque Hecate in Graecia vidimus. The Greeks also distinguished two sorts of altars; that whereon they sacrificed to the gods was called βωμός, and was a real altar, different from the other whereon they sacrificed to the heroes, which was smaller, and called εὐχεία. Pollux makes this distinction of altars in his Onomasticum; he adds, however, that some poets used the word εὐχεία for the altar whereon sacrifice was offered to the gods. The Septuagint version does sometimes also use the word εὐχεία for a sort of little low altar, which may be expressed in Latin by craticula; being a hearth rather than an altar.

Before temples were in use, altars were erected sometimes in groves, sometimes in the highways, and sometimes on the tops of mountains; and it was a custom to engrave upon them the name, ensign, or character of the deity to whom they were consecrated.

In the great temples of ancient Rome there were ordinarily three altars: The first was placed in the sanctuary, at the foot of the statue of the divinity, upon which incense was burnt and libations offered; the second was before the gate of the temple, and upon it they sacrificed the victims; and the third was a portable altar, upon which were placed the offering and the sacred vessels.

Besides Besides these uses of altars, the ancients swore upon them, and swore by them, in making alliances, confirming treaties of peace, and other solemn occasions. Altars also served as places of refuge to all those who fled to them, whatever crime they had committed.

Altars are doubtless as ancient as sacrifices themselves; consequently their origin is not much later than that of the world, Gen. ch. iv. Some attribute their origin to the Egyptians; others to the Jews; others to the patriarchs before the flood. Some carry them as far back as Adam, whose altar is much spoken of by Jewish, and even Christian writers. Others are contented to make the patriarch Enoch the first who consecrated a public altar. Be this as it will, the earliest altars we find any express testimony of are those erected by Abraham.

Altars, in the patriarchal times, were very rude. The altar which Jacob set up at Bethel was nothing but a stone, which served him instead of a bolster; that of Gideon, a stone before his house; and the first which God commanded Moses to erect was probably of earth or unpolished stones, without any iron; for if any use was made of that metal, the altar was declared impure. The principal altars of the Jews were, The altar of incense; that of burnt-offering; and the altar, or table, for the shew-bread.

The altar of incense was a small table of shittim wood, covered with plates of gold, of one cubit in length, another in width, and two in height. At the four corners were four kinds of horns, and all round a little border or crown over it. This was the altar hidden by Jeremiah before the captivity; and upon it the officiating priest offered, every morning and evening, incense of a particular composition. See Plate XVII.

The altar of burnt-offerings was made of shittim wood, and carried upon the shoulders of the priests by slaves of the same wood overlaid with bras. In the time of Moses, this altar was five cubits square and three high; but in Solomon's temple it was much larger, being twenty cubits square and ten in height. It was covered with bras; and at each corner was a horn or spire, wrought out of the same wood with the altar, to which the sacrifices were tied. Within the hollow was a grate of bras, on which the fire was made; through it fell the ashes, which were received in a pan below. At the four corners of the grate were four rings and four chains, which kept it up at the horns. This altar was placed in the open air, that the smoke of the burnt-offerings might not fully the inside of the tabernacle. See Plate XVII.

The altar or table for the shew-bread was likewise of shittim wood, covered with plates of gold, having a little border round it, adorned with sculpture. It was two cubits long, one wide, and one and a half in height. Upon this table, which stood in the holy of holies, were put, every Sabbath day, twelve loaves, with salt and incense.

The Jewish altars, after their return from the captivity, and the building of the second temple, were in some respects different from those described above. That of burnt offerings was a large pile, built of unhewn stone, thirty cubits square at the bottom, and twenty-four square at the top. The ascent was by a gentle rising, thirty-two cubits in length, and sixteen in breadth.

Altar, is also used among Christians for the communion-table.

In the primitive church, the altars were only of wood; as being frequently to be removed from place to place. But the council of Paris, in 509, decreed that no altar should be built but of stone. At first there was but one altar in each church; but the number soon increased; and from the writings of Gregory the Great, who lived in the fifth century, we learn, that there were sometimes in the same church twelve or thirteen. In the cathedral of Magdeburg there are no less than forty-nine altars.

The altar is sometimes sustained on a single column, as in the subterranean chapels of St Cecilia, at Rome, &c.; and sometimes by four columns, as the altar of St Sebastian of Crypta Arenaria; but the customary form is, to be a massive of stone work, sustaining the altar table. These altars bear a resemblance to tombs; to this purpose, we read in church-history, that the primitive Christians chiefly held their meetings at the tombs of the martyrs, and celebrated the mysteries of religion upon them: for which reason, it is a standing rule to this day in the church of Rome, never to build an altar, without including the relics of some saint in it.

ALTAR-THANE, or ALTARIST, in old Law-books, an appellation given to the priest or parson of a parish, to whom the altarage belonged. See ALTARAGE.