ALTAR, a pile, constructed in various forms, and of various materials, on which sacrifices were offered. Altars are no doubt of very high antiquity: They are supposed by many to be as ancient as sacrifices them selves, which appear to be nearl) coem al With worship. It does not, lion lionnemur, necessarily follow, dial altars are as ancient as sacrifices : for it does not appeal to he essential to sacrificing, that it should be perform ed on an altar. Hence we Irvin front Ile.ychius and Phavorinus, that there were aZ0:474101 .51,7%21, or sacri fices which were offered without altars ; and Sirabo tells us, that the Persians had neither images nor altars, hut sacrificed to the gods it. e;.,Love upon some high place. The first altars were very rude and inartificial in their structure ; the altar which Jacob set up at Bethel, was the stone which had served him as a pillow. This, however, was perhaps not so much an altar as a consecra ted pillar ; and it may have been the origin of that super stitious reverence, which was paid by most of the hea then nations to unformed blocks of stone. What is very remarkable, these rude blocks were denominated parroAra, a word evidently of Hebrew or Phoenician origin, derived from Bethel, which signifies the house of God, the name given by Jacob to the place where he set up his pillar. Gen. xxviii. 18.
Among the heathens, altars were of different heights, according to the nature of the gods to whom they were dedicated. The altaria, so called, we are told, ab alti tudine, were appropriated to the celestial gods ; the (Ira., which were lower, to the terrestrial. The Greek word Awbtai comprehends both the altaria and the ar.e ; and the distinction between these two words is not al ways preserved by the Latin authors. To the heroes, sacrifices were offered on altars only one step high, called in Greek t7xagec4. The infernal gods had trenches instead of altars, called Acezzo$ and 803?0,, and to the nymphs sacrifices were offered in Avrea or caves.
In the more refined ages of idolatry, altars were adorned with sculpture, and generally bore either the image or symbols of the gods to whom they were dedi cated. But as the number of the gods came at last to be prodigiously multiplied, it was found rather incon venient to assign to each, separate temples and altars ; their votaries therefore, fell on a frugal expedient of showing their piety, whilst at the same time they spared their purses. For this purpose, a number of gods were clubbed together, who had one temple and one altar assigned to them ; and who, from this circumstance, were called cvvvotai, as being worshipped in one common temple, and Ofx4rof.trot, as having one common altar. On
this principle the pantheon at Rome was dedicated to all the gods, and All-Saints' day in the popish calendar, to all the saints.
Altars were of various forums; round, square, or ob long.; but whatever their form might be, they appear, in general, to have had one circumstance in common,— they were almost. all adorned with horns. The figures of Roman altars on medals, are never without horns ; the same appears to have been the case with the Gre cian altars. Nonnus introduces Agave offering a sheep by the direction of Cadmus, rvx(pav :raga :4)We. Moses also was directed to erect an altar with four horns. These horns served for various purposes ; the victims were fastened to them, as is intimated in the 118th psalm, "Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar;" and when suppliants fled to the altar for refuge, they always laid hold of the horns. This cir cumstance would seem to indicate, that the horns were reckoned the most sacred parts of the altars ; and in deed their original design seems to be to serve as em blems of honour, and sanctity. In this sense, we find horns employed in a great variety of places in the sacred writings ; and it appears to have been an emblem uni versally understood throughout the East. Jupiter, Bac chus, Scrapis, and Isis, are represented as adorned with horns : and Astarte is said to have worn horns, wc pacdtraccs as the ensign of royalty. As there fo•e the ancients ascribed horns to their gods, as an honourable distinction, it was natural enough to transfer them to their altars. It may he objected to this expla nation, that though it accounts for the origin of horns in the heathen altars, it does not clear the matter as to the Jewish altars. But we have shown the same figure was common both to the Jews and heathens ; and we know, that God appointed to the Jews those signs which were best understood, and which, of course, would be most impressive ; nay the prophet flabakkuk, iii. 4. says, of the true God, " Ills brightness was as the light, he had horns coming out of his hand." Those altars on which the sacrifices were consumed with fire, were called EFOrvedi such was the altar of hurnt-offiAngs among the Jews ; those on which no fire was used were called evrocol ; and those on which no blood was shed were called avauccot•ot ; such was the altar of ,,hew-bread. The heathen altars were very ge nerally erected under the shade of a consecrated tree ; which was the situation of Priam's altar.