Bomos

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Bomos in the temple of Hera on Delos , approx. 500 BC. Chr.

Bomos ( ancient Greek βωμός , altar, base ' , plural Bomoi ) is the name for an altar in the Greek religion .

Other names

Euripides uses bomios , probomios and bomian . Ash altars are also sometimes narrated as bomos tephras , which Pausanias says strikingly correspond to the Athenian escharai .

definition

In the Greek religion, Bomos is the oldest and most common name for an altar. It was mostly made of stones, it was square and stood on a foundation. However, representations on Greek vases show that Bomoi could have a wide variety of shapes and heights with and without a foundation during the archaic and classical times. For example, on the François vase from the 6th century BC A stepless, lower Bomos made of cut blocks.

Bomoi were placed in sanctuaries, near graves, in public places, in palaces and private houses, on mountains, at crossings and on the borders. Bomoi, which served as sacrificial altars, mostly stood in front of the temple. The fire was kindled on the altar and the gifts for the gods were burned.

Demarcation

Starting with the late antique sources, the mouth-shaped, lower altar was called Eschara. The black-figure amphora from the 6th century BC shows that an altar with this shape and height was also known as a bomos during the archaic and classical period . In representation and writing. State Collections of Antiquities, Munich (Inv. 1426)

Bomos and Eschara are both names for altars, whereby Bomos could originally also mean “base” and Eschara as “hearth” was more closely associated with fire.

In the Archaic and Classical periods, bomos was the more common term for an altar than eschara. Often eschara was used for the upper part of the altar and its task was to protect the stone base, the bomos, from the sacrificial fire. From the 3rd century BC According to the literary sources, the content of the two terms drifted apart. The shape and construction, recipient groups and rituals were assigned to the two altars. Bomos became a tall, well-constructed altar and was reserved for the Thysiai of the gods. Eschara became the ground-level sacrificial site and covered enagismata and holocausts for heroes , chthonic gods and "ordinary dead".

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Euripides, Die Heracliden 33, 61, 73, 79, 93, 124, 196, 238, 249, 344.
  2. ^ Gunnel Ekroth : The Sacrificial Rituals of Greek Hero-Cults in the Archaic to the Early Hellenistic Period (= Kernos. Supplement volume 12). Center International d'Étude de la Religion Grecque Antique, Lüttich 2002, p. 41 (Chapter I, paragraph 37).
  3. ↑ " αὐτοσχεδίας Ἀθηναῖοι ϰαλοῦσιν ἐσχάρας "; Pausanias , Description of Greece 5,13,9.
  4. ^ Gunnel Ekroth : The Sacrificial Rituals of Greek Hero-Cults in the Archaic to the Early Hellenistic Period (= Kernos. Supplement volume 12). Center International d'Étude de la Religion Grecque Antique, Lüttich 2002, p. 48 (Chapter I, paragraph 56).
  5. ^ Paul Stengel: The Greek cultural antiquities (= handbook of ancient science . Volume 5,3). 3. Edition. CH Beck, Munich 1920, pp. 11-12; Folkert T. van Straten: Hiera kala. Images of Animal Sacrifice in Archaic and Classical Greece (= Religions in the Graeco-Roman World. Volume 127). Brill, Leiden 1995, pp. 165-166.
  6. ↑ Emil Reisch : Βωμός . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III, 1, Stuttgart 1897, Col. 681 f .; For representation see Wiener Vorlegeblätter 1889 plate II ; Tyler Jo Smith, Dimitris Plantzos (Ed.): A Companion to Greek Art. Blackwell, Oxford 2012, p. 589.
  7. ^ Paul Stengel: The Greek cultural antiquities (= handbook of ancient studies . Volume 5.3). 3. Edition. CH Beck, Munich 1920, p. 14.
  8. ^ Folkert T. van Straten: Hiera kala. Images of Animal Sacrifice in Archaic and Classical Greece (= Religions in the Graeco-Roman World. Volume 127). Brill, Leiden 1995, p. 167.
  9. ^ Gunnel Ekroth: Altars on Attic Vases: The Identification of bomos and eschara. In: Charlotte Scheffer (Ed.): Ceramics in Context. Proceedings of the Internordic Colloquium on Ancient Pottery Held at Stockholm 13-15 June 1997 (= Stockholm Studies in Classical Archeology. Volume 12). Almquist & Wiksell, Stockholm 2001, p. 119.
  10. ^ Gunnel Ekroth: The Sacrificial Rituals of Greek Hero-Cults in the Archaic to the Early Hellenistic Period. Liège 2002, p. 43 (Chapter I, paragraph 43).
  11. ^ Gunnel Ekroth: Altars on Attic Vases: The Identification of bomos and eschara. In: Charlotte Scheffer (Ed.): Ceramics in Context. Proceedings of the Internordic Colloquium on Ancient Pottery Held at Stockholm 13-15 June 1997 (= Stockholm Studies in Classical Archeology. Volume 12). Almquist & Wiksell, Stockholm 2001, p. 115.