Translation

1. Let the altars look to the east and always be placed lower than the images which shall be in the temple; so that those who pray and sacrifice may look up to the divinity from various levels as becomes each man’s god. The levels of the altars to Jupiter and the host of heaven are to be contrived that they may be placed as high as possible; to Vesta, Earth and Sea they are to be made low. By these methods the planning of the precincts will be suitable in practice.
In this book the planning of temples has been explained. In the next book we shall give explanations about the arrangement of public buildings.

COMMENT

This is a very short chapter. It must be read with the notes about the orientation of the temple in chapter 5 of this book. We learn that the image of the god in the temple must look to the west and those who bring offerings to the gods must look to the east. The image of the god must look down from the interior of the temple to the sacrificial altar and, in consequence, those who stand at the altar must look up, eastward, to the god inside the temple.

This short note leaves us with a few questions. What kind of altar is meant? what is the distance of the altar to the temple front? what are the proportions of the altar? is there a proper layout? Where in books III and IV we find extensive notes about the proportions and architectural properties of the different styles, nothing of the kind is said about the altars in front of the temple. Maybe Vitruvius didn't find anything in his sources and since he wrote about architecture without having seen his examples he certainly didn't know how altars in his beloved Ionic style were built.
For a better understanding we go to Asia Minor, the cradle of the Ionic style.
A good example could be the altar of the Artemision of Magnesia, probably built by Hermogenes, the great example of Vitruvius. The altar lies in a proper temenos which is situated in front of the temple at a distance that approximates the length of its foundation. The altar itself is built on a flight of steps and standing at the altar the offer bearer looked eastward, to the temple.

A comparable disposition can be seen at the altar of the Artemision of Ephese.

If we admit these examples as Vitruvius' source, there is another problem. These altars are situated within a proper temenos or precinct, surrounded on three sides by a wall which stood between the altar and the temple front and preventing to look directly inside the temple to see the image of the god. From the reconstruction of Ephese it is clear that one could see only the pediment of the temple front; the same goes for Magnesia. If we assume that pediments in Greek architecture were extensively adorned with sculptures of gods and heroes we may conclude that who stood at the altar had to look up, not to the image of the god inside the temple, but to the image of the god in the pediment of the temple front. And, due to his high location in the architecture, the god looked down to the altar.
This type of altar was the only type that forced the offer bearer to look eastward. Other types are known where the altar stands in the open and is accessible from the four sides. Here the offer bearer could look eastward as well as westward. A good example of this disposition can be seen at the temple of Demeter at Pergamon.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Les dix livres d'architecture de Vitruve, Corrigés et traduits en 1684 par C. Perrault, Paris, 1684.
Vitruvius, De Architectura libri X, ed. F. Granger, London, 1962.
Ton Peters, Vitruvius, Handboek bouwkunde, Amsterdam, 1999.
W.B.Dinsmoor, The architecture of Ancient Greece, London, 1950.
A.Bammer, Der Altar des jüngeren Artemisions von Ephesos, in Archäologischer Anzeiger, 83, 1968, pp. 400-423.
A.Boëthius-J.B.Ward-Perkins, Etruscan and Roman architecture, Harmondsworth, 1970.
W.Hoepfner, Bauten und Bedeutung des Hermogenes, in Hermogenes und die hochhellenistische Architektur, Mainz, 1990, pp. 1-34
A.Bammer - U.Muss, Das Artemision von Ephesos, Mainz, 1996.

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