altar, in religion, a raised structure or place that is used for sacrifice, worship, or prayer.
Altars probably originated when certain localities (a tree, a spring, a rock) came to be regarded as holy or as inhabited by spirits or gods, whose intervention could be solicited by the worshiper. The worshiper’s gifts to propitiate or please the gods were placed on an altar nearby. In primitive religions a stone or heap of stones or a mound of earth probably sufficed for this purpose. With the development of the institution of sacrifice in sanctuaries and temples, more elaborate altars were built of stone or brick on which the victim was killed and its blood channeled off or its flesh burned. The altars used in ancient Israel consisted of a rectangular stone with a basin hollowed out on its top. The four corners of the basin terminated in projections; these “horns” came to be regarded as the altar’s holiest part, so that anyone clinging to them was immune from molestation. The altars used elsewhere in the Middle East ranged from small upright stands for burning incense to the great rectangular stone altars built in Egyptian temples during the period of the New Kingdom.
The ancient Greeks built altars at the entrances and in the courtyards of their houses, in marketplaces and public buildings, and in sacred groves in the countryside. There were grandiose city altars, on which fire continually burned, and temple altars, which were built in front of the temple rather than within it. The great altar of Zeus at Pergamum (now in the Berlin State Museum) has fine examples of the relief sculptures with which the Greeks decorated their altars. Lofty, imposing altars were used for powerful gods such as Zeus or Athena, while lower altars were thought more suitable for such domestic deities as Vesta and Demeter. Roman altars were very similar to those of the Greeks in their ubiquity, their form, and their relief sculptures.
The earliest Christians used neither temples nor altars in their worship, which was usually conducted in private houses. By the 3rd century ad, however, the table on which the Eucharist was celebrated was regarded as an altar. (The celebration of the Eucharist involves worshipers’ consumption of bread and wine that respectively symbolize the body and blood of Jesus Christ.) When the Christians began to build churches, a wooden altar table was placed in the choir or in the apse. These altars gradually came to be built of stone, and the remains of martyrs were customarily reburied beneath them. In Western churches from as early as the 4th century, the altar was covered by a canopy-like structure, the baldachin, which rested on columns placed around the altar. The altar was further ornamented by an altarpiece, a screen or wall behind it covered with paintings or sculptures. During the Middle Ages side altars were built in the larger Western churches so that multiple Masses could be celebrated, sometimes simultaneously.
The functions of the altar have remained the same in Christian churches down the centuries. During Mass, it serves as a table to hold a copy of the Bible and the consecrated bread and wine that are distributed to worshipers. One to three cloths cover the altar, and a cross and candles may be placed on or near it. The altar is the focus of the Mass and represents the presence of Christ during the ceremony.
Eastern Orthodox churches have maintained the early Christian custom of regarding the altar as a table. They use only one altar, and it is made of wood. Many Protestant churches have reduced the altar to the status of a table, or communion table. Reformed and Presbyterian churches tend to emphasize its aspect as a table, while the Lutheran and Anglican traditions generally favour an altar.