Great Altar of Hercules
The Great Altar of Unconquered Hercules (Herculis Invicti Ara Maxima[1]) stood in the Forum Boarium of ancient Rome. It was the earliest cult-centre of Hercules in Rome, predating the circular Temple of Hercules Victor. The altar stood until it was demolished by order of Pope Sixtus IV.[2] Roman tradition made the spot the site where Hercules slew Cacus and ascribed to Evander its erection.[3] In modern Rome, the site is in the north-east corner of Piazza di Bocca della Verità, north of Santa Maria in Cosmedin.
The original altar burned in the Great Fire of Rome, CE64,[4] but was rebuilt and was still standing in the fourth century. Its exact site is uncertain, as no traces of it have been identified.[5]
Various references, with Varro as their source, justified the exclusion of women from ceremonies here, or of partaking in the sacrificial meats.[6] The rites at the Ara Maxima were unique within the cult of Hercules in that they were performed rito greco, with heads uncovered.[7]
References
- ^ Tacitus and Juvenal both refer to the altar as magna (great") instead of maxima ("greatest")
- ^ Samuel Ball Platner and Thomas Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome 1929
- ^ The exhaustive treatment of the foundation myths surrounding the Ara Maxima is in James G. Winter, The Myth of Hercules at Rome (University of Michigan Studies 4) 1910.
- ^ Tacitus, Annals, xv.41
- ^ Platner and Ashby 1929; F. Coarelli, Il foro boario dalle origini alla fine della repubblica Rome, 1992, vol. 2:61-77.
- ^ Celia E. Schultz, "Modern prejudice and ancient praxis: female worship of Hercules at Rome" Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 133 (2000:291-297) pp 292ff.
- ^ Macrobius, Saturnalia, iii.6.17;