PREHISTORIC
PART
2 –
Ch.XIII
IEROI BOMOI. The cyclopean altars on
We dedicate this
chapter to some extremely antique altars on Caraiman mountain.
Between Prahova and
Ialomita valleys, behind Caraiman mountain,
on the coast that leads to “Omul”
peak, or towards the simulacrum of Zeus aigiochos, spreads a beautiful
meadow, and in the middle of it rises a significant group of isolated rocky
outcrops with unusual shapes, which present a mysterious aspect. Here can be
seen even today the gigantic remains of a sacred prehistoric site, where the
sanctuaries and altars, where the statues of the divinities and the seats
reserved for the people were formed by the natural masses of the rocks. Here
each rock seems that it represented once a certain figure, because nature could
not give these stones shapes so unusual. Time has destroyed though almost all
the primitive shapes of these mysterious figures. Nevertheless, their remains
seem to tell us that man’s hand had contributed surely to these curious shapes,
that here was once a sacred site consecrated to a prehistoric religion, a place
of common assembly for the ancient pastoral and agricultural tribes. (The
height of this point above sea level is 2148m).
The Romanian people
call these enigmatic outcrops “Babe”
(TN – Old women), a traditional name which attests that some of these primitive
monuments, today disfigured, once represented the simulacra of some mountain
divinities, called in Roman theology at the time of the empire Deae majores, Deae veteres. And in
truth, one of these formless figures, contemplated attentively, seems to have
once been the gigantic simulacrum of a feminine divinity.
The only figures of
this miraculous temple of antiquity, which have still preserved their almost
primitive shapes, are three altars
of gigantic dimensions, grouped together in the shape of a triangle [1].
[1. These altars can’t be considered
from any point of view as a consequence of a simple erosion. Their shapes, more or less regular, and especially the similarity
between them, indicate in a quite clear way that these figures are not the
result of the dissolving action of water and even less of the glaciers from the
Pliocene or Quaternary epochs.
Such altars cut in live rock were
found by Pausanias also in
Each altar is
formed from a single block of stone and all three present the same
characteristic shape of the altars of the Mycenaean epoch. They have neither
inscriptions, nor bas-reliefs, and even if they had once some hieratical signs,
the remote time has destroyed them.
The space occupied
by these three altars is 11m long. The height of the great altar (ara maxima)
is 3.50m, of the western (second) altar is 3.50m and of the eastern (third) one
is 3.10m.
The diameter of the
pedestal of the great altar is 3.80m, of the second is 2.30m and of the third
is 2.20m. The upper part, or the sacrificial table, is square at the first and
third altars, and round or more elliptical at the second.
The cyclopean altars on Caraiman mountain (
View from NE. After
a photo from 1899.
In prehistoric
antiquity the altars consecrated to
divinities were placed on the same
heights consecrated to them.
Near these altars,
covered only by the high vault of the sky, or the branches of oaks and beeches,
the fundamental acts of the cult were celebrated, the prayers and the
sacrifices. At the feet of these altars were made the most solemn oaths, here
persecuted people looked for refuge and protection, here was the place of
assembly regarding the common affairs of the tribes, here were celebrated their
great festivities.
On the highest peak
of mount Ida, named Gargaron, as Homer tells us (Iliad, VIII. v. 48), there was a sacred place and
an altar consecrated to the supreme divinity of the Trojan times, Zeus
patroos or Jupiter avus (Eschyl,
Fragm. Nr. 169).
On the
The inhabitants of Arcadia, emigrated there from the northern
parts of the Lower Danube, since Neolythic times, revered their supreme
divinity on top of Lycaeu mountain,
where an earth tumulus served as altar to Zeus Lychaios, and two columns on
which stood two gilded eagles (aquilae)
rose in front of the altar towards the east
(Pausanias, lib. VIII. 38. 6).
But the most famous
altar consecrated to great Zeus was at
This altar was
formed, as Pausanias describes it,
of ashes and the burnt remains of the victims. This altar had in his time a
base periphery of 38.53m and was 6.78m high. The sacrificial animals were
brought to the foot of the altar, were slaughtered, and the thighs were burnt
on top of the altar. Two stairs formed of the ashes of the victims rose from
near the foot of the altar, on both its sides, right to the top (Ibid, lib. V.
13. 8).
Women and girls
could approach only to the foot of the altar, but only the men were allowed to
climb to the top (we find the same religious ideas even today with the Romanian
people: “the woman is not allowed to
enter the altar”).
The oldest altar In
Another renowned
prehistoric altar also extant in
All these
prehistoric altars mentioned by the authors of antiquity, appear to have
existed in lands once occupied by Pelasgians. And in truth their origin was
Pelasgian.
We are facing now
the important historical matter of who were the divinities to whom these
grandiose altars on Caraiman mountain were consecrated.
The prehistoric
religion of
Varro, one of the most erudite and active Roman
writers, tells us the names of the divinities revered by the Latin farmers. In
his treatise De Re Rustica (I. 1), he makes the following invocation: because
the gods help the people who work, I shall firstly invoke the twelve gods “consentes”, but not the urban ones, but
I shall address those who rule especially the farmers, so I shall firstly
invoke the Sky and the Earth, Jupiter (Saturnus) and Tellus,
from whom all the produce of agriculture come, and who are called Parentes magni (TN – Parinti mari,
Great parents). In the second place I shall invoke the Sun and the Moon, whose
course the farmers follow when they saw and reap.
The same author
also tells us in his treatise about the Latin language (L. L. V. 74), that the
altars consecrated at Rome by king
Tatius, a Sabine by origin, were dedicated to the divinities Ops, Flora, Vedius, Jupiter, Saturn, Sun, Moon, etc.
From a historical
and etymological point of view, Vediovis
or Vejovis represented Vetus deus. “Vij” in
In the old
Pelasgian religion, Ops, as goddess
of earth fertility, and Flora, the
goddess of fecundity, were almost identical, as were Vedius, Jupiter and
Saturn. These divinities represented under different sacred names, the Earth and the Sky.
The Scythians, according to what Herodotus writes (lib. IV. 59), honored
mostly Vesta of all gods, then Zeus
(Saturn) and Gaea, believing
that the Earth was Zeus’ wife, and after these they worshipped Apollo and Celestial Venus, Hercules
and Mars. In antique theology, Vesta was considered as the same
divinity as Gaea or Rhea. She represented the earth as throne of the Olympic
gods, as common and stable hearth of the universe.
Finally, we also
mention here that king Filip III of
Macedonia (d.178bc), in the expedition against the Dentheletians (people near
the frontier with Mesia – Ptolemy,
III. 11), erected on top of the Hem mountain two altars, one consecrated to Zeus,
the other to the Sun (Livy, lib. XL. 22).
On the basis of these
historical documents, we can suppose in all probability that the great altar on Caraiman mountain
was consecrated to the supreme divinities of the Pelasgian times, the Sky and the Earth, or Saturn, as Zeus aristos megistos, ruler of the
universe, and Rhea, who represented the Great mother of gods, Gaea or the
Earth.
The simulacrum of
Saturn, without equal in the Pelasgian world, was (and still is) on the same
crest of Bucegi mountain, and doubtless it needed to also have an altar close
by.
The second altar on Caraiman mountain, whose upper part is
round, was without doubt consecrated to the Sun and the Moon (Apollo
and Diana), the most revered divinities in Pelasgian religion after the Sky and
the Earth. Apollo’s place of honor according to antique religious ideas, was at
Zeus’
right side (Preller, Gr. Myth.
As for the
destination of the third altar, we
find its explanation in the religious history of the Dacian people. Mars
(Marte) or Gradivus pater, was one
of the national divinities most revered by the Getae and the Scythians (Virgil, Aen. III. 35; Valerius Flaccus, Argon. V. 619; Herodotus, lib. IV. c. 59. 62). At the
same time, Mars was venerated by the Italic tribes as god of war and of
agriculture (Catonis, De Re rustica.
c. 141). And the feminine divinity closest to Mars was in Latin traditions Anna (Feriae, C. I. L. I. p.388; Ovid,
Fast. Lib. III. v. 653).
To this divinity
called Anna, the Ides of Marte were consecrated, and she represented the
beginning of spring, identical with Flora
of the Romans and Celestial Venus of
the Scythians.
On the same crest
of Bucegi mountain, on its southern part, another group of three prehistoric
altars still exists, also formed by the natural rocks of the earth [2].
[2. The number of three altars, as results from different
historical data, was based on a certain religious principle, about which we
can’t be sure today.
Three altars
are mentioned by Herodotus (III. 156)
in Apollo’s temple in the island from near the city of
Romanian incantations, which contain
important elements from prehistoric times, still mention a “great church with three altars” (Alecsandri, Folk poetry, p.272; Lupascu, Medicina babelor, p.32)].
Today only one
among this new trio of altars still shows a somewhat regular square shape.
The upper part or
the sacrificial table of this altar has a width of 2.80m and a length of 4.11m.
The cyclopean altar on the mountain
(
(From a photo from the year 1900).
The height which
dominates these three altars has the name of “Dorul” (2008m) or the “Peak
of Dor” (TN – Varful Dorului /
dor = longing, yearning), or the Peak
with Dor.
This name is not a
poetical expression.
On one of the
inscriptions of Roman Africa, where a powerful ethnic Pelasgian stratum existed
since the most remote times, we find today an obscure mention about cultores Doripatri (C. I. L. VIII. nr.
9409).
“Dorus pater” is the name of an archaic
divinity, which still echoes today in one Romanian carol: “I don’t sing to the king, but only to the dor, to the dor and the son, of the sky, of the earth…(Marienescu, Carols, p.46).
This is the same
divinity venerated in the Roman Carmina Saliarae as duonus Cerus, or domnul
ceriului (TN – ruler of the sky).
Supposing that each
of these six altars had been dedicated from the beginning to two divinities
each, we will have in these monuments the authentic traces of the cult of twelve pastoral and agricultural divinities.
In Olympia Hercules
had similarly consecrated in six altars for twelve principal divinities (Herodorus, Fragm. 29 in Fragm. Hist.
graec. II. 36), and the farmers of
The general
character of these altars is theogonic.
They belong to religious principles much more severe, much more archaic then
were presented in Homer’s epoch.
Exactly as the
simulacrum of Zeus euruopa is cut in live rock on the top of Omul mountain,
similarly the altars of the divinities revered on Caraiman mountain are formed
from the natural rocks of the earth. Gaea, or the earth, was, according to the
ancient Pelasgian doctrines, the common mother of the gods and men.
Therefore, it is
without doubt that the divinities who had their principal terrestrial residence
on the old Olympos of theogony, also had their altars there (Hesiod, Theog. v. 117, 124).
One of these divine
altars had in ante-Hellenic times a special religious and historical celebrity.
Near this sacred
altar the gods themselves performed some religious acts and swore a loyalty
oath to each other in extraordinary cases.
This was the principal altar consecrated to the
divinities of the Earth and the Sky, because, as Homer’s Iliad (XV. V.
36), Odyssey (V. v. 184) and Apollo’s hymn (v. 84) tell, the great
oath of the gods was “on Earth, Sky and the water of the river
After the great war
with the Titans, the figure of this altar was made eternal with a constellation
on the sky called in Latin literature Ara
and Altare.
The grammarian Hyginis writes about this memorable
altar of the gods the following:
“According to what
it is said, the gods made on this altar their first religious ceremonies and their pact when they decided to start the
terrible war with the Titans. This altar had been made by the Cyclops.
Then the humans, following the example of the gods, introduced too the custom
to make sacrifices before starting to achieve something” (Poeticon
Astronomicon, lib. II. Ara).
Eratosthenes, the most distinguished of the Alexandrine
learned men, also writes:
“Near this altar
the gods swore the oath, binding themselves to one another, when Jove went to
war against Saturn, and after they
won, they put this altar on the sky.
This altar is used by humans at their common feasts, or drinking assemblies,
and near this altar they sacrifice at festivities; then they touch the altar
with the hand, believing that this is a sign of good faith. This altar has two
stars in its upper part and two other at its base. There are four stars in all”
(Catasterismi, Ed. Schaubach, 1795, c. 39).
The poet Marcus Manilius calls this
constellation templum mundi, ara victrix
and ara maxima.
“ Beyond the
Centaurus”, writes he, “there is the “Temple
of the world” and there the “Altar” is seen glowing, victorious after the completion of the
religious ceremonies, at the time when the angry Earth rose in arms against the Sky
the enormous Gigants, created from
the clefts of their mother, generations with different faces and bodies of
different natures. Then even the gods themselves looked for other, more
superior gods. Even Jove feared and doubted that he will be able to do what he
had to do. He saw the Earth raising, and believed that the entire nature had
turned upside-down, mountains rising all the time on top of other mountains, so
that even the stars ran away from these enormous masses that reached up towards
them. Jove had never before seen such hostile assaults, and did not know if
higher powers than his existed. Then Jove formed this altar from stars, which even
now glows as the greatest altar…At
the feet of this altar the Gigants fell sacrificed and Jove took in his right
hand the violent lightning as weapon, only after he declared himself priest
before the gods” (Astronomicon, lib.
The sacred altar of
the gods about which Hyginis and Eratosthenes tell us that it had been made by
the Cyclops, that the gods had sworn their great oath on it, and that was
therefore on the old, Uranic Olympos, is the same as the great altar on Caraiman
mountain, consecrated as we saw to the divinities of the Sky and Earth [3].
[3. In an archaic Romanian ballad
has been preserved to this day the memory of this altar or the “large stone
table”, and also the tradition about the common feasts or drinking parties, as
Eratosthenes calls them, which the giants had near this altar, which was on the
mountain called “Ceriu” (TN – Sky), near Brasov:
High on the mountains, to the sky (ceriu) he climbed,
Among the oaks he sat,
At the large stone table,
Drink the giants (Novacii), don’t get drunk….
(Francu,
Motii, p.199)
The same mountains, identical with Caraiman – Omul of today, appear In
other ballads published by Tocilescu
(Mater. Folk. I. 107,108,1238), under the name of Ceridel, Cerdel and the
mountains Sterii Delului (Gr.
stela, stone column). We will come back to these ballads when we will
speak about the Romanian traditions regarding Saturn. Homer also
mentions the feasts and common drinking of the gods on Olympos and Uranos
(Iliad,
The Roman poet Papinius Statius mentions often the sacred mountain of Dacia and praises
the emperor Domitian for driving out the Dacians from the top of this mountain, where they had made an oath together, and
for giving it afterwards back to them, by his own indulgence (Thebaid, I.
v.19-20; Ibid, Sylvae, III. 3. v.169).
Another
contemporary poet, the renowned Martial (Epigr.
Lib. VIII. 78; Ibid. Epigr. VIII. 50), calls Domitian’s triumph over the Dacians “triumph over the Hyperboreans” and in another place “triumph over the Gigants”. Finally, the
same Martial, in another epigram of his celebrates this way Domitian’s
victories: “Three times did he cross the treacherous horns (the legendary arms)
of the Sarmatic Ister; three times he
bathed his sweaty horse in the snow of the Getae;
and always modest, he refused the triumphs which he deserved, and brought with
him only the glory to have defeated the world
of the Hyperboreans” (Ibid,
Epigr. Lib. IX. 102).
After these
victories over the Dacians, Domitian
threw a magnificent feast in
So, the holy
mountain on which the Dacians had sworn their oath before starting the war with
the Romans, appears at Statius and Martial as the famous mountain from the
country of the Hyperboreans (see the following chapter), where the gods had
made their oath near the great altar to fight together against the Titans, and
where the ancient Gigants had assaulted the Olympian gods.
We also find an
obscure mention about the sacred altars, ieroi bomoi, of the great Olympic
divinities, in the writings of Hesiod (Opera
et Dies, v. 136; Ibid, Theog. v. 557).
This author tells
us also that on the snowy Olympos from the ends of the earth, there was also an
assembly place, agora, for the gods and the people (Ibid, Scut. Herc. v. 204).
These agorae of the
ancient Pelasgian times were usually decorated with the statues and altars of
divinities, with stone chairs and porticoes for the people. Often surrounded
with enormous blocks of stone, they served as places of assembly for the tribes
and their most important festivities, feasts, public games and fairs.
The same aspect of
a prehistoric agora, but in a primitive, gigantic form, is also presented by
that particular site of the fine terrace of Caraiman mountain, decorated even
today with the remains of some disfigured statues, called Babe, and with
sacrificial altars.
We conclude:
By the geographical
significance that the south-eastern corner of the Carpathians had in the
history of the Pelasgian migration, but especially by the extended cult of Zeus
aigiochos, whose principal monument is here, these enormous stone
tables from Caraiman mountain, appear in
everything as the
sacred altars of ancient theogony [4].
[4. Another prehistoric altar cut in live rock appears to have been
the so-called “Table (TN – masa) of Traian”
(Troian) from the left bank of Olt, in the straits of the Carpathians, upstream
of Jiblea village. Cesar Boliac
writes about it: “…upstream from Cozia,
at the stone called the table of Traian, which is definitely a Dacian altar; of which one can see very
often in the Carpathians – only from Sinaia over the mountain to the Cave, one
can count three such altars” (Trompeta Carpatilor, nr. 939, 1871, p.2). I have
seen it twice, but today can not be distinguished any more the primitive shape
of this ancient altar].