From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Altar
βωμός
bōmosBōmos is an altar, a raised place of sacred offering.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordBōmos is an altar, a raised place of sacred offering.
- In StobaeusThe report about Philolaus calls the central fire nature’s altar, alongside hearth, house of Zeus, bond, and measure.
- In this edition“Altar” preserves the sacred image; it does not imply a human-built structure at the center of the world.
- A place to beginAltar is one of the names assigned to the central fire.
- English renderings
- altar
Meaning
Bōmos is an altar, a raised place of sacred offering. It can become a cosmological designation through analogy.
Use in the book
The report about Philolaus calls the central fire nature’s altar, alongside hearth, house of Zeus, bond, and measure. These names express religious and structural roles for the cosmic center. The central fire remains distinct from the enclosing fire and from the sun moving in the system.
Places to read
- I.22.1d.1Altar is one of the names assigned to the central fire.
Translation in this edition
“Altar” preserves the sacred image; it does not imply a human-built structure at the center of the world.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 196. The passage explicitly distinguishes the central and enclosing fires; conflating them would erase its arrangement.
From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Altar
altar; offering-place; altar of the heart
An altar is a place of sacrificial offering.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAn altar is a place of sacrificial offering.
- In TraherneThe heart becomes an altar when love is a perpetual fire and the soul a living sacrifice.
- In this editionThese are transferred uses, not instructions for furnishing a church.
- A place to beginThe praying heart is an altar on which love should burn continually.
Meaning
An altar is a place of sacrificial offering. Its transferred senses retain the relation among gift, giver, and the one to whom the offering is made.
Use in the book
The heart becomes an altar when love is a perpetual fire and the soul a living sacrifice. At the larger scale, the world is simultaneously temple, altar, fuel, and the matter of praise. These compressed roles show that thanksgiving is made from benefits already received: creation supplies both the occasion and substance of its own grateful return. The image also has a critical use. An altar to an unknown God figures the philosophers' aspiration toward a felicity whose nature they have not yet discovered. Mere acknowledgment of a desirable end is less than the knowledge that makes delighted worship possible.
Places to read
In this edition
These are transferred uses, not instructions for furnishing a church. III.56 adapts the Athenian altar as a figure for the philosophers' imperfect knowledge.
Source note
Primary text: I.91, II.94, III.56. Each occurrence assigns the altar a different role in the understanding of praise and felicity.
From the book
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordBōmos is an altar, the focal object named in B1282's account of worship.
- In EmpedoclesThe community under Cypris offers images, scents, incense, and honey, while its altar remains free of bulls' blood.
- In this editionThe negative sentence is about this portrayed community.
- A place to readThe altar is not soaked with bulls’ blood, and killing for consumption is condemned.
Meaning
Bōmos is an altar, the focal object named in B1282's account of worship. The word occurs in the statement that it was not drenched with the slaughter-blood of bulls. The presence of an altar distinguishes the scene from a simple abandonment of cult.
Use in the book
The community under Cypris offers images, scents, incense, and honey, while its altar remains free of bulls' blood. The contrast is ethically decisive: taking life in order to devour limbs is the greatest defilement there. The altar's proper use is therefore reimagined through restraint rather than abolished.
The passage does not give its location, construction, dimensions, or consecration ritual. Nor does it say that the honey was poured upon it; that offering is directed to the ground. A careful reading distinguishes the named ritual site from the particular destination of each offering. It also avoids treating “unmixed blood” as a loophole permitting blood diluted with another liquid. The concluding condemnation concerns the killing and eating itself.
Places to read
- B 128.7–10The altar is not soaked with bulls’ blood, and killing for consumption is condemned.
Translation in this edition
The negative sentence is about this portrayed community. It supports an ideal of nonviolent worship, not a historical survey proving that no other altar was bloodstained.