Ceremonial Use of Lights - Ancient Greece and Rome

Ancient Greece and Rome

The Greeks and Romans, too, had their sacred fire and their ceremonial lights. In Greece the Lam padedromia or Lam padephoria (torch-race) had its origin in Greek ceremonies, connected with the relighting of the sacred fire. Pausanias mentions the golden lamp made by Callimachus which burned night and day in the sanctuary of Athena Polias on the Acropolis, and tells of a statue of Hermes Agoraios, in the market-place of Pharae in Achaea, before which lamps were lighted. Among the Romans lighted candles and lamps formed part of the cult of the domestic tutelary deities; on all festivals doors were garlanded and lamps lighted. In the Cult of Isis lamps were lighted by day. In the ordinary temples were candelabra, e.g. that in the temple of Apollo Palatinus at Rome, originally taken by Alexander from Thebes, which was in the form of a tree from the branches of which lights hung like fruit. The lamps in the pagan temples were not symbolical, but votive offerings to the gods. Torches and lamps were also carried in religious processions.