At Carthage, which was a Phenician colony but which impressed its character on northern Africa, the chief temple gave prominence to the threshold, rising in steps as an altar before a statue of the Queen of Heaven. Virgil, describing the arrival of Æneas at the court of Queen Dido, says:
“There stood a grove within the city’s midst, Delicious for its shade; where when they came First to this place, by waves and tempest tossed, The Carthaginians from the earth dug up An omen royal Juno had foretold That they should find, a noble horse’s head; Thus intimating that this race would shine, Famous in war, and furnished with supplies For ages. Here the great Sidonian queen A temple built to Juno, rich in gifts, And in the presence of the goddess blessed. A brazen threshold rose above the steps,[381] With brazen posts connecting, and the hinge Creaked upon brazen doors.”[382]
The churches of Abyssinia always stand on a hill, and in a grove–like the temple at Carthage. “When you go to the church you put off your shoes before your first entering the outer precinct.... At entry, you kiss the threshold and two door-posts, go in and say what prayer you please; that finished you come out again, and your duty is over.”[383]
The yard of an Abyssinian church has been compared to “the _lucus_ or sacred grove of the pagan temple.” “The church itself is square, and built of stone with beams stuck in to support them. At the porch, the wooden lintels, which the pious kiss with intense earnestness,–in fact, kissing the walls and lintels of a church is a great feature in Abyssinian devotion, so much so that, instead of speaking of ‘going to church,’ they say ‘kissing the church,’–are carved with quaint and elaborate devices.”[384]
At Yeha, near Aksum, are the remains of a ruined temple, within the area of which a church was at one time built. “In front of the vestibule stood two rude monoliths, at the base of one of which is an altar with a circular disk on it, presumably, from the analogy of those at Aksum, for receiving the blood of slaughtered victims.” Obviously, the altar of this temple was at its threshold.
Marriages are said to be celebrated in Abyssinia at the church door–the wedding covenant being thus made before the threshold altar.[385]