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Terentus occulens aram Ditis et Proserpinae

Terentus occulens aram Ditis et Proserpinae

Terentus : a place at the extremity of the Campus Martius, on the Tiber, where the Ludi Saeculares were held
occulo : to cover up, hide, conceal
Dis : the god of the infernal regions, the Greek Pluto
Proserpina : the wife of Dis

If the ara Martis was the first alter in the campus Martius, the ara Ditis et Proserpinae in Tarento was undoubtedly the second. The springs and pool of the Tarentum naturally suggested an entrance to Hades, and hence the worship of the gods of the lower world was established at this spot. This ara Ditis is said to have been 6 meters beneath the surface of the ground. Upon it were offered sacrifices at the ludi Tarentini, games which were afterwards merged with the Ludi saeculares. The altar of the time of the empire was discovered in 1886-1887, behind the palazzo Cesarini, 5 meters below the level of the Corso Vittorio Emanuale. Two blocks of the altar itself were found, resting upon a pedestal which was approached by three steps. The altar was 3.40 meters square. Behind it was a massive wall of tufa, and round it a triple wall of peperino. Not far away, in a medieval wall, were found large portions of the marble slabs containing the inscriptions which record the celebration of the ludi saeculares by Augustus in 17 B.C. and by Severus in 204 A.D. The altar is not visible, but the inscription is in the Museo delle Terme. (Platner)

On the riverbank, just across the Tiber from the Mausoleum of Hadrian, there is in Piranesi's drawing a depiction of a structure enclosing a crater in the land. It is labeled Terentus occulens aram Ditis et Proserpinae, "the Terentus covering/hiding the altar of Dis and Proserpina." The Terentus was the site of the ludi saeculares, the secular games," held approximately every hundred years. The site of the [GAME]s occludes a means of access to the dark void beneath it. This forms a point of connection in "The Eternal City" to a subterranean labyrinth of which the overlying city is an iteration. The en[CRYPT]ed underworld, the world beyond the real, with its sevenfold, labyrinthine geography, is the unknown that can be reached through the known, the city labyrinth above. Piranesi's crater is a Viconian keyhole, a Freudian screen. (Bloomer)

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