Temenos

This article is about the term in Greek referring to a piece of land assigned as an official domain or dedicated to gods. For other uses, see Temenos (disambiguation).
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A temenos (Greek: τέμενος; plural: τεμένη, temenē)[1] is a piece of land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially to kings and chiefs, or a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god, such as a sanctuary, holy grove, or holy precinct.[2][3]

A temenos enclosed a sacred space called a hieron. It was usually surrounded by a wall, ditch, or line of stones. All things inside of the demarkated area belonged to the designated god. Greeks could find asylum within a sanctuary and be under the protection of the deity and could not be moved against their will.[4]

  1. ^ τέμενος. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
  2. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Temenos" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 577.
  3. ^ Reich, Ronny; Katzenstein, Hannah (1992). "Glossary of Archaeological Terms". In Kempinski, Aharon; Reich, Ronny (eds.). The Architecture of Ancient Israel. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society. p. 321. ISBN 978-965-221-013-5. Temenos: Holy precinct within a city or close by, separated by a wall from the secular parts of the city.
  4. ^ Mikalson, Jon (2010). Ancient Greek Religion (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackewll. pp. 1–31. ISBN 9781405181778.