Glossary Religion and cult
Temenos
Also called: temene, sacred precinct
The sacred area of a sanctuary, marked off by a wall or boundary, inside which the altar, offerings and any cult buildings stood.
Many Cypriot sanctuaries of the Iron Age were little more than a walled temenos: an open court with an altar, sometimes a small roofed room, and a crowd of votive statues set against the walls or on benches. At Ayia Irini the temenos held about 2,000 terracotta figures, found arranged around the altar. Old offerings were buried in pits inside the temenos, since they could not leave the god's property. See snowman figurines for the Ayia Irini and Kourion deposits.
Related terms
- Open-air sanctuary
A sanctuary laid out as an open walled court with an altar and offerings, the usual form of Cypriot cult place in the Iron Age.
- Altar
A raised structure or block on which offerings were burnt or laid for a god, the focus of ritual in a sanctuary.
- Favissa
A pit dug in or near a sanctuary to bury old or broken votives, which remained the god's property and could not be thrown away.