Atemenos (Greek:τέμενος; plural:τεμένη,temenē)[1] is a piece of land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially tokings andchiefs, 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]
Atemenos enclosed a sacred space called ahieron. It was usually surrounded by a wall, ditch, or line of stones. All things inside the demarcated 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]
The word derives from the Greek verbτέμνω (temnō), "I cut".[5][6] The earliest attested form of the word is theMycenaean Greek𐀳𐀕𐀜,te-me-no, written inLinear B syllabic script.[7]
The Latin language equivalent wasfanum.
In religious discourse in English,temenos has also come to refer to a territory, plane, receptacle or field of deity or divinity.
The concept oftemenos arose inclassical antiquity as an area reserved for worship of the gods. Some authors have used the term to apply to a sacred grove of trees,[13] isolated from everyday living spaces, while other usage points to areas within ancient urban development that are parts of sanctuaries.[14]
A temenos is often physically marked by aperibolos fence or wall (e.g.Delphi) as a structural boundary.
Originally, the peribolos was often just a set of marker stones demarcating the boundary, or a light fence. The earliest sanctuaries appear to have begun as a peribolos around a sacred grove, spring, cave, or other feature, with an altar but no temple orcult image. Later, as Greek sanctuaries became more elaborate, large stone walls with gateways or gatehouses were built around important sanctuaries, although the most famous, theAcropolis ofAthens, had an elaborate enclosure because it began as a palace and military citadel and was converted into a sanctuary.
Carl Jung relates the temenos to the spellbinding ormagic circle, which acts as a "square space"[15] where mental "work" can take place. This temenos resembles among others a "symmetrical rose garden with a fountain in the middle" in which an encounter with the unconscious can be had and where these unconscious contents can safely be brought into the light of consciousness. In this manner, one can meet one's ownanimus / anima, shadow, wise old wo/man (senex), and finally the self.[a][16]
Temenos: Holy precinct within a city or close by, separated by a wall from the secular parts of the city.
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