Temenos

The word derives from the Greek verb {{lang|grc|{{math|τέμνω}} }} (temnō), "I cut".{{LSJ|te/mnw1|{{math|τέμνω}}|shortref}}.Cf. {{OEtymD|temple}} The earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek {{lang|gmy|𐀳𐀕𐀜}}, te-me-no, written in Linear B syllabic script.{{cite web |title=The Linear B word te-me-no |website=Palaeolexicon |quote=Word study tool of Ancient languages |url=http://www.palaeolexicon.com/default.aspx?static=12&wid=167}}

The Latin language equivalent was fanum.

In religious discourse in English, temenos has also come to refer to a territory, plane, receptacle or field of deity or divinity.

• The race-course of the Pythian Games is called a temenos.
• The sacred valley of the Nile is the {{lang|grc|Νείλοιο πῖον τέμενος Κρονίδα}} ("the rich temenos of the Cronide by the Nile");{{cite book |author=Pindar |translator=John Sandys |chapter-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0161%3Abook%3DP.%3Apoem%3D4 |title=The Odes of Pindar |chapter=Pythian 4.56 |language=el |year=1937}}
• The Acropolis of Athens is the {{lang|grc|ἱερὸν τέμενος}} ("holy temenos") of Pallas Athena.{{cite book |author=Aristophanes |title=Aristophanes Comoediae |chapter=Lysistrata, line 483 |language=el |chapter-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0035%3Acard%3D483|year=1907|volume=2|editor1-first=F.W. |editor1-last=Hall |editor2-first=W.M. |editor2-last=Geldart |place=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press}}
• A large example of a Bronze Age Minoan temenos is at the Juktas Sanctuary of the palace of Knossos on ancient Crete in present-day Greece, the temple having a massive northern temenos.{{cite web |first=C. Michael |last=Hogan |url=http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/10854/knossos.html#fieldnotes |title=Knossos fieldnotes |website=Modern Antiquarian |year=2007}}
• Another example is at Olympia, the temenos of Zeus.
• There were temene dedicated to Apollo in many places, as he was a patron god of settlers.
• There is a Temenos area in the Romano-British temple complex of the Roman town of Caerwent in Wales[https://ancientmonuments.uk/128491-caerwent-roman-city-caerwent#.YxWmhMp1ihA CADW]

The concept of temenos arose in classical antiquity as an area reserved for worship of the gods. Some authors have used the term to apply to a sacred grove of trees,{{cite book |first=David S. |last=Whitley |year=1998 |title=Reader in Archaeological Theory: Post-processual and cognitive approaches |publisher=Routledge |ISBN=0-415-14160-5}} isolated from everyday living spaces, while other usage points to areas within ancient urban development that are parts of sanctuaries.{{cite book |first=Carla M. |last=Antonaccio |year=1995 |title=An Archaeology of Ancestors: Tomb cult and hero cult in early Greece |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |ISBN=0-8476-7942-X}}

A temenos is often physically marked by a peribolos 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 or cult image. Later, as Greek sanctuaries became more elaborate, large stone walls with gateways or gatehouses were built around important sanctuaries, although the most famous, the Acropolis of Athens, 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 or magic circle, which acts as a "square space"{{cite book

|title= Psychology and Alchemy (Collected Works of C. G. Jung)

|author=C. G. Jung

|translator=R. F. C. Hull

|language=English

|year=1968

|publisher=Princeton University Press

}} 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 own animus / anima, shadow, wise old wo/man (senex), and finally the self.{{efn|Animus, ... senex are technical terms that Jung coined for archetypal personifications of (unpersonal) unconscious contents which seem to span all cultures.}}{{cite book |author=Jung, C. |author-link=Carl Jung |year=1968 |title=Psychology and Alchemy |title-link=Psychology and Alchemy |at=par. 63}}
See also: Individual dream symbolism in relation to alchemy:
{{cite book |author=Jung, C.G. |author-link=Carl Jung |year=1968 |title=Psychology and Alchemy |series=Collected Works |volume=12 |place=Princeton, NJ |publisher=Princeton University Press |ISBN=0-691-01831-6 |section=3: The symbolism of the mandala}}

• Bruniquel Cave
• Kiva
• Kshetra

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|25em}}

• {{cite book |author1=Molyneaux, Brian Leigh |author2=Vitebsky, P. |author2-link=Piers Vitebsky |year=2000 |title=Sacred Earth, Sacred Stones: Spiritual site and landscapes, ancient alignments, Earth energy |place=London, UK |publisher=Duncan Baird |ISBN=1-903296-07-2}}
• {{cite book |author=Jung, C.G. |author-link=Carl Jung |year=1968 |title=Psychology and Alchemy |series=Collected Works |volume=12 |place=Princeton, NJ |publisher=Princeton University Press |ISBN=0-691-01831-6}}

Category:Greek temples

Category:Ancient Greek religion