A piece of ground surrounding or adjacent to a temple; a sacred enclosure or precinct.
‘According to him, the maidens were able to enter the temenos (sacred precinct) unharmed over a number of years, despite the vigilance of the inhabitants of Ilion.’
‘Extensive quarrying in Byzantine times has removed all evidence of earlier levels here, but topographically a main entrance into the temenos on Temple Hill in antiquity on this side makes the most sense.’
‘This was a typical Romano-Celtic temple set inside a larger temenos, built before AD 100 and probably remaining in use up to the C5.’
‘Comparable colonnade-vestibules are found in several public and sacred buildings, opening into a space within a temenos or a public space.’
‘We cannot rule out the possibility that another large, centrally located temenos of Apollo at Corinth, otherwise unattested in literary sources, has eluded the excavators of Corinth for more than a century.’
Origin
Early 19th century from Greek, from the stem of temnein ‘cut off’.
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