Greek Sanctuary

[chin85]

Does anyone know what the uses of the ancient greek sanctuary were?

[Octavius]

All Greek sacred architecture explores and praises the character of a god or a group of gods in a specific place. That place is itself holy and, before the temple was built upon it, embodied the whole of the deity as a recognized natural force� Therefore, the formal elements of any Greek sanctuary are, first, the specifically sacred landscape in which it is set, and, second, the buildings that are placed within it.'

The purpose of a sanctuary was primarily to worship the gods and offer sacrfices (such as possessions) for good favour.  More here: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~jfarrell/courses/myth/99/lectures/1-25.html

 

[cassimer]

Am writing an essay on this as i write...
Octavius' answer is generally good. But sanctuaries were also used for political and economic reasons. States could build treasuries at sites such as Delphi and Olympia to show off their wealth to other states, and they made a lot of money for things such as healing at sites like Epidauros. Delphi also had an oracle which gave advice to states and leaders on wars and political actions (in a vague horoscope way open to interpretation) which could be manipulated by rulers. Also they served as meeting places for states, and the four panhellenic sites (Delphi, Olympia, Isthmia and Nemea) also held games where again states competed for precedence for massive prizes of perfumed oil.
Many sanctuarys were specific to the city state which was nearby eg Sounion to Athens, and were not all built on ancient sacred sites.

[Octavius]

Yes, they were also considered to be houses for the gods, a safe haven for the god to live in luxury and refinement. They were meant to serve as homes for the individual god or goddess who protected and sustained the community. It was the needs of the gods that were most important.

Temple from Templum is the same word as the Greek temenos, from temnw to cut off, means to separate some special place from the rest of the land. Usually religion rites were held outside the temple in front of the temple at an altar. With a few exceptions most temples face east as the priests faced the direction of the rising sun when making offerings to the gods.

As mentioned, temples were not only build for religious purposes.

They were used as treasuries, and also sometimes as a record office for example registering the names of all public debtors (the expression of "registered upon the Acropolis" eggegrammenoi en Akropoli for example means a public debtor).

From the sixth century BC onwards, various communities started to dedicate treasury houses (thesauroi) at Pan-Hellenic (which means �pertaining to all the Greeks�), sanctuaries like Olympia and Delphi. These buildings were usually in the form of small temples such as the Siphnian Treasury.

[cassimer]

Wasnt disagreeing with what you said octavius, other than that many were built at sites with no previous cult use. Just trying to give more examples of the use of the greek sanctuary, and explain that often the actual 'home of the god' was less important than the overall sanctuary's function.

[Octavius]

Cassimer - I didn't assume that you were.  I have no doubt that the temples and sanctuaries in ancient times were used for a variety of purposes - and we all know that the ancient greeks held the best orgies!!

Perhaps the question could be more succinct, but the primary purpose of the sanctuary - as I had assumed - was for housing a statue to a particular god for the purpose of worship & offering sacrifice.  Those were the good old days.  Good lkuck with that essay.  

[cassimer]

It is true that a lot of alcohol was drunk at sanctuary sites - the games were just one big party after all. Still would argue that the religious nature of the sanctuary was almost secondary to its main purposes, but then when you stare at books too long the mind does get a little warped...

[JohnPPotts]

There is clearly the same idea of sanctuary as a place you could (or at least, should) be able to run to safely in the Aeneid - when Neoptolemus drags Priam from the sanctuary at the heart of Troy (during the sack) this is clearly depicted as an outrage. Of course this is a Roman depiction of an ancient (even to them) event, so how accurate it is is another matter.