Délimiter l'espace sacré

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate Greek sanctuary from its limits. After examination of the different types of physical frontiers surrounding the sanctuary (horoi, periboloi, perirrhanteria, cords), the rise of a regulated spatialisation of the Sacred can be observed and dated throughout the VIIth c. BC. This phenomenon involves a change of mentalités, related to the development of notions like purity, asylia, in the framework of the rise of the city-state. In order to understand what really happens when crossing limits by entering a consecrated space, status of labour within the sanctuary, i.e. the labour of workers building monuments is questioned and related to the phenomenon of defunctionalisation of offerings (with review of late research on this topic). At the end, some features of Heidegger’s philosophy (at least this of Being and Time) are used in order to interpret the observed changes as different forms of the being-in-the-world.

Keywords

• sanctuary
• Greek religion
• limits
• boundary stones
• periboloi
• sacred