anaktoron

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀνακτόρῐος (anaktórios, “belonging to a lord”), from ἀνάκτωρ (anáktōr, “lord”), from ἄναξ (ánax, “lord”).

Noun

anaktoron (plural anaktora)

1. (historical, Ancient Greece) A palace that only hierophants were permitted to enter as part of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

   Synonym: telesterion

   • 2005, Robert Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 351:

     Most scholars name the rectangular enclosure anaktoron, locate in it the throne of the hierophant, and suppose that from it emanated the central revelation which occurred, in Plutarch's phrase, ‘when the anaktora were opened’. But it is also argued that anaktoron/anaktora refer always, as they certainly do sometimes, to the whole telesterion.