Glossary Religion and cult
Favissa
Also called: favissae, bothros, bothroi
A pit dug in or near a sanctuary to bury old or broken votives, which remained the god's property and could not be thrown away.
Favissa is a Latin word and bothros a Greek one; Cypriot archaeology uses both for these deposits. They explain why so many figurines and limestone statues survive, and why they are often found broken and away from where they once stood. At the sanctuary of Apollo Hylates at Kourion, a favissa found in 1936 was about four metres across and tightly packed with broken figurines. Because objects of many dates were buried together, the pit shows when the clearing happened, while each object has to be dated on its own. See snowman figurines.
Related terms
- Votive
An object given to a god in fulfilment of a vow or in hope of favour, and left in a sanctuary as the god's property.
- Temenos
The sacred area of a sanctuary, marked off by a wall or boundary, inside which the altar, offerings and any cult buildings stood.
- Apollo Hylates
'Apollo of the Woodland', the god of a major rural sanctuary west of Kourion, worshipped from the Iron Age into Roman times.