( grc, ζάκορος) was an
ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
religious office, denoting an attendant in a templ
similar to a .
According to one source the word was used in two senses. In the first sense, and depending in some part on a translation of the word, the is understood to have participated in activities within
temples
A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...
, to sweep and clean the temples and also to tend the
sacrificial fire
Worship or deification of fire (also pyrodulia, pyrolatry or pyrolatria) is known from various religions. Fire has been an important part of human culture since the Lower Paleolithic. Religious or animist notions connected to fire are assumed to ...
. In the second sense is the example of the
courtesan
Courtesan, in modern usage, is a euphemism for a "kept" mistress (lover), mistress or prostitute, particularly one with wealthy, powerful, or influential clients. The term historically referred to a courtier, a person who attended the Royal cour ...
of the goddess
Aphrodite
Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols include ...
, named
Phryne
Phryne (; grc, Φρύνη, Phrū́nē, 371 BC – after 316 BC) was an ancient Greek hetaira (courtesan). From Thespiae in Boeotia, she was active in Athens, where she became one of the wealthiest women in Greece. She is best known ...
, who was referred to as a because of the splendour of her body.
In another source, Phryne is mentioned again, and this shows the word to be a person who is a
cultic
Cult is the care (Latin: ''cultus'') owed to deities and temples, shrines, or churches. Cult is embodied in ritual and ceremony. Its present or former presence is made concrete in temples, shrines and churches, and cult images, including votive ...
official, particularly from the 4th century BC and later, to refer especially to those involved with foreign cults.
Demetrios of
Sphettos Sphettus or Sphettos ( grc, Σφηττός) was one of the twelve cities of ancient Attica, and subsequently a deme. That it was situated either in the Mesogaea or the Paralia is certain from the legend, that Pallas, who had obtained these distric ...
, who was involved in the buildings catalogued IG II
2 3187 and IG II
2 3188, and an otherwise unnamed son of Antiochus of Sphettos, are referred to as .
[G.C.R. Schmalz ]
Augustan and Julio-Claudian Athens: A New Epigraphy and Prosopography
''Volume 302 of Mnemosyne supplements, History and Archaeology of Classical Antiquity'', BRILL 2009, 369 pages, etrieved 2015-07-13/ref>
References
{{Reflist
Ancient Greek religious titles