Definition: The essential holy character of the sanctuary in ancient Greece can be seen in the Greek term for them hiera (singular: hieron) from the Greek hieros 'holy'.
Sanctuaries were sacred placed in the ancient world that could be in natural surroundings, like the interior of caves or tops of hills, or in man-made shrines, whether urban or not. In Greek Sanctuaries: New Approaches, authors
Nanno Marinatos and Robin Hagg cite philologist A. Motte to say that sanctuaries were an intermediate, liminal zone between the realm of the divine and that of the human. A sanctuary could be stationed at the border of the polis and could serve as a place of asylum. While runaway slaves could seek asylum in sanctuaries, so could out-of-favor politicians. In the story of the Trojan War, the Locrian Ajax (as opposed to the other, better known Ajax) violated the sanctuary where the prophetess Cassandra had taken asylum by dragging her away from the statue of Athena or raping her there, for which reason the Greeks had wanted to stone him to death. Protection was under the authority of the god honored by the sanctuary, since this deity was believed to live within. A Dictionary of Ancient Greek Civilization says that generally, a sanctuary included an altar and the god's statue. The god could have his own rooms or a roof within the sanctuary and places were offerings were placed. There might be other rooms in the sanctuary for visitors to rest.
In Religion and colonization in ancient Greece Irad Malkin cites M.P. Nilsson to say that the sanctuaries were places in locations that were inherently holy, but adds that when they colonized, the Greeks decided areas were sacred in more practical terms.
