xoanon

See also: Xoanon

English

WOTD – 10 November 2013, 10 November 2014

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ξόανον (xóanon).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈzəʊ.ə.nɒn/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈzoʊ.ə.nɑn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

xoanon (plural xoana)

2. (historical) A wooden statue used as a cult image in Ancient Greece.
   • 1913, E. A. Gardner, “Reviews: Catalogue of the Acropolis Museum”, in The Classical Review, volume 27, page 196:

     In the case of 679, the well-known female figure of xoanon shape, it is often asserted that we see a more or less archaistic survival; […]

   • 1993, Joan V. O'Brien, The Transformation of Hera: A Study of Ritual, Hero, and the Goddess in the Iliad, page 19:

     Callimachus' description of the Samian xoanon as a sanis—a flat board or plank regularly used for doors or wooden tablets—and specifically as "not carved by chisels" (gluphanôn axoos sanis) clearly indicates an aniconic Hera of Samos.

   • 2009, Peter Wilson, “Thamyris the Thracian: the archetypal wandering poet?"”, in Richard Hunter, Ian Rutherford, editors, Wandering Poets in Ancient Greek Culture, page 73:

     On Carlo Brillante's convincing interpretation, Thamyras is here attempting not simply to display his musical virtuosity, but to animate with his song this chorus of nine female xoana, his own personal substitutes for the nine real Muses […]

Translations

wooden statue used as a cult image in Ancient Greece

• Finnish: ksoanon
• French: xoanon (fr) m
• German: Xoanon (de) n
• Greek: ξόανο (el) n (xóano)

  Ancient Greek: ξόανον n (xóanon)

• Hungarian: xoanon
• Italian: xoanon m
• Polish: ksoanon m
• Russian: ксо́ан m (ksóan)

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ξόανον (xóanon).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡzɔ.a.nɔ̃/

Noun

xoanon m (plural xoana)

1. xoanon
   • 1915, Charly Clere, Les théories relatives au culte des images chez les auteurs grees du IIme siècle après J.-C., page 24:

     Le contact rituel avec le xoanon rend les hommes participants de la puissance divine.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Further reading

• “xoanon”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ξόανον (xóanon).

Noun

xoanon m (invariable)

1. xoanon