Amphiktyones

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A confederation of ancient Greek tribes or city-states formed for mutual support and the management of common religious sites
2. A league historically established by various peoples in Greece for shared religious and cultural practices
3. An alliance of Greek states that coordinated religious observances and protected shared sacred places from external threats

Etymology: The Amphictyony was a league of neighbouring Greek peoples who met in a sacred council to protect a shrine, and the "amphiktyones" were its members. The name is traced to "amphiktiones", meaning "dwellers around", a compound of "amphi" ("around") and "ktizein" ("to settle" or "to found"). Its literal sense is therefore those who live around a central place, and the most famous of these leagues was the one centred on the sanctuary of Demeter at Anthela near Thermopylae, later linked with Delphi, whose oracle the council came to protect. Its sense of "those who live around" points to a neighbourhood of shared ground rather than a state, which is why the same word could describe a religious brotherhood that bound together cities that often fought one another. The council's members swore to punish anyone who plundered the sanctuary, and the ideal of a sacred neutrality it embodied is what the word preserves in English-language scholarship today.

Synonyms: amphictyons, ancient league, tribal confederation