1910–1911
Britannica 11th
Encyclopaedia Britannica · 11th edition
ASYLUM (from Gr. a-, privative, and <r\>\rj, right of seizure), a place of refuge. In ancient Greece, an asylum was an " inviolable " refuge for persons fleeing from pursuit and in search of protection. In a general sense, all Greek temples and altars were inviolable, that is, it was a religious crime to remove by force any person or thing once under the protection of a deity. But it was only in the cose of a small number of temples that this protecting right of a deity was recognized with common consent. Such were…
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- Vol. 2, pp. 821-821