bucranium

English

Etymology

From Latin būcrānium, from Ancient Greek βουκράνιον (boukránion).

Noun

bucranium (plural bucraniums or bucrania)

  1. The depiction of the head of an ox, as ornamental flourishes in architectural works.
    • 1986, Nanno Marinatos, Minoan Sacrificial Ritual:
      On the second side of the gem, we see the victim, a running goat, and on the third side the symbol of sacrifice, the bucranium.
    • 2000, Béatrix Midant-Reynes, The Prehistory of Egypt:
      It was also in relation to the funerary world that bucrania were placed at the bottoms of the pits.

Translations

Further reading

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.