Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun historical The act of bowing down before a lord or ruler, especially in ancient Persia.
  • noun Eastern Orthodoxy The level of veneration properly given to God's creations rather than to God himself.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek προσκύνησις.

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Examples

  • The Franks say the word proskynesis (which meant worship only in the sense of reverence and veneration) translated adoratio and understood it as meaning the homage due only to God.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Gregory XII-Infallability 1840-1916 1913

  • Callisthenes sealed his fate one night at a banquet when Alexander tried to introduce a form of proskynesis acceptable to his Macedonian officers and friends.

    Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011

  • His Asian subjects regularly performed proskynesis before him and refused to change their ways, while the Greeks and Macedonians treated the ritual as an impious and degrading barbarian observance.

    Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011

  • But even more disturbing to many Macedonians was the immediate problem of homage before the king, a ritual known to the Greeks as proskynesis.

    Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011

  • The Persians did not view proskynesis to the Great King as an act of worship, but as a profound mark of reverence and submission to royal authority.

    Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011

  • But to Persians and others at the royal court, proskynesis was a normal part of protocol.

    Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011

  • But even more disturbing to many Macedonians was the immediate problem of homage before the king, a ritual known to the Greeks as proskynesis.

    Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011

  • His gossipy memoir of life behind the throne took up ten books and was used by several later biographers, especially his descriptions of the proskynesis controversy and the mass marriage at Susa.

    Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011

  • Nevertheless he had managed to prevent Alexander from permanently introducing the ritual of proskynesis among his Macedonian followers.

    Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011

  • His hope was to introduce proskynesis gradually to the Macedonians, perhaps in a modified form, so that they would come to accept it as a purely ceremonial rite with no religious connotations.

    Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011

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