xoana

Wood was often, if not exclusively, used for the earliest Greek temple-images, those rude xoana, of which many survived into the historical period, to be regarded with peculiar veneration.

A History of Greek Art

_ 1359) Orestes and Pylades are upbraided for 'stealing from the land its images and priestesses' ([Greek: kleptontes ek gês xoana kai thuêpolous]), though there was only one image and one priestess.

Essays on the work entitled "Supernatural Religion"