Greek gods had their allotted spaces where worship took place, designated temenos, "that which has been cut off", but even if such a plot was the property of the deity and circumscribed by particular rules, it was not exclusively frequented by the divine owner. Mortal visitors may have used a temenos just as intensively as a god did, but in a different manner, and humans were also the caretakers and administrators of the god’s property. This paper explores the temenos concept from the point of view of sanctuaries as set apart from gods but mainly used by men, and how immortal and mortal practices and manifestations were to be accommodated within this space. Two points will be addressed, the marking of boundaries for temene, and notions of purity and pollution when humans visited sanctuaries to worship the gods. It will be argued that a physical demarcation of the temenos was not a divine prerequisite and that the construction of a wall was a human responsibility depending on local cultic conditions. The caretaking of a temenos as divine property required particular rules at sacrifices, since human needs and desires were not always appropriate to the gods. Of particular interest are the handling of animals, the cooking and food consumption after sacrifices, the management of human waste as well as the impact of humans staying in temene.