Dictionary

hierophant en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈhaɪəɹəˌfænt/
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈhaɪɹəˌfænt/

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἱεροφάντης (hierophántēs, from ἱερός (hierós, “holy”) + φαίνω (phaínō, “I show, make known”)).

Meanings

1. (qualifier:Ancient Greece) An ancient Greek priest who interpreted sacred mysteries, especially the priest of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
   • If books are as provocative as you suggest, one would expect every librarian to utter the shrill screams of a hierophant, to clash ecstatic castanets in his silent alcoves! 1919, Christopher Morley, “(please specify the page)”, in The Haunted Bookshop, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC:
   • Most scholars name the rectangular enclosure anaktoron, locate in it the throne of the hierophant, and suppose that from it emanated the central revelation which occurred, in Plutarch's phrase, ‘when the anaktora were opened’. 2005, Robert Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 351:
   • The exhibition of ancient statues, relics, and symbols, concealed from daily adoration (as in the Catholic festivals of this day), probably, made a main duty of the Hierophant. 1837, Edward Lytton Bulwer [i.e., Edward Bulwer-Lytton], Athens: Its Rise and Fall: […], volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, book I, page 59:
2. An interpreter of sacred mysteries or arcane knowledge.
   • No, I must play creator / And make them up, these hierophants. 1987, Peter Porter, “A Tribute to my enemies”, in The Automatic Oracle:
   • Thus I became the hierophant of those three worthy and talented men, who, in spite of their literary accomplishments, were not wise, since they were infatuated with occult and fabulous sciences, and believed in the existence of phenomena impossible in the moral as well as in the physical order of things. 1894, Arthur Machen, Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt:
   • Ambassadors of northern countries stand / Impassive while our hierophants intone / Long canticles of Christ the Contraband: / Our grandees' hearts are shrunk to kidney stones. 1975, Peter Porter, “Baroque Quatrains Dedicated to James Fenton”, in Living in a Calm Country:
   • What did even the hierophants of science know of the potencies of, for them, unvintageable evil? 1947, Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, page 145:
   • Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present; the words which express what they understand not; the trumpets which sing to battle and feel not what they inspire; the influence which is moved not, but moves. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. 1840, Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of Poetry:
3. One who explains or makes a commentary.

Forms

Deriveds

hierophantic · hierophantically

Relateds

hieromnemon · hierophany

Translations (25)

fr hiérophante (interpreter of sacred mysteries) · bg първожрец (ancient Greek priest) · cop ϩⲓⲉⲣⲟⲫⲁⲛⲧⲏⲥ (ancient Greek priest) · ja 聖師 (ancient Greek priest) · grc ἱεροφάντης (interpreter of sacred mysteries) · grc ἱεροφάντης (ancient Greek priest) · nl opperpriester (ancient Greek priest) · ca hierofanta (ancient Greek priest) · fr hiérophante (ancient Greek priest) · oc ierofanta (ancient Greek priest) · nl hiërofant (interpreter of sacred mysteries) · hu hierofáns (ancient Greek priest) · pt hierofante (ancient Greek priest) · et hierofant (ancient Greek priest) · ru иерофа́нт (ancient Greek priest) · it ierofante (ancient Greek priest) · es hierofante (ancient Greek priest) · cop ϩⲓⲉⲣⲟⲫⲁⲛⲧⲏⲥ (interpreter of sacred mysteries) · scn jerufanti (ancient Greek priest) · fr hiérophante (one who explains or makes a commentary) · el ιεροφάντης (ancient Greek priest) · gl hierofante (ancient Greek priest) · ro hierofant (ancient Greek priest) · de Hierophant (ancient Greek priest) · fi hierofantti (ancient Greek priest)