| 释义 |
hierophant|ˈhaɪərəʊfænt|
[ad. late L. hierophantēs, -phanta, a. Gr. ἱεροϕάντης, f. ἱερός sacred + ϕαίνειν bring to light, make known, reveal. Cf. F. hiérophante (1535 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. Antiq. An official expounder of sacred mysteries or religious ceremonies, esp. in ancient Greece; an initiating or presiding priest.
1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. xii. 244 The Crafts of their Heathenish Priests and Hierophants. 1774Burney Hist. Mus. (1789) I. 332 Eminent at Athens, as hierophant in the Eleusinian mysteries. 1776R. Chandler Trav., Greece (1825) II. 223 The chief priest, hierophant, or mystagogue, was taken from the Eumolphidæ. 1882Whittier Quest. of Life 5, I listen to the sibyl's chant, The voice of priest and hierophant.
2. gen. An expounder of sacred mysteries; the minister of any ‘revelation’; the interpreter of any esoteric principle.
a1822Shelley Def. Poetry Pr. Wks. 1888 II. 38 Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration. 1843J. Martineau Chr. Life (1867) 105 The hierophant and interpreter of the godlike in the soul. 1856R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. 6 A doubt as to whether ‘able editors’ were, after all, the great, divinely accredited hierophants of the species. |