Faith & RitualGreek → English
Hierophant
/ˈhaɪərəfant/noun
A priest who interprets sacred mysteries, or by extension anyone who expounds an esoteric doctrine.
The Greek roots
ἱερός
hierós
sacred, holy
φαίνειν
phaínein
to show, reveal
Literally: “one who shows sacred things”
The story of the word
The hierophantes was a real office: the chief priest of the Eleusinian Mysteries, drawn from the Eumolpid family, who displayed the sacred objects at the climax of the rite. Initiates were forbidden on pain of death to say what he showed them, and to this day nobody knows. The card of that name in the tarot is a nineteenth-century rebranding of the older Pope card.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
hierarchyhieroglyphphenomenonepiphany
In a sentence
He plays the hierophant at conferences, hinting at knowledge he never quite hands over.
The hierophant alone could reveal the objects kept in the sanctuary.