hierophant [hahy-er-uh-fant, hahy-ruh-, hahy-er-uh-]
noun:
1 (in ancient Greece) an official expounder of rites of worship and sacrifice.
2 any interpreter of sacred mysteries or esoteric principles
(click to enlarge)Examples:
To the delighted worshipers, Cody Goodfellow, here a Most Exalted Hierophant, delivered a sermon that started with growled mentions of 'doom-engines, black and red,' 'great hammers of the scouring' and so on. ( Elisabeth Vincentelli,
A Festival That Conjures the Magic of H P Lovecraft and Beyond,
New York Times, April 2022)
The number five also equates to the hierophant card in tarot, which is associated with spiritual guidance and learning. (Olivia Munson, What does 555 mean? Details on what angel number means for your relationships, work life., USA Today, January 2023)
According to local legend, the tradition began as a solution to a severe famine in Bode, with a hierophant suggesting that piercing one's tongue would improve the state's condition. (Ani, Nepal: Bode's 30-year-old Sujan Bagh Shrestha continues century-old annual tongue piercing tradition, Tribune India, April 2025)
At the corner plaques she fitted her movements to their design--wild in Spring, languorous in Summer, in Autumn a bacchanal, in Winter a tempest. Before the throned Ceres she became a hierophant, and her dance a ritual. (John Buchan, The Blanket of the Dark)
The hierophant was a revealer of holy things... It was essential that the hierophant should be a man of commanding presence and lead a simple life. (Dudley Wright, The Eleusinian Mysteries And Rites)
And here, from the venerable hierophant, who from a strict sense of duty had left his sick-bed to come hither and instruct me, the words seemed to possess a peculiar meaning and value; his simple appeal to my own sense of rectitude had all the force of a profound thought extracted from a world of thinking. (Herbert M Vaughan, Meleager)
Origin:
'expounder of sacred mysteries,' 1670s, from Late Latin hierophantes, from Greek hierophantes 'one who teaches the rites of sacrifice and worship,' literally 'one who shows sacred things,' from hieros 'sacred,' from PIE root eis-, forming words denoting passion + phainein 'to reveal, bring to light' (from PIE root bha- 'to shine'). In modern use, 'expounder of esoteric doctrines,' from 1822. (Online Etymology Dictionary)
Hierophant, hieroglyphics, and hierarch have a common root: hieros, a Greek word meaning 'sacred.' Hierophant itself joins the root with a derivative of phainein, which means 'to show.' The original hierophants were priests of the ancient Greek city of Eleusis who performed sacred rites. In the 17th century, when the word was first documented in English, it referred to these priests. By the 19th century, English speakers were using the term in a broader sense. A hierophant can now be a spokesperson, a commentator, an interpreter, or a leading advocate. (Merriam-Webster)
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