Theophany (Θεοφανία and Θεοφάνεια)

THEOPHANY (Θεοφανία and Θεοφάνεια). - From the Greek θεός "god" and φαίνω "I appear," it is the manifestation of a divinity to men; the meaning is analogous to that of epiphany (v.) when this refers to a divine figure; thus in the Byzantine liturgy the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord is called τὰ ἅγια θεοφάνεια, and the Greek Fathers Sts. Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa call it by the same name.

The theophany can occur either through the manifestation of a divinity: famous is that of Yahweh to Moses in the burning bush (Ex. 34, 29-30) and that of Zoroaster amid a blaze of flame that astonished the sovereign and the Persian nobles of his retinue (Dio Chrysostom, Or., 36, 40); or through the hearing of his voice, as happened after the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan; the plastic depiction of the divinity seen on Mycenaean seals is also called a theophany. Herodotus (I, 51; cf. Plutarch, Quaest. gr., 9) calls the feast of the theophany (τὰ θεοφάνη) the one held at Delphi to commemorate the periodic return of Apollo to the sanctuary from the distant Hyperborean regions.

In a more general sense the word theophany is adopted to signify every manifestation of the sacred in myth, in rite, in dream, in superstition, in legend through minerals, plants, and animals.

For the threefold meaning of the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, see EPIPHANY.