TEOFANIA (θεοφανία and θεοφάνεια). - From the Greek θεός “god” and φαίνιο “I appear,” it is the manifestation of a divinity to men; the meaning 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 Nazianzen, and Gregory of Nyssa call it by the same name.
The t. may occur either through the manifestation of a divinity: famous are that of Jahweh to Moses in the burning bush (Ex. 34, 29-30), and that of Zoroaster amid a blaze of flame which astonished the sovereign and the noble Persians of his retinue (Dio Chrysostom, Or., 36, 40); or through the hearing of his voice, as occurred after the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan; the plastic representation of divinity seen on Mycenaean seals is also called t. Herodotus (I, 51; cf. Plutarch, Quaest. gr., 9) calls the feast of the t. (τὰ θεοφάνη) that which was celebrated at Delphi to commemorate Apollo’s periodic return to the sanctuary from the distant Hyperborean regions.
In a more general sense, the word theophany is used to signify every manifestation of the sacred in myth, rite, dream, superstition, and legend through minerals, plants, and animals.
For the threefold meaning of the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord V. EPIFANIA.