Revealer of sacred rites — ὀργιοφάντης

Use in the book

Protogonos is invited at VI.11 to a consecrated rite for ὀργιοφάνται. The dative identifies the people for whom the divine arrival is sought. The name describes their relation to showing sacred things, but the line does not rank them against other participants, describe their appointment, or supply a complete office-list. At XXXI.5 the Kouretes are themselves ὀργιοφάνται, attendants of the mountain-raving Mother. The nominative plural sits among their directly addressed functions, transferring the disclosure-role into the divine company. These uses are related through what is shown, not through a requirement that each bearer be a human priest. They also connect naturally with the hymn to Silenos, where the related noun ὄργια is actually the object of showing forth.

Places to read

1. Hymn VI · Line 11Human revealers or celebrants are beneficiaries of Protogonos’s arrival.
2. Hymn XXXI · Line 5The divine Kouretes themselves are addressed as revealers of the orgia.

Translation

The English “those who show the orgia” makes the compound’s activity clearer than an unexplained occupational label. The two occurrences are two within this supplied verse corpus; they are not the only attestations in Greek. Lexical evidence supports human priestly usage elsewhere, but that broader possibility cannot override the explicit divine subject in XXXI.5.

Attested forms

ὀργιοφάνται; ὀργιοφάνταις

Occurrence inventory

2 in total. VI.11; XXXI.5

Lexical references

LSJ n74781 (n74781)

Further source

LSJ, n74781. Consulted lexical range; the local application and any uncertainty are explained from the supplied Greek.