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FILIP DOROSZEWSKI The history and meaning of the term dpyta in ancient Greek literature has been addressed several times in the secondary literature, yet to date, the Christian usage has not been satisfactorily explored.” This lacuna in the scholarship can lead to simplifications and misunderstandings. In the conclusion to a paper entitled Le mot et les rites. Aperçu des significations de öpyıa et de quelques dérivés, André Motte and Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge state that “la notion de mystère sacré accompagné d’une communion avec la divinité” was the reason why “certains auteurs chrétiens … ont repris à leur compte un mot comme öpyıa pour designer certaines de leurs célébrations”? This opinion was later repeated even more explicitly and without qualification by Fayo Schuddeboom in Greek Religious Terminology — Telete & Orgia. A Revised and Expanded English Edition of the Studies by Zijderveld and Van der Burg.* While it is certainly true that in late antiquity many mystery terms, e.g. LvoTi pia, tedetai, dppyta etc., frequently referred to Christian celebrations, at the same time, it is disputable whether this was also the case with the term öpyıa itself. It seems telling that neither Motte and Pirenne-Delforge nor Schuddeboom provided any specific examples of such cultic use in Greek Christian literature.® The present paper, therefore, seeks to determine if the word was actually employed by Christian authors for Church celebrations by analysing occurrences of the term in Greek Christian writings of the fourth and fifth centuries. This was a period when mystery terminology, previously used by Christian authors almost exclusively in a figurative manner, The most important contributions are: Nicolaas M.H. van der Burg, Andppyta—dpwpeva— öpyıa: Bijdrage tot de kennis der religieuze terminologie in het Grieksch, Amsterdam, HJ. Paris 1939; André Motte — Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge, Le mot et les rites. Aperçu des significations de dpyta et de quelques dérivés, Kernos 5 (1992), 119-140; Fayo L. Schuddeboom, Greek Religious Terminology — Telete & Orgia. A Revised and Expanded English Edition of the Studies by Zijderveld and Van der Burg, Leiden, Brill, 2009. See also Calogero Riggi, Vita cristiana e dialogo liturgico nel Simposio di Metodio (6,5), Salesianum 37 (1975), 503-545, passim. Francesco Massa, Tra la vigna e la croce. Dioniso nei discorsi letterari e figurativi cristiani (II-IV secolo), Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag, 2014, 125-128. Motte — Pirenne-Delforge, Le mot et les rites, 139. Schuddeboom, Greek Religious Terminology, XIII: “André Motte and Vinciane PirenneDelforge ... concluded, among other things, that the notion of sacred mysteries entailed a sort of communion with the deities for whom öpyıa were celebrated. This also explains how certain Christian ... authors could use the term for their own celebrations’; see also Riggi, Vita Cristiana, 526. There is only one such example in Latin Christian literature, i.e. Prudentius Perist. 2.65-68. However, the person who calls Christian rites dpyta in this passage is a pagan prefect, which raises legitimate doubts as to the intentions of the author, see Schuddeboom, Greek Religious Terminology, 194-195; Massa, Tra la vigna e la croce, 128. + 66 + Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 66 6 2020.06.15. 11:04:13
