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FILIP DOROSZEWSKI frenzy, the word öpyıa was also used from at least the classical period as a metaphor for experiences which constituted a sort of initiation and/or were particularly intense. Thus, ancient authors could speak about the öpyıa of Aphrodite and of Eros when they meant physical and spiritual love, as well as about the dpyta of the Muses when they referred to the science or art. Similarly, we may find the term related to excellence, pleasure, or even illness.!° Since in a religious sense dpyta were initiatory rites in which one could commune with the divine, the term also became a metaphor for accessing deeper philosophical and theological knowledge. The process of gaining that knowledge was depicted as an initiation into mysteries and as an experience of a Bacchic-like ecstasy. This can be traced back to Plato, who assigned such a figurative meaning to the verb öpyıalew, even if he did not use the word öpyıa itself.'° By contrast, later, the word was used in this manner by many of Plato’s followers. Neoplatonist philosophers used the term in reference to the arcana of philosophy, which was to them the best way to approach the divine." Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish thinker who was much indebted to the Platonic tradition and who deeply influenced the Alexandrian school of Christian exegesis, applied őpyia to philosophy, divine revelation, and Judaism as a whole." The first author known to have used the term positively with reference to Christianity was a Church Father inspired by both Plato and Philo, Clement of Alexandria (died before 221), who adapted the Dionysiac vocabulary to the needs of the Christian catechesis.! The Christian öpyıa are mentioned in his works twice. At the end of the Protrepticus, after having harshly criticized the pagan mystery rites, Clement unfolds a poetic vision of Christianity as the only true mysteries (12.118—123).” As he is addressing a pagan readership, he deliberately draws on Dionysiac imagery from Euripides’ Bacchae, a play which would have been familiar to his audience. Clement makes his intentions clear in the programmatic phrase “I will show you the Word (tov Adyov) and the mysteries of 4 Aristophanes, Lys. 832, 898; Aelianus, NA 9.66; Achilles Tatius 9.1; Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.10.96.2; Hippocrates, Lex. 5 (4.642 Littre); Aristides, Or. 34.54; see also Motte — Pirenne-Delforge, Le mot et les rites, 131-132. Marcus Aurelius 3.7; Dio Chrysostomus, Or. 4.101; Lucianus, Trag. 112 (of podagra). 16 Plato, Phdr. 250c, 252d; see Christopher Riedweg, Mysterienterminologie bei Platon, Philon, und Klemens von Alexandrien, Berlin—New York, Walter de Gruyter 1987, 39-44. E.g. Synesius, Ep. 137.9; 143.33; Proclus H. 4.15. See also Helmut Seng, Untersuchungen zum Vokabular und zur Metrik in den Hymnen des Synesios, Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang 1996, 109. Examples are listed in Riedweg, Mysterienterminologie, 115 with n18-20; Schuddeboom, Greek Religious Terminology, 154-156. Riedweg, Mysterienterminologie, 148-158; Fabienne Jourdan, Dionysos dans le Protreptique de Clément d’Alexandrie. Initiations dionysiaques et mystéres chrétiens, Revue de l’histoire des religions 223/3 (2006), 267-271; Massa, Tra la vigna e la croce, 161-189; Courtney J.P. Friesen, Reading Dionysus: Euripides’ Bacchae and the Cultural Contestations of Greeks, Jews, Romans, and Christians, Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2015, 118-132. 0 See in general Riedweg, Mysterienterminologie, 148-158. +68 + Daröczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 68 ® 2020. 06.15. 11:04:13
