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RITE OR METAPHOR? PAGAN CULT Most of the occurrences, fifty in total, refer to pagan cults and have an extremely negative meaning. Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260-c. 339) uses the term eleven times in such a context. Of these eleven occurrences, seven are found in the Preparatio Evangelica in quotations from parts of Clement’s Protrepticus in which pagan cult practices, and especially Dionysiac ones, receive harsh criticism.** The remaining four instances concern the Phoenician worship of serpents, the “adulterous” (uotyucd) rites of Eros and Aphrodite, and pagans worshipping pleasure as a goddess.** In Panarion 2.243.16, Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 315-402) speaks of the pagan dpyta that lead to despair and destruction. Another two instances of the word occur in the poetry of Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329-390), where they refer to the cult of Mithras and the Thracian celebrations.* Synesius of Cyrene (c. 370c. 414) applies the term in Aegyptii sive de providentia 2.5.8 to Dionysiac orgies. Macarius Magnes* (turn of the 4'* and 5‘ centuries) speaks one time in the Apocriticus of pagan dpyta abolished by God (3.68.5). In the De adoratione et cultu in spiritu et veritate, Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444) blames pagan poets and writers for telling false stories about the öpyıa of their gods (PG 68.1069). Ten occurrences can be found in various works of Theodoret of Cyrus (c. 393-c. 458), who uses the word for the cult of Dionysus, Demeter, and Aphrodite.*” The empress Aelia Eudocia (c. 401-460) mentions in De martyrio sancti Cypriani 2.13 certain dpyta of a serpent, perhaps of the Delphic Python. A contemporary of Eudocia, Nonnus of Panopolis (floruit c. 450), employs the term as many as 17 times in the Dionysiaca, where it refers mostly to the cult of Dionysus, apart from one passage about the cult of Hera.** Claudian,” an epigrammatist who lived at the turn of the 5'* and 6'" centuries, applies the word one time to the pagan cult of eiöwAwv kevewv, “empty idols.”“° In the Epitome historiae tripartitae of Theodorus Lector (early 6‘ century), the term takes on the meaning of the sacred objects found in a pagan temple (4.250.3). The last three occurrences are found in the writings 33 DE. 2.3.8.1, 2.3.9.1, 2.3.11.3, 2.3.12.2, 2.3.14.1, 2.3.27.1, 2.3.41.3. 34 PE.1.10.53.4, L.C. 7.3.3, L.C. 7.4.8, P,E. 7.2.4.5. 35 Carm 2.2 (poem.) PG 37.1572, Or. 39 PG 36.340. 36 Perhaps identical to Macarius of Magnesia, an opponent of John Chrysostom at the Synod of the Oak in 403. 37 Affect. 1.21.5, 1.110.4, 1.114.1, 1.114.4, 2.32.4, 7.11.2; Ezech. PG 81.885; H.E. 262.16, 317.25; H.Rel. 26.13.12. 38 Dion. 3.263, 4.270, 9.114 and 287, 13.7, 15.66, 20.267, 27.214, 31.250, 33.229, 44.124 and 219, 45.25, 46.81 and 96 and 107, 48.774; see Francis Vian, Les cultes paiens dans les Dionysiaques de Nonnos: étude de vocabulaire, Revue des études anciennes 90 (1988), s. 407. The identity and chronology of that poet are discussed in Alan Cameron, Claudian. Poetry and Propaganda at the Court of Honorius, Oxford, Clarendon Press 1970, 7-14. 40 AP 1.19.8; trans. William R. Paton. 39 +7] » Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 71 6 2020. 06.15. 11:04:14
