Abstract
Hellenistic Epiphany
At the heart of this magisterial study of epiphany is the problem of the paradoxical belief that encounter with the divine is possible for human beings yet the deities always fundamentally exceed the limitations of mortal perception. Eschewing the tradition of classical scholarship that does not take Greco-Roman religion seriously and assumes that the ancient pagans did not do so either, Platt insists that the central problem for those ancients was not whether the gods exist, but how they could be known, and in the classical world, where cognitive primacy was attributed to sight, many of the answers revolve around different ways of identifying the authenticity of visual epiphany. Her Greeks and Romans are wise to the difficulties and paradoxes of seeing the gods, and they self-consciously probe the combination of human artifice and divine presence in any epiphanic encounter with a representation of the divine. She investigates this problematisation of epiphany in literature and art from the archaic period to the Second Sophistic. The chapters balance chronological with thematic arrangement of material. The book is remarkable for its nuance and range, and for its mastery of both literary and archaeological sources. It is also beautifully written, and well illustrated.
In her introduction Platt sets her account of epiphany among the Greeks in contrast with Jewish and Christian traditions; however, there is much in the book that resonates strongly with phenomena found in ancient Jewish and Christian sources. Platt does not draw this out, but in reviewing this book for a theological journal it is perhaps a point worth underscoring. Besides offering a sensitive articulation of a range of Greco-Roman perspectives on elements of iconic cult that were mocked by Jews and Christians, Platt’s depiction of the ‘slippage’ between god and image recalls the slippage between the Angel of the Lord and the Lord himself in some Old Testament theophanies; her account of hellenistic self-conscious emphasis on the artistic skill (techne) of divine images resonates with Aristeas’ extraordinary emphasis on the craftsmanship (techne) of the new Tabernacle Furniture; many other examples could be adduced. Sometimes the phenomena that she finds in Greek iconic epiphany evoke those that emerge in ancient Christian discussions of texts, which were another epiphanic medium for imaging the divine. She also examines the vocabulary of epiphany (epiphaneia) and related phenomena, such as mimesis and typosis, which contributed much to early Christian thought. Platt’s contribution to the study of Greco-Roman epiphany is monumental and is likely to be the most recent classic in this field for some time to come.