Mythos (Sep 2023)
Rite du pin (Firmicus Maternus, De errore, 27, 1-2) et fête d’Harpocrate (Épiphane de Salamine, De Fide, 11) : usages chrétiens de données isiaques
Abstract
The Christian mobilisation of isiac ritual data is most often based on the condemnation of the festival of Isia still celebrated in the post-Constantinian period. However, two Christian texts from the years 350-370 are an exception, departing from the usual stereotypes. This specificity has led some scholars to consider them as local rites celebrated in the Empire in the Late Period. But the polemical significance of these two ritual descriptions calls for caution. The aim of this contribution is to raise new avenues of interpretation for the pine rite reported in the De errore profanarum religionum by Firmicus Maternus and the Harpocrates rite detailed in the Panarion by Epiphanius of Salamis.