[ad. late L. epopta, ad. Gr. ἐπόπτης, agent-n. f. ἐποπ- (f. ἐπί upon + root ὀπ- to see), serving as the base of certain tenses of ἐφοράειν to look upon, behold.] A ‘beholder’; in Gr. Antiq. a person fully initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries. Also transf.
1696. Toland, Christianity not Myst., 167. The right of seeing every thing, or being Epopts.
1798. W. Taylor, in Monthly Mag., VI. 552. Those … who obtained the insight of these revelations, called themselves Epopts, Seers, or the Initiated.
1833. Brit. Mag., III. 48. That … which has made us in some sort epopts of those mysteries which are between this world and the next.
1850. Grote, Greece, II. lviii. (1862), V. 183. Addressing his companions as Mysts and Epopts.
Hence Epoptic a., of or pertaining to an epopt. Epoptics sb. pl., Epoptist = EPOPT.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch’s Lives, Alexander (ed. Tegg), 467. Those more secret and profound branches of science, which they call acroamatic and epoptic.
1711. trans. Werenfel’s Disc. Logom., 99. Aristotle’s Books of deep Learning, his Acroamaticks, Esotericks, Epopticks, and mysterious Writings.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., i. 10. Hidden mysteries in divine truth … which cannot be discerned but only by divine Epoptists.
