The Christian festival (January 6th) commemorating the presentation of Christ to the Magi (the three wise men who followed the star to Bethlehem). Hence, a moment of spiritual revelation. An aesthetic of the epiphany is developed by James Joyce's hero Stephen Dedalus in
A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Manwhere he argues from Aquinas that an epiphany is a revelation of the particular
quidditasor 'whatness' of an experience or thing.
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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Epiphany". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=347, accessed 04 April 2025.]
