Mithraism

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Mithraism (Persian: Āyīn-e Mehr also مهرپرستی Mehr parasti) was an ancient mystery religion prominent from the 1st century BCE to the 5th century CE. It was centered around worship of the god Mithras and derives from the Iranian and other Zoroastrian deities. Mithras was known throughout Europe and Asia by the names Mithra, Mitra, Meitros, Mihr, Mehr, and Meher. The veneration of this school of thought began about 4,000 years ago in Iran, where it was soon embedded with Babylonian doctrines^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} and all the rest of Iran.

Historical Background

Mithraism apparently originated in the Eastern part of today's Iran around the 7th century BC. It was practiced in the Roman Empire since the first century BC#redirect , and reached its apogee around the third through fourth centuries AD, when it was very popular among the Roman soldiers. Mithraism disappeared from overt practice after the Theodosian decree of AD 391 banned all pagan rites, and it apparently became extinct thereafter.

Principles of Mithraism

The term "Mithraism" is a modern development and was not a term known to the ancient Roman Mithraists. In antiquity, the cult was known as "the mysteries of Mithras", and to its adherents, as "the mysteries of the Persians". This latter epithet is significant, not for whether (or not) the Mithraists considered the object of their devotion a Persian divinity, but for the fact that the devotees were convinced that their religion was founded by Zoroaster. (Beck, 2002)

Mithraism is best documented in the form it had acquired in the later Roman Empire. It was an initiatory 'mystery religion,' passed from initiate to initiate, like the Eleusinian Mysteries. It was not based on a supernaturally revealed body of scripture, and hence very little written documentary evidence survives.

Soldiers appeared to be the most plentiful followers of Mithraism, and women were apparently not allowed to join.

The mithraeum

It is difficult for scholars to reconstruct the daily workings and beliefs of Mithraism, as the rituals were highly secret and limited to initiated men. Mithras was little more than a name until the massive documentation of Franz Cumont's Texts and Illustrated Monuments Relating to the Mysteries of Mithra was published in 1894-1900, with the first English translation in 1903.

However, it is known that the center of the cult was the mithraeum, either an adapted natural cave or cavern, preferably sanctified by previous local religious usage, or an artificial building imitating a cavern. Mithraea were dark and windowless, even if they were not actually in a subterranean space or in a natural cave. When possible, the mithraeum was constructed within or below an existing building. The site of a mithraeum may also be identified by its separate entrance or vestibule, its "cave", called the spelaeum or spelunca, with raised benches along the side walls for the ritual meal, and its sanctuary at the far end, often in a recess, before which the pedestal-like altar stood. Many mithraea that follow this basic plan are scattered over much of the Empire's former area, particularly where the legions were stationed along the frontiers. Others may be recognized by their characteristic layout, even though converted as crypts beneath Christian churches.

In every Mithraic temple, the place of honor was occupied by a representation of Mithras killing a sacred bull, called a tauroctony. It has been more recently proposed that the tauroctony is a symbolic representation of the constellations rather than an originally Iranian animal sacrifice scene (Ulansey, 1991). Mithras is associated with Perseus, whose constellation is above that of the bull. A serpent, a scorpion, a dog, and a raven are present, also thought to represent associated constellations.

From the structure of the mithraea it is possible to surmise that worshippers would have gathered for a common meal along the reclining couches lining the walls. It is worth noting that most temples could hold only thirty or forty individuals.

The mithraeum itself was arranged so as to be an 'image of the universe'. Members of the cult are thought to have moved about the mithraeum in imitation of the sun and constellations through the universe. It is noticed by some researchers that this movement, especially in the context of mithraic soterism, seems to stem from the neoplatonic concept that the 'running' of the sun from solstice to solstice is a parallel for the movement of the soul through the universe, from pre-existence, into the body, and then beyond the physical body into an afterlife.

Also thought to take place in the mithraeum, and revealed by the relief on a cup from Mainz, is the mithraic initiation. In this act, as depicted on the cup, the initiate would be led into a location where the cult's 'Pater' would be seated in the guise of Mithras with a drawn bow. Accompanying the Initiate is a 'Mystagogue', who explains the symbology and theology to the initiate. The Rite is thought to re-enact what has come to be called the 'Water Miracle', in which Mithras fires a bolt into a rock, and from the rock now spouts water. (Beck, 2000)

Mithraic ranks

The members of a mithraeum were divided into seven ranks. All members were apparently expected to progress through the first four ranks, while only a few would go on to the three higher ranks. The first four ranks seem to represent spiritual progress, while the other three appear to have been specialized offices. The seven ranks were:

• Corax (raven)
• Nymphus (bridegroom)
• Miles (soldier)
• Leo (lion)
• Perses (Persian)
• Heliodromus (sun-courier)
• Pater (father)

The new initiate became a Corax, while the Leo was an adept.

The titles of the first four ranks suggest the possibility that advancement through the ranks was based on introspection and spiritual growth.

The iconography of Mithraism

In the absence of any Mithraist scripture, all we know about Mithras is what can be deduced from his images in the mithraea that have survived.

Some depictions show Mithras carrying a rock on his back, much as Atlas did, and/or wearing a cape that had the starry sky as its inside lining. A bronze image of Mithras, emerging from an egg-shaped zodiac ring, found associated with a mithraeum along Hadrian's Wall (now at the University of Newcastle), and an inscription from the city of Rome suggest that Mithras may have been seen as the Orphic creator-god Phanes who emerged from the world egg at the beginning of time, bringing the universe into existence. This view is reinforced by a bas-relief at the Estense Museum in Modena, Italy, which shows Phanes coming from an egg, surrounded by the twelve signs of the zodiac, in an image very similar to that at Newcastle.

He is sometimes depicted as a man being born or reborn from a rock (the 'petra genetrix), typically with the snake Oroboros wrapped around it. It is commonly believed that the cave in Mithraism imagery represents the cosmos, and the rock is the cosmos seen from the outside; hence the description of this god as 'rising from the dead'. According to some accounts, Mithras died, was buried in a cavernous rock tomb, and was resurrected.

Another more widely accepted interpretation takes its clue from the writer Porphyry, who recorded that the cave pictured in the tauroctony was intended to be "an image of the cosmos." According to this view, the cave depicted in that image may represent the "great cave" of the sky. This interpretation was supported by research by K. B. Stark in 1869, with astronomical support by Roger Beck (1984 and 1988), David Ulansey (1989) and Noel Swerdlow (1991). This interpretation is reinforced by the constant presence in Mithraic imagery of heavenly objects — such as stars, the moon, and the sun — and symbols for the signs of the Zodiac.

One of the central motifs of Mithraism is the tauroctony, the myth of the slaying of a sacred bull. In the Graeco-Roman myth, the animal is a sacrifice, which Mithra stabs to death in the cave, having been instructed to do so by a crow, sent by Ahura Mazda. This myth is one of the better indications that Graeco-Roman Mithra does not stem from Zoroastrian Mithra, since in later Zoroastrianism texts (Vendidad 21; Rivayat 386) and in Persian mythology it is Angra Mainyu (Ahriman in later Persian) who slays Gavyokdat, the primeval bull created by Ahura Mazda (cf: bas-relief from the Apadana Hall, Persepolis). In the Graeco-Roman myth, from the body of the dying bull spring plants, animals, and all the beneficial things of the earth. In contrast, in the Persian myth, Mah (the moon) rescues the essence of the dying primeval bull, and from it springs all animal creation.

It is thought that the bull represents the constellation of Taurus. However, in the period we are considering, the sun at the Vernal Equinox had left Taurus two thousand years before, and was in the process of moving from Aries to Pisces. In light of this interpretation, it has been suggested in recent times that the Mithraic religion is somehow connected to the end of the astrological "age of Taurus," and the beginning of the "age of Aries," which took place about the year 2000 BC. It has even been speculated that the religion may have originated at that time (although there is no record of it until the 2nd century BC).

The identification of an "age" with a particular zodiac constellation is based on the sun's position during the vernal equinox. Before 2000 BC, the Sun could have been seen against the stars of the constellation of Taurus at the time of vernal equinox [had there been an eclipse]. Due to the precession of the equinoxes, on average every 2,160 years the Sun appears against the stars of a new constellation at vernal equinox. The current astrological age started when the equinox precessed into the constellation of Pisces, in about the year 150 BC, with the "Age of Aquarius" starting in AD 2000. The exact date of the start of the ages is in question. Astrologer Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet holds that the Age of Pisces began in 234 BCE and the age of Aquarius started in 1926.

Indeed, the constellations common in the sky from about 4000 BC to 2000 BC were Taurus the Bull, Canis Minor the Dog, Hydra the Snake, Corvus the Raven, and Scorpio the Scorpion, all of which may be identified in the fresco from Marino, a standard Hellenistic iconography (illustration, above right). Further support for this theory is the presence of a lion and a cup in some depictions of the tauroctony: indeed Leo (a lion) and Aquarius ("the cup-bearer") were the constellations seen as the northernmost (summer solstice) and southernmost (winter solstice) positions in the sky during the age of Taurus.

The precession of the equinoxes was discovered, or at least publicized, by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus in the 2nd century BC. (See Discovery of precession for more information.) Whether the phenomenon was known by Mithraists previously is unknown. In any case, Mithras was presumed to be very powerful if he was able to rotate the heavens, and thus 'kill the bull' or displacing Taurus as the reigning image in the heavens.

Some commentators surmise that the Mithraists worshipped Mithras as the mediator between Man and the supreme God of the upper and nether world. Other commentators, inspired by James Frazer's theories, have additionally labeled Mithras a mystery religion with a life-death-rebirth deity, comparable to Isis, the resurrected Jesus or the Persephone/Demeter cult of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

History of Mithraism

Mithraism in Persia

Although Mithra was worshiped as a deity by proto-Indo-Iranians, there is no evidence to suggest that Mithra was integral to Zoroastrianism before the late Achaemenid era (first Persian Empire, 648–330 BC). 150 years before the fall of the Achaemenid empire, Darius the Great was apparently still stringently monotheistic. No divinity but Ahura Mazda is ever mentioned in any of the numerous surviving inscriptions of his reign (521-485 BC).

In all likelihood, a cult of the proto-Indo-Iranian divinity (or one cognate with it) co-existed alongside Zoroastrianism for several centuries and it was probably not until the late Achaemenid age that attempts were made to integrate Mithra, and then only with a position within the Zoroastrian hierarchy of angels. It is moreover unlikely that early Zoroastrianism, which in accordance with the teachings of Zoroaster would have been strictly monotheistic, would have accepted a second deity along the religion's one god Ahura Mazda.

Nonetheless, as the following inscription from Susa of Artaxerxes II Mnemon (404–358 BC) demonstrates, by the third century BC, Mithra enjoyed official sanction:

"Artaxerxes the Great King, [...] says: [...] By the favor of Ahuramazda, Anahita, and Mithra, this palace I built. May Ahuramazda, Anahita, and Mithra protect me from all evil, and that which I have built may they not shatter nor harm."

This is coherent with the argument that it was probably during the late Achaemenid period that Mithra was integrated into the Zoroastrian hierarchy of angels. The tradition of naming the days and months after divinities, as it was first instituted during that era, includes several dedications to Mithra (See also: Zoroastrian calendar, Zoroastrian angelology), and the Mihr Yasht, the hymn to Mithra in the Avesta, probably dates to this period.

The putative east to west transfer

Although Roman Mithras is often considered to be of Persian origin, the assumption that Roman Mithras is specifically an outgrowth of Persian Zoroastrian culture probably cannot be sustained. The arguments against Mithra being of Zoroastrian origin are twofold:

• That the fact that the tauroctony, the myth of Mithra's slaying of a sacred bull, which is one of the central motifs of Mithraism, does not occur in either Zoroastrianism or later Persian mythology. A similar legend (see iconography below) does exist in Zoroastrianism, but Mithra does not play a role in it. Also noteworthy is the fact that the slayer is evil, while in Persian lore Mithra is good.
• In Zoroastrian angelology and Persian mythology, Korshed (middle Persian: Khur, Avestan: Hvare-khshaeta), and not Mithra, is the divinity of the sun and solar energy.

Although both arguments can be explained away, the common traits, or the absence thereof, cannot by themselves sustain or refute a connection.

Nonetheless, there is no evidence to rule out a general, non-Zoroastrian, influence on Roman Mithras. As Beck suggests, there is no reason to assume that a Persian or other Asian influence must perforce be an outgrowth of Zoroastrian culture: "Mithras — moreover, a Mithras who was identified with the Greek Sun god Helios — was one of the deities of the syncretic Graeco-Iranian royal cult founded by Antiochus I, king of the small but prosperous buffer state of Commagene in the mid first century BCE", and that it is not entirely implausible that such an intermediate form of Mithraism may have played a part in an east to west transfer.

That the kingdoms of Parthia and Pontus in Asia Minor may have been the exegenesis for the development of a Roman Mithras is a legitimate assumption. Several of their kings were called Mithradates, meaning "given by Mithra", starting with Mithradates I of Parthia (died 138 BC). It would seem that, in those kingdoms, Mithra was a god whose power lent luster even to a king. And it was at Pergamum, in the 2nd century BC, that Greek sculptors started to produce bas-relief imagery of Mithra Tauroctonos, "Mithra the bull-slayer." Although the cult of Mithras never caught on in the Greek homeland, those sculptures may indicate the route between Persian Mithra and Roman Mithras.

Around the first century AD, the Greek historian Plutarch wrote about pirates of Cilicia, the coastal province in the southeast of Anatolia, who practiced Mithraic "secret rites" around 67 BC. It is possible, but unproven, that such rituals were a predecessor of similar initiation rituals in Roman Mithraism.

Another possible connection between a Persian Mithra and the Roman Mithras is a linguistic one, and not from Zoroastrianism, but from Manicheanism. According to Sundermann, the Manicheans adopted the name Mithra, but used to designate one of their own deities. Sundermann determined that the Zoroastrian Mithra, which in middle Persian is Mihr, is not a variant of the Parthian and Sogdian Mytr or Mytrg, which though a homonym of Mithra, denotes Maitreya. In Parthian and Sogdian however Mihr was taken as the sun and consequently identified as the Third Messenger. This Third Messenger was the helper and redeemer of mankind, and identified with another Zoroastrian divinity Narisaf (Sundermann, 1979). Citing Boyce, Sundermann remarks, "It was among the Parthian Manicheans that Mithra as a sun god surpassed the importance of Narisaf as the common Iranian image of the Third Messenger; 'among the Parthians the dominance of Mithra was such that his identification with the Third Messenger led to cultic emphasis on the Mithraic traits in the Manichaean god'" (Sundermann, 2002)

Mithraism in early Rome

Mithraism arrived fully mature at Rome with the return of the legions from the east in the first century BC. As an action god of armies and the champion of heroes, he appealed to the professional Roman soldiers, who carried his cult to Iberia, Great Britain, the German frontiers and Dacia.

The cult of Mithras began to attract attention at Rome about the end of the first century AD, perhaps in connection with the conquest of then-Zoroastrian Armenia. The earliest material evidence for the Roman worship of Mithras dates from that period, in a record of Roman soldiers who came from the military garrison at Carnuntum in the Roman province of Upper Pannonia (near the Danube River in modern Austria, near the Hungarian border). These soldiers fought against the Parthians and were involved in the suppression of the revolts in Jerusalem from 60 A.D. to about 70 A.D. When they returned home, they made Mithraic dedications, probably in the year 71 or 72.

Statius mentions the typical Mithraic relief in his Thebaid (Book i. 719,720), around A. D. 80; Plutarch's Life of Pompey also makes it clear that the worship of Mithras was well known at that time.

By A. D. 200, Mithraism had spread widely through the army, and also among traders and slaves. During festivals all initiates were equals including slaves. The German frontiers have yielded most of the archaeological evidence of its prosperity: small cult objects connected with Mithra turn up in archaeological digs from Romania to Hadrian's Wall.

Mithraism in the Roman Empire

At Rome, the third century emperors encouraged Mithraism, because of the support which it afforded to the divine nature of monarchs. Mithras thus became the giver of authority and victory to the Imperial House. From the time of Commodus, who participated in its mysteries, its supporters were to be found in all classes.

Concentrations of Mithraic temples are found on the outskirts of the Roman empire: along Hadrian's wall in northern England three mithraea have been identified, at Housesteads, Carrawburgh and Rudchester. The discoveries are in the University of Newcastle's Museum of Antiquities, where a mithraeum has been recreated. Recent excavations in London have uncovered the remains of a Mithraic temple near to the center of the once walled Roman settlement, on the bank of the Walbrook stream. Mithraea have also been found along the Danube and Rhine river frontier, in the province of Dacia (where in 2003 a temple was found in Alba-Iulia) and as far afield as Numidia in North Africa.

As would be expected, Mithraic ruins are also found in the port city of Ostia, and in Rome the capital, where as many as seven hundred mithraea may have existed (a dozen have been identified). Its importance at Rome may be judged from the abundance of monumental remains: more than 75 pieces of sculpture, 100 Mithraic inscriptions, and ruins of temples and shrines in all parts of the city and its suburbs. A well-preserved late 2nd century mithraeum, with its altar and built-in stone benches, originally built beneath a Roman house (as was a common practice), survives in the crypt over which has been built the Basilica of San Clemente, Rome.

The demise of Mithraism

Worship of the sun (Sol) did exist within the indigenous Roman pantheon, as a minor part, and always as a pairing with the moon. However, in the East, there were many solar deities, including the Greek Helios, who was largely displaced by Apollo. By the 3rd century, the popular cults of Apollo and Mithras had started to merge into the syncretic cult known as Sol Invictus, and in 274 AD the emperor Aurelian (whose mother had been a priestess of the sun) made worship of Sol Invictus official. Subsequently Aurelian built a splendid new temple in Rome, and created a new body of priests to support it (pontifex solis invicti), attributing his victories in the East to Sol Invictus. But none of this affected the existing cult of Mithras, which remained a non-official cult. Some senators held positions in both cults.

However, this period was also the beginning of the decline of Mithraism, as Dacia was lost to the empire, and invasions of the northern peoples resulted in the destruction of temples along a great stretch of frontier, the main stronghold of the cult. The spread of Christianity through the Empire, boosted by Constantine's tolerance of it from around 310 AD, also took its toll - particularly as Christianity admitted women while Mithraism did not, which obviously limited its potential for rapid growth.

The reign of Julian, who attempted to restore the faith, and suppress Christianity, and the usurpation of Eugenius renewed the hopes of its devotees, but the decree secured by Theodosius I in 394, totally forbidding non-Christian worship, may be considered the end of Mithraism's formal public existence.

Mithraism still survived in certain cantons of the Alps into the 5th century, and clung to life with more tenacity in its Eastern homelands. Its eventual successor, as the carrier of Persian religion to the West, was Manichaeism, which competed strenuously with Christianity for the status of world-religion.

Connections

There is much speculation that Christian beliefs were influenced by Mithraic belief. Ernest Renan, in The Origins of Christianity, promoted the idea that Mithraism was the prime competitor to Christianity in the second through the fourth century AD, although some scholars feel the written claims that the emperors Nero, Commodus, Septimius Severus, Caracalla, and the Tetrarchs were initiates are dubious as there is little evidence that Mithraic worship was accorded official status as a Roman cult other than its official form as 'Sol Invictus,' the first universal religion of the Greco Roman world.

Bull and cave themes are found in Christian shrines dedicated to the archangel Michael, who, after the legalization of Christianity, became the patron Saint of soldiers. Many of those shrines were converted Mithraea, for instance the sacred cavern at Monte Gargano in Apulia, refounded in 493. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the Mithras cult was transferred to the previously unvenerated archangel.

Bull and crypt are linked in the Catholic saint Saturnin (frequently "Sernin" or "Saturninus") of Toulouse, France. The Mithraeum is retained as a crypt under his earliest church, evocatively named "Notre-Dame du Taur."

Some scholars would argue that because the Gospels are thought to have been mostly before 100 and that since very little is known of Roman Mithraism until after 100 that it is implausible to say that Christianity borrowed its doctrines from Mithraism; some have even suggested that Mithraism may have, in fact, borrowed elements from Christianity. Most other scholars disagree with the conclusions.

A better determinant of borrowing, is to compare core doctrines between Christianity and Mithraism. The adoption of imagery or icons or festivals is fairly peripheral (such as the adoption by christendom of winter solstice or Saturnalia festivals as Christmas) but seldom reflects basic religious tenets. A further example of this is the various gnostic cults (such as the Marcionites and Valentinians) which adopted the personage of Jesus or the concept of a Savior, yet did not adopt the underlying doctrinal elements.

It has been speculated that the ancient Orobouros of Mithraism (the encircling serpent about to bite its own tail) was adapted for a Christian symbol of the limited confines of time and space. The snake around a rock is also reminscent of the Midgard serpent, Jörmungandr, who was said to surround Midgard (the Earth) according to Norse traditions. Thus similar religious ideas or iconography does not necessarily indicate borrowing in either direction.

Similarities to Christianity

According to Martin A. Larson, in The Story of Christian Origins (1977), Mithraism and Christianity derived from the same sources, originally from the savior cult of Osiris: a rarely discussed view among Mithraic and Christian scholars but which can account for the similarities without assuming a Christian deriviation from Mithraism. He also believes that the Essenes were Jewish Pythagoreans, whose members not only gave birth to Christianity as Essenes, but were directly influenced by Zoroastrian doctrine as Pythagoreans — a view probably shared by Cumont.[link] Mithraism, in Larson's view, was an established but exclusive sect devoted to social justice, and was assimilated by state-sponsored Christianity before being disposed of in name.

"The resemblances between the two hostile churches were so striking as to impress even the minds of antiquity" (Cumont, 193). Like Origen (an early Christian writer and in this respect a peculiarity among the other patristic writers), Mithraism held that all souls pre-existed in the ethereal regions with God, and inhabited a body upon birth. Similar to Pythagorean, Jewish, and Pauline theology, life then becomes the great struggle between good and evil, spirit and body, ending in judgment, with the elect being saved. "They both admitted to the existence of a heaven inhabited by beautiful ones. . .and a hell peopled by demons situate in the bowels of earth" (Cumont 191).

Both religions used the rite of baptism, and each participated in an outwardly similar type of sacrament, bread and wine. Both the birth of Mithra and the birth of Christ have been celebrated on December 25th, although nowhere does the Bible claim that Christ was born on this day. Both Mithra and Christ were supposedly visited by shepherds and Magi. It has been claimed that both Mithraism and Christianity considered Sunday their holy day, though for different reasons, although the evidence that Mithradists practiced weekly worship, any more than any other pagan religion of the time, is lacking. Many have noted that the title of Pope (father) is found in Mithraic doctrine and seemingly prohibited in Christian doctrine. The words Peter (rock) and mass (sacrament) have significance in Mithraism.

Mithraism and early Christianity considered abstinence, celibacy, and self-control to be among their highest virtues, though Judaism did as well. Both had similar beliefs about the world, destiny, heaven and hell, and the immortality of the soul. Their conceptions of the battles between good and evil were similar (though Mithraism was more dualistic[link]), including a great and final battle at the end of times. Mithraism's flood at the beginning of history was deemed necessary because what began in water would end in fire, according to Mithraic eschatology. Both religions believed in revelation as key to their doctrine. Both awaited the last judgment and resurrection of the dead. Christ and Mithra were both referred to as the "Logos" (Larson 184), a term meaning the divine "Word" or "Reason" and first used in this sense by the Jewish philosopher Philo in the second-century BCE.

When inducted into the degree of Leo, he was purified with honey, and baptised, not with water, but with fire, as John the Baptist declared that his successor would baptise. After this second baptism, initiates were considered "participants," and they received the sacrament of bread and wine commemorating Mithra's banquet at the conclusion of his labors (Larson 190).

Although the cult of Mithra rivaled Christianity in Rome, they were among different social classes. Mithra was popular among soldiers and nobles after four centuries of growth. Mithraism had a disadvantage to Christian populism by barring women and emphasizing the elitist nature of the belief (being in the latter respect closer to Gnosticism than Christianity). Under emperors like Julian and Commodus, Mithra became the patron of Roman armies (Cumont 87). Christians, however, referred to themselves as soldiers of Christ. They venerated Jesus by calling him Light of the World or Son of Righteousness. Christians also claimed their savior's death was marked by a solar eclipse. Sunday became the primary day of worship for Christians, despite observing the Jewish Sabbath for centuries.

Mithra's birthday was adopted by Christians in the 4th century A.D. as the birth of Christ (J. Smith 146). Some claimed Mithra's mother was a mortal virgin. Others said Mithra had no mother, but was miraculously born of a female rock, or the petra genetix, conceived by God's lightning (de Riencourt 135). Mithra's birth was witnessed by shepherds and by Magi bearing gifts to his sacred birth-cave of the Rock (J. Smith 146). Mithra's image was buried in a rock tomb, a sacred cave that represented his Mother's womb. This was ritualistically removed each year, and he was said to live again. Mithra's triumph and ascension to heaven were celebrated during the spring equinox, as during Easter, when the sun rises toward its apogee.

Mithra performed miracles of raising the dead, healing the sick, making the blind see, the lame walk, and casting out devils. As a Peter, son of the petra (rock), he carried the "keys" to the kingdom of heaven, as St. Peter is said to have the keys to the gates of Heaven (H. Smith 129). Before returning to heaven, Mithra had his Last Supper with his twelve disciples, who represented the twelve signs of the zodiac. In memory, his worshipers partook of a sacramental meal of bread marked with a cross (Hooke 89, Cumont 160). This was one of seven Mithraic sacraments, alleged to be the models for the Christian seven sacraments (James 250). It was called mized and in Latin missa, meaning "released". This is the word in later ecclesiastical Latin for "Mass".[link]

Mithra's cave-temple on the Vatican Hill was seized by Christians in 376 A.D. (J. Smith 146). Later Christian bishops in Rome pre-empted even the Mithraic high priest's title of Pater Patrum, which became Papa, or Pope (H. Smith 252). Gregory I, in the sixth-century, was the first Christian bishop on record who used the title of himself. Mithraism entered into many doctrines of the Manichean Gnostic sect of Christianity (which was condemned as heretical), and continued to influence its old rival for over a thousand years (Cumont, Oriental 154)). The Mithraic festival of Epiphany, marking the arrival of sun-priests ("Magi") at the Savior's birthplace, was adopted by the Christian church only as late as 813 A.D. (Brewster 55).

It is possible, even likely, that Christianity emphasized common features that attracted Mithra followers, perhaps the crucifix appealed to those Mithra followers who had crosses already branded on their foreheads. In art, the halo was a well-known depiction of Mithra, a true sun-god, but which also depicts Christ in a similar way. However, differences such as prognostication by star gazing were regarded as heretical by Christians according to Halakaic sanctions.

Justin Martyr, in a discussion with the Jewish apologist Trypho, wrote: "'And when those who record the mysteries of Mithras say that he was begotten of a rock, and call the place where those who believe in him are initiated a cave, do I not perceive here that the utterance of Daniel, that a stone without hands was cut out of a great mountain, has been imitated by them, and that they have attempted likewise to imitate the whole of Isaiah's words? For they contrived that the words of righteousness be quoted also by them. . . . And when I hear, Trypho,' said I, 'that Perseus was begotten of a virgin, I understand that the deceiving serpent counterfeited also this.'" (Dialogue with Trypho, LXXVIII). Tertullian also demonized Mithraism as a perverted truth planted by the devil.

Places to see

• Museum of Dieburg, Germany, displays finds from a mithraeum, including ceramics used in the service.
• The museum of Hanau, Germany displays a reconstruction of a mithraeum.
• The museum at the University of Newcastle displays findings from the three sites along Hadrian's Wall and recreates a mithraeum.
• Church of St. Clement in Rome has a preserved mithraeum with the altarpiece still intact in the excavations under the modern church.
• The Castra Peregrinorum mithreum in Rome, under the basilica of Santo Stefano Rotondo was excavated in the 20th century.
• The city of Martigny (Octodurus), in the Swiss Alps displays a reconstructed Mithraeum [link]
• Ostia Antica, the port of Rome, where the remains of 17 mithraea have been found so far; one of them is substantial.
• The Cincinnati Art Museum displays a relief from a mithraeum in Rome itself depicting Mithras slaying a bull.
• Museum of Ptuj, Slovenia and town Hajdina near Ptuj

Mithraic studies

The First International Congress of Mithraic Studies was held in 1971 at Manchester, England.

Franz Cumont (1868 - 1947) was the main proponent of the theory that Mithraism came originally from Persia. Cumont's student, Maarten J. Vermaseren, author of Mithras, the Secret God (1963), was very active in translating Mithraic inscriptions.

Walter Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults, Harvard University Press, 1987. A book, based on his Jackson Lectures at Harvard University in 1982, dispels some misconceptions and stereotypes.

See also

• Mehregan Celebration of Mehr (Mithra) in Iran on Autumn equinox
• Yalda Iranian festival related to Mehr (Mithra) on Winter solstice
• Yazidi, a religion in Iraq that some connect with Mithraism

References

• Brewster, H. Pomeroy. Saints and Festivals of the Christian Church (1904)
• Boyce, Mary. On Mithra in the Manichaean Pantheon in
• Cumont, Franz. The Mysteries of Mithra (1903)
• Cumont, Franz. Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism (1911)
• de Riencourt, Amaury. Sex and Power in History (1974)
• Hooke, S.H. The Siege Perilous: Essays in Biblical Anthropology and Kindred Subjects (1970)
• James, E.O. The Ancient Gods (1960)
• Legge, Francis. Forerunners and the Rivals of Christianity (1915)
• Smith, Homer. Man and His Gods (1952)
• Smith, John Holland. The Death of Classical Paganism (1976)
• Sundermann, Werner. The Five Sons of the Manichaean God Mithra. In

External links and further reading

• Freke, Timothy and Gandy, Peter. The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God? New York: Harmony Books, 1999. Argues that pagan religions (including Mithraism) did influence the New Testament.

Scholarly Books and Articles

• [The Mysteries Of Mithra] Complete illustrated version by Franz Cumont. Translated by Thomas J. McCormack
• [Franz Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra] Complete English translation of Cumont's famous 1903 work.
• [L'Ecole Initiative: Alison Griffith, 1996. "Mithraism"] A brief overview with bibliography.
• [David Ulansey, The Cosmic Mysteries of Mithras] An article from Biblical Archaeology Review summarizing Ulansey's The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries (Oxford, 1989).
• [Ronald Nash, "Was the New Testament Influenced by Pagan Religions?"] An article arguing that pagan religions (including Mithraism) did not influence the New Testament.
• [D. Jason Cooper, Mithras: Mysteries and Initiation Rediscovered] (Red Wheel/Weiser 1996).

Non-Scholarly Essays

• ["Did The Mithraic Mysteries Influence Christianity?"]
• [David Fingrut, "Mithraism: The Legacy of the Roman Empire's Final Pagan State Religion"] A high-school level web page, but good summary of Cumont.
• [Mithraism and Precession] A web page critical of Ulansey's theory regarding Mithraism and the Age of Taurus; the author's credentials are not given, and references to scholarly literature are not provided.
• [Abstract from M.J. Vermaseren, Mithras, the Secret God, 1963] Author's credentials vague, but good abstract of Vermaseren's book.
• [Ceisiwr Serith's Mithraism Page] A concise summary of what is and isn't known about Mithraism, based on archaelogical evidence.
• [Mithraism: Zorostrian Gnosticism] According to David Livingstone, an early variation of Mithraism was practiced by Zoroastrian heretics, falsely called "Magi", and influenced the Greek Mysteries of Dionysus. However, these rudimentary rites were again transformed during Roman times, through the influence of Gnosticism.

Mithraea

• [3rd Century Mithraeum in the Circus Maximus, Rome]: Good illustrated introductory article.
• [University of Newcastle Mithras website] (mostly about the mithraeum at Carrawburgh)
• [Mithraeum at Riegel, Baden-Wurtemburg]: plan and photos (French).

Ancient Sources

• [Tertullian.org: Mithras literary references]
• [The Chaldean Magi]: The Complete Online Library of Ancient Sources. Including article, "Their Cult, Doctrines and Influence."

 

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