Interestingly, whilePeter Kirby wrote:What's interesting is that if you plot the physical evidence of Mithraism (they built structures) in the third century against the indications for Christianity, you will see that they had claimed different parts of the empire. Mithraism became prominent in the west, which is primarily Latin-speaking, while Christianity became dominant in the east, which is primarily Greek-speaking. The main overlap is Rome (where, however, the Jews and subsequently the Christians primarily spoke Greek) and northern Africa (and it is with the latter that we get the earliest extant Latin Christian author--i.e., Tertullian).
Mithraism was centered on Rome, it was initially thought to have Persian or Zoroastrian origins, via Greek adaptations, but since the early 1970s, however, the dominant scholarship has noted dissimilarities between Persian Mithra-worship and the Roman Mithraic mysteries, and the mysteries of Mithras are now generally seen as a distinct product of the Roman Imperial religious world. Which is interesting considering it was prominent from about the 1st century BC/BCE to 4th centuries AD/CE.In this context, Mithraism has sometimes been viewed as a rival of early Christianity, with its similarities such as liberator-saviour, hierarchy of adepts (archbishops, bishops, priests), communal meal and a hard struggle of Good and Evil (bull-killing/crucifixtion). The 'Mysteries of Mithra' (aka 'Mysteries of the Persians') were popular in the Roman military.
Mithras-worship in the Roman Empire was characterized by images of the god slaughtering a bull. The centre-piece is Mithras clothed in Anatolian costume and wearing a Phrygian cap; who is kneeling on the exhausted[32] bull, holding it by the nostrils[32] with his left hand, and stabbing it with his right. As he does so, he looks over his shoulder towards the figure of Sol. A dog and a snake reach up towards the blood. A scorpion seizes the bull's genitals. A raven is flying around or is sitting on the bull. Three ears of wheat are seen coming out from the bull's tail, sometimes from the wound. The bull was often white. The god is sitting on the bull in an unnatural way with his right leg constraining the bull's hoof and the left leg is bent and resting on the bull's back or flank.
The second most important scene after the tauroctony in Mithraic art is the so-called banquet scene.[42] The banquet scene features Mithras and the Sun god banqueting on the hide of the slaughtered bull.
Rituals and worship
According to M.J.Vermaseren, the Mithraic New Year and the birthday of Mithras was on December 25. However, Beck disagrees strongly. Clauss states: "the Mithraic Mysteries had no public ceremonies of its own. The festival of natalis Invicti [Birth of the Unconquerable (Sun)], held on 25 December, was a general festival of the Sun, and by no means specific to the Mysteries of Mithras."
Mithraic temples [Mithraeum] were common in the Roman Empire; although unevenly distributed, with considerable numbers found in Rome, Ostia, Numidia, Dalmatia, Britain and along the Rhine/Danube frontier; while being somewhat less common in Greece, Egypt, and Syria.
At
Dura-Europos (on the Euphrates River) Mithraic graffiti survive giving membership lists, in which initiates of a Mithraeum are named with their Mithraic grades. At Virunum (North Italy/Austria), the membership list or album sacratorum was maintained as an inscribed plaque, updated year by year as new members were initiated.Ethics
A passage in the Caesares of Julian the Apostate refers to "commandments of Mithras".[102] Tertullian, in his treatise 'On the Military Crown' records that Mithraists in the army were officially excused from wearing celebratory coronets; on the basis that the Mithraic initiation ritual included refusing a proffered crown, because "their only crown was Mithras".
History and development
Mithras before the Mysteries
According to the archaeologist Maarten Vermaseren, 1st century BC evidence from
Commagene demonstrates the "reverence paid to Mithras" but does not refer to "the mysteries".Beginnings of Roman Mithraism
The origins and spread of the Mysteries have been intensely debated among scholars and there are radically differing views on these issues.[110] According to Clauss mysteries of Mithras were not practiced until the 1st century AD.[111] According to Ulansey, the earliest evidence for the Mithraic mysteries places their appearance in the middle of the 1st century BC: the historian Plutarch says that in 67 BC the pirates of
Cilicia (a province on the southeastern coast of Asia Minor) were practicing "secret rites" of Mithras.[112] However, according to Daniels, whether any of this relates to the origins of the mysteries is unclear.[113] The unique underground temples or Mithraea appear suddenly in the archaeology in the last quarter of the 1st century AD.Earliest archaeology
Inscriptions and monuments related to the Mithraic Mysteries are catalogued in a two volume work by Maarten J. Vermaseren, the Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae (or CIMRM).[115] The earliest monument showing Mithras slaying the bull is thought to be CIMRM 593, found in Rome. There is no date, but the inscription tells us that it was dedicated by a certain Alcimus, steward of T. Claudius Livianus. Vermaseren and Gordon believe that this Livianus is a certain Livianus who was commander of the Praetorian guard in 101 AD, which would give an earliest date of 98–99 AD.[116]
Five small terracotta plaques of a figure holding a knife over a bull have been excavated near Kerch in the
Crimea, dated by Beskow and Clauss to the second half of the 1st century BC,[117] and by Beck to 50 BC–50 AD. These may be the earliest tauroctonies, if they are accepted to be a depiction of Mithras.An altar or block from near SS. Pietro e Marcellino on the Esquiline in Rome was inscribed with a bilingual inscription by an Imperial freedman named T. Flavius Hyginus, probably between 80–100 AD. It is dedicated to Sol Invictus Mithras.
Earliest cult locations[edit]
According to Roger Beck, the attested locations of the Roman cult in the earliest phase (c. 80–120 AD) are as follows:[125]
- Mithraea datable from pottery
- Nida/Heddemheim III (Germania Sup.)
- Mogontiacum (Germania Sup.)
- Pons Aeni (Noricum)
- Caesarea Maritima (Judaea)
- Datable dedications
- Nida/Heddernheim I (Germania Sup.) (CIMRM 1091/2, 1098)
Carnuntum III (Pannonia Sup.) (CIMRM 1718)
Novae (Moesia Inf.) (CIMRM 2268/9)
Oescus (Moesia Inf.)(CIMRM 2250)
Rome(CIMRM 362, 593/4)
- Nida/Heddernheim I (Germania Sup.) (CIMRM 1091/2, 1098)
The Greek biographer Plutarch (46–127 AD) says that "secret mysteries ... of Mithras" were practiced by the pirates of
Cilicia, the coastal province in the southeast of Anatolia, in the 1st century BC.The historian Dio Cassius (2nd to 3rd century AD) tells how the name of Mithras was spoken during the state visit to Rome of Tiridates I of Armenia, during the reign of Nero. (Tiridates was the son of Vonones II of Parthia, and his coronation by Nero in 66 AD confirmed the end of a war between Parthia and Rome.) Dio Cassius writes that Tiridates, as he was about to receive his crown, told the Roman emperor that he revered him "as Mithras".[134] Roger Beck thinks it possible that this episode contributed to the emergence of Mithraism as a popular religion in Rome.[135]
Modern theories
Beck theorizes that the cult was created in Rome, by a single founder who had some knowledge of both Greek and Oriental religion, but suggests that some of the ideas used may have passed through the Hellenistic kingdoms. He observes that "Mithras – moreover, a Mithras who was identified with the Greek Sun god Helios" -was among the gods of the syncretic Greco-Armenian-Iranian royal cult at Nemrut founded by Antiochus I of Commagene in the mid 1st century BC.[168] While proposing the theory, Beck says that his scenario may be regarded as Cumontian in two ways. Firstly, because it looks again at Anatolia and Anatolians, and more importantly, because it hews back to the methodology first used by Cumont.
ADH Bivar, LA Campbell and G Widengren have variously argued that Roman Mithraism represents a continuation of some form of Iranian Mithra worship.[174]
According to Antonia Tripolitis, Roman Mithraism originated in Vedic India and picked up many features of the cultures which it encountered in its westward journey.[175]
Michael Speidel, who specializes in military history, associates Mithras with the Sun god Orion.[176]
Mithraism reached the apogee of its popularity during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, spreading at an "astonishing" rate at the same period when Sol Invictus became part of the state.[178] At this period a certain Pallas devoted a monograph to Mithras, and a little later Euboulus wrote a History of Mithras, although both works are now lost.[179] According to the 4th century Historia Augusta, the emperor Commodus participated in its mysteries[180] but it never became one of the state cults.
The end of Roman Mithraism
At some of the mithraeums which have been found below churches, for example the Santa Prisca mithraeum and the San Clemente mithraeum, the ground plan of the church above was made in a way to symbolize Christianity's domination of Mithraism.[187] According to Mark Humphries, the deliberate concealment of Mithraic cult objects in some areas suggests that precautions were being taken against Christian attacks. However, in areas like the Rhine frontier, purely religious considerations cannot explain the end of Mithraism and barbarian invasions may also have played a role.
Mithras and other gods
The cult of Mithras was part of the syncretic nature of ancient Roman religion. Almost all Mithraea contain statues dedicated to gods of other cults, and it is common to find inscriptions dedicated to Mithras in other sanctuaries, especially those of Jupiter Dolichenus.[202] Mithraism was not an alternative to Rome's other traditional religions, but was one of many forms of religious practice; and many Mithraic initiates can also be found participating in the civic religion, and as initiates of other mystery cults.
Mithraism and Christianity
Early Christian apologists noted similarities between Mithraic and Christian rituals, but nonetheless took an extremely negative view of Mithraism: they interpreted Mithraic rituals as evil copies of Christian ones.[204][205] For instance, Tertullian wrote that as a prelude to the Mithraic initiation ceremony, the initiate was given a ritual bath and at the end of the ceremony, received a mark on the forehead. He described these rites as a diabolical counterfeit of the baptism and chrismation of Christians.[206] Justin Martyr contrasted Mithraic initiation communion with the Eucharist:[207]
- Wherefore also the evil demons in mimicry have handed down that the same thing should be done in the Mysteries of Mithras. For that bread and a cup of water are in these mysteries set before the initiate with certain speeches you either know or can learn.[208]
Ulansey sees study of Mithraism as important for understanding "the cultural matrix out of which the Christian religion came to birth".[216]
216 Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. pp. 3 to 4. ISBN 0-19-506788-6. "... the study of Mithraism is also of great important for our understanding of what Arnold Toynbee has called the 'Crucible of Christianity', the cultural matrix in which the Christian religion came to birth out of the civilization of the ancient Mediterranean."
