MITRA: el CRISTO PAGANO

Mitra 

¿Antecedente Del Cristianismo O Culto Plagiado?

Alrededor de 3.500 años antes de Cristo aparecen en los Vedas, libro sagrado de la India, las primeras referencias al dios Mitra. Se le nombra como dios unido a Varuna. Ambos formaban una dualidad inseparable; Mitra era el dios del amanecer, de la luz y del sol; Varuna es el dios del crepúsculo y de la noche. Ambos, luz y oscuridad se encargaban del buen funcionamiento de la bóveda celestial.
Por influencia de los arios hindúes que se trasladaron hacia el actual Irán y Turquía, ya en el año 1.400 antes de Cristo, se le nombra como dios garante de un tratado entre los Hititas y el Reino de Mitanni, situado en el actual Kurdistán, a caballo entre Turquía e Irak.

Alrededor del año 1.000 antes de Cristo, nace en Bakctriana, ciudad de Persia— actual Irán— un hombre llamado Zaratustra. Este hombre es considerado por muchos historiadores como el primer ser humano que cambió verdaderamente la Historia y la concepción del mundo y de la persona.
Zaratustra recibió una “Revelación”, proclamando al verdadero dios, creador del Universo, al que llamó Ahura Mazda que significa “Señor Sabio”. En oposición a él, estaba Angra Mainyu que significa “Demonio de la Mentira”. Ni qué decir tiene que ambos personificaban el Bien y el Mal. Ambos luchaban por imponerse sobre la Creación y sobre los hombres.
El Mandeísmo, nombre dado a esta revelación, fue la primera gran religión que tuvo un libro sagrado, el Avesta, que significa “La Palabra”, y su antigüedad es mayor que la Biblia, la cual tomó de este libro algunos de sus pasajes más conocidos.
Historiadores y filósofos confirman que el Mazdeísmo fue el precursor de las grandes religiones monoteístas basadas en libros sagrados, como el Judaísmo, el Cristianismo y el Islamismo, las cuales beben en sus fuentes originales, los dogmas y enseñanzas de Zaratustra.

Desgraciadamente, sólo se conserva un tercio del libro original escrito por Zaratustra al dictado de Ahura Mazda, según le iba siendo revelado. Lo más extraordinario, es que Zaratustra tuvo doce discípulos, la tradición persa le otorga la autoría de cientos de milagros y curaciones, incluso la resurrección de varios cadáveres.

En la religión mazdeísta ya se habla de un diluvio universal, de un arca en la que se salvaron una pareja de animales de cada especie y una familia. Se entroniza una Santísima Trinidad compuesta por los dioses Ahura Mazda, Mitra y la diosa Anahita, esposa de Ahura Mazda y madre de Mitra.

El Mazdeísmo habla de la primera pareja humana, de Paraíso, del Cielo y del Infierno, del juicio tras la muerte, de la resurrección de los muertos y del juicio final, tras la victoria sobre Angra Mainyu, ayudado por sus demonios, mientras Ahura Mazda y Mitra serán ayudados por los ángeles y arcángeles.

También anuncia el Avesta, la aparición en La Tierra de un Salvador, un Redentor de la Humanidad, que vendrá a enseñar a los hombres su misión en la vida y a vencer al mal.
Este redentor es Mitra, hijo de Ahura Mazda. Según el Avesta, Mitra nació en una gruta el día 25 de diciembre. Una luz resplandeciente situada sobre la gruta despertó a unos pastores que fueron a adorarle. Unos magos, enterados por las estrellas de su nacimiento, fueron a obsequiarle ofrendas. En la gruta, un buey y una mula ayudaban a calentar al niño dios. Los mazdeístas creían que Zaratustra era una encarnación del dios Mitra, que había venido a la Tierra para salvar a la Humanidad.
Mitra, tras su nacimiento, ayunó en el desierto durante cuarenta días y sufrió una “pasión” que se celebraba en la semana del 23 de marzo, con la llegada de la Primavera. Curiosamente es la fecha aproximada en que se celebra la Pasión de Jesucristo.
Durante dicha pasión, Mitra se veía obligado a matar a un toro, de cuya sangre brotaba toda la Creación.
Plutarco, habla de los misterios de Mitra en el año 87 antes de Cristo, ya que esta religión, la Mitraica, se extendió por todo el Imperio Romano llevada por las legiones que la adoptaron en masa cuando llegaron a Asia Menor. Incluso el emperador Trajano la protegió y declaró el domingo día del sol dedicado a Mitra como día festivo en todo el imperio, más tarde lo adoptó también el cristianismo como día del Señor.
La religión Mitraica tenía en su liturgia el bautismo con agua para ingresar en la misma y la confirmación posterior. En la entrada de los mitreos o templos, estaba situada una pila con agua bendecida por los sacerdotes en la cual se mojaba la mano y luego la frente para entrar purificados. Se realizaba una ceremonia o ágape, en el cual se bendecían el pan y el vino o agua, y se repartía entre los asistentes como si fuera la carne y sangre de Mitra de forma simbólica. Se cantaban himnos en honor a Mitra.
El clero estaba estructurado entre Padres, o sacerdotes comunes, Amtistides u obispos y Pontífices. Sobre todos ellos gobernaba el Padre de los Padres, título equivalente al de Papa.
Las fechas más señaladas en el calendario sagrado de Mitra eran: el 25 de diciembre, día del nacimiento del dios; el 6 de enero, día de la adoración de los magos; el 24 de marzo, semana de pasión de Mitra; el 6 de mayo, revelación del Avesta a Zaratustra; el 16 de mayo, comienzo del ayuno de Mitra en el desierto; el 24 de junio, Mitra asciende a los cielos y es proclamado segunda persona de la trinidad; el 16 de agosto, Mitra es nombrado por Ahura Mazda intermediario entre él y los hombres y se le otorga todo el poder sobre la Tierra y sus moradores.
La religión de Mitra era una religión mistérica, es decir, que guardaba algunas ceremonias en secreto sólo para unos pocos iniciados. Los creyentes en Mitra no eran admitidos de inmediato a todos los secretos de la liturgia ni se le explicaban todas las doctrinas y dogmas. Existían una serie de grados, a través de los cuales iban ascendiendo los fieles según su preparación y la piedad de su vida demostrada ante los sacerdotes y compañeros de culto.
La religión de Mitra se extendió por todo el Imperio Romano. El Cristianismo y el Mitraismo convivieron hasta la llegada al poder de Constantino el Grande, el cual, creyente de Mitra, no dudó en aprovechar la ocasión para fusionar ambas doctrinas. El Cristianismo adoptó la estructura del clero mitraico; ya que la Iglesia Primitiva Cristiana no tenía sacerdotes, todos los creyentes eran iguales ante Dios y todos podían tomar la palabra y dirigir las asambleas en donde se recordaban las palabras de Jesús y sólo existían unos encargados de moderar y poner orden entre los asistentes. Luego se nombraron personas entre los más ancianos y respetados, para que administraran los bienes de la congregación y repartieran entre los más pobres las dádivas de los más favorecidos, pero en las primeras iglesias cristianas no existía el clero como tal.
Constantino convocó el Concilio de Nicea en el siglo IV, y lo presidió aunque no era cristiano. Los obispos o encargados de las iglesias de aquella época, se dejaron embaucar con los regalos y donaciones imperiales, así como con las promesas de nombramientos oficiales, que les equiparaban a los magistrados del imperio.
De aquél concilio presidido por un no cristiano, el emperador Constantino, nació el Cristianismo tal y como lo conocemos hoy, con Jesús convertido en Dios, segunda persona de la Santísima Trinidad y Redentor de los hombres, la estructura clerical y la mayoría de los dogmas y creencias cristianas.
A partir de ese momento, el Mitraismo fue perseguido a muerte, sus libros quemados, sus templos derribados, y en pocos años, proscrito por edicto imperial de Teodosio. No es extraño que hoy sea difícil encontrar un libro sobre esta religión que tanto ha “aportado” a nuestra cultura y nuestra forma de vivir.
No existe ningún original de los Evangelios cristianos canónicos anterior al siglo V. Todos los Evangelios fueron reescritos, interpolados, modificados y adaptados a las nuevas normas eclesiales copiadas del mitraismo. Los Evangelios originales escritos en el siglo I y II, desaparecieron tras la persecución implacable de la jerarquía imperial y eclesiástica. La figura de Jesús fue retocada para hacerla más parecida a Mitra, Dionisos, Adonis, Osiris, Krisna y otros dioses “redentores” de la Humanidad. Todos ellos murieron y resucitaron, algunos de ellos nacieron de una virgen. Adonis por ejemplo resucitaba en Primavera; Krisna estuvo muerto tres días.
En Egipto se realizaba desde tiempo inmemorial una ceremonia de iniciación, mediante la cual el neófito era atado a una cruz tumbada horizontalmente y depositado en lo más profundo del templo en donde permanecía sin luz, agua ni comida, durante tres días. Al término de su “muerte”, el neófito era sacado a la luz y proclamado nacido de nuevo.
El Cristianismo “adoptó” las fechas más importantes del mitraismo como suyas, para aprovechar la inercia y la fe de las masas que ya estaban acostumbradas a celebrarlas desde siglos. Sólo se limitaron a cambiar el nombre del dios a honrar.

Read more: http://www.meta-religion.com/Religiones_del_mundo/Cristianismo/Articulos/mitra.htm#.VeNBWsqlgWw#ixzz3kK3Blc2T

Mitra, Deo Soli Invicto

Eón mitraico, representación del tiempo cíclico infinito. Relieve de época romana.

"Los persas durante la ceremonia de iniciación al misterio de la bajada de las almas y de su retorno llaman caverna al lugar donde se realiza la iniciación. Según Eubolo, Zoroastro en las montañas cercanas a Persia, consagró en honor a Mitra, creador y padre de todas las cosas, un antro natural regado por manantiales y cubierto de flores y follaje. Ese antro representaba la forma del mundo creado por Mitra y las cosas que en él se encontraban, dispuestas a intervalos regulares, simbolizaban los elementos cósmicos y los climas. Después de Zoroastro se mantuvo la costumbre de realizar las ceremonias de iniciación en antros y cavernas naturales o hechos por mano del hombre. (...) No se consideraba al antro como símbolo tan sólo del mundo sensible, sino también de todas las fuerzas ocultas de la naturaleza, ya que los antros son oscuros y la esencia de dichas fuerzas es misteriosa."

Porfirio, De antro Nympharum

Ilustración idealizada del mitreo de Osterburken, Alemania, donde se representa un momento del ritual mistérico.

Dada la gran difusión por todo el imperio romano del culto al dios de origen iranio Mitra, sobre todo en los siglos III y IV, podemos entender que el investigador de este periodo Ernest Renan llegara a decir: "Si el cristianismo hubiera sido detenido por una enfermedad mortal, el mundo hubiera sido mitraísta". Esta nueva religión mistérica fue reservada casi exclusivamente a los soldados, impresionando a los profanos por la disciplina, la templanza y la moral de sus miembros, virtudes propias de la vieja tradición romana. Su difusión tuvo lugar desde Escocia a mesopotamia y desde el Norte de África y España hasta Europa central y los Balcanes. Se han descubierto mitreos sobre todo en las antiguas provincias romanas de Dacia, Pannonia y Germania y se estima que en Roma llegaron a coincidir un centenar de santuarios. En los monumentos y obras de arte conservados sobre el mitraismo descubrimos una riquísima iconografía, de fuerte sincretismo grecorromano con la herencia irania, de la que esta entrada solo quiere ser una muestra. El texto que nos servirá de guía por las imágenes seleccionadas son sobre todo los fragmentos extraídos de la obra de Jaime Alvar Los Misterios. Religiones "orientales" en el Imperio Romano que recomiendo para descubrir también en él los aspectos relacionados con los sistemas rituales, sobre los que se extiende en otro capítulo. También anotaciones de Las religiones orientales y el paganismo romano de Franz Cumont, El libro de los Símbolos de Alessandro Grossato e Historia de las creencias y de las ideas religiosas de Mircea Eliade. Las imágenes seleccionadas proceden de internet.

El tema central en el mitraísmo es la escena de la tauroctonía, la muerte de toro, en la que el joven dios, en actitud heroica clava su daga en el cuello del animal, que ya ha doblado sus patas, mientras lo sostiene por los orificios nasales. Así lo obliga a alzar la cabeza, pero sólo esta, porque con la pierna izquierda doblada sobre el lomo del toro le impide que se alce. El sacrificio del toro es un potencial de vida, según se desprende de algunos elementos que de forma constante aparecen en la escena. La sangre abundante que mana del cuello es lamida por un perro, mientras se convierte en espigas de trigo (al menos en algunas representaciones); también en espiga se ha transformado el rabo del toro, imagen inequívoca del carácter fecundante del sacrificio. Al mismo tiempo, un escorpión le pinza las turmas, quizá con el objeto de apropiarse de su potencia vital, ante la presencia de un cuervo, una serpiente -símbolo ctónico que parece actuar como anfitriona del óbito- y un león, así como una crátera.

En esta tauroctonía se observa el rabo del toro transformado en espiga de trigo

Alrededor de esa escena, cuyo estereotipo presenta numerosas variantes excepto en la forma de representar el dios y a su víctima, hay otras muchas figuras dispuestas en arco para enmarcar el acto central: los signos zodiacales presididos por el Sol y la Luna, los planetas, los vientos, dos jóvenes portadores de antorchas llamados Cautes y Cautópates, así como otras escenas secundarias que parecen representar acontecimientos de la vida de Mitra y que constituyen motivos autónomos en algunos relieves o esculturas no vinculadas necesariamente a una representación de la tauroctonía.

Tauroctonía del Circo Maximo, finales del siglo tercero, Roma. En la inscripción superior se puede leer: DEI SOLI INVICTO MITHRAE TI(TUS) CL (AUDIO) HERMES OB VOTUM DEI TYPUM D (ONUM) D (EDIT).
En esta versión vemos claramente también transformarse en espiga de trigo el rabo del toro. El escorpión pinza sus testículos, mientras la serpiente y el perro lamen su sangre. Sobre el gorro frigio de Mitra aparece una estrella, y otras cuatro a la derecha. Arriba a la izquierda, Helios junto a un cuervo, a la derecha la luna. Abajo a la izquierda, Mitra arrastrando al toro capturado, a su lado Cautes con la antorcha hacia arriba, en el otro extremo su gemelo Cautópates con la antorcha hacia abajo.

Cumont fue el primero que proporcionó una narración coherente e integradora con la documentación iconográfica, convirtiéndose en el auténtico mitógrafo del mitraísmo, religión a la que atribuía un verdadero sistema teológico, cuyos principios había tomado de la ciencia. En los años setenta se discutió radicalmente la construcción de Cumont, observación precisa para que no se tome como definitivo lo que a continuación se relata.

Aparentemente, del Caos original surge un dios, el Tiempo Infinito, identificado con Eón, Saeculum, Cronos o Saturno, e incluso en ocasiones como el propio Destino. Se representa como un joven con cabeza de león, alado y rodeado de una serpiente; sus atributos son el cetro y el rayo, así como la llave que lleva en cada mano (hay variantes distintas) La imagen de la derecha es la ilustración de la estatua romana de Eón o Aión (Mitra-Kronos) procedente del mitreo de Ostia y actualmente en los museos vaticanos. La serpiente enrollada al cuerpo en seis roscas, y cuya cabeza corona la escultura, simboliza el curso del sol, seis meses en ascenso, desde el solsticio de invierno al de verano, y seis de descenso a la inversa. Simboliza también el tiempo cíclico infinito. El largo cetro de la mano izquierda simboliza el Axis Mundi, mientras en la derecha sujeta "la llave del tiempo", con las marcas de los doce meses. En el centro del pecho se encuentra el haz de rayos, a la izquierda de sus pies, las herramientas del herrero que atribuyen el dominio del fuego, al otro lado el caduceo el gallo y la piña. Estos dos últimos son símbolos de fertilidad.

Este dios primordial habría engendrado el Cielo y la Tierra, representado por la serpiente, de los que habría nacido el Océano. Queda así constituida una "sagrada familia" que sería la tríada suprema del panteón mitraico. El Cielo se identifica con Zeus-Júpiter que, en un momento determinado, recibiría de su padre Cronos-Saturno el haz de rayos, con lo que accede el rango de dios soberano desde el que a su vez da vida al resto de los dioses luminosos que residen en el Olimpo. A ellos se opone un mundo tenebroso capitaneado por Ahrimán-Putón, hermano del Cielo-Júpiter, en su condición de hijo del Tiempo Infinito. Su cortejo de démones, representados en ocasiones como gigantes anguípedos, intenta arrebatar a Júpiter su trono, pero es vencido y relegado al abismo del que procedía. Estos demonios tienen acceso a la tierra y poseen la capacidad de actuar negativamente sobre los humanos y los impelen a obrar mal. Las fuerzas purificadoras básicas son dos hermanos, el fuego y el agua, representados por el león y la crátera, respectivamente. Un tercer elemento purificador, según veremos, es la miel, asociada precisamente a la leóntica, uno de los siete grados iniciáticos (Porfirio, La gruta de las Ninfas = De antrum Nynpharum 15). Su importancia es tal que se consideran como auténticos elementos divinos y, en consecuencia, poseen un destacado papel en el ritual. También los vientos, a los que se atribuye capacidad de intervención sobre la naturaleza, son potencias divinas. El orden cósmico estaba representado por la constancia reierativa del Sol que recorría el Cielo diariamente subido en su cuadriga tirado por caballos que simbolizan al astro luminosos. Éste era objeto de veneración por los mitraístas, así como la Luna subida en su biga que arrastran sendos toros albos. Los planetas, partícipes asimismo de ese orden cósmico, tutelaban a los fieles en sus diferentes grados iniciáticos.

Relieve de Osterburken, Alemania. Arriba en las esquinas puede observarse a "los vientos", a la izquierda el carro solar. La escena de la tauróctonía está envuelta por diferentes escenas de la vida de Mitra y los signos zodiacales. Abajo en el centro la crátera y al lado el león. Se encuentra también la siguiente inscripción: D(EO) S(OLI) I(NVICTO) M(ITHRAE) M(ER?) CATORIUS CASTRENSIS IN SUO CONS(TITUIT)

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Ahora bien, la divinidad que en época romana se convierte en el dios central de ese sistema de creencias es originalmente un dios indoeuropeo que aparece en una tablilla de Bogazköy, junto a Varuna, como garante de un tratado suscrito entre los reyes Supilulinna de Hatusa y Mitavanza de Mitani en 1380 a.C. Mitra encarna el aspecto jurídico-sacerdotal de la realeza; su propio nombre significa tratado. En el Rig veda indio es junto con Varuna encargado de mantener el orden cósmico, así como de velar por la correcta conducta religiosa y moral.
En Irán es el encargado del orden social -bajo su protectorado están los contratos, el matrimonio, la amistad, etc.-, es juez y brazo armado de la justicia -por actuar ante el fuego, este se convierte en su emblema-, es el señor de los sacrificios sangrientos y de la lluvia que permite el crecimiento de las plantas, tal como afirma el Yasht (Himno) de Mitra, integrado en el Avesta, pero redactado verosímilmente en época aqueménida, cuando su gran fiesta el Mitracana, se celebraba en el equinoccio de otoño. Allí Mitra se identifica con el sol que lo ve todo. En el dualismo zoroástrico, Mitra es luz en combate permanente con la oscuridad y es el que hacer huir a los malos espíritus. Este dios todopoderoso sólo ha dejado testimonio de su persistencia, tras la desaparición del Imperio aqueménida, en algunos lugares de Anatolia, como los reinos del Ponto y Comagene, algunos de cuyos monarcas llevaron el nombre teóforo de Mitrídates. A pesar de ello, la continuidad del culto iranio en el romano es muy dificil de establecer.Tanto por las representaciones como por la información literaria, sabemos que Mitra había nacido milagrosamente de una roca. Con frecuencia, esta adquiere forma de huevo, lo que hace disminuir las dudas sobre la influencia del orfismo en el Mitra romano, ratificada por el sincretismo de Mitra con Fanetón (Fanes), la deidad órfica de la luminosidad ilimitada que surge del huevo cósmico (ver imagen de cabecera de esta entrada). Se trata de la piedra primigenia, el mundo embrionario sometido al influjo de las constelaciones. Es, pues, el primer paso del mito en el necesario ordenamiento astral del cual Mitra es creador y Kosmocrator, como afirma una inscripción de Roma. Es más, un relieve de Tréveris representa el nacimiento, pero Mitra con su mano derecha hace girar medio disco zodiacal, mientras que con la izquierda sostiene el globo terráqueo. Por otra parte, un relieve del mitreo de Poetovio (imagen izquierda) de mediados del siglo III complica aun más la escena, pues Mitra es ayudado a salir de la roca por dos personajes, presumiblemente Cautes y Cautópes. Sobre ellos, en un registro superior, duerme un anciano, seguramente Saturno, al que corona una victoria. Puede tratarse de la representación del sueño premonitorio en el que se anuncia el nacimiento del invicto Mitra; pero podría tratarse de un testimonio de la secuencia del tiempo y de la sucesión de las eras en una hipotética cronografía mítica mitraíca, ya que la era del Tiempo Infinito es sucedida por la hegemonía de Mitra, reconocido como Saecularis que proporciona la victoria sobre el mal y el descanso cósmico. Como parte de esa cronografía habría que entender la presencia del Sol y la Luna, como axpresión de la secuencia del día y la noche, de los planetas, que simbolizan los días y, por lo tanto, la seuencia semanal, del zodíaco como secuencia del año, y así sucesivamente. La relevancia del acontecimiento puede constatarse en el hecho de que Mitra saxígeno es la representación más frecuente en el mitraísmo tras la tauroctonía. En el nacimiento de Mitra está el origen de todas las cosas; pero en primer lugar está el origen de la luz, como se desprende de la asociación, mediante llamas o antorchas, del fuego con el saxígeno y su identificación con el dios de la luz Fanetón. Unos pastores habían presenciado el acontecimiento por el que el niño desnudo surge tocado con el característico gorro frigio y con una antorcha en una mano y el cuchillo sacrificial en la otra. El fuego lo caracteriza como deidad solar, pero también como dador de luz a sus protegidos; el cuchillo es el instrumento por el que da vida mediante la muerte de toro, por ello en alguna ocasión el cuchillo es sustituido abiertamente por una espiga de trigo. Incluso en una ocasión la escena del nacimiento se encuentra enmarcada exactamente como si de la tauroctonía se tratara, lo que permite entender la leyenda de Mitra como una estructura cerrada, no lineal, por cuanto lo más importante son los efectos que sus vicisitudes procuran al género humano. En este sentido, la roca no es sólo el mundo, sino el universo, contiene un significado análogo al de la caverna en la que tiene lugar el sacrificio del toro, simbolismo que a su vez se reproduce en el mitreo. En cualquier caso, los pastores acuden a ofrecerle sus primicias y a rendirle adoración, lo que incide en la función de Mitra como protector de la humanidad. En algunas ocasiones la escena del nacimiento se representa con variantes. Un ejemplo llamativo es el que proporciona un relieve del mitreo I de Heddernheim, en el que la roca ha sido sustituida directamente por un árbol, tal vez como consecuencia de la previa identificaación de la roca con una piña; aunque en los frescos de Hawarte aparece tanto la escena saxígena como Mitra sobre el ciprés. Al parecer, el énfasis se ha desplazado desde el simbolismo cósmico a la vegetación, para incidir aún más intensamente en el carácter de dios protector de la naturaleza que en algunas regiones se otorga a Mitra y en especial de la producción agrícola, como se desprende de otras representaciones iconográficas y de la mención que de él hace Porfirio (de antro) como "guardián de los frutos". Pero, al mismo tiempo, el testimonio de Heidernheim puede contribuir al desciframiento del relieve de Dieburg en el que aparecen tres cabezas tocadas con gorro frigio colgadas de un árbol; puesto que en otras ocasiones Cautes y Cautópates aparecen relacionados con el nacimiento de Mitra, tal vez en Dieburg tenemos una versión local del nacimiento de Mitra acompañado por los portadores de antorchas. No es fácil determinar quíenes son en realidad Cautes y Cautópates; su parecido iconográfico a Mitra es extraordinario. Pero es probable que hubieran llegado a representar alegorías diferentes. Por un lado, como habitualmente aparecen flanqueando a Mitra y uno, Cautes, lleva la antorcha hacia arriba mientras el otro la tiene hacia abajo, se supone que representan al sol matutino y vespertino, respectivamente, siendo Mitra el sol cenital. Pero también Cautes parece asociado al cielo y Cautópates al Océano, por donde se produce el ocaso del sol. De ahí que se interpreten como Oriente y Occidente e incluso que se asocien, respectivamente, al Sol y Luna y, como consecuencia, representen la oposición vida/muerte. Es precisamente esta última dirección en la que se han realizado las aportaciones más interesantes en los últimos años gracias a la perspicacia anlítica de Beck y Gordon. La lectura crítica de Porfirio sugerida por Beck en combinación con el significado conceptual de la fisionomía de los mitreos formulados por Gordon, permite asumir que los gemelos son los agentes de Mitra que controlan las puertas por las que se produce el descenso de las almas desde las estrellas hasta el mundo de los mortales y su ascenso a la inmortalidad a través del itinerario estelar. (Los portadores de antorchas señalarían los solsticios de verano, Cautopátes, y de invierno, Cautes.

En el primero se produciría el descenso del alma a la tierra (génesis) y en el segundo el ascenso (apogénesis); por su parte, Mitra se situaría de forma equidistante en los equinoccios). En realidad, estos hermanos gemelos, que están ya presentes en el nacimiento de Mitra y, por lo tanto, en los orígenes de la creación, podrían ser representaciones del mismo dios, lo que permite comprender el término triplasios ("triple") que en el siglo VI aplica a Mitra Dionisio Areopagita (Epist. 7,2) y que ilustra el árbol con las cabezas de Dieburg, con lo que concluimos esta disgresión que nos sitúa ante la posibilidad de una realidad tricorporea para este dios, una inesperada trinida, cuya relevancia en el universo de las creencias mitraicas está ensombrecida por el silencio. Otro de los avatares de Mitra es su victoria sobre el toro, al que somete tras galopar sobre su grupa y después de haberlo asido por los cuernos hasta doblegarlo. En algunas escenas se representa a Mitra arrastrando al toro por sus cuartos traseros para conducirlo hasta la cueva que le servía de guarida. En el camino encuentra numerosos obstáculos, como si de un rito de tránsito se tratara, alegoría de las pruebas que han de superar los humanos. Un cuervo transmite a Mitra un mensaje del Sol por el que le insta a matar al toro. El encargo es fielmente acometido, tal como se reproduce en la escena de la tauroctonía. Ésta se ha interpretado como la creación de todos los seres benéficos, lo que convierte a mitra en un verdadero dios creador. Pero antes del acto sublime del sacrificio del toro, Mitra habría logrado algunos triunfos frente a Ahrimán, que pretendía aniquilar a los humanos, según la versión de Cumont. En cierta ocasión provoca tal sequía que obliga a la intervención de su rival. Mitra dispara una flecha contra una roca de la que mana agua cristalina, con la que salva a sus protegidos y se convierte en una divinidad protectora del agua.
En un ara de Poetovio Cautes y Cautópes aparecen acompañando a Mitra en este episodio que se ha relacionado con una de las frases escritas en las paredes del mitreo de Santa Prisca en Roma, según la cual los hermanos gemelos habrían sido alimentados con el nectar de la fuente surgida de la roca.(...) El nectar con el que se alimentan los gemelos podría ser coincidente con la sangre eterna que salva, como reza la oración de Santa Prisca tantas veces mendionada: "Y nos salvaste con el derramamiento de la sangre (eterna)". Liquido manado de la "fons perennis" que es elpropio Mitra (así lo denomina una inscripción de Petovio. Pero eso no es todo. Porfirio asevera que la crátera es el símbolo de la fuente y que por ello en Mitra la crátera sustituye a la fuente (De antro); así pues, podemos asumir que la representación de la crátera en la tauroctonía es un símbolo del llamado "milagro del agua", que adquiere así su verdadera posición cosmogónica, no como un episodio en la vida de Mitra, sino como auténtica rememoración de la creación del agua, simbolismo de los fluidos dadores de vida.(...) Garantizada la seguridad de los mortales, Mitra da por concluida su misión en la tierra. Para celebrarlo se realiza un ágape supremo en el que los comensales de honor son Helios y Mitra, pero en el que, además, participan los principales compañeros de aventuras. Una vez saciados, los dos amigos suben a la cuadriga que ha de conducirlos, en una verdadera apoteosis, junto a los restantes dioses, donde Mitra se instala como protector de sus fieles servidores.

Relieve en marmol con escena del ágape supremo. En él reconocemos la piel del toro sacrificado en el que se reclinan Helios y Mitra. A la izquierda aparece la Luna y abajo Cautes ofrece un ritón a Helios, mientras Cautóptes, a la derecha dirige el caduceo al nectar de la fuente que brota de la roca.


(The following article is adapted from a chapter in Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled, as well as excerpts from othre articles, such as "The Origins of Christianity" and "The ZEITGEIST Sourcebook.")

"Both Mithras and Christ were described variously as 'the Way,' 'the Truth,' 'the Light,' 'the Life,' 'the Word,' 'the Son of God,' 'the Good Shepherd.' The Christian litany to Jesus could easily be an allegorical litany to the sun-god. Mithras is often represented as carrying a lamb on his shoulders, just as Jesus is. Midnight services were found in both religions. The virgin mother...was easily merged with the virgin mother Mary. Petra, the sacred rock of Mithraism, became Peter, the foundation of the Christian Church."

Gerald Berry, Religions of the World

"Mithra or Mitra is...worshipped as Itu (Mitra-Mitu-Itu) in every house of the Hindus in India. Itu (derivative of Mitu or Mitra) is considered as the Vegetation-deity. This Mithra or Mitra (Sun-God) is believed to be a Mediator between God and man, between the Sky and the Earth. It is said that Mithra or [the] Sun took birth in the Cave on December 25th. It is also the belief of the Christian world that Mithra or the Sun-God was born of [a] Virgin. He travelled far and wide. He has twelve satellites, which are taken as the Sun's disciples.... [The Sun's] great festivals are observed in the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox—Christmas and Easter. His symbol is the Lamb...."

Swami Prajnanananda, Christ the Saviour and Christ Myth

Because of its evident relationship to Christianity, special attention needs to be paid to the Persian/Roman religion of Mithraism. The worship of the Indo-Persian god Mithra dates back centuries to millennia preceding the common era. The god is found as "Mitra" in the Indian Vedic religion, which is over 3,500 years old, by conservative estimates. When the Iranians separated from their Indian brethren, Mitra became known as "Mithra" or "Mihr," as he is also called in Persian.

By around 1500 BCE, Mithra worship had made it to the Near East, in the Indian kingdom of the Mitanni, who at that time occupied Assyria. Mithra worship, however, was known also by that time as far west as the Hittite kingdom, only a few hundred miles east of the Mediterranean, as is evidenced by the Hittite-Mitanni tablets found at Bogaz-Köy in what is now Turkey. The gods of the Mitanni included Mitra, Varuna and Indra, all found in the Vedic texts.

Mithra as Sun God

The Indian Mitra was essentially a solar deity, representing the "friendly" aspect of the sun. So too was the Persian derivative Mithra, who was a "benevolent god" and the bestower of health, wealth and food. Mithra also seems to have been looked upon as a sort of Prometheus, for the gift of fire. (Schironi, 104) His worship purified and freed the devotee from sin and disease. Eventually, Mithra became more militant, and he is best known as a warrior.

Like so many gods, Mithra was the light and power behind the sun. In Babylon, Mithra was identified with Shamash, the sun god, and he is also Bel, the Mesopotamian and Canaanite/ Phoenician solar deity, who is likewise Marduk, the Babylonian god who represented both the planet Jupiter and the sun. According to Pseudo-Clement of Rome's debate with Appion (Homily VI, ch. X), Mithra is also Apollo.

In time, the Persian Mithraism became infused with the more detailed astrotheology of the Babylonians and Chaldeans, and was notable for its astrology and magic; indeed, its priests or magi lent their very name to the word "magic." Included in this astrotheological development was the re-emphasis on Mithra's early Indian role as a sun god. As Francis Legge says in Forerunners and Rivals in Christianity:

The Vedic Mitra was originally the material sun itself, and the many hundreds of votive inscriptions left by the worshippers of Mithras to "the unconquered Sun Mithras," to the unconquered solar divinity (numen) Mithras, to the unconquered Sun-God (deus) Mithra, and allusions in them to priests (sacerdotes), worshippers (cultores), and temples (templum) of the same deity leave no doubt open that he was in Roman times a sun-god. (Legge, II, 240)

By the Roman legionnaires, Mithra—or Mithras, as he began to be known in the Greco-Roman world—was called "the divine Sun, the Unconquered Sun." He was said to be "Mighty in strength, mighty ruler, greatest king of gods! O Sun, lord of heaven and earth, God of Gods!" Mithra was also deemed "the mediator" between heaven and earth, a role often ascribed to the god of the sun.

An inscription by a "T. Flavius Hyginus" dating to around 80 to 100 AD/CE in Rome dedicates an altar to "Sol Invictus Mithras"—"The Unconquered Sun Mithra"—revealing the hybridization reflected in other artifacts and myths. Regarding this title, Dr. Richard L. Gordon, honorary professor of Religionsgeschichte der Antike at the University of Erfurt, Thuringen, remarks:

It is true that one...cult title...of Mithras was, or came to be, Deus Sol Invictus Mithras (but he could also be called... Deus Invictus Sol Mithras, Sol Invictus Mithras...

...Strabo, 15.3.13 (p. 732C), basing his information on a lost work, either by Posidonius (ca 135-51 BC) or by Apollodorus of Artemita (first decades of 1 cent. BC), states baldly that the Western Parthians "call the sun Mithra." The Roman cult seems to have taken this existing association and developed it in their own special way. (Gordon, "FAQ." (Emph. added.))

"Mithra is who the monuments proclaim him—the Unconquered Sun."

As concerns Mithra's identity, Mithraic scholar Dr. Roger Beck says:

Mithras...is the prime traveller, the principal actor...on the celestial stage which the tauctony [bull-slaying] defines.... He is who the monuments proclaim him—the Unconquered Sun. (Beck (2004), 274)

In an early image, Mithra is depicted as a sun disc in a chariot drawn by white horses, another solar motif that made it into the Jesus myth, in which Christ is to return on a white horse. (Rev 6:2; 19:11)

Mithra in the Roman Empire

Subsequent to the military campaign of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE, Mithra became the "favorite deity" of Asia Minor. Christian writers Dr. Samuel Jackson and George W. Gilmore, editors of The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (VII, 420), remark:

It was probably at this period, 250-100 b.c., that the Mithraic system of ritual and doctrine took the form which it afterward retained. Here it came into contact with the mysteries, of which there were many varieties, among which the most notable were those of Cybele.

According to the Roman historian Plutarch (c. 46-120 AD/CE), Mithraism began to be absorbed by the Romans during Pompey's military campaign against Cilician pirates around 70 BCE. The religion eventually migrated from Asia Minor through the soldiers, many of whom had been citizens of the region, into Rome and the far reaches of the Empire. Syrian merchants brought Mithraism to the major cities, such as Alexandria, Rome and Carthage, while captives carried it to the countryside. By the third century AD/CE Mithraism and its mysteries permeated the Roman Empire and extended from India to Scotland, with abundant monuments in numerous countries amounting to over 420 Mithraic sites so far discovered.

"By the third century AD/CE Mithraism and its mysteries permeated the Roman Empire and extended from India to Scotland."

From a number of discoveries, including pottery, inscriptions and temples, we know that Roman Mithraism gained a significant boost and much of its shape between 80 and 120 AD/CE, when the first artifacts of this particular cultus begin to be found at Rome. It reached a peak during the second and third centuries, before largely expiring at the end of the fourth/beginning of fifth centuries. Among its members during this period were emperors, politicians and businessmen. Indeed, before its usurpation by Christianity Mithraism enjoyed the patronage of some of the most important individuals in the Roman Empire. In the fifth century, the emperor Julian, having rejected his birth-religion of Christianity, adopted Mithraism and "introduced the practise of the worship at Constantinople." (Schaff-Herzog, VII, 423)

Modern scholarship has gone back and forth as to how much of the original Indo-Persian Mitra-Mithra cultus affected Roman Mithraism, which demonstrates a distinct development but which nonetheless follows a pattern of this earlier solar mythos and ritual. The theory of "continuity" from the Iranian to Roman Mithraism developed famously by scholar Dr. Franz Cumont in the 20th century has been largely rejected by many scholars. Yet, Plutarch himself (Life of Pompey, 24) related that followers of Mithras "continue to the present time" the "secret rites" of the Cilician pirates, "having been first instituted by them." So too does the ancient writer Porphyry (234-c. 305 AD/CE) state that the Roman Mithraists themselves believed their religion had been founded by the Persian savior Zoroaster.

In discussing what may have been recounted by ancient writers asserted to have written many volumes about Mithraism, such as Eubulus of Palestine and "a certain Pallas," Dr. Beck remarks: "Certainly Zoroaster would have figured largely; and so would the Persians and the magi." It seems that the ancients themselves did not divorce the eastern roots of Mithraism, as exemplified also by the remarks of Dio Cassius, who related that in 66 AD/CE the king of Armenia, Tiridates, visited Rome. Cassius states that the dignitary worshipped Mithra; yet, he does not indicate any distinction between the Armenian's religion and Roman Mithraism.

It is apparent from their testimony that ancient sources perceived Mithraism as having a Persian origin; hence, it would seem that any true picture of the development of Roman Mithraism must include the latter's relationship to the earlier Persian cultus, as well as its Asia Minor and Armenian offshoots. Current scholarship is summarized thus by Dr. Beck (2004; 28):

Since the 1970s, scholars of western Mithraism have generally agreed that Cumont's master narrative of east-west transfer is unsustainable; but...recent trends in the scholarship on Iranian religion, by modifying the picture of that religion prior to the birth of the western mysteries, now render a revised Cumontian scenario of east-west transfer and continuities once again viable.

The Many Faces of Mithra

Mainstream scholarship speaks of at least three Mithras: Mitra, the Vedic god; Mithra, the Persian deity; and Mithras, the Greco-Roman mysteries icon. However, the Persian Mithra apparently developed differently in various places, such as in Armenia, where there appeared to be emphasis on characteristics not overtly present in Roman Mithraism but found as motifs within Christianity, including the Virgin Mother Goddess. This Armenian Mithraism is evidently a continuity of the Mithraism of Asia Minor and the Near East. This development of gods taking on different forms, shapes, colors, ethnicities and other attributes according to location, era and so on is not only quite common but also the norm. Thus, we have hundreds of gods and goddesses who are in many ways interchangeable but who have adopted various differences based on geographical and environmental factors.

Mithra and Christ

Over the centuries—in fact, from the earliest Christian times—Mithraism has been compared to Christianity, revealing numerous similarities between the two faiths' doctrines and traditions, including as concerns stories of its respective godmen. In developing this analysis, it should be kept in mind that elements from Roman, Armenian and Persian Mithraism are utilized, not as a whole ideology but as separate items that may have affected the creation of Christianity, whether directly through the mechanism of Mithraism or through another Pagan source within the Roman Empire and beyond. The evidence points to these motifs and elements being adopted into Christianity not as a whole from one source but singularly from many sources, including Mithraism.

"The evidence points to these motifs and elements being adopted into Christianity..."

Thus, the following list represents not a solidified mythos or narrative of one particular Mithra or form of the god as developed in different cultures and eras but, rather, a combination of them all for ease of reference as to any possible influences upon Christianity under the name of Mitra/Mithra/Mithras.

Mithra has the following in common with the Jesus character:

• Mithra was born on December 25th of the virgin Anahita.
• The babe was wrapped in swaddling clothes, placed in a manger and attended by shepherds.
• He was considered a great traveling teacher and master.
• He had 12 companions or "disciples."
• He performed miracles.
• As the "great bull of the Sun," Mithra sacrificed himself for world peace.
• He ascended to heaven.
• Mithra was viewed as the Good Shepherd, the "Way, the Truth and the Light," the Redeemer, the Savior, the Messiah.
• Mithra is omniscient, as he "hears all, sees all, knows all: none can deceive him."
• He was identified with both the Lion and the Lamb.
• His sacred day was Sunday, "the Lord's Day," hundreds of years before the appearance of Christ.
• His religion had a eucharist or "Lord's Supper."
• Mithra "sets his marks on the foreheads of his soldiers."
• Mithraism emphasized baptism.

December 25th Birthday

The similarities between Mithraism and Christianity have included their chapels, the term "father" for priest, celibacy and, it is notoriously claimed, the December 25^th birthdate. Over the centuries, apologists contending that Mithraism copied Christianity nevertheless have asserted that the December 25^th birthdate was taken from Mithraism. As Sir Arthur Weigall says:

December 25^th was really the date, not of the birth of Jesus, but of the sun-god Mithra. Horus, son of Isis, however, was in very early times identified with Ra, the Egyptian sun-god, and hence with Mithra...

Mithra's birthday on December 25th has been so widely claimed that the Catholic Encyclopedia ("Mithraism") remarks: "The 25 December was observed as his birthday, the natalis invicti, the rebirth of the winter-sun, unconquered by the rigours of the season."

Yet this contention of Mithra's birthday on December 25th or the winter solstice is disputed because there is no hard archaeological or literary evidence of the Roman Mithras specifically being named as having been born at that time. Says Dr. Alvar:

There is no evidence of any kind, not even a hint, from within the cult that this, or any other winter day, was important in the Mithraic calendar. (Alvar, 410)

In analyzing the evidence, we must keep in mind all the destruction that has taken place over the past 2,000 years-including that of many Mithraic remains and texts—as well as the fact that several of these germane parallels constituted mysteries that may or may not have been recorded in the first place or the meanings of which have been obscured.

The claim about the Roman Mithras's birth on "Christmas" is evidently based on the Calendar of Filocalus or Philocalian Calendar (c. 354 AD/CE), which mentions that December 25th represents the "Birthday of the Unconquered," understood to refer to the sun and taken to indicate Mithras as Sol Invictus. Whether it represents Mithras's birthday specifically or "merely" that of Emperor Aurelian's Sol Invictus, with whom Mithras has been identified, the Calendar also lists the day—the winter solstice birth of the sun—as that of natus Christus in Betleem Iudeae: "Birth of Christ in Bethlehem Judea."

Moreover, it would seem that there is more to this story, as Aurelian was the first to institute officially the winter solstice as the birthday of Sol Invictus (Dies Natalis Solis Invicti) in 274 AD/CE. (Halsberghe, 158) It is contended that Aurelian's move was in response to Mithras's popularity. (Restaud, 4) One would thus wonder why the emperor would be so motivated if Mithras had nothing whatsoever to do with the sun god's traditional birthday—a disconnect that would be unusual for any solar deity.

Regardless of whether or not the artifacts of the Roman Mithras's votaries reflect the attribution of the sun god's birthday to him specifically, many in the empire did identify the mysteries icon and Sol Invictus as one, evidenced by the inscriptions of "Sol Invictus Mithras" and the many images of Mithras and the sun together, representing two sides of the same coin or each other's alter ego. Hence, the placement of Mithras's birth on this feast day of the sun is understandable and, despite the lack of concrete evidence at this date, quite plausibly was recognized in this manner in antiquity in the Roman Empire.

Persian Winter Festivals

In addition, it is clear that the ancient peoples from whom Mithraism sprang, long before it was Romanized, were very much involved in winter festivals so common among many other cultures globally. In this regard, discussing the Iranian month of Asiyadaya, which corresponds to November/December, Mithraic scholar Dr. Mary Boyce remarks:

...it is at this time of year that the Zoroastrian festival of Sada takes place, which is not only probably pre-Zoroastrian in origin, but may even go back to proto-Indo-European times. For Sada is a great open-air festival, of a kind celebrated widely among the Indo-European peoples, with the intention of strengthening the heavenly fire, the sun, in its winter decline and feebleness. Sun and fire being of profound significance in the Old Iranian religion, this is a festival which one would expect the Medes and Persians to have brought with them into their new lands... Sada is not, however, a feast in honour of the god of Fire, Atar, but is rather for the general strengthening of the creation of fire against the onslaught of winter. (Boyce (1982), 24-25)

This ancient Persian winter festival therefore celebrates the strengthening of the "fire" or sun in the face its winter decline, just as virtually every winter-solstice festivity is intended to do. Yet, as Dr. Boyce says, this "Zoroastrian" winter celebration is likely pre-Zoroastrian and even proto-Indo-European, which means it dates back far into the hoary mists of time, possibly tens of thousands of years ago. And one would indeed expect the Medes and Persians to bring this festival with them into their new lands, including the Near East, where they would eventually encounter Romans who could hardly have missed this common solar motif celebrated worldwide in numerous ways.

"The Mithraists believed that this night is the night of the birth of Mithra, Persian god of light and truth."

The same may be said as concerns another Persian or Zoroastrian winter celebration called "Yalda," which is the festival of the Longest Night of the Year, taking place on December 20th or the day before the solstice:

Yalda has a history as long as the Mithraism religion. The Mithraists believed that this night is the night of the birth of Mithra, Persian god of light and truth. At the morning of the longest night of the year the Mithra is born from a virgin mother....

In Zoroastrian tradition, the winter solstice with the longest night of the year was an auspicious day, and included customs intended to protect people from misfortune.... The Eve of the Yalda has great significance in the Iranian calendar. It is the eve of the birth of Mithra, the Sun God, who symbolized light, goodness and strength on earth. Shab-e Yalda is a time of joy.

Yalda is a Syriac word meaning birth. Mithra-worshippers used the term "yalda" specifically with reference to the birth of Mithra. As the longest night of the year, the Eve of Yalda (Shab-e Yalda) is also a turning point, after which the days grow longer. In ancient times it symbolized the triumph of the Sun God over the powers of darkness. ("Yalda," Wikipedia)

It is likely that this festival does indeed derive from remote antiquity, and it is evident that the ancient Persians were well aware of the winter solstice and its meaning as found in numerous other cultures: To wit, the annual "rebirth," "renewal" or "resurrection" of the sun.

"'Christmas' is the birth not of the 'son of God' but of the sun.

In the end the effect is the same: "Christmas" is the birth not of the "son of God" but of the sun. Indeed, there is much evidence—including many ancient monumental alignments—to demonstrate that this highly noticeable and cherished event of the winter solstice was celebrated beginning hundreds to thousands of years before the common era in numerous parts of the world. The observation was thus provably taken over by Christianity, not as biblical doctrine but as a later tradition in order to compete with the Pagan cults, a move we contend occurred with numerous other "Christian" motifs, including many that are in the New Testament.

Mithra the 'Rock-Born'

Mithra's genesis out of a rock, analogous to the birth in caves of a number of gods, including Jesus, was followed by his adoration by shepherds, another motif that found its way into the later Christianity. Regarding the birth in caves likewise common to pre-Christian gods, and present in the early legends of Jesus, Weigall relates (50):

...the cave shown at Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus was actually a rock shrine in which the god Tammuz or Adonis was worshipped, as the early Christian father Jerome tells us; and its adoption as the scene of the birth of our Lord was one of those frequent instances of the taking over by Christians of a pagan sacred site. The propriety of this appropriation was increased by the fact that the worship of a god in a cave was commonplace in paganism: Apollo, Cybele, Demeter, Herakles, Hermes, Mithra and Poseidon were all adored in caves; Hermes, the Greek Logos, being actually born of Maia in a cave, and Mithra being "rock-born."

As the "rock-born," Mithras was called "Theos ek Petras," or the "God from the Rock." As Weigall also relates:

Indeed, it may be that the reason of the Vatican hill at Rome being regarded as sacred to Peter, the Christian "Rock," was that it was already sacred to Mithra, for Mithraic remains have been found there.

Mithra was "the rock," or Peter, and was also "double-faced," like Janus the keyholder, likewise a prototype for the "apostle" Peter. Hence, when Jesus is made to say (in the apparent interpolation at Matthew 16:12) that the keys of the kingdom of heaven are given to "Peter" and that the Church is to be built upon "Peter," as a representative of Rome, he is usurping the authority of Mithraism, which was precisely headquartered on what became Vatican Hill.

"Mithraic remains on Vatican Hill are found underneath the later Christian edifices, which proves the Mithra cult was there first."

By the time the Christian hierarchy prevailed in Rome, Mithra had already been a popular cult, with pope, bishops, etc., and its doctrines were well established and widespread, reflecting antiquity. Mithraic remains on Vatican Hill are found underneath the later Christian edifices, which proves the Mithra cult was there first. In fact, while Mithraic ruins are abundant throughout the Roman Empire, beginning in the late first century AD/CE, "The earliest church remains, found in Dura-Europos, date only from around 230 CE."

The Virgin Mother Anahita

Unlike various other rock- or cave-born gods, Mithra is not depicted in the Roman cultus as having been given birth by a mortal woman or a goddess; hence, it is claimed that he was not "born of a virgin." However, a number of writers over the centuries have asserted otherwise, including several modern Persian and Armenian scholars who are apparently reflecting an ancient tradition from Near Eastern Mithraism.

"The worship of Mithra and Anahita, the virgin mother of Mithra, was well-known in the Achaemenian period."

For example, Dr. Badi Badiozamani says that a "person" named "Mehr" or Mithra was "born of a virgin named Nahid Anahita ('immaculate')" and that "the worship of Mithra and Anahita, the virgin mother of Mithra, was well-known in the Achaemenian period [558-330 BCE]..." (Badiozamani, 96) Philosophy professor Mohammed Ali Amir-Moezzi states: "Dans le mithraïsme, ainsi que le mazdéisme populaire, (A)Nāhīd, mère de Mithra/Mehr, est vierge"—"In Mithraism, as in popular Mazdaism, Anahid, the mother of Mithra, is a virgin." (Amir-Moezzi, 78-79) Comparing the rock birth with that of the virgin mother, Dr. Amir-Moezzi also says:

...il y a donc analogie entre le rocher, symbole d'incorruptibilité, qui donne naissance au dieu iranien et la mère de celui-ci, Anāhīd, éternellement vierge et jeune.

(...so there is analogy between the rock, a symbol of incorruptibility, giving birth to the Iranian god and the mother of that (same) one, Anahid, eternally virgin and young.)

In Mithraic Iconography and Ideology (78), Dr. Leroy A. Campbell calls Anahita the "great goddess of virgin purity," and Religious History professor Dr. Claas J. Bleeker says, "In the Avestan religion she is the typical virgin." (Bleeker (1963), 100)

One modern writer ("Mithraism and Christianity") portrays the Mithra myth thus:

According to Persian mythology, Mithras was born of a virgin given the title "Mother of God".

The Parthian princes of Armenia were all priests of Mithras, and an entire district of this land was dedicated to the Virgin Mother Anahita. Many Mithraeums, or Mithraic temples, were built in Armenia, which remained one of the last strongholds of Mithraism. The largest near-eastern Mithraeum was built in western Persia at Kangavar, dedicated to "Anahita, the Immaculate Virgin Mother of the Lord Mithras."

Anahita, also known as "Anaitis"—whose very name means "Pure" and "Untainted" and who was equated in antiquity with the virgin goddess Artemis—is certainly an Indo-Iranian goddess of some antiquity, dating back at least to the first half of the first millennium prior to the common era and enjoying "widespread popularity" around Asia Minor. Indeed, Anahita has been called "the best known divinity of the Persians" in Asia Minor. (de Jong, 268)

Moreover, concerning Mithra Schaff-Herzog says, "The Achaemenidae worshiped him as making the great triad with Ahura and Anahita." Ostensibly, this "triad" was the same as God the Father, the Virgin and Jesus, which would tend to confirm the assertion that Anahita was Mithra's virgin mother. That Anahita was closely associated with Mithra at least five centuries before the common era is evident from the equation made by Herodotus (1.131) in naming "Mitra" as the Persian counterpart of the Near and Middle Eastern goddesses Alilat and Mylitta. (de Jong, 269-270)

Moreover, Mithra's prototype, the Indian Mitra, was likewise born of a female, Aditi, the "mother of the gods," the inviolable or virgin dawn. Hence, we would expect an earlier form of Mithra also to possess this virgin-mother motif, which seems to have been lost or deliberately severed in the all-male Roman Mithraism.

Well known to scholars, the pre-Christian divine birth and virgin mother motifs are documented in the archaeological and literary records, as verified by Dr. Marguerite Rigoglioso in The Cult of the Divine Birth in Ancient Greece and Virgin Mother Goddesses of Antiquity.

Mithra and the Twelve

The theme of the teaching god and "the Twelve" is found within Mithraism, as Mithra is depicted as surrounded by the 12 zodiac signs on a number of monuments and in the writings of Porphyry (4.16), for one. These 12 signs are sometimes portrayed as humans and, as they have been in the case of numerous sun gods, could be called Mithra's 12 "companions" or "disciples."

Regarding the Twelve, John M. Robertson says:

On Mithraic monuments we find representations of twelve episodes, probably corresponding to the twelve labors in the stories of Heracles, Samson and other Sun-heroes, and probably also connected with initiation.

The comparison of this common motif with Jesus and the 12 has been made on many occasions, including in an extensive study entitled, "Mithras and Christ: some iconographical similarities," by Professor A. Deman in Mithraic Studies.

Early Church Fathers on Mithraism

Mithraism was so popular in the Roman Empire and so similar in important aspects to Christianity that several Church fathers were compelled to address it, disparagingly of course. These fathers included Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Julius Firmicus Maternus and Augustine, all of whom attributed these striking correspondences to the prescient devil. In other words, anticipating Christ, the devil set about to fool the Pagans by imitating the coming messiah. In reality, the testimony of these Church fathers confirms that these various motifs, characteristics, traditions and myths predated Christianity.

"Christianity took a leaf out of the devil's book when it fixed the birth of the Saviour on the twenty-fifth of December."

Concerning this "devil did it" argument, in The Worship of Nature Sir James G. Frazer remarks:

If the Mithraic mysteries were indeed a Satanic copy of a divine original, we are driven to conclude that Christianity took a leaf out of the devil's book when it fixed the birth of the Saviour on the twenty-fifth of December; for there can be no doubt that the day in question was celebrated as the birthday of the Sun by the heathen before the Church, by an afterthought, arbitrarily transferred the Nativity of its Founder from the sixth of January to the twenty-fifth of December.

Regarding the various similarities between Mithra and Christ, as well as the defenses of the Church fathers, the author of The Existence of Christ Disproved remarks:

Augustine, Firmicus, Justin, Tertullian, and others, having perceived the exact resemblance between the religion of Christ and the religion of Mithra, did, with an impertinence only to be equalled by its outrageous absurdity, insist that the devil, jealous and malignant, induced the Persians to establish a religion the exact image of Christianity that was to be—for these worthy saints and sinners of the church could not deny that the worship of Mithra preceded that of Christ—so that, to get out of the ditch, they summoned the devil to their aid, and with the most astonishing assurance, thus accounted for the striking similarity between the Persian and the Christian religion, the worship of Mithra and the worship of Christ; a mode of getting rid of a difficulty that is at once so stupid and absurd, that it would be almost equally stupid and absurd seriously to refute it.

"It is good practice to steer clear of all information provided by Christian writers: they are not 'sources,' they are violent apologists."

In response to a question about Tertullian's discussion of the purported Mithraic forehead mark, Dr. Gordon—honorary professor of Religionsgeschichte der Antike at the University of Erfurt, Thuringen—says:

In general, in studying Mithras, and the other Greco-oriental mystery cults, it is good practice to steer clear of all information provided by Christian writers: they are not "sources," they are violent apologists, and one does best not to believe a word they say, however tempting it is to supplement our ignorance with such stuff. (Gordon, "FAQ")

He also cautions about speculation concerning Mithraism and states that "there is practically no limit to the fantasies of scholars," an interesting admission about the hallowed halls of academia.

Priority: Mithraism or Christianity?

It is obvious from the remarks of the Church fathers and from the literary and archaeological record that Mithraism in some form preceded Christianity by centuries. The fact is that there is no Christian archaeological evidence earlier than the earliest Roman Mithraic archaeological evidence and that the preponderance of evidence points to Christianity being formulated during the second century, not based on a "historical" personage of the early first century. As one important example, the canonical gospels as we have them do not show up clearly in the literary record until the end of the second century.

Mithra's pre-Christian roots are attested in the Vedic and Avestan texts, as well as by historians such as Herodotus (1.131) and Xenophon (Cyrop. viii. 5, 53 and c. iv. 24), among others. Nor is it likely that the Roman Mithras is not essentially the same as the Indian sun god Mitra and Persian-Phrygian Mithra in his major attributes, as well as some of his most pertinent rites.

Moreover, it is erroneously asserted that because Mithraism was a "mystery cult" it did not leave any written record. In reality, much evidence of Mithra worship has been destroyed, including not only monuments, iconography and other artifacts, but also numerous books by ancient authors. The existence of written evidence is indicated by the Egyptian cloth "manuscript" from the first century BCE called, "Mummy Funerary Inscription of the Priest of Mithras, Ornouphios, Son fo Artemis" or MS 247.

As previously noted, two of the ancient writers on Mithraism are Pallas, and Eubulus, the latter of whom, according to Jerome (Against Jovinianus, 2.14; Schaff 397), "wrote the history of Mithras in many volumes." Discussing Eubulus and Pallas, Porphyry too related that there were "several elaborate treatises setting forth the religion of Mithra." The writings of the early Church fathers themselves provide much evidence as to what Mithraism was all about, as do the archaeological artifacts stretching from India to Scotland.

These many written volumes doubtlessly contained much interesting information that was damaging to Christianity, such as the important correspondences between the "lives" of Mithra and Jesus, as well as identical symbols such as the cross, and rites such as baptism and the eucharist. In fact, Mithraism was so similar to Christianity that it gave fits to the early Church fathers, as it does to this day to apologists, who attempt both to deny the similarities and yet to claim that these (non-existent) correspondences were plagiarized by Mithraism from Christianity.

"Regardless of attempts to make Mithraism the plagiarist of Christianity, the fact will remain that Mithraism was first."

Nevertheless, the god Mithra was revered for centuries prior to the Christian era, and the germane elements of Mithraism are known to have preceded Christianity by hundreds to thousands of years. Thus, regardless of attempts to make Mithraism the plagiarist of Christianity, the fact will remain that Mithraism was first, well established decades before Christianity had any significant influence.

For more information and citations, see The Christ Conspiracy, Suns of God, "Origins of Christianity," "The ZEITGEIST Sourcebook" and The Christ Myth Anthology.

Bibliography

"Chronography of 354," en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_of_Filocalus
"Mithraic Mysteries," en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraic_mysteries
"Mithraism," www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=8042
"Mithraism and Christianity," meta-religion.com/World_Religions/Ancient_religions/Mesopotamia/Mithraism/ mithraism_and_christianity_i.htm
"Mitra," en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitra
"Yalda," en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalda
Alvar, Jaime, and R.L. Gordon. Romanising Oriental Gods: Myth, Salvation and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis and Mithras. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2008.
Amir-Moezzi, Mohammed Ali. La religion discrète: croyances et pratiques spirituelles dans l'islam shi'ite. Paris: Libr. Philosophique Vrin, 2006.
Anonymous, The Existence of Christ Disproved, "A German Jew," 1840.
Badiozamani, Badi. Iran and America: Rekindling a Lost Love. California: East-West Understanding Press, 2005.
Beck, Roger. Beck on Mithraism. England/Vermont: Ashgate Pub., 2004.
Berry, Gerald. Religions of the World. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1955.
Bleeker, Claas J. The Sacred Bridge: Researches into the Nature and Structure of Religion. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1963.
Boyce, Mary. "Mithraism: Mithra Khsathrapati and his brother Ahura." www.iranchamber.com/religions/articles/mithra_khsathrapati_ahura.php
—A History of Zoroastrianism, II. Leiden/Köln: E.J. Brill, 1982.
Campbell, LeRoy A. Mithraic Iconography and Ideology. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1968.
de Jong, Albert. Traditions of the Magi: Zoroastrianism in Greek and Latin Literature. Leiden/New York: Brill, 1997.
Forbes, Bruce David. Christmas: A Candid History. Berkeley/London: University of California Press, 2007.
Frazer, James G. The Worship of Nature, I. London: Macmillan, 1926.
Gordon, Richard L. "FAQ." Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies, www.hums.canterbury.ac.nz/clas/ejms/faq.htm
—"The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British Museum, Townley Collection." Journal of Mithraic Studies, II: 148-174. hums.canterbury.ac.nz/clas/ejms/out_of_print/JMSv2n2/ JMSv2n2Gordon.pdf
Halsberghe, Gaston H. The Cult of Sol Invictus. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1972.
Hinnells, John R., ed. Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1975.
Kosso, Cynthia, and Anne Scott. The Nature and Function of Water, Baths, Bathing and Hygiene from Antiquity through the Renaissance. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2009.
Lundy, John P. Monumental Christianity. New York: J.W. Bouton, 1876.
Molnar, Michael R. The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1999.
The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, VII. eds. Samuel M. Jackson and George William Gilmore. New York/London: Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1910.
Plutarch. "Life of Pompey." The Parallel Lives by Plutarch, V. Loeb, 1917; penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/ Pompey*.html#24
Porphyry. Selects Works of Porphyry. London: T. Rodd, 1823.
Prajnanananda, Swami. Christ the Saviour and Christ Myth. Calcutta: Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 1984.
Restaud, Penne L. Christmas in America: A History. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1995.
Robert, Alexander, and James Donaldson, eds. Ante-Nicene Christian Library, XVIII: The Clementine Homilies. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1870.
Robertson, John M. Pagan Christs. Dorset, 1966.
Schaff, Philip, and Henry Wace. A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Father of the Christian Church, VI. New York: The Christian Literature Company, 1893.
Schironi, Francesca, and Arthus S. Hunt. From Alexandria to Babylon: Near Eastern Languages and Hellenistic Erudition in the Oxyrhynchus Glossary. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2009.
Srinivasan, Doris. On the Cusp of an Era: Art in the Pre-Kusana World. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2007.
Weigall, Arthur. The Paganism in Our Christianity. London: Thames & Hudson, 1923

--saturnalia 

Las festividades Saturnales (en latín Saturnalia) eran una importante festividad romana.
Se las llegó a denominar “fiesta de los esclavos” ya que en las mismas, los esclavos recibían raciones extras, tiempo libre y otras prebendas; eran, si se permite la comparación, Navidad y Carnaval a un mismo tiempo y el cristianismo de la antigüedad tardía tuvo fuertes problemas para acabar con esta fiesta pagana, intentando sustituirla.
Las Saturnales se celebraban por dos motivos que ahora mencionamos:

* En las fechas a comienzos de año en honor al dios Saturno.

* Al triunfo de un victorioso general (fiesta del triunfo).

Las primeras se celebraban del 17 al 23 de diciembre en honor a Saturno, Dios de la agricultura, a la luz de velas y antorchas, se celebraba el fin del período más oscuro del año y el nacimiento del nuevo período de luz, o nacimiento del Sol Invictus, 25 de diciembre, coincidiendo con la entrada del Sol en el signo de Capricornio (solsticio de Invierno).

Probablemente las Saturnales fueran la fiesta de la finalización de los trabajos del campo, celebrada tras la conclusión de la siembra de invierno, cuando el ritmo de las estaciones dejaba a toda la familia campesina, incluidos los esclavos domésticos, tiempo para descansar del esfuerzo cotidiano.
Eran siete días de bulliciosas diversiones, banquetes e intercambio de regalos.

Las fiestas comenzaban con un sacrificio en el templo de Saturno (en principio el dios más importante para los romanos hasta Júpiter), al pie de la colina del Capitolio, la zona más sagrada de Roma, seguido de un banquete público al que estaba invitado todo el mundo. Los romanos asociaban a Saturno con el dios prehelénico Crono, que estuvo en activo durante la edad de oro de la tierra.

Durante las Saturnales, los esclavos eran frecuentemente liberados de sus obligaciones y sus papeles cambiados con los de sus dueños.

Posteriormente, el nacimiento del Sol y su nuevo período de luz fueron sustituidos por la Iglesia, quien hizo coincidir en esas fechas el nacimiento de Jesús de Nazaret con el objetivo de acabar con las antiguas celebraciones.

Gradualmente las costumbres paganas pasaron al Día de Año Nuevo, siendo asimiladas finalmente por la fiesta cristiana que hoy en día se conoce universalmente como el Día de Navidad.


----

El cristianismo  durante muchos años y por sus características, aún hoy vigentes, fue considerado como secta –“superstitio prava et inmodica”, decía Plinio–y, ciertamente, peligrosa.

Muchos escritos contemporáneos a la época temprana del cristianismo la describen como una “vil superstición”. Tácito nos dice que en la época de Nerón:

“Tuvo lugar una catástrofe, si por accidente o por designio del emperador, es dificil decirlo, ya que hay autoridades que defienden ambas posturas, pero se trató de la más desastrosa y terrible de todas las calamidades acaecidas sobre esta ciudad por obra del fuego (…) un rumor se esparció más allá de las fronteras en el sentido de que al mismo tiempo que ardía la ciudad, Nerón se había subido al escenario privado para cantar la destrucción de Troya, comparando el presente desastre con la antigua catástrofe. ..

“Con la finalidad de poner un alto a tales rumores, Nerón suministró chivos expiatorios e hizo caer los más terribles castigos sobre aquellos popularmente conocidos como cristianos, una agrupación que él odiaba por sus prácticas abominables. El fundador de la secta, Cristus, fue ejecutado durante el reinado de Tiberio por el procurador Poncio Pilatos. De esta manera, la perniciosa superstición fue suprimida durante algún tiempo, pero surgió de nuevo, no solamente en Judea, donde tuviera origen este mal, sino también en Roma, hacia la cual es costumbre que fluyan toda suerte de elementos nocivos y desgraciados desde todos los rincones de planeta para despertar la simpatía de no pocos.

“Los primeros en ser apresados fueron aquellos que confesaron; posteriormente, y con base en la información suministrada por estos, una vasta multitud fue encarcelada, no tanto bajo el cargo de conducta incendiaria, como por su odio a la humanidad”

Plinio el Joven (62-113 DC) fue enviado a Asia Menor por Trajano y Plinio escribió en un momento dado al emperador pidiéndole consejo sobre cómo tratar este tema. Es muy interesante tener esta perspectiva del cristianismo temprano.

“Sin embargo, afirman que su culpa o error sencillamente se limita a que tenían la costumbre de reunirse en un día específico antes de alba para cantar en forma de antífona cierto himno dedicado a Cristo de la misma forma que lo harían hacia un dios, y a comprometerse por medio de un pacto, no para la ejecución de crimen alguno, sino más bien para refrenarse de cometar robo, adulterio o incumplimiento de promesas, así como para no rehusar devolución de cualquier tesoro que se hubiera encomendado a su custodia; cuando esta ceremonia terminaba, solían retirarse para reunirse posteriormente con la intencion de celebrar una fiesta, si bien una de carácter ordinario e inocente. Pero habían abandonado incluso esta costumbre luego de mi edicto en el que, siguiendo vuestras prppias instrucciones, yo había prohibido la existencia de cualquier tipo de confraternidad. Es así que consideré necesario extraer la verdad, aun mediante el uso de la tortura, de dos doncellas sirvientes a las que llaman diáconas. No descubrí otra cosa excepto una vil superstición llevada a inmoderados extremos.

“El contagio de la superstición se ha extendido no solamente a las ciudades sino también a las villas y a los distritos de la campiña. Aun así, todavía hay tiempo de detenerlo y curarlo. Es bien conocido que algunos templos, otrora desolados, han comenzado a ser frecuentados de nuevo y que los ritos establecidos y abandonados por largo tiempo han sido revividos; además se ha descubierto una venta clandestina del forraje utilizado con las víctimas del sacrificio, si bien se han detectado pocos compradores hasta el momento. Así pues es fácil conjeturar que es posible reformar a un buen nímiero de transgresores, si se les ofrece una oportunidad de arrepentirse”. 

(Extractos extraídos de “Seccions of Tacitus Vol II, Mac L Kendrick, Paul and Herbert M. Howe 1952 citado en “La historia secreta de Mundo” de Laura Knight.)

Es muy interesante tener esta perspectiva mucho menos idealizada de los orígenes de cristianismo donde, a tenor de las cartas y textos de la época, se odiaba a los cristianos por sus prácticas viles llevadas a inmoderados extremos y perniciosas supesticiones calificadas además como “odio a la humanidad”. ¿Qué podía ser considerado así desde el punto de vista de la visión pagana de la época?. Lo único que se me ocurre personalmente es que estos cristianos eran practicantes del sacrificio humano.

---

Was the Bible Forged? Author Claims Some New Testament Books Were Written by 'People Pretending to be Apostles'

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 14:04 CDT

The Daily Mail

© Alamy
Agenda: Professor Erhman claims whoever wrote 1 Timothy was trying to put women in their place by citing the garden of Eden as an example of what can happen when women are in charge

Parts of the Bible were written by people who lied about their identity, an author has claimed.

Bart D Ehrman claims many books of the New Testament were forged by people pretending to be the apostles Peter, Paul or James.

Writing in the Huffington Post, Professor Ehrman, best selling author ofMisquoting Jesus and Jesus, Interrupted , said religious scholars were well aware of the 'lies' of the Bible.

While some were happy to acknowledge them others refer to them aspseudepigrapha - meaning a falsely attributed work -, he wrote.

In his new book , Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are , Professor Ehrman claims The Second Epistle of Peter - or 2 Peter - was forged.

'...scholars everywhere - except for our friends among the fundamentalists - will tell you that there is no way on God's green earth that Peter wrote the book.

'Someone else wrote it claiming to be Peter,' he writes.

He then suggests scholars who say it was acceptable in the ancient world for someone to write a book in the name of someone else, are wrong.

'If you look at what ancient people actually said about the practice, you'll see that they invariably called it lying and condemned it as a deceitful practice, even in Christian circles,' Professor Ehrman writes.

Many scholars think six of the 13 letters allegedly written by Paul were actually authored by somebody else claiming to be Paul, Professor Ehrman claims.

'In the ancient world, books like that were labelled as pseudoi - lies,' he writes.

© n/a
A work of fiction? Bart D Ehrman claims several New Testament books were actually written by people pretending to be apostles

Professor Ehrman also claims the author of the book of 1 Timothy claimed to be Paul but in actual fact was someone living after Paul had died.

The author then used the apostle's name to address a problem he saw in church, according to Professor Ehrman.

'Women were speaking out, exercising authority and teaching men. That had to stop,' he writes.

'The author told women to be silent and submissive, and reminded his readers about what happened the first time a woman was allowed to exercise authority over a man, in that little incident in the garden of Eden.

'No, the author argued, if women wanted to be saved, they were to have babies (1 Tim. 2:11-15).'

Paul is known as one of history's great misogynists, largely based on this passage from the Bible.

But Professor Ehrman argues this label is not necessarily justified because he wasn't the one to write it.

'And why does it matter? Because the passage is still used by church leaders today to oppress and silence women,' writes Professor Ehrman.

'Why are there no women priests in the Catholic Church? Why are women not allowed to preach in conservative evangelical churches? Why are there churches today that do not allow women even to speak?

'In no small measure it is because Paul allegedly taught that women had to be silent, submissive and pregnant.

'Except that the person who taught this was not Paul, but someone lying about his identity so that his readers would think he was Paul.'

Professor Ehrman then goes on to write how the Bible is actually filled with the need for 'truth' but many of its writers were telling a lie.

'It appears that some of the New Testament writers, such as the authors of 2 Peter, 1 Timothy and Ephesians, felt they were perfectly justified to lie in order to tell the truth,' he writes.

'But we today can at least evaluate their claims and realise just how human, and fallible, they were.'

Comment: See also:

Who Wrote the Bible

and The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and Christian Origins by Burton L. Mack

and The Most Dangerous Cult in The World

and Gnosticism and the Christian Myth 

The Roman Cult of Mithras

1. The cult myth 2. History 3. Iconography 3.1. The Mithraeum 3.2. The Tauroctony 3.3. The Banquet of the Sun 3.4. The lion-headed figure 4. Initiation into the mysteries of Mithras 5. Mithras and other gods 5.1. Phanes 5.2. Sol, Helios, Sol Invictus 5.3. Jupiter Dolichenus 5.4. Mithras and Christianity 6. Bibliography 6.1. Further reading 6.2. External links The Roman deity Mithras appears in the historical record in the late 1st century A.D., and disappears from it in the late 4th century A.D. Unlike the major mythological figures of Graeco-Roman religion, such as Jupiter and Hercules, no ancient source preserves the mythology of the god. All of our information is therefore derived from depictions on monuments, and the limited mentions of the cult in literary sources. The temples of Mithras were always an underground cave, featuring a relief of Mithras killing the bull. This "tauroctony", as it is known today, appears in the same format everywhere, but with minor variations. Other standard themes appear in the iconography. The cult was all male. There were seven degrees of initiation. Different ritual meals were associated with each stage. The modern study of Mithras begins just before 1900 with Franz Cumont's Textes et Monuments (TMMM). This two volume work collected all the ancient evidence. Cumont presumed that Mithras was merely the Roman form of the ancient Indo-Persian deity Mitra or Mithra. In the mid-50's Cumont's pupil Maarten Vermaseren published a new collection of monuments, the CIMRM, which added the archaeological discoveries of the last 50 years, but also highlighted how poorly the archaeology supported the Cumontian theory. At the 1971 international conference on Mithraic studies, Cumont's theory was abandoned in favour of a Roman origin for the cult. Vermaseren himself rejected Cumont's theory in 1975.1 The ancient writer Justin Martyr referred to one of the ritual meals of the cult as being a parody of Christianity. In some speculative passages Cumont sometimes tried to interpret some Mithraic ideas in Christian terms. Consequently various modern myths came into being. These appear as fact in older scholarly literature, and sometimes in non-specialist academic literature even today. For the most part these errors appear in non-scholarly literature. 1. The cult myth The basic version of the cult myth is attested by literary sources, but, primarily, by depictions in the cult images in the temples. The latter are difficult to interpret. It is certain that Mithras is born from a rock.2 He is depicted in his temples hunting down and slaying a bull in the tauroctony (see section below). He then meets with the sun, who kneels to him. The two then shake hands, and dine on bull parts. Little is known about the beliefs associated with this.3 The ancient histories of the cult by Euboulos and Pallas have perished.4 The name of the god was certainly given as Mithras (with an 's') in Latin monuments, although Mithra may have been used in Greek.5 Some monuments show additional episodes of the myth. In the paintings at Dura Europos (CIMRM 42), the story begins with Jupiter fighting against the giants. This is followed by a mysterious depiction of a bearded figure reclining against a rock, with the leaves of a tree above. This figure is sometimes thought to be Oceanus. Then the normal myth is depicted. The same episodes appear as a prologue also in CIMRM 1430, a relief from Virunum, and CIMRM 1359 from Germany. In the painted Mithraeum at Hawarte in Syria, further scenes appear. Mithras is depicted with a chained demon at his feet, while in another scene he is depicted attacking a city manned by the demons. These scenes appear to follow the normal myth. 2. History See History and Development of Mithras and the scholarship about it. In antiquity, texts refer to "the mysteries of Mithras", and to its adherents, as "the mysteries of the Persians."6 But there is great dispute about whether there is really any link with Persia, and its origins are quite obscure.7 The mysteries of Mithras were not practiced until the 1st century AD.8 The unique underground temples or Mithraea appear suddenly in the archaeology in the last quarter of the 1st century AD.9 During the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the archaeology includes a great many Mithraea, some of which are rebuilt and enlarged during this period. It is difficult to trace when the cult of Mithras came to an end. Beck states that "Quite early in the [fourth] century the religion was as good as dead throughout the empire."10 Inscriptions from the 4th century are few. Clauss states that inscriptions show Mithras as one of the cults listed on inscriptions by pagan senators in Rome as part of the "pagan revival" among the elite.11 There is no evidence that the cult still existed in the 5th century.12 See also: Earliest cult locations. Scholarly theories of origins. 3. Iconography Much about the cult of Mithras is only known from reliefs and sculptures. There have been many attempts to interpret this material. 3.1. The Mithraeum CIMRM 229. The Mithraeum at the Baths of Mithras in Ostia Antica. The architecture of a temple of Mithras is very distinctive.13 Porphyry, quoting the lost handbook of Eubolus14 states that Mithras was worshipped in a rock cave. The Mithraeum reproduces this cave, in which Mithras killed the bull.15 The format of the room involved a central aisle, with a raised podium on either side.16 Mithraic temples are common in the empire; although very unevenly distributed, with considerable numbers found in Rome, Ostia, Numidia, Dalmatia, Britain and along the Rhine/Danube frontier; while being much less common in Greece, Egypt, and Syria.17 More than 420 Mithraic sites have now been identified.18 Mithraea are commonly located close to springs or streams; fresh water appears to have been required for some Mithraic rituals, and a basin is often incorporated into the structure.19 There is usually a narthex or ante-chamber at the entrance, and often other ancillary rooms for storage and the preparation of food. The term mithraeum is modern; in Italy inscriptions usually call it a spelaeum; outside Italy it is referred to as templum.20 In Rome and Italy at least, the temples of Mithras were usually set up in public buildings, rather than private houses.21 3.2. The Tauroctony See the Tauroctony. CIMRM 1283. Tauroctony from Neuenheim near Heidelberg, with side-panels. In every Mithraeum the centrepiece was a representation of Mithras killing a sacred bull; the so-called tauroctony.22 The image may be a relief, or free-standing, and side details may be present or omitted. The centre-piece is Mithras clothed in Anatolian costume and wearing a Phrygian cap; who is kneeling on the exhausted bull, holding it by the nostrils 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.23 A scorpion seizes the bull's genitals. The two torch-bearers are on either side, dressed like Mithras, Cautes with his torch pointing up and Cautopates with his torch pointing down.24 The event takes place in a cavern, into which Mithras has carried the bull, after having hunted it, ridden it and overwhelmed its strength.25 Sometimes the cavern is surrounded by a circle, on which the twelve signs of the zodiac appear. Outside the cavern, top left, is Sol the sun, with his flaming crown, often driving a quadriga. A ray of light often reaches down from the sun to touch Mithras. Top right is Luna, with her crescent moon, who may be depicted driving a chariot. In some depictions, the central tauroctony is framed by a series of subsidiary scenes to the left, top and right, illustrating events in the Mithras narrative; Mithras being born from the rock, the water miracle, the hunting and riding of the bull, meeting Sol who kneels to him, shaking hands with Sol and sharing a meal of bull-parts with him, and ascending to the heavens in a chariot. Sometimes Cautes and Cautopates carry shepherds' crooks instead.26 3.3. The Banquet of the Sun CIMRM 641. Sol and Mithras banqueting with Luna and the twin divinities Cautes and Cautopates, his attendants. Marble, side B of a two-sided relief from Fioro Romano, 2nd or 3rd century AD.  The second most important scene after the tauroctony in Mithraic art is the so-called banquet scene.27 The two scenes are sometimes sculpted on the opposite sides of the same relief. The banquet scene features Mithras and the Sun god banqueting on the hide of the slaughtered bull. On the specific banquet scene on the Fioro Romano relief, one of the torchbearers points a caduceus towards the base of an altar, where flames appear to spring up. Robert Turcan has argued that since the caduceus is an attribute of Mercury, and in mythology Mercury is depicted as a psychopomp, the eliciting of flames in this scene is referring to the dispatch of human souls and expressing the Mithraic doctrine on this matter. Turcan also connects this event to the tauroctony: the blood of the slain bull has soaked the ground at the base of the altar, and from the blood the souls are elicited in flames by the caduceus.28 3.4. The lion-headed figure See also Aion. CIMRM 312-3. Lion-headed god from Ostia. A unique feature of the Mithraeum is the naked lion-headed figure sometimes found in Mithraic temples.29 He is entwined by a serpent, with the snake's head often resting on the lion's head. The lion's mouth is often open. He is usually represented having four wings, two keys (sometimes a single key) and a scepter in his hand. Sometimes the figure is standing on a globe inscribed with a diagonal cross. A more scarcely represented variant of the figure with a human head is also found. Although animal-headed figures are prevalent in contemporary Egyptian and Gnostic mythological representations, the Leontocephaline is entirely restricted to Mithraic art.30 Although the exact identity of the lion-headed figure is debated by scholars, it is largely agreed that the god is associated with time and seasonal change.31 An example is CIMRM 78-79 from the Mithraeum in Sidon. In one monument only the name Arimanius appears against what seems to be the same figure. This label is probably derived from the Greek translation of the name of the Zoroastrian demon Ahriman. The inscriptions refer to "Arimanius" as "deus" (= "a god").32 4. Initiation into the mysteries of Mithras In the Byzantine encylopedia known as the Suda there is an entry "Mithras", which states that "no one was permitted to be initiated into them (the mysteries of Mithras), until he should show himself holy and steadfast by undergoing several graduated tests."33 Gregory Nazianzen refers to the "tests in the mysteries of Mithras".34   A series of five frescos at the Mithraeum of ancient Capua (today Santa Maria Capua Vetere in Campania) depict what may be the rituals for some of the grades of initiation. They are very damaged and hard to interpret.  The first shows a blindfolded naked man;  in the second he is also kneeling and his hands are bound behind him;  in the third he is no longer blindfolded and is being crowned;  in the fourth he is being restrained from rising;  in the fifth he is lying on the ground as if dead.35 CIMRM 187 - Initiation ceremony 1. CIMRM 188 - Initiation ceremony 2. CIMRM 191 - Initiation ceremony 3. CIMRM 194 - Initiation ceremony 4. CIMRM 193 - Initiation ceremony 5. Seven grades of initiation into the mysteries of Mithras are listed by St. Jerome.36   There is probably a connection between the number of grades and the seven planets, and there is evidence commending the priests to the protection of the god for each planet.37 A mosaic in the Ostia Mithraeum of Felicissimus depicts these grades, with heraldic emblems that are connected either to the grades, although they may just be symbols of the planets.38 It has been suggested, however, that most followers of Mithras were simply initiated, and the seven grades are in fact grades of priests.39 The grades are associated in mosaics in the Mithraeum of Felicissimus, Ostia, with certain objects. Three objects are given for each grade; one seems to be the symbol of the grade, while the other two are symbols of the god or goddess.40 In the Santa Prisca Mithraeum in Rome, the grades are listed with an inscription next to each, commending the grade-holder to a planetary deity. This gives us the following infortmation:41   Grade Symbols in the Ostia mosaic St. Prisca Greeting Corax (raven) raven, beaker (the caduceus is a symbol of Mercury) (Mercury) Nymphus (bridegroom) or Gryphus lamp (a diadem and a now unrecognisable object are symbols of the goddess and planet Venus) "Nama to the Bridegrooms, under the protection of Venus!" Miles (soldier) sling-bag, helmet, lance "Nama to the Soldiers, under the protection of Mars!" Leo (lion) the fire-shovel (the rattle, sistrum and thunderbolt refer to Jupiter) Nama to the Lions, under the protection of Jupiter!" Perses (Persian) akimakes (Persian hooked dagger) (the crescent moon and stars refer to Luna) "Nama to the Persians, under the protection of the Moon!" Heliodromus (sun-runner) torch (the rayed crown and whip are symbols of the sun) "Nama to the Runners of the Sun, under the protection of the Sun!" Pater (father) libation bowl (the staff and sickle refer to Saturn) "Nama to the Fathers, from East to West, under the protection of Saturn!" In addition, there is mention in the inscriptions of a pater patrum. This is probably not a higher grade, but instead connected with the fact that there could be several initiates of grade pater, and that one of them became the pater for them all.42 Likewise at one Mithraeum there was a pater leonum, a "Father of the lions".43 44 Admission into the community was completed with a handshake with the pater, just as Mithras and Sol shook hands. The initiates were thus referred to as syndexioi, those "united by the handshake".45 The term is used in an inscription46 and derided by Firmicus Maternus47. 5. Mithras and other gods CIMRM 821. Mercury. Many Mithraea contain statues dedicated to gods of other cults, and it is common to find inscriptions dedicated to Mithras in other sanctuaries.48 Mithraism was not an alternative to other pagan religions, but rather a particular way of practising pagan worship; and many Mithraic initiates can also be found worshipping in the civic religion, and as initiates of other mystery cults.49 5.1. Phanes See Mithras and Phanes. Mithras is sometimes depicted in a similar manner to the Orphic deity Phanes. 5.2. Sol, Helios, Sol Invictus Mithras is always described as "sol invictus" (the unconquered sun) in inscriptions.50. But Sol and Mithras were different deities.51 The vagueness of the term invictus means that it was used as a title for a number of deities.52 Mithraism never became a state cult, however, unlike the official late Roman Sol Invictus cult.53 Although Mithras himself is called Sol Invictus, "the Unconquered Sun", he and Sol appear in several scenes as separate persons, with the banquet scene being the most prominent example. Other scenes feature Mithras ascending behind Sol in the latter's chariot, the deities shaking hands and the two gods at an altar with pieces of meat on a spit or spits. One peculiar scene shows Sol kneeling before Mithras, who holds an object, interpreted either as a Persian cap or the haunch of the bull, in his hand.54 5.3. Jupiter Dolichenus The Mithraea at Carnuntum appear to have been constructed in close association with contemporary temple of Jupiter Dolichenus,55. Two Mithraea were discovered in Doliche in Commagene itself (modern Gaziantep in Turkey). The publishers proposed a date of the 1st century A.D., but generally a 2nd-3rd century date is preferred, and the temples related to Rhine-frontier Mithraea.56 5.4. Mithras and Christianity See Mithras and Christianity. The idea of a relationship between early Christianity and Mithras is based on a remark by the 2nd century Christian writer, Justin Martyr, who accused the cultists of Mithras of imitating the Christian communion rite.57 Based upon this, Ernest Renan in 1882 depicted two rival religions: "...if the growth of Christianity had been arrested by some mortal malady, the world would have been Mithraic,"58 But in fact the two groups did not have similar aims, and there was never any chance of this occurring.59 6. Bibliography 6.1. Further reading There is an immense number of books and articles, most of them derivative. The following list is intentionally confined to the most essential items. Roger Beck, "The Mysteries of Mithras: A New Account of Their Genesis," Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 88, 1998 (1998) , pp. 115-128. Roger Beck, "Mithraism since Franz Cumont," Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, II.17.4, 1984, pp.2002-2115. Important summary of the changes to Mithras scholarship. Roger Beck, Beck on Mithraism: Collected works with new essays. Ashgate, 2004. Google Books preview here. Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras: the god and his mysteries, Translated by Richard Gordon. New York: Routledge, 2000. Pp. 198. ISBN 0-415-92977-6 here. An excellent concise view of the current consensus. Franz Cumont, Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux Mystères de Mithra : pub. avec une introduction critique, 2 vols. 1894-6. Abbreviated as TMMM. Vol. 1 is an introduction, now obsolete. Vol. 2 is a collection of primary data, online at Archive.org here, and still of some value. Richard Gordon, Frequently asked questions about the cult of Mithras. Some common misconceptions, and the comments of a professional Mithras scholar. John Hinnells (ed.), Proceedings of The First International Congress of Mithraic Studies, Manchester University Press (1975). Reinhold Merkelbach, Mithras: ein persisch-römischer Mysterienkult, 1994. Google books preview here. Robert Turcan, Mithra et le mithriacisme, Paris, 2000. David Ulansey, The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World, Oxford University Press, 1989. An interesting account, widely read online, but not accepted by scholars. Maarten J. Vermaseren, Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae, The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1956, 2 vols. Abbreviated as CIMRM. The standard collection of Mithraic reliefs. 6.2. External links The Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies. Academic site. Mithraeum A website with a collection of monuments and bibliography about Mithraism. L'Ecole Initiative: Alison Griffith, 1996. "Mithraism". A brief overview with bibliography. Franz Cumont, "The Mysteries Of Mithra". 1903. Elderly English translation of the obsolete introduction to his book. David Ulansey's article "The Cosmic Mysteries of Mithras" from Biblical Archaeology Review, summarizing his book ''The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries'' (Oxford Univ. Press, 1989). Google Maps: Map of the locations of Mithraea Richard Gordon's FAQ. 1 M.J. Vermaseren, "Nuove indagini nell'area della basilica di S. Prisca in Roma", in Mededelingen van het Nederlands Instituut te Rome. Antiquity, n.s., 37, 2 (1975), pp. 87-96, p.93: "E per quanto riguardali mitraismo vorrei aggiungere subito che secondo la mia modesta opinione questo culto si basa più su concezioni ellenistiche che su un sostrato iranico, come credeva una volta il geniale Franz Cumont.(27) Il famoso studioso belga era dell'opinione che tutti i tratti caratteristici del Mitraismo occidentale derivavano dalla religione iranica e che cos� anche il pantheon iranico era rappresentato nelle divinità che riscontriamo nei Mitrei. Questa supposizione vale parzialmente per le iscrizioni di Mithradates Kallinikos e di suo figlio Antioco di Commagene,(28) dove però il contenuto � ellenistico, ma non è vera per il Mitraismo come culto sviluppato con misteri." (As regards Mithraism, I would like to add now that in my humble opinion this cult is based more on hellenistic concepts than on an Iranian substrate, as once believed the brilliant Franz Cumont. (27) The famous Belgian scholar was of the opinion that all the characteristic features of Mithraism derived from the western Iranian religion, and so that the Iranian pantheon was represented in the divinity that we find in Mithraea. This assumption is true in part for inscriptions of Mithradates Kallinikos and his son Antiochus of Commagene,(28) where, however, the content is Hellenistic, but it is not true for Mithraism as a developed cult with mysteries.) 2 Commodian, Instructiones 1.13: "The unconquered one was born from a rock, if he is regarded as a god." Also copious depictions in monuments. 3 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p. xxi: "we possess virtually no theological statements either by Mithraists themselves or by other writers." 4 Porphyry, De Antro Nympharum tells us of both writers. 5 Richard L. Gordon, "The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British Museum, Townley Collection)", Journal of Mithraic Studies 2, 1978, p.148-174. p. 160: "The usual western nominative form of Mithras' name in the mysteries ended in -s, as we can see from the one authentic dedication in the nominative, recut over a dedication to Sarapis (463, Terme de Caracalla), and from occasional grammatical errors such as deo inviato Metras (1443). But it is probable that Euboulus and Pallas at least used the name Mithra as an indeclinable (ap. Porphyry, De abstinentia II.56 and IV.16)." 6 Roger Beck, "Mithraism", in: Encyclopedia Iranica, 2002. 7 See detailed discussion of possible origins. 8 Manfred Clauss, tr. Richard Gordon, The Roman cult of Mithras, Edinburgh University Press, 2000, ISBN 074861396X. 9 Roger Beck, "The Mysteries of Mithras: A New Account of their Genesis", Journal of Roman Studies, 1998, 115-128. p. 118. 10 Roger Beck, "Merkelbach's Mithras" in: Phoenix 41 (1987), p. 299. On JSTOR. 11 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 29-30: "Mithras also found a place in the 'pagan revival' that occurred, particularly in the western empire, in the latter half of the fourth century AD. For a brief period, especially in Rome, the cult enjoyed, along with others, a last efflorescence, for which we have evidence from among the highest circles of the senatorial order. One of these senators was Rufius Caeionius Sabinus, who in 377 dedicated an altar" to a long list of gods including Mithras. 12 A supposed reference by Franz Cumont notwithstanding. 13 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.43: "The architecture of mithraea is quite special, and its characteristic configuration makes it easy to identify such temples in excavations." 14 Porphyry, De antro nympharum, c. 6. 15 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.42: "Because Mithras killed the bull in a cave, his followers likewise performed the ritual reproduction of this saving act in a cave, or rather in a shrine which reproduced that cave, in a spelaeum ('cave')." 16 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.46: "The cult-room itself (crypta) was constructed according to a traditional scheme, whose design remained virtually constant from Britain to the Black Sea. Its characteristic feature was a central aisle (fig. 7: D) flanked on each side by raised podia (E) for the initiates." 17 A map of locations appears in Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, across pages 26 and 27. 18 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.xxi: "The evidence used in this book is essentially the archaeological remains - the Mithraic temples and their contents, the inscriptions and the reliefs, whose iconographic conventions are those of Hellenistic and Roman tradition. Evidence for the cult has been found at some 420 sites. There are about 1,000 inscriptions, and 700 depictions of the bull-killing (only about half of them complete); and in addition 400 monuments with other subjects." 19 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.73: "...the importance of water for all manner of ritual purposes is revealed by the water-basins and cisterns, by the representations of Oceanus, and also by the evident desire to locate temples in the vicinity of a river or a spring. Water-basins were clearly part of the basic equipment of all mithraea." 20 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.22: "The cult spread from Italy, then. In view of the sheer amount of evidence found there, we can probably point specifically to the area of Rome and Ostia. The cult in Rome retained some peculiarities well after the first century AD, though we have no firmly datable monuments from the early period. Among these idiosyncrasies we can list the term spelaeum, ritual cave, for the mithraeum, which was not replaced by the word templum as quickly as in the provinces..." 21 Coarelli, "Topografica Mitriaca di Roma", in: Mysteria Mithrae, ed. U. Bianchi, p.79: "In conclusione, gli edifici collegati con mitrei, e la cui funzione è identificabile, sono tutti o quasi tutti pubblici. Emergono per importanza le caserme (castra peregrina, equitum singularium, praetoria, urbana, stationes vigilum), le terme (terme di Tito, di Caracalla, di Costantino, di Sura, Deciane), le Stabula factionum circensi, gli edifici annonari, le sedi di corporazioni, ecc. Risulta così confermata l'osservazione di Becatti a proposito dei mitrei di Ostia, che risultano inseriti sempre o quasi sempre non in case private, ma in edifici di carattere pubblico." (In conclusion, the buildings connected with mithraea, and whose function is identifiable, are all or nearly all public buildings. Notably examples are the barracks (castra peregrina, equitum singularium, praetoria, urbana, stationes vigilum), the baths (baths of Titus, Caracalla, of Constantine, Sura, Decius), the stabula factionum circensi, the buildings of the annonari, the homes of the corporations, etc. The observation of Becatti about the mithraea of Ostia, which are always or almost always inserted, not into private homes, but in public buildings, is therefore confirmed.) 22 David Ulansey, The origins of the Mithraic mysteries, p. 6: "Although the iconography of the cult varied a great deal from temple to temple, there is one element of the cult's iconography which was present in essentially the same form in every mithraeum and which, moreover, was clearly of the utmost importance to the cult's ideology; namely the so-called tauroctony, or bull-slaying scene, in which the god Mithras, accompanied by a series of other figures, is depicted in the act of killing the bull." 23 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.77. 24 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.98-9. An image search for "tauroctony" will show many examples of the variations. 25 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.74. 26 J. R. Hinnells, "The Iconography of Cautes and Cautopates: the Data," Journal of Mithraic Studies 1, 1976, pp. 36-67. See also William W. Malandra, Cautes and Cautopates in: "Encyclopedia Iranica". 27 Roger Beck, "In the Place of the Lion: Mithras in the Tauroctony" in Beck on Mithraism: collected works with new essays, 2004, p. 286-287. 28 Roger Beck, "The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire", Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 0199216134, p. 27-28. 29 R. Dussaud, "Le dieu mithriaque leontocephaline", Syria 27 (1950), p.253-260. Online here. 30 H. von Gall, "The Lion-headed and the Human-headed God in the Mithraic Mysteries," in Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin ed. Études mithriaques, 1978, p. 511: "Very characteristic of Roman Mithraic art is the type of a naked lion-headed youth. He is entwined by a snake, and the snake's head usually rests on the lion's head. The lion's mouth of this demon is usually open giving a grim and infernal impression. He is mostly represented with four wings, and further attributes are two keys (or one key) and a sceptre in each hand: sometimes he is standing on a globe (fig. 1). It must be stressed that this mythological type is entirely restricted to Mithraic art. Exact parallels are missing in contemporary Egypt and from the composite beings on Gnostic gems, though in both of these cases animal-headed creatures are numerous. There is a variant of the lion-headed Mithraic demon with an entirely human body, which also has a human head. This latter type is more scarcely represented though it must be supposed that some headless statues with a small neck and acccntuated shoulders may have belonged to the human-headed type (pl. XXX)." 31 Roger Beck, A reprinted article on the Ponza zodiac in: Beck on Mithraism, Ashgate (2004), p. 194 (original article page no. 110): "The other monuments in which a snake is associated with a zodiac are, significantly, all Mithraic, and for the most part they are monuments of the lion-headed god. There is no need for us to enter into the vexed question of who exactly this deity is. It is sufficient for our purposes 'that, from the iconography, the god was concerned with time, seasonal change and cosmic power' (Gordon, 1975: 222), a position that, I believe, few scholars would be inclined to deny. Nor shall I be attempting to prove that proposition, since my argument would then be circular. The association of the lion-headed god with time is established largely through the iconography of snake and zodiac. One cannot therefore argue that the snake and zodiac, as found at Ponza, are symbols of time because they are associated elsewhere with the lion-headed god. Rather, I wish only to demonstrate that, accepting as a premise that the snake with the zodiac is a symbol of time, and in particular of time as defined by the sun's annual journey." 32 Howard M. Jackson, "The Meaning and Function of the Leontocephaline in Roman Mithraism" in Numen, Vol. 32, Fasc. 1 (Jul., 1985), pp. 17-45. Online here. P.18: "On the provisos, however, that the statue represents a leontocephaline (it does have the usual wings and keys), that the crucial word is correctly restored, and that the word identifies the statue itself, the being's name was Arimanius, nominally the equivalent of Ahriman, the great Evil One of the Zoroastrian pantheon. In support of this admittedly shaky identification of the leontocephaline there are the facts that Arimanius is known from inscriptions to have figured as a deus in the Mithraic cult (CIMRM #369, an altar from Rome; #1773 with fig 461 and #1775, both from Pannonia) and to have been depicted by some kind of plastic image (signum Arimanium: CIMRM #222, from Ostia)." 33 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.102. The Suda reference given is 3: 394, M 1045 Adler. 34 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.102. The Gregory reference given is to Oratio 4, 70. 35 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.102-3. The frescos are CIMRM 187, 188, 191, 194 and 193. 36 Jerome, Letters 107 ch. 2, (To Laeta): "... did not your own kinsman Gracchus whose name betokens his patrician origin, when a few years back he held the prefecture of the City, overthrow, break in pieces, and shake to pieces the grotto of Mithras and all the dreadful images therein? Those I mean by which the worshippers were initiated as Raven, Bridegroom, Soldier, Lion, Perseus, Sun, Crab, and Father?" 37 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.33: "They stand in some relation to the planets: their number, seven, must have inspired the number of grades. In the important mithraeum beneath S. Prisca in Rome frescoes were discovered with figures depicting the different grades, each with a dipinto beside it commending the priests to the protection of the different planetary gods. They all begin with the word nama, a word, as we have seen (p. 8), of Persian origin, representing a particularly solemn form of greeting." 38 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 133: "Further evidence is offered by the Mithraeum of Felicissimus at Ostia, where there is a mosaic floor to the central aisle, divided into seven panels each with devices akin to heraldic emblems (fig. 9). We may surmise that they are related to the grades, though it is possible that are just symbols of the planets." 39 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.131: "Although it is not always clearly stated, most previous accounts assume that all Mithraists were members of one grade or another. ... Should we not rather conclude that in the cult there were, on the one hand, the great majority of Mithraists, who were simply initiated once, and, on the other, a small group of holders of the different grades, whom it would be appropriate to speak of as 'priests'?" 40 This seems to be the logical inference from the description given by Clauss, although unfortunately this is less clear for the first two grades. 41 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.133-138 42 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.138: "The name of C. Accius Hedychrus occurs on four different votives at Emerita in Lusitania (Merida, Spain). Two he himself donated, but in the case of the two others he simply gave his approval, and in them he is referred to as pater (V 774, 793). In his own inscriptions, he calls himself once pater (V 781, fig. 115) and once p(ater) patrum (V 779). This last is probably not a higher grade, but is to be connected with the fact that there could be several Fathers in one congregation, so one of them became the 'Father of (the) Fathers'." 43 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.136: "Another Umbrian Mithraist, at Sentinum (Sentino), bore the title pater leonum, 'Father of the Lions', which also suggests a rather large number of them there (V 688)." 44 At this point in the Wikipedia article are several paragraphs of rubbish, cunningly disguised to look authoritative. Consult this article for details. 45 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.152: "The pact between the deities was the model for a ceremony that concluded the acceptance of new members into the Mithraic community: the initiates were termed syndexioi, 'those who have been united by a handshake' (with the Father) (p. 105)." 46 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 42: "That the hand-shaken might make their vows joyfully forever" referencing CIMRM 423, dedicated by a certain Proficentius. 47 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 105: "the followers of Mithras were the 'initiates of the theft of the bull, united by the handshake of the illustrious father." (Err. prof. relig. 5.2) 48 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.158: "There are many examples illustrating the readiness of Mithraists to worship other divinities. ... The range of Graeco-Roman divinities to whom votives were offered in mithraea is quite considerable. ... Of all these deities, I would just like to stress the significance of Mercury for many Mithraic congregations." 49 Walter Burkert, "Ancient Mystery Cults", Harvard University Press, 1987, ISBN 0674033876, p.49. 50 Clauss, p.146: "Roman Mithras is the invincible sun-god, Sol Invictus. This is the burden, repeated a hundred times over, of the votive inscriptions from the second to the fourth centuries AD, whether in the form Sol Invictus Mithras, or Deus Sol Invictus Mithras, or Deus Sol Mithras, or Sol Mithras. There do not seem to be any significant regional or temporal variations among such formulae. In the very earliest epigraphic evidence for the Roman cult of Mithras, the god is already invoked as Sol Invictus Mithras. These facts are confirmed by the numerous votive offerings to Sol, Deus Sol, Sol Invictus, and Deus Invictus Sol which were put up in mithraea."; Clauss, p.79: "Victory is what characterises the god; his one unvarying epithet is Invictus." 51 Clauss, p.147: "On the other hand, however, Mithras and Sol are two separate deities, as can amply be demonstrated."; p.148: "Mithras is Sol, and at the same time Sol is Mithras' companion. Paradoxical relationships of this kind are to be found between many deities in antiquity. People in the ancient world did not feel bound by fixed credos and confessions which had to be consistent to the last detail: in the area of religion, a truly blessed anarchy held sway." 52 Erika Manders, Coining Images of Power: Patterns in the Representation of Roman Emperors on Imperial Coinage, A.D. 193-284, Brill, 2012, p.130: "Sol, however, did not have the exclusive right to appear as pacator orbis and invictus on third-century coins. Jupiter, Aurelian, Probus and Numerian appear as pacator orbis too, while, apart from Sol, other gods (Jupiter, Hercules and Mars) received the epithet invictus." References are given to coin types. 53 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.23-4: "The cult of Mithras never became one of those supported by the state with public funds, and was never admitted to the official list of festivals celebrated by the state and the army - at any rate, in so far as the latter is known to us from the Feriale Duranum, the religious calendar of the units at Dura-Europos in Coele Syria; the same is true of all other mystery cults too. This of course does not exclude the possibility that the emperors and their circle may have felt a more than casual personal sympathy for the cult, but they certainly tolerated, perhaps even encouraged, their subjects' adherence." 54 Roger Beck, "In the Place of the Lion: Mithras in the Tauroctony" in Beck on Mithraism: collected works with new essays (2004), p. 286-287. 55 Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.44: "One could also include Jupiter Dolichenus here: not only have votives to him been discovered in mithraea (V 1208), but Mithraic inscriptions and cult-reliefs have been found in dolichena (V 70, p. 157; V 468-70; 1729)." 56 See the article on the Doliche Mithraea for details. 57 Justin Martyr, First Apology, ch. 66: "For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, "This do ye in remembrance of Me, this is My body; "and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, "This is My blood; "and gave it to them alone. Which the wicked devils have imitated in the mysteries of Mithras, commanding the same thing to be done. For, that bread and a cup of water are placed with certain incantations in the mystic rites of one who is being initiated, you either know or can learn." 58 E. Renan, Marc-Aurele et la fin du monde antique. Paris, 1882, p. 579: "On peut dire que, si le christianisme eût été arrêté dans sa croissance par quelque maladie mortelle, le monde eût été mithriaste." 59 J. A. Ezquerra and R. Gordon, Romanising oriental Gods: myth, salvation and ethics in the cults of Cybele, Isis and Mithras. Brill, 2008, p.202-3: "Many people have erroneously supposed that all religions have a sort of universalist tendency or ambition. In the case of Mithraism, such an ambition has often been taken for granted and linked to a no less questionable assumption, that there was a rivalry between Mithras and Christ for imperial favour. ... If Christianity had failed, the Roman empire would never have become Mithraist." Google books preview here.

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Mithraism - Mithraic Mysteries

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The Mithraic Mysteries were a mystery religion practised in the Roman Empire from about the 1st to 4th centuries AD. The name of the Persian god Mithra, adapted into Greek as Mithras, was linked to a new and distinctive imagery. Romans also called the religion Mysteries of Mithras or Mysteries of the Persians; modern historians refer to it as Mithraism or sometimes Roman Mithraism. The mysteries were popular in the Roman military.
Worshippers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation, with ritual meals. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those "united by the handshake". They met in underground temples (called a mithraeum), which survive in large numbers. The cult appears to have had its epicentre in Rome.
Numerous archeological finds, including meeting places, monuments, and artifacts, have contributed to modern knowledge about Mithraism throughout the Roman Empire. The iconic scenes of Mithras show him being born from a rock, slaughtering a bull, and sharing a banquet with the god Sol (the Sun).
About 420 sites have yielded materials related to the cult. Among the items found are about 1000 inscriptions, 700 examples of the bull-killing scene (tauroctony), and about 400 other monuments. It has been estimated that there would have been at least 680-690 Mithraea in Rome. No written narratives or theology from the religion survive, with limited information to be derived from the inscriptions, and only brief or passing references in Greek and Latin literature. Interpretation of the physical evidence remains problematic and contested.
The Romans themselves regarded the mysteries as having Persian or Zoroastrian sources. Since the early 1970s, however, the dominant scholarship has cast this origin in doubt, and regarded the mysteries of Mithras as a distinct product of the Roman Imperial religious world. In this context, Mithraism has sometimes been viewed as a rival of early Christianity.

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Principles of Mithraism Romans encountered worship of the deity Mithras as part of Zoroastrianism in the eastern provinces of the empire, particularly in Asia Minor (now modern Turkey).
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.
Roman worship of Mithras began sometime during the early Roman empire, perhaps during the late first century of the Common Era (hereafter CE), and flourished from the second through the fourth century BCE. during which it came under the influence of Greek and Roman mythologies. The Mithraic cult maintained secrecy. Its teaching were only reveled to initiates.
The evidence for this cult is mostly archaeological, consisting of the remains of mithraic temples, dedicatory inscriptions, and iconographic representations of the god and other aspects of the cult in stone sculpture, sculpted stone relief, wall painting, and mosaic. There is very little literary evidence pertaining to the cult. Remains of Mithraic temples can be found throughout the Roman Empire, from Palestine across north of Africa, and across central Europe to northern England.
For over three hundred years the rulers of the Roman Empire worshipped the god Mithras. In Rome, more than a hundred inscriptions dedicated to Mithras have been found, in addition to 75 sculpture fragments, and a series of Mithraic temples situated in all parts of the city. One of the largest Mithraic temples built in Italy now lies under the present site of the Church of St. Clemente, near the Colosseum in Rome.

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The Mithraeum

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.

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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 (bride)
• 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.

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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 cosmic 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 Ouroboros 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 sacrifice by Mithra of a sacred bull created by the supreme deity Ahura Mazda, which Mithra stabs to death in the cave, having been instructed to do so by a crow, sent from Ahura Mazda. In this myth, from the body of the dying bull spring plants, animals, and all the beneficial things of the earth. 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 2600.
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 Dura-Europos, a standard Hellenistic iconography. 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. 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.

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History of Mithraism

Mithraism In Persia Mithraism is generally considered to be of Persian origins, specifically an outgrowth of Zoroastrian culture, though not of Zoroaster's teachings.
Zoroaster was a monotheist, for whom Ahuramazda was the One god. Darius the Great was equally stringent in the official monotheism of his reign: no god but Ahuramazda is ever mentioned in any of the numerous inscriptions that survive of his reign (521-485 BC).
However, the official cult is rarely the sole religion in an area. The following inscription from Susa of Artaxerxes II Mnemon (404-358 BC) demonstrates that not all the Achaemenid kings were as purely Zoroastrian as Darius the Great.
It is tempting to identify the Roman Mithras with the Persian Mithra, except that there is no known Persian legend or text about Mithra killing a bull or being associated with other animals. On the other hand, there is a story of Ahriman, the evil god in popular developments of Zoroastrianism, killing a bull. It is also hard to explain how the Sun-god Mithra would come to be worshipped in the windowless, cave-like mithraeum.
A possible link between Persia and Rome, which could be the stage for these changes, may be the kingdoms of Parthia and Pontus in Asia Minor. 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 Taurocthonos, "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 who practiced the Mithraic "secret rites" around 67 BC. Since Cilicia was the coastal province in the southeast of Anatolia, the Mithras mentioned by Plutarch may have been worship of the Persian god Mithra; or may have been associated with Ahriman, the Persian god who killed a bull.
In Persia Mithra was the protector God of the tribal society until the Zoroaster's reformation of Persian polytheism (628-55BC). Mithra like the rest of the gods and goddess of the Iranian Pantheon was stripped of his sovereignty, and all his powers and attributes were bestowed upon Zarathustra.
Mithraism began in Persia where originally a multitude of gods were worshipped. Amongst them were Ahura-Mazda, god of the skies, and Ahriman, god of darkness. In the sixth and seventh century B.C., a vast reformation of the Persian pantheon was undertaken by Zarathustra (known in Greek as Zoroaster), a prophet from the kingdom of Bactria. The stature of Ahura-Mazda was elevated to that of supreme god of goodness, whereas the god Ahriman became the ultimate embodiment of evil.
In the same way that Ahkenaton, Abraham, Heliogabalus, and Mohammed later initiated henotheistic cults from the worship of their respective deities, Zarathustra created a henotheistic dualism with the gods Ahura-Mazda and Ahriman. As a result of the Babylonian captivity of the Jews (597 B.C.) and their later emancipation by King Cyrus the Great of Persia (538 B.C.), Zoroastrian dualism was to influence the Jewish belief in the existence of HaShatan, the malicious Adversary of the god Yahweh, and later permit the evolution of the Christian Satan-Jehovah dichotomy. Persian religious dualism became the foundation of an ethical system that has lasted until this day.
The reformation of Zarathustra retained the hundreds of Persian deities, assembling them into a complex hierarchical system of 'Immortals' and 'Adored Ones' under the rule of either Ahura- Mazda or Ahriman. Within this vast pantheon, Mithras gained the title of 'Judger of Souls'. He became the divine representative of Ahura-Mazda on earth, and was directed to protect the righteous from the demonic forces of Ahriman. Mithras was called omniscient, undeceivable, infallible, eternally watchful, and never-resting.
In the Avesta, the holy book of the religion of Zarathustra, Ahura-Mazda was said to have created Mithras in order to guarantee the authority of contracts and the keeping of promises.
The name Mithras was the Persian word for 'contract'.
The divine duty of Mithras was to ensure general prosperity through good contractual relations between men. It was believed that misfortune would befall the entire land if a contract was ever broken.
Ahura-Mazda was said to have created Mithras to be as great and worthy as himself. He would fight the spirits of evil to protect the creations of Ahura-Mazda and cause even Ahriman to tremble. Mithras was seen as the protector of just souls from demons seeking to drag them down to Hell, and the guide of these souls to Paradise. As Lord of the Sky, he took the role of psychopomp, conducting the souls of the righteous dead to paradise.
According to Persian traditions, the god Mithras was actually incarnated into the human form of the Saviour expected by Zarathustra. Mithras was born of Anahita, an immaculate virgin mother once worshipped as a fertility goddess before the hierarchical reformation. Anahita was said to have conceived the Saviour from the seed of Zarathustra preserved in the waters of Lake Hamun in the Persian province of Sistan. Mithra's ascension to heaven was said to have occurred in 208 B.C., 64 years after his birth. Parthian coins and documents bear a double date with this 64 year interval.
Mithras was 'The Great King' highly revered by the nobility and monarchs, who looked upon him as their special protector. A great number of the nobility took theophorous (god-bearing) names compounded with Mithras. The title of the god Mithras was used in the dynasties of Pontus, Parthia, Cappadocia, Armenia and Commagene by emperors with the name Mithradates. Mithradates VI, king of Pontus (northern Turkey) in 120-63 B.C. became famous for being the first monarch to practice immunization by taking poisons in gradually increased doses. The terms mithridatism and mithridate (a pharmacological elixir) were named after him. The Parthian princes of Armenia were all priests of Mithras, and an entire district of this land was dedicated to the Virgin Mother Anahita. Many Mithraeums, or Mithraic temples, were built in Armenia, which remained one of the last strongholds of Mithraism.
The largest near-eastern Mithtraeum was built in western Persia at Kangavar, dedicated to 'Anahita, the Immaculate Virgin Mother of the Lord Mithras'. Other Mithraic temples were built in Khuzestan and in Central Iran near present-day Mahallat, where at the temple of Khorheh a few tall columns still stand. Excavations in Nisa, later renamed Mithradatkirt, have uncovered Mithraic mausoleums and shrines. Mithraic sanctuaries and mausoleums were built in the city of Hatra in upper Mesopotamia. West of Hatra at Dura Europos, Mithraeums were found with figures of Mithras on horseback.
Persian Mithraism was more a collection of traditions and rites than a body of doctrines. However, once the Babylonians took the Mithraic rituals and mythology from the Persians, they thoroughly refined its theology. The Babylonian clergy assimilated Ahura-Mazda to the god Baal, Anahita to the goddess Ishtar, and Mithras to Shamash, their god of justice, victory and protection (and the sun god from whom King Hammurabi received his code of laws in the 18th century B.C.) As a result of the solar and astronomical associations of the Babylonians, Mithras later was referred to by Roman worshippers as 'Sol invictus', or the invincible sun.
The sun itself was considered to be "the eye of Mithras". The Persian crown, from which all present day crowns are derived, was designed to represent the golden sun-disc sacred to Mithras.
As a deity connected with the sun and its life-giving powers, Mithras was known as 'The Lord of the Wide Pastures' who was believed to cause the plants to spring forth from the ground. In the time of Cyrus and Darius the Great, the rulers of Persia received the first fruits of the fall harvest at the festival of Mehragan. At this time they wore their most brilliant clothing and drank wine. In the Persian calendar, the seventh month and the sixteenth day of each month were also dedicated to Mithras.
According to Persian mythology, Mithras was born of a virgin given the title 'Mother of God'. The God remained celibate throughout his life, and valued self-control, renunciation and resistance to sensuality among his worshippers. Mithras represented a system of ethics in which brotherhood was encouraged in order to unify against the forces of evil.
The Persians called Mithras 'The Mediator' since he was believed to stand between the light of Ahura-Mazda and the darkness of Ahriman. He was said to have 1000 eyes, expressing the conviction that no man could conceal his wrongdoing from the god. Mithras was known as the God of Truth, and Lord of Heavenly Light, and said to have stated "I am a star which goes with thee and shines out of the depths".
Mithras was worshipped as guardian of arms, and patron of soldiers and armies. The handshake was developed by those who worshipped him as a token of friendship and as a gesture to show that you were unarmed. When Mithras later became the Roman god of contracts, the handshake gesture was imported throughout the Mediterranean and Europe by Roman soldiers.
In Armenian tradition, Mithras was believed to shut himself up in a cave from which he emerged once a year, born anew. The Persians introduced initiates to the mysteries in natural caves, according to Porphyry, the third century neoplatonic philosopher. These cave temples were created in the image of the World Cave that Mithras had created, according to the Persian creation myth.
As 'God of Truth and Integrity', Mithras was invoked in solemn oaths to pledge the fulfillment of contracts and punish liars. He was believed to maintain peace, wisdom, honor, prosperity, and cause harmony to reign among all his worshippers. According to the Avesta, Mithras could decide when different periods of world history were completed. He would judge mortal souls at death and brandish his mace over hell three times each day so that demons would not inflict greater punishment on sinners than they deserved.

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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, 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. 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.

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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.

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India -- Hindu Mithra is an Indo-Iranian sun god. In Hinduism he is praised as the binomial Mitra-Varuna. A hymn is also dedicated to him alone in Rig Veda. He is the Lord of Heavenly light, protector of truth, and is invoked when a contract or oath is taken.

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Babylonian The Babylonians also incorporated their belief in destiny into the Mithraic worship of Zurvan, the Persian god of infinite time and father of the gods Ahura-Mazda and Ahriman. They superimposed astrology, the use of the zodiac, and the deification of the four seasons onto the Persian rites of Mithraism.

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China Mithra is also seen in Chinese mythology, where he is known as The Friend. Mithra is represented as a Military General in Chinese statues, and is considered to be the friend of man in this life and his protector against evil in the next.

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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 CE 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 CE, 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 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.

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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 most scholars feel the written claims that the emperors Nero, Commodus, Septimius Severus, Caracalla, and the Tetrarchs were initiates are dubious at best, and there is no evidence that Mithraic worship was accorded any official status as a Roman cult. Except in 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 officialization 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 Christian 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."
It has also 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 also is reminscent of the Midgard serpent, Jormungandr, who was said to surround Midgard (the Earth) according to Norse traditions.
Christians would argue that because the Gospels were written mostly before 100 and that since little is known of Roman Mithraism until after 100 that it is not plausible to say that Christianity borrowed any of its doctrines from Mithraism; some Christians have suggested that Mithraism may have borrowed some elements from Christianity. Other, non-Christian scholars disagree on both the dating of the gospels and with the conclusions made.
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 Pelagianism) which adopted the personage of Jesus or the concept of a Savior, yet did not adopt the underlying doctrinal elements.

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Parallels 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. However, Larson 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. Mithraism, an established but exclusive sect devoted to social justice, was assimilated by state-sponsored Christianity before being disposed of in name.
Though no texts of Mithraism survive, various fragments, inscriptions and critical commentaries show that Mithraism and early Christianity both possess similar religious doctrines. The resemblances between the two churches were so striking as to impress even the minds of antiquity (Cumont, 193). From their common Zoroastrian sources, Mithraism first held that all souls pre-existed in the ethereal regions, and inhabited a body upon birth.
Life then becomes a great struggle between good and evil, spirit and body, the children of light versus the children of darkness (identical to Pythagoreanism). All souls were to be judged by Mithra (represented as a bull) with the Elect going to heaven, and the earthly and evil being annihilated in a great battle. Mithraism divided the human race into three classes: the spiritual Elect, the wicked, and those who try to be good but can't seem to overcome evil. The Elect go straight to heaven, while the good-intentioned wait until judgment to be resurrected, where the wicked will be destroyed.
Both Christianity and Mithraism prided themselves in brotherhood and organized their members as church congregations. Both religions purified themselves through baptism, and each participated in the same type of sacrament, bread and wine. Mithra was born in a cave; a cave is likewise the setting for the nativity of Jesus in the widely-read and influential Gospel of James, which though not canonical is the earliest surviving document attesting the veneration of Mary and claiming her continuing virginity. Both nativities were celebrated on December 25th, and each savior was visited by shepherds with gifts. Both Mithraism and Christianity considered Sunday their holy day, despite early Christianity observing the Jewish Sabbath for centuries. Many have noted that the title of Pope is found in Mithraic doctrine and seemingly prohibited in Christian doctrine. The words Peter (rock) and mass (sacrament) have original significance in Mithraism.
Both Mithraism and early Christianity considered abstinence, celibacy, and self-control to be among their highest virtues. 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 almost identical, with Christianity adopting millennial epochs that were integral to Mithraism from Zoroastrianism. "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 placed a flood at the beginning of history, and both believed in revelation as key to their doctrine. Both awaited the last judgment and resurrection of the dead after the final conflagration of the universe. Christ and Mithra were both referred to directly as the "Logos" (Larson 184).
It is probable 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 the same way. However, the similarities were an embarrassment, and differences such as star gazing were persecuted as heresy. Trypho wrote that "Justin Martyr declared that in a certain cave near Bethlehem ... Mary brought forth the Christ ... those who presided over the mysteries of Mithras were stirred up by the devil to say that in a place called among them a cave, they were initiated by them" (LXXVIII). Tertullian seems to have feared the parallels between Mithraism and Christianity the most, demonizing Mithraism as a perverted truth planted by the devil.
Mithraism Wikipedia

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Degrees of Initiation
Zurvan There were seven degrees of initiation, these degrees allowed the neophyte to proceed through the seven celestial bodies. Allowing the reversing of the human soul's descend into the world at birth.
The first degree was of corax (Raven) under Mercury. This stage symbolized death of neophyte. In ancient Persia it was a custom to expose dead bodies to be eaten by ravens on funeral towers.
Raven as symbol of death can also be seen in some tarot packs as card 13 instead of Grim Reaper [13=1+3=4=4th Dimension=Time - Grim Reaper=Time.]
At this stage the neophyte dies and is re-born into a spiritual path.
A mantra was given to him to repeat and his sins were washed away by baptism in water.
The next degree is of Nymphus (male-bride) under Venus. The neophyte wears a veil and carries a lamp in his hand. He is unable to see the 'light of truth' until the 'veil of reality' is lifted. He is vowed to the cult, and becomes celibate for at least duration of this stage.
He is a bride (lover) of Mithra. He also offers a cup of water to the statute of Mithra, the cup is his heart and the water is his love.
On reaching Miles (solider) under Mars, the neophyte had to kneel (submission to religious authority, naked (casting off old life), blindfolded with hands tied. He was then offered a crown on the point of a sword .
Once crowned, his binds were cut with a single stroke of the sword and blindfold removed. This represented his liberation from bondage's of the material world.
He would then remove the crown from his head and placing it on his shoulder, saying: 'Mithra is my only crown'.
This also symbolizes the removing the head(intellect) itself, allowing Mithra to be the guide.
At this stage the neophyte starts the real battle against his lower self, a solider is one actively struggles with the real enemy.
The stage of Leo (lion) is first of the senior degrees and is under Jupiter. He is entering the element of fire. Therefore the lions were not allowed to touch water during the ritual, and instead honey was offered to the initiate to wash his hands and anoint his tongue. The lions carry the food for the ritual meal that was prepared by the lower grades to the ritual feast, and take part. Lions duties included attending the sacred altar flame. The ritual feast representedMithras last supper of bread and wine with his companions, before his ascend to the heavens in Sun's chariot.
The degree of Perses (Persian) under moon, The initiate to this grade obtained through it an affiliation to that race which alone was worthy of receiving the highest revelations of wisdom of Magi (Fanz Cumont, Rapport sur une mission a Rome, in Academic des inscrition et Belles-Letters, Comptes Rendes, 1945 p.418).
The emblem for this stage was a harpe, the harpe that Persus decapitated the Gorgon. Symbolizing the destruction of the lower and animal aspect of the initiate.
The initiate was also purified with honey as he was under the protection of the Moon. Honey is associated with purity and fertility of the moon as this was, in ancient Iran believed to be the source of honey, and thus the expression of honey-moon denotes not the period of a month after marriage, but continued love and fertility in married life.
- Dr. Masoud Homayouri Origin of Persian Gnosis
In grade of Heliodromus (sun runner) under sun, the initiate imitates Sun at the ritual banquet. Sitting next to Mithra (Father), dressed in red, color of sun, fire and blood of life.
Highest grade was of Pater (father) under Saturn. He was Mithras earthly representative, light of heaven embodied, the teacher of congregation which he lead, wearing a redcap and as well as a red baggy Persian trousers, carrying a staff symbol of his spiritual office. (Charles Daniels, Mithras and his temples on the Wall).