Mithras

This article is about the Hellenistic and Roman god Mithras. For other divinities with related names, see the general article Mitra.

Mithras and the Bull: fresco from the mithraeum at Marino, Italy, (3rd century AD)

Mithras was the central god of Mithraism, a syncretic Hellenistic mystery religion of male initiates that developed in the Eastern Mediterranean in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC and was practiced in the Roman Empire from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD. Parthian coins and documents bear a double date with a 64 year interval that represents Mithras' ascension to heaven, traditionally given as the equivalent of 208 BC, 64 years after his birth. The Romanized Greek Plutarch says that in 67 BC a large band of pirates in Cilicia—on the southeast coast of Anatolia— were practicing "secret rites" of Mithras.

The name Mithras is the Greek masculine form of Mithra, the Persian god who was the mediator between Ahura Mazda and the earth, the guarantor of human contracts, although in Mithraism much was added to the original elements of Mitra. However, some of the attributes of Roman Mithras may have been taken from other Eastern cults: for example, the Mithraist emphasis on astrology strongly suggests syncretism with star-oriented Mesopotamian or Anatolian religions. At least some of this synthesis of beliefs may have already been underway by the time the cult was adopted in the West. When Mithraism was introduced by Roman legions at Dura-Europos after 168 CE, the god assumed his familiar Hellenistic iconic formula (illustration above right) [1].

The mythology surrounding Mithras is not easily reassembled from the enigmatic and complicated iconography. Indeed the dedicatory inscription on a 2nd-3rd century tauroctony discovered in a Mithraeum at Ostia in the 1790s refers to the "incomprehensible deity": INDEPREHENSIVILIS DEI [2]. Apparently the cult did not depend on the interpretation of divinely-inspired revealed texts, and the textual references are those of Christians, who mention Mithras to deplore him, and neo-Platonists who interpreted Mithraic symbols within their own world-schemes.

Religion

Main article: Mithraism

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

Members would ascend through seven grades of initiation, each aligned with a symbol, and a planet.

Worship

Main article: Mithraeum

Tauroctony, Roman, 3rd century (Museo Archaeologico, Palermo)

Worship took place in a temple, or "mithraeum", an artificial cave probably constructed to resemble the place of Mithras's birth. Although some of these temples were built specifically for the purpose, most of them were rooms inside larger structures which had a different purpose, such as a private home or a bath house.

In every Mithraeum, the place of honor was occupied by a representation of Mithras killing a sacred bull, called a tauroctony, which many scholars believe is an astrological allegory and not an actual animal sacrifice. In fact, it is widely accepted nowadays that the image of Mithras, the bull, the scorpion and dog, actually represent constellations (Ulansey, 1991). Astrologically, Mithras is associated with Perseus, whose constellation is above that of the bull (an idea purported by Ulansey but which is not necessarily supported by the evidence at the time).

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

The cult surrounding the savior, Mithras, did have some similarities to the early beliefs in Christianity. The relation between the two religions is discussed point by point in Mithraism.

Other Uses

• Mithras was one of the proposed names of the McDonnel-Douglas F-4 Phantom II.

• In the Vampire: The Masquerade roleplaying series, Mithras is an ancient Ventrue who rules as the Prince of London.

• In the computer game Rome: Total War (Barbarian Invasion Expansion Pack), Mithras is a possible entity to be worshipped throughout the Roman Empire.

References

• David Ulansey, "The Cosmic Mysteries of Mithras"
• David Fingrut, "Mithraism: The Legacy of the Roman Empire's Final Pagan State Religion" (a high-school level paper that does, however, summarize well the classic work of Cumont)
• Ronald Nash, "Was the New Testament Influenced by Pagan Religions?" An essay told from a Christian perspective arguing that pagan religions (including Mithraism) did not influence the new Testament.
• Franz Cumont, The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism.
• Francis Legge, Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity, From 330 B.C. to 330 A.D. (1914), reprinted in two volumes bound as one, University Books New York, 1964. LC Catalog 64-24125.
• David Ulansey, The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World. Oxford University Press 1991. ISBN 0-19-506788-6.
• Payam Nabarz, The Mysteries of Mithras, The Pagan Belief That Shaped the Christian World.

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