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at Marino, Italy (3rd century) shows the ''tauroctony'' and the celestial lining of Mithras' cape]] Mithraism ( prominent from the 7th Century BC . It was based on worship of the god Mithras and derives from the Persian and Indic god Mithra and other Zoroastrian deities. Mithras was known throughout Europe and Asia by the names Mithra, Mitra, Meitros, Mihr, Mehr, and Meher. The veneration of this school of thought began about 4,000 years ago in Iran, where it was soon embedded with Babylonian doctrines and all the rest of Iran. Mithraism apparently originated in the Eastern part of today's Iran around the First . It was practiced in the Roman Empire since the First Century BC , and reached its apogee around the Third through Fourth centuries AD, when it was very popular among the Roman soldiers. Mithraism disappeared from overt practice after the Theodosian decree of AD 391 banned all pagan rites, and it apparently became extinct thereafter. PRINCIPLES OF MITHRAISM 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. The mithraeum It is difficult for scholars to reconstruct the daily workings and beliefs of Mithraism, as the rituals were highly secret and limited to initiated men. Mithras was little more than a name until the massive documentation of Franz Cumont 's ''Texts and Illustrated Monuments Relating to the Mysteries of Mithra'' was published in 1894-1900, with the first English translation in 1903. However, it is known that the center of the cult was the mithraeum, either an adapted natural cave or cavern, preferably sanctified by previous local religious usage, or an artificial building imitating a cavern. Mithraea were dark and windowless, even if they were not actually in a subterranean space or in a natural cave. When possible, the mithraeum was constructed within or below an existing building. The site of a mithraeum may also be identified by its separate entrance or vestibule, its "cave", called the ''spelaeum'' or ''spelunca,'' with raised benches along the side walls for the ritual meal, and its sanctuary at the far end, often in a recess, before which the pedestal-like altar stood. Many mithraea that follow this basic plan are scattered over much of the Empire's former area, particularly where the legions were stationed along the frontiers. Others may be recognized by their characteristic layout, even though converted as crypts beneath Christian churches. In every Mithraic Temple , the place of honor was occupied by a representation of Mithras killing a sacred bull, called a Tauroctony . It has been more recently proposed that the tauroctony is a symbolic representation of the constellations rather than an originally Iranian animal sacrifice scene (Ulansey, 1991). Mithras is associated with Perseus, whose constellation is above that of the bull. A Serpent , a scorpion, a dog, and a raven are present, also thought to represent associated constellations. From the structure of the mithraea it is possible to surmise that worshippers would have gathered for a common meal along the reclining couches lining the walls. It is worth noting that most temples could hold only thirty or forty individuals. The mithraeum itself was arranged so as to be an 'image of the universe'. Members of the cult are thought to have moved about the mithraeum in imitation of the sun and constellations through the universe. It is noticed by some researchers that this movement, especially in the context of mithraic soterism, seems to stem from the neoplatonic concept that the 'running' of the sun from solstice to solstice is a parallel for the movement of the soul through the universe, from pre-existence, into the body, and then beyond the physical body into an afterlife. Also thought to take place in the mithraeum, and revealed by the relief on a cup from Mainz , is the mithraic initiation. In this act, as depicted on the cup, the initiate would be led into a location where the cult's 'Pater' would be seated in the guise of Mithras with a drawn bow. Accompanying the Initiate is a 'Mystagogue', who explains the symbology and theology to the initiate. The Rite is thought to re-enact what has come to be called the 'Water Miracle', in which Mithras fires a bolt into a rock, and from the rock now spouts water. R. 2000 Ritual, Myth, Doctrine, and Initiation in the Mysteries of Mithras: New Evidence from a Cult Vessel. The Journal of Roman Studies. 90 pp145-180 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:
The new initiate became a ''Corax'', while the ''Leo'' was an Adept . The titles of the first four ranks suggest the possibility that advancement through the ranks was based on introspection and spiritual growth. The iconography of Mithraism In the absence of any Mithraist scripture, all we know about Mithras is what can be deduced from his images in the mithraea that have survived. . Note that Mithras is looking toward the bull instead of away, a stance rarely seen in the tauroctony.]] 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 Oroboros wrapped around it. It is commonly believed that the cave in Mithraism imagery represents the cosmos, and the rock is the cosmos seen from the outside; hence the description of this god as 'rising from the dead'. According to some accounts, Mithras died, was buried in a cavernous rock tomb, and was Resurrected . Another more widely accepted interpretation takes its clue from the writer Porphyry , who recorded that the cave pictured in the tauroctony was intended to be "an image of the cosmos." According to this view, the cave depicted in that image may represent the "great cave" of the sky. This interpretation was supported by research by K. B. Stark in 1869 , with astronomical support by Roger Beck ( 1984 and 1988 ), David Ulansey ( 1989 ) and Noel Swerdlow ( 1991 ). This interpretation is reinforced by the constant presence in Mithraic imagery of heavenly objects — such as stars, the moon, and the sun — and symbols for the Signs Of The Zodiac . One of the central motifs of Mithraism is the ''tauroctony'', the myth of 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 there been an eclipse . Due to the Precession Of The Equinoxes , on average every 2,160 years the Sun appears against the stars of a new Constellation at Vernal Equinox . The current Astrological Age started when the equinox precessed into the constellation of Pisces , in about the year 150 BC, with the " Age Of Aquarius " starting in AD 2000. The exact date of the start of the ages is in question. Astrologer Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet holds that the Age of Pisces began in 234 BCE and the age of Aquarius started in 1926 . Indeed, the constellations common in the sky from about (a lion) and Aquarius ("the cup-bearer") were the constellations seen as the northernmost (summer solstice) and southernmost (winter solstice) positions in the sky during the age of Taurus. The precession of the equinoxes was discovered, or at least publicized, by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus in the 2nd Century BC . (See Discovery Of Precession for more information.) Whether the phenomenon was known by Mithraists previously is unknown. In any case, Mithras was presumed to be very powerful if he was able to rotate the heavens, and thus 'kill the bull' or displacing Taurus as the reigning image in the heavens. Some commentators surmise that the Mithraists worshipped Mithras as the mediator between Man and the supreme God of the upper and nether world. Other commentators, inspired by James Frazer 's theories, have additionally labeled Mithras a mystery religion with a Life-death-rebirth Deity , comparable to Isis , the resurrected Jesus or the Persephone / Demeter cult of the Eleusinian Mysteries . HISTORY OF MITHRAISM Mithraism In Persia (Iran) , Iran, showing Ardashir II of Sassanid Empire at the center receiving his crown from Ahura Mazda . The two stand on a prostrate enemy. At the left is Mithra depicted as a priest, wearing a crown of sun-rays, holding a priest's Barsam , and standing on a sacred lotus.]] – 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: :"Artaxerxes the Great King, says: [... By the favor of Ahuramazda , Anahita , and Mithra, this palace I built. May Ahuramazda, Anahita, and Mithra protect me from all evil, and that which I have built may they not shatter nor harm." 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 easy to explain the Sun-god Mithra being worshipped in the windowless, cave-like mithraeum. Each night the sun was thought to journey through the underworld, after sunset from West to East until sunrise. 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. Mithraism in early Rome |
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