Talk:Mithraic mysteries

Question

could be this scytian youth in fact a representation of Mitra?

No, this is a roman youth posing with the typical parthian dressing. Kermanii (talk) 14:39, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

Archiver and controversial

Removed archiver -- too low comment volume. Added controversial tag. 209.68.2.181 (talk) 12:37, 29 August 2011 (UTC)

No argument with controversial tag. But I have reverted the archiver back to 90 days, because of the growing length of this talk page. The archiveheader (which tells the bot what to do) now matches the archive box (which tells the readers what is supposedly happening). Kalidasa 777 (talk) 23:24, 19 December 2011 (UTC)

No need to critisize something 2 times in a row...

In the beginning it says: "The Romans themselves regarded the mysteries as having Persian or Zoroastrian sources, a view sometimes questioned by modern scholars."

Then it says:

"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.""

No need to show the doubt of "Modern" scholars two times in two sentences...

I removed the part "... A view sometimes questioned by modern scholars" btw.

--Arsaces (talk) 16:53, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Title is erroneous and looks questionable....

I think it's a bloody mess that MITHRAISM is found in an article called "Mithraic mysteries". Generally, "mysteries" is not used to describe a religion. The religion has always been called by scholars "Mithraism" - what does this article know that the scholars of the world do not know? Djathinkimacowboy 16:02, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

The term "mysteries" is often used by scholars to describe systems of religious initiation, especially those in and around ancient Greece and Rome. As explained on the WP page Greco-Roman mysteries, "the term derives from Latin mysterium, from Greek mysterion (usually as the plural mysteria μυστήρια), in this context meaning 'secret rite or doctrine.' " Kalidasa 777 (talk) 01:14, 15 December 2011 (UTC)

Not only that...

Outside of the Roman Empire, worship of Mithras, as s subordinate Zoroastrian God continues until this very day in Iran and IndiaEricl (talk) 22:37, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

Yes, but Zoroastrian worship of Mithra (or Mithras as the name became in Greek and Latin) is the topic of the WP page Mithra. Please have a look at that page, Eric, and improve it if you can. Kalidasa 777 (talk) 01:40, 15 December 2011 (UTC)

Mithraism was about sun worship. Reading this article, I could not catch that sense. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.198.50.88 (talk) 22:51, 18 December 2011 (UTC)

If Mithraism was about sun worship, what do you make of the images which show Sol and Mithras as two different persons, sharing a banquet? Kalidasa 777 (talk) 23:48, 19 December 2011 (UTC)

The banquet scene does show Sol and Mithras as two different persons. It may be about Sol having some sort of affinity with Mithras/ Sol bequething his solar deity status to Mithras/ maybe it shows that Sol and Mithras are two personifications of the same deity. Whatever. Without knowing the story associated with that scene, nobody can be sure. However, it does indicate that Mithras has some sort of association with the Sun. If Mithraism was not about sun worship, how come a scholar like Beck titles his book as "The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire;Mysteries of the Unconquered Sun" ? How would Mithras has titles like "Sol Invictus Mithras" ? I am not saying that there is anything wrong with the article. What I am trying to say is that the sun worship aspect should get some more emphasis in the article.117.198.51.24 (talk) 03:36, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I think you're right. The affinity between Mithras and Sol is clearly very strong, even if the exact relationship is unknown. Maybe a new section with a title like "Association with the Sun"? Kalidasa 777 (talk) 00:50, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Pictish Mithraism

We're not sure what to make of this, and could use some eyes on it. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 10:48, 8 February 2012 (UTC)