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 AD, 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 of Mithras did not depend, as Christianity did, on the interpretation of revealed texts considered to be divinely inspired, 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.

However, we do have a number of dedications from followers of Mithras (mainly addressed to invictus, unconquerable, Mithras), mainly from Roman Britain, the Rhine and Danube area and Italy. These suggest that a large number of his worshippers were low-ranking soldiers (there are very few examples of offerings from higher-ranking soldiers and those may have just been to encourage their men) and slaves, perhaps because a religion with a strict but straight-forward hierarchy allowed them the power they lacked in their everyday lives. Later in the third century Mithraism filtered through to the upper classes and it was even used as a mid-ground argument against Christianity.

Legends of Mithras

Unlike with Persian Mithra, there are almost no texts for Roman Mithras. Instead, the mystery cult of Mithras left hundreds of reliefs and friezes which display their own mythologies surrounding Mithras. Given the lack of textual evidence, these reliefs, which often tell contradictory stories, must be interpreted literally although they may represent abstract ideas.

Birth

Several stories exist concerning the birth of Mithras. Some stories say that he sprang from a living rock or a tree. One sculpture found on Hadrian's Wall depicts Mithras hatching from a "Cosmic Egg." Another story claims that he was born of a virgin on December 25. This date was celebrated as the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. Some depictions of his birth show shepards in attendance, while others show only two torchbearers.

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:

Corax: The Raven with Mercury
Nymphus: The Bridegroom with Venus
Miles: The Soldier with Mars
Leo: The Lion with Jupiter
Perses: The Persian with the Moon
Heliodromus: The Runner of the Sun or the Messenger with the Sun
Pater: The Father with Saturn

Archeological evidence suggests that initiations involved three ordeals that the initiate had to endure: heat, cold, and hunger. Since Father was the highest rank it is obviously one mentioned most frequently in inscriptions, but becoming a Lion was also seen to be very important and was regarded as a watershed in one's authority and responsibility within the cult. Through their association with Jupiter, Lions were aligned with fire and so it would have been inappropriate for them to have been cleansed at their initiation with water. Instead honey was used; it was also put on their tongue to symbolise their pure and cleansing words.

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.

See also Temple of Mithras, London

Other Uses

• "Mithras" was one of the proposed names of the McDonnell 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.

• In the computer game Sacrifice, Mithras is The Prophet/Narrator.

• In the PlayStation 2 game Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, Mithra is an enemy that can be recruited to fight on your side once he has been defeated. Mithra is depicted as a red humanoid with a lion's head and a serpent wrapped around his legs. In reality, this representation is more likely that of Deus Arimanius, the Roman version of the Zoroastrian Ahriman, the source of all evil.

• In the book American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Mithras is mentioned in passing as the god who originally had the December 25th birthday, before it was appropriated by some Christians. This notion is held due to the testimony of Plutarch, which presents the December 25th birthday as originating in the 1st century BC. The notion of a December 25 birthday for Mithras is also mentioned in the Rosemary Sutcliff novel, The Eagle of the Ninth.

References

Footnotes

• Richard Gordon, "Image and Value in the Graeco-Roman World, studies in Mithraism and religious art", (contains some seminal essays)
• 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.
• D.K. Malloch, "Christ and the Taurobolium" - Lord Mithras in the genesis of Christianity. Lochan Press. Scotland. 2006. ISBN 0-9540786-1-6