Mitra
Mitra or Mithra was an important divinity of Indic (Sanskrit mitra) and Iranian (Avestan miθra) culture. The first extant record of Mitra is in the inscribed peace treaty between Hittites and Mitanni, c. 1400 BC. There Mitra appears as one of five Vedic deities invoked as witnesses and keepers of the pact, with Varuna, Indra and the twin horsemen, the Nasatya (Campbell, 1964 p 256).
Vedic Mitra is referred to in the Rigveda onwards as one of the Adityas, a solar deity, and the patron divinity of honesty, friendship, contracts and meetings. The Vedic Mitra is distinguished by a relationship to the Varuna, the protector of rta.
In Zoroastrianism, Mithra came into increased prominence as a major entity in the hierarchy of Angels as one of the protectors of human welfare. In later Persian culture Mithra merged with Meher, the protector of truth and justice, and as the source of cosmic light. The Mazdaist/Zoroastrian Mithra is a member of the trinity of ahuras, protectors of asha.
Both the Vedic Mitra and the Persian Mithra are descended from a common Proto-Indo-Iranian deity whose name can be reconstructed as *Mitra.
In Graeco-Roman culture, Persian Mithra was adopted as Mithras. His cult, Mithraism, entered Europe after the conquests of Alexander the Great and spread rapidly throughout the Roman Empire in later years. The Hellenic and Roman Mithras, worshipped by male initiates from the 1st century BC to the 5th century CE, combined the Persian Mithra with other Iranian and perhaps Anatolian deities in a syncretic cult.
Some assert that the mythology and lore surrounding Mitra or Mithra may have parallels to those surrounding Jesus and other aspects of Christianity. (See Mithraism's similarities to Christianity for a comparison).
Etymology and Origins
The Indo-Iranian word *mitra- could mean either "covenant, contract, oath, or treaty", or "friend". A general meaning of "alliance" might adequately explain both alternatives. The second sense tends to be emphasized in Indic sources, the first sense in Iranian. The word is from a root mi- "to bind", with the "tool suffix" -tra- (compare man-tra-), a contract is thus described as a "means of binding" (compare Ishara).
The earliest known occurrence of the name Mitra is in a treaty inscription, ca. 1400 BC, established between the Hittites and the Hurrian kingdom of the Mitanni in the area southeast of Lake Van. The treaty is guaranteed by five Indo-Iranian religious entities: Indra, Mitra, Varuna and the Nasatyas. The Hurrians, it appears, were led by an aristocratic warrior caste worshipping these.
Mitra in Vedic culture
In the Vedic hymns, Mitra is always invoked together with Varuna, so that the two are combined in a dvandva as Mitravaruna. Varuna is lord of the cosmic rhythm of the celestial spheres, while Mitra brings forth the light at dawn, which was covered by Varuna.
In the Shatapatha Brahmana, Mitravaruna is analyzed as "the Counsel and the Power" — Mitra being the priesthood, Varuna the royal power. As Joseph Campbell remarked, "Both are said to have a thousand eyes. Both are active foreground aspects of the light or solar force at play in time. Both renew the world by their deed."
Mithra in the Persian world
In Zoroastrianism
The reform of Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) retained the multitudes of pre-Zoroastrian Mazdaist deities, reducing them in a complex hierarchy to "Immortals" and "Adored Ones" who, under the supremecy of the Creator Ahura Mazda, were now followers of either Spenta Mainyu (the positive emanation of Ahura Mazda) or Angra Mainyu (the negative emanation), as all of the cosmos was now part of Good or part of Evil.
Mithra is not present in the Gathas of Zarathustra (Zoroaster) but appears in the younger Yashts of the Avesta (Campbell p 257). There, Mithra comes to the fore among the created beings. "I created him" Ahura Mazda declares to Zoroaster, "to be as worthy of sacrifice and as worthy of prayer as myself" (Campbell, loc. cit.). In the Yashts, Mithra gains the title of "Judge of Souls" and is assigned the domain of human welfare (which He shares with the Creator). Mithra occupies an intermediate position in the Zoroastrian hierarchy as the greatest of the yazatas, the beings created by Ahura Mazda (Ormuzd in later Persian) to aid in the destruction of evil and the administration of the world. He is then the divine representative of the Creator on earth, and is directed to protect the righteous from the demonic forces of Angra Mainyu (Ahriman in later Persian).
In Persian culture
While in older Zoroastrianism Mithra is seen as a creation of Ahura Mazda, in later Persian culture, Mithra evolved to be an incarnation of Ahura Mazda, and in his role as 'Judge of Souls' as the rewarder of good and annihilator of the bad. Mithra was seen as omniscient, undeceivable, infallible, eternally watchful, and never-resting.
Similarly, while in the Avesta texts Mithra is also referred to as Dae-pa-Meher, or Creator of Meher, this separation between 'Meher' and the 'Creator of Meher' dissolves in later texts and the distinguishing characteristics of Mithra and Meher blend. Mithra, reincorporated as "Meher", thus also becomes the representative of truth and justice, and, by transfer to the physical realm, the divinity of air and light. As the enemy of darkness and evil spirits, he protected souls, a psychopomp accompanying them to paradise. As heat accompanying light, Mithra became associated with growth and resultant prosperity.
Mithra worship spread first with the empire of the Persians throughout Asia Minor, then throughout the empire of Alexander and his successors. In Mesopotamia, Mithra was to a degree identified with Shamash, god of the sun and justice.
By at least the 3rd century BC, Mithra was identified as the progeny of Anahita, a mother-entity who is not mentioned in the Gathas of the very early Avesta texts, but is described in the fifth Yasht of the newer texts as "the wide-expanding and health-giving". The largest temple with a Mithraic connection is the Seleucid temple at Kangavar in western Iran (c. 200 BC), which is dedicated to "Anahita, the Immaculate Virgin Mother of the Lord Mithras".
The Parthian princes of Armenia were hereditary priests of Mithra, and an entire district of this land was dedicated to Anahita. Many temples were erected to Mithra in Armenia, which remained one of the last strongholds of the Mazdaist cult of Mithra until it became the first officially Christian kingdom.
Royal names incorporating Mithra's (e.g. "Mithradates") appear in the dynasties of Parthia, Armenia, and in Anatolia, in Pontus and Cappadocia.
Remains
The calendar instituted by the Achaemenid dynasty (c. 648–330 BC), the first Persian empire, was based on the Egyptian solar calendar, which had months of the year and days of the month dedicated to their divinities. The Achaemenids replaced these with divinities from the Zoroastrian faith, and the fifteenth day of each month was consecrated to Mithra ("Dae-pa-Meher"). The sixteenth day of each month and one month of the year were consecrated to Meher, whose identity blends with that of Mithra in later Persian culture. These calendarial dedications are still present in the religious calendar of the Zoroastrians. The month that was consecrated to Meher in pre-Islamic times was revived as the name of the seventh month of the year in the official national calendar of Iran of 1925.
The festivities in the week following the winter solstice (after which the days grow longer), today called Shab-e Yalda in Iran, are a remnant of the culture which celebrated the birth of the divinity of light on that day. Yalda literaly means "The birth of sun".
Prior to the fall of the Sassanid empire in 651 CE, after which Zoroastrianism and Mazdaism were supplanted by Islam, Mithraic temples could be found throughout the empire. The extant remains mentioned by David Fingrut, 1993 include:
- a temple at Khuzestan
- a few columns still standing at the temple of Khorheh in central Iran near present-day Mahallat
- at excavated Nisa in Turkmenistan (later renamed Mithradatkirt)
- at Hatra in upper Mesopotamia.
Mithras in the Greco/Roman world
In the Hellenistic culture, Mithras could be identified with Apollo - Helios. During the 2nd century BC, probably at Pergamon, Hellenistic sculptors transformed the figure of Mithra/Helios into an iconic Mithras, the central god of a new syncretic religion, Mithraism. Although this new cult never caught on in the Greek homeland, it was taken to Rome around the 1st century BC by, and was dispersed throughout the Roman Empire and embraced by emperors as an official religion.
References
- Cumont, Franz (1903). The Mysteries of Mithra. Chicago: Open Court.
{{cite book}}: Check|first=value (help); External link in|title= - Dumézil, Georges (1990). Mitra-Varuna: An Essay on Two Indo-European Representations of Sovereignty. Cambridge: Zone Books. ISBN 0942299132.
{{cite book}}: Check|first=value (help) - Malandra, William (1983). An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0816611157.
- Weston, Jessie (1997). From Ritual to Romance. Mineola: Dover Publications. ISBN 0486296806.
{{cite book}}: Check|first=value (help) - Campbell, Joseph (1964). Occidental Mythology: The Masks of God. New York: Penguin Group. ISBN 0140043063.
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See also
- Vedic religion
- Mithras and Mithraism
- Zoroastrianism
- 'Mithra' are also a race of cat-people found in the MMORPG Final Fantasy XI.
Further Reading
- Fingrut, David (1993). "The Legacy of the Roman Empire's Final Pagan State Religion".
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) (high-school level paper, but good summary of Cumont) - List of CAIS articles on ancient Iranian calendars, customs, festivals & rituals
- List of CAIS articles on ancient Iranian mythology
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