Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 19:15, 13 April 2004

Mithraism, was a religion based on the worship of the Persian god Mithra, which was widely adopted throughout the Roman Empire. It probably existed by the 1st century BC, reacehd its apogee around the fourth through sixth centuries, and became extinct after the fall of the Roman Empire.

Principles of Mithraism

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 documentatory evidence survives.

It is surmised that the Mithraists worshipped Mithras as the mediator between Man and the supreme God of the upper and nether world. In Mithraic belief, Mithra died, was buried in a cavernous rock tomb, and was resurrected.

Soldiers appeared to be the most plentiful followers of Mithraism, but women were apparently not allowed to join.

The Mithraeum

The center of the cult was the Mithraeum, either adapting a natural cave or cavern, often one previously sanctified by local religious usage, or recreating the cavern. Mithraea were dark and windowless, even if they were not actually in a subterranean space or in a natural cave. When possible, the Mithreum 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. Quite similar Mithraea are scattered over much of the Empire's former area, particularly where the legions were stationed along the frontiers.

The most important icon in the mithraeum was the tauroctony, a depiction of Mithras in the act of killing the Sacred Bull, from whose blood all living things will spring, either painted or depicted in a sculptural relief, sometimes on the altar. A serpent, a scorpion, a dog, and a raven are present. This killing is shown as occurring inside a cave, much like the mithraeum, where it is the central decoration.

Mithra is depicted as a man, sometimes in the act of killing the Bull, sometimes being reborn, rising from the rock (typically with a snake wrapped around it). Some speculation includes that this rock symbolizes the outside of the cave of the cosmos, hence the description of this god as 'rising from the dead'. Other depictions show Mithras carrying a rock on his back, much as Atlas did, and showing him wearing a cape that had the starry sky along its inside lining.

An alternate interpretation of the common picture is that it is a picture of 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 other common images in mithraea of heavenly objects, such as stars, the moon, and the sun.

Mithraism and astrology

The writer Porphyry recorded that the cave pictured in the tauroctony was intended to be "an image of the cosmos." From this and other clues it has suggested in recent times that the Mithraic religion is connected to the end of the 'age of Taurus,' and the beginning of 'age of Aries,' about the year 2000 BC, and may have came into existence at or after that date.

This identification of an "age" with a sign of the Zodiac is based on the astronomical sign rising from the celestial horizon during the vernal equinox of that age, as generally viewed in the Mediterranean region of the Northern Hemisphere. Before 2000 BC, Taurus the Bull was prominent as spring equinox, culminating with Scorpio as the autumn equinox. Due to the precession of the equinoxes, the rising constellation changes approximately every 2,160 years. The current age started when the equinox precessed into the constellation of Pisces, at about the year 1 AD, with the 'age of Aquarius' starting within the next few centuries.

The precession of the equinoxes was discovered, or at least published, by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus; whether it was known by Mithraists previously is unknown.

The constellations common in the sky from about 4000 BC to 2000 BC were Taurus the Bull, Canis Minor the Dog, Hydra the Snake, Corvus the Raven, and Scorpio the Scorpion. 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.

Supporting this theory of the details of Mithraic belief is the addition of a lion and a cup in some depictions of the tauroctony. (examples) Leo (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'.

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:

• Corax (raven)
• Nymphus (bride)
• Miles (soldier)
• Leo (lion)
• Perses (persian)
• Heliodromus (sun-courier)
• Pater (father)

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, as these titles seem to correspond respectively to the Jungian concepts of the shadow, the anima, the persona, and the self.

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. A bas-relief in Modena Italy at the Galerie e Museo Estense, shows Phanes coming from an egg, surrounded by the twelve signs of the zodiac, in an image very similar to that at Newcastle. Phanes in Greek means 'manifestor', or 'revealer.' (In the Orphic tradition he is also called Love (Eros), and First-born (Protogonos.)

• The writer Plutarch wrote about pirates of Cilicia who practiced the Mithraic "secret rites" in the first century BC (about 67 B.C.). Since Cilicia was the name of an area near Turkey and Greece, the Mithras mentioned by Plutarch may have been worship of the Persian god Mithras, or may have been associated with this god who killed a bull.

History of Mithraism

Mithraism before Rome

Franz Cumont, a Belgian historian of some note in the 1800s, proposed that Mithraism came originally from Iran. While there is a Persian deity named Mithra, there is no known legend about that deity killing a bull with the assorted other animals, nor is there any known text detailing such a story. However, there is a story of Ahriman, the evil god in Zoroastrianism, killing a bull. Mithraism is generally considered to be an outgrowth of Zoroasterian culture.

Cumont's student, Maarten J. Vermaseren, (author of Mithras, the Secret God, 1963), was very active in translating Mithraic inscriptions.

Mithraism in early Rome

The earliest evidence to which a date may be assigned for the Roman worship of Mithras is the late 1st century A.D. This is from a record of Roman soldiers who came from the military garrison at Carnuntum near the Danube River in the modern area of Hungary (the Roman province of Upper Pannonia). These soldiers fought against the Parthians and were involved in the suppression of the Jewish people who revolted in Jerusalem from 60 A.D. to about 70 A.D. . When they returned home, they made mithraic dedications. (proabably in the year 71 or 72 A.D.)

Concentrations of Mithraic temples are found on the outskirts of the Roman empire: along Hadrian's wall in northern England three Mithraea have been identified, at Housesteads, Carrawburgh and Rudchester. The discoveries are in the University of Newcastle's Museum of Antiquities, where a Mithraeum has been recreated (see Links). Mithraea have also been found along the Danube and Rhine river frontier, in the province of Dacia (where in 2003 a temple was found in Alba-Iulia) and as far afield as Numidia in North Africa.

As would be expected, Mithraic ruins are also found in the port city of Ostia, and in Rome the capital, where as many as seven hundred mithraea may have existed (a dozen have been identified). A well-preserved late 2nd century mithraeum, with its altar and built-in stone benches, originally built beneath a Roman house as was a common practice, survives in the crypt over which has been built the church of San Clemente, Rome.

Recent excavations in London have uncovered the remains of a Mithraic temple near to the center of the once walled Roman settlement, on the bank of the Walbrook stream.

Connections

There is some speculation that Mithraic belief was influenced by Christian beliefs, or vice-versa. Ernst Renan promoted the idea that Mithraism was the prime competitor to Christianity in the second through the fourth century, although most scholars feel the written claims that the emperors Nero, Commodus, Septimius Severus, Caracalla, and the Tetrarchs are dubious at best, and there is no evidence that Mithraic worship was accorded any official status as a Roman cult.

There is some evidence that the ancient Orobouros (the serpent wrapped about to bite its own tail) was adapted for a Christian symbol of the limited confines of time and space. The snake around a rock also is reminscent of the Midgard serpent Jormungand who was said to surround Midgard (the Earth) according to Norse traditions.

Mithraic studies

The First International Congress of Mithraic Studies was held in 1971 at Manchester England.

External Links

• 3rd Century mithraeum in the Circus Mximus, Rome: Good illustrated introductory article
• University of Newcastle Mithras website
• Mithraeum at Riegel, Baden-Wurtemburg: plan and photos; (French)
• http://www.phanes.com/phanes.html
• http://www.well.com/user/davidu/mithras.html
• http://www2.evansville.edu/ecoleweb/articles/mithraism.html