Julius Caesar and Mithraism

Over a few centuries the symbolism of the bull according the cult of Sybele had drastically morphed. Why?

Did the idea of animal sacrifice take hold in other cults over the same period? We'll have to investigate. Maybe it was also a sign of the times. It's possible that both Caesar and the teachings of Paul had a direct impact on the flourishing of new religious and spiritual ideas, which perhaps give rise to 'competing' ideologies. There's also the angle that the time period we are talking about was leading up to the 'end times' of the time i.e. cometary impact and the dark ages. I can imagine in the 50-100 years before the SHTF, there would be all manner of increasingly angst-driven social and religious groups springing up to warn of the 'impending doom' and doing all sorts of things to 'save' people. Consider the last 100 years in our own era.
 
The main thing that stands out, in this respect, about the Mitraic reliefs is that they do not depict a 'standard' bull sacrifice. For me, there IS something weird about it, but I just don't know what it is yet.
I've one potential thread of inquiry to offer up Joe; the killing of the Mithraic bull is identical in essential essence to the slaying of The Great Bull of Heaven and of Humbuba in Gilgamesh (two separate 'slayings' which are actually the same event but manifested in the telling in two specific ways). Both the Great Bull of Heaven and Humbuba can be connected to the Gorgon Medusa and the Gorgon was repeatedly stylistically portrayal as a swastika/comet form. This is not the thread to go into further but posted previously on this oddity here. FWIW
 
Joe wrote: There doesn't seem to be much evidence that tauroctany and especially "sacrifice wells" were a widespread practice. I read elsewhere that the "repugnant rite" claim is generally interpreted as a later overdramatization designed to present Mithraism in a bad light by Christians.

Here's the relevant page from McLynn's book. If anyone has access to Jstor, I would be interested to see how that last paragraph finishes:


taur.jpg


We have one primary source, the written testimony of Prudentius. Here is his extensive quote:

Prudentius Peristephanon 10.1006-1045

Romanus replied in these words: 'Look - l stand before you. This is truly my
blood, not that of an ox. Do you recognize, you poor pagan, the blood l speak of, the
sacred blood of your ox, which drenches you in the slaughter of sacrifice?2 The high priest
goes down into the depths to be consecrated,3 in a trench dug in the ground, with strange
bands round his head, his temples solemnly entwined with ribbons of office, his hair held
by a golden crown, his silken toga tied in the Gabine knot.4 Above him they construct a
platform, by laying planks, in a loose arrangement, with gaps in between the timber.
Then they cut or drill through the surface, making many holes in the wood with a sharp
instrument, so that it has a large number of tiny openings. Here they bring up a huge
bull, with shaggy, savage brow, bound with garlands of flowers around his shoulders or
entwining his horns. The victirn's brow shimmers with gold, and the radiant sheen tinges
its rough hair. When the beast for sacrifice has been brought into position here, they
pierce his breast with a hunting spear consecrated to the gods; the vast wound pours forth
a stream of steaming blood, and over the bridge of planks below a reeking river gushes
out and seethes aIl around. Then through the many ways made open by the thousand
chinks, like falling rain, it showers down its revolting spray. The priest, hidden in the
trench below, catches the shower, holding his filthy head under all the drops, fouling his
clothes and his whole body. He even throws back his head, and offers his cheeks to the
downpour, puts his ears under it, exposes his lips, his nostrils and washes his eyes
themselves in the streams. And he does not now even spare his mouth, but wets his
tongue until his whole body imbibes the dark blood. After the corpse has become stiff, its
blood alllost, and the flamine have dragged it off that platform, the pontifex' cornes out
of the trench, a ghastly sight, and he shows off his soaking head, his fouI beard, his
dripping ribbons and sodden clothes. Stained with this pollution, filthy from the putrid
blood of the victim, just slaughtered, everyone hails him and from a distance offers him
reverence - because the worthless blood of a dead ox bathed him, while he hid away in
that fouI hole.

Nowhere Prudencius mentions Cybele. It's Cumont's who claimed that the origin of the "repugnant rite" (bull sacrifice + blood shower) as depicted by Prudentius had its origin in the Cybele cult.

As demonstrated by Mclynn and others, Cumont's claim is not substantiated by evidence. There is no trace of sacrifical well as depicted by Prudentius in the early or even the late Cybele cult. Most researchers interpreted the word of Prudentius meant the Cybele cult, probably because of Cumont's claim.

The only word used by Prudentius is "pagan". Prudentius was a Christian and a staunch anti-pagan, hence the claim that he made stuff up about the blood rituals. Maybe, but which pagans was he referring to?

At the time Prudentius wrote his words, late 4th century, the cult of Cybele was not nearly as widespread as the cult of Mithra.

Mithraism was the dominating pagans cult, with an estimated 690 Mithraic temple only in Rome, temples all over the empire including Spain where Prudentius lived.

Under the reign of Aurelius (late 3rd century) Mithraism was even proclaimed the official religion of the Empire. So the real competitor of Christianity was the "pagan" cult of Mithra.

Until recently historians considered Prudentius account of the sacrifice well as an anti-pagan fabrication. It changed a bit in 2013 when the Mithra temple of Caracalla (Rome) was open and revealed what looks like a sacrificial well.

Recently one researcher suggested that what Prudentius was referring to was the kind of well found in Caracalla Mithra temple. She is very careful, adding that Prudentius was anti-pagan Christians, so it could all have been fabricated.

Nevertheless, there are troubling similarities between the well found in Caracalla and the description given by Prudentius. If it was all fabricated how could he have known?

Here is the video with the speech of this researcher starting at 35:00. It is in French but you can use the automatic translation.

 
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Nowhere Prudencius mention Cybele. It's Cumont's who claimed that the origin of the "repugnant rite" (bull sacrifice + blood shower) as depicted by Prudentius had its origin in the Cybele cult.

As demonstrated by Mclynn and others, Cumont's claim is not substantiated by evidence. There is no trace of sacrifical well as depicted by Prudentius in the early or late Cybele cult. Most researchers interpreted the word of Prudentius meant the Cybele cult, probably because of Cumont's claim.

Prudentius also doesn't mention Mithraism, in fact, he doesn't mention the cult to which he is referring.

The only word used by Prudentius is "pagan". Prudentius was a Christian and a staunch anti-pagan, hence the claim that he made stuff up about the blood rituals. Maybe, but which pagans was he referring to?

Maybe he just made it up? This was apparently a common practice of Roman Christians against pagan cults.

At the time Prudentius wrote his words, late 4th century, the cult of Cybele was not nearly as widespread as the cult of Mithra.

Under the reign of Aurelius (late 3rd century) Mithraism was even proclaimed the official religion of the Empire. So the real competitor of Christianity was the "pagan" cult of Mithra.

You mean Marcus Aurelius? He was emperor from from 161 to 180. In any case, it's pretty clear that the cult of cybele was prominent in Imperial rome at least up until the end of the 3rd century. The important point here, I think, is that the vast majority of taurobolium dedications and practices were to Magna Mater, these were particularly common in the Empire's western provinces, attested by inscriptions in (among others) Rome and Ostia in Italy, Lugdunum in Gaul, and Carthage, in Africa.

Nevertheless, there are troubling similarities between the well found in Caracalla and the description given by Prudentius. If it was all fabricated how could he have known?

Recently one researcher suggested that what Prudentius was referring to the kind of well found in Caracalla Mithra temple. She is very careful, adding that Prudentius was anti-pagan Christians, so it could all have been fabricated.

Carcalla is interesting, but as that video points out, it's the ONLY place where there is any evidence that such a ritual may have taken place, out of ALL the other Mithraeum. Conversely, the sacrificing of a bull was VERY prominent in the cult of cybele.

That said, I think there's a lot more to this than meets the eye, and it's not necessarily a matter of one or the other. I'll post more on that when I get a chance.
 
I spent a lot of time trying to pin down the Mithras cult some years back. I was trying to find out if and how it might be associated with Caesar (there were some hints here and there). In the end, I stopped following that path because it became increasingly evident to me that something was very wrong with the picture - and I mean not only the whole thing, but even the Tauroctony. But, by the time I abandoned it, I had written about 40 pages or so of my results.

While I think there is a lot more to Roman style Mithraism, I also think it is entirely possible that the assassins of Julius Caesar, for whatever reason, may have been affiliated with this cult and may have developed the symbolism of the tauroctony to represent the assassination.

Added note: The Vernal Equinox in 44 BC was 21 March 09:07 according to our calendar. (The data is from Fred Espenak, Paul Carlisle, Vernero Cifagni and the LWs, based upon the algorithms of Jean Meeus Willmann-Bell, 2nd edition. 1998, ISBN: 0943396611. It is converted to be Gregorian throughout.)
 
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The Temples to Mithras were normally filled with astrological symbolism and it’s believed the arched walls and ceiling were painted with the constellations, and intended to look like the night sky.

Randall Carlson also talked about this. His view is that the shoulder of the bull represents a Pleiades.

Actually, the Pleiades are not usually considered a constellation itself, rather it forms a part of Taurus the Bull, specifically occupying the position of the bull’s shoulder in most traditional representations.

Astronomers recognize multiple meteor streams that cross the path of the Earth throughout the course of her yearly circuit about the Sun. These meteors are the remains of comets that have orbited within the inner solar system and have decayed over time, strewing their orbital path with the debris formed by their progressive disintegration. When Earth passes through one of these streams the result is a meteor shower whose elliptical trackway takes the stream around the Sun and typically out beyond the orbit of Jupiter, and back again. Many meteor streams still have their associated comet within the orbital pathway. For example, the famous Comet Halley generated the Eta Aquarids meteor stream, the Perseids are the product of the fragmentation of Comet Swift-Tuttle, and so on.

Observers looking into the direction of the approaching stream, that is, looking upstream, will notice that the stream seems to emanate from a particular point in space. This point is called the ‘radiant’ because all of the approaching meteors give the impression of radiating from that place. The paths of the individual meteors are actually parallel, the appearance of radiating from a single point is an illusion of perspective, much as the parallel rails of a railroad track appear to converge in the distance. The name of the particular meteor stream is derived from the constellation within which the radiant point is located, so, for example, the Leonids are named for the constellation Leo, as that is the star grouping from which the stream appears to emanate. The Geminids are named for the constellation Gemini, and so on. Of course, it must be kept in mind that the meteor stream is not really originating from any particular constellation, rather, its’ flight path is juxtaposed upon the backdrop of the constellations. So, obviously, the Taurid meteor stream, which the Earth crosses twice each year, is named for the constellation Taurus, the Celestial Bull.

But here is where it becomes interesting. The radiant point of the November Taurids is almost directly juxtaposed upon the Pleiades, almost like a “bulls eye,” creating the illusion that the Taurid Meteor stream is emanating from that unique star cluster. And this event, when the meteors of the Taurid stream intersect the path of the Earth, occurs in late October and early November just at the time when the Pleiades are standing prominently overhead.


 
I found an interesting mention of ritualistic regicide in "The Thirteenth Tribe" by Arthur Koestler, possibly an ancient practice of the Khazarians from shamanic times. Koestler's main thesis that a considerable amount of Eastern European Jewry was Kahzarian rather than Ashkenazi or Semitic has apparently been largely disproven by a number of independent genetic studies. Be that as it may, this was rather strange from chapter 1 - Rise - page 34 of the Kindle version:

There is no evidence of the Khazars engaging in religious persecution, either before or after the conversion to Judaism. In this respect they may be called more tolerant and enlightened than the East Roman Empire, or Islam in its early stages. On the other hand, they seem to have preserved some barbaric rituals from their tribal past. We have heard Ibn Fadlan on the killings of the royal grave-diggers. He also has something to say about another archaic custom – regicide: ‘The period of the king’s rule is forty years. If he exceeds this time by a single day, his subjects and attendants kill him, saying “His reasoning is already dimmed, and his insight confused”.’
Istakhri has a different version of it:

When they wish to enthrone this Kagan, they put a silken cord round his neck and tighten it until he begins to choke. Then they ask him: ‘How long doest thou intend to rule?’ If he does not die before that year, he is killed when he reaches it.

Bury is doubtful whether to believe this kind of Arab traveller’s lore, and one would indeed be inclined to dismiss it, if ritual regicide had not been such a widespread phenomenon among primitive (and not-so-primitive) people. Frazer laid great emphasis on the connection between the concept of the King’s divinity, and the sacred obligation to kill him after a fixed period, or when his vitality is on the wane, so that the divine power may find a more youthful and vigorous incarnation.
The goal of the regicide here seems to be the preservation of the integrity of the ruling power structure above all. That's some commitment to Realpolitik - medieval style.

The Khazarians claimed some connection to Judaism and the Jewish people, but that may be mythic history on top of mythic history. Koestler was aware, at least in part, of the mythical nature of Jewish history. At any rate, some connection was claimed - Chapter 2 - Conversion - Page 50 of the Kindle version:

[King] Joseph then proceeds to provide a genealogy of his people. Though a fierce Jewish nationalist, proud of wielding the ‘Sceptre of Judah’, he cannot, and does not, claim for them Semitic descent; he traces their ancestry not to Shem, but to Noah’s third son, Japheth; or more precisely to Japheth’s grandson, Togarma, the ancestor of all Turkish tribes. ‘We have found in the family registers of our fathers,’ Joseph asserts boldly, ‘that Togarma had ten sons, and the names of their offspring are as follows: Uigur, Dursu, Avars, Huns, Basilii, Tarniakh, Khazars, Zagora, Bulgars, Sabir. We are the sons of Khazar, the seventh …’ The identity of some of these tribes, with names spelt in the Hebrew script is rather dubious, but that hardly matters; the characteristic feature in this genealogical exercise is the amalgamation of Genesis with Turkish tribal tradition.

Animal and human sacrifice, the ritual murder of kings, and secret societies - all connected to societal and mass psychological trauma caused by cometary disasters. Bramley's 'The Brotherhood of the Snake' dynamic taking various forms in different places and times it seems. A couple of data points FWIW.

I am reviewing Comets and the Horns of Moses, I think there are some discussions in that book that are relevant here. For some reason, I can't get that book to open in my Kindle app on my tablet - I have to use the cloud reader for now.
 
It looks like there's some controversy over to what degree the bull-blood-sacrifice (taurobolium) was part of Mithraism, based on Joe's quotes. At the very least it may have been practiced by some, or few, if not all. But the bull-sacrifice symbolism (tauroctony) remains, whether or not the actual sacrifice was a central feature.

As for chronology, as Pierre wrote, Plutarch says Pompey brought Mithraism to Rome. Whether or not that is in fact the case, we don't know what form it took originally, and how it might have developed, and whether or not the conspirators were Mithraists or whether the symbolism developed after the fact (assuming the correspondences are valid). Either the relevant symbolism developed later, or some elements were carried over from before Caesar's assassination. For example, with the caps, they could have been either a novel political statement by the conspirators, or a symbol of their common membership in some (Mithraic?) club.
Though Plutarch's information is important, it must be borne in mind that the historian wrote his life of Pompey at the end of first century A.D. and it is not until then that we actually find in Rome the characteristic representation of Mithras as bull-slayer. The poet Statius (A.D. 80) describes Mithras as one who 'twists the unruly horns beneath the rocks of a Persian cave'. One other point worthy of note is that no Mithraic monument can be dated earlier than the end of the first century A.D., and even the extensive investigations at Pompey, buried beneath the ashes of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, have not so far produced a single image of the god. There is therefore a complete gap in our knowledge between 67 B.C. and A.D. 79. The earliest datable monument is a statue from Rome, now in the British Museum; the inscription mentions a certain Alcimus, who calls himself the servant of T. Claudius Livianus, and, if the identification of this Livianus with the commander of the Praetorian Guard under the emperor Trajan is correct, then the figure must date from the beginning of the second century A.D. From this period onwards, the trail blazed by Mithras is broad and clear; the god's cult becomes firmly established and traces are found even on the Capitol and the Palatine, the heart of Imperial Rome.
 
The sacrifice of the Bull was created by Roman Mithraism after the assassination after Julius Caesar. The same applies to the Phrygian cap that, until the assassination of Julius Caesar, was worn by freed slaves:

Following the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, Brutus and his co-conspirators instrumentalized this symbolism of the pileus [Phrygian cap] to signify the end of Caesar's dictatorship and a return to the (Roman) republican system[15]

Actually, the assassins of Julius Caesar displayed a Phrygian cap when they fled the Senate:

After assassinating Julius Caesar (44 B.C.), the conspirators paraded in the streets, raising a Phrygian cap at the top of a spade. [16]
In the following Wikipedia entry for an image of the 'Phrygian cap on a pole', someone wrote:

The symbol originated in the immediate aftermath of the assassination of Roman dictator Julius Caesar by a group of Rome's Senators in 44 BC. Immediately after Caesar was killed, the leaders of the assassination plot went to meet a crowd of Romans at the Roman Forum; a pileus (a kind of skullcap that identified a freed slave) was placed atop a pole to symbolize that the Roman people had been freed from the rule of Caesar, which the assassins claimed had become a tyranny because it overstepped the authority of the Senate and thus betrayed the Republic. During the French revolution, the Roman pileus was confused with the Phrygian cap, and this mis-identification then led to the use of the Phrygian cap as a symbol of republicanism. With or without the pole, the Phrygian cap is now used as a symbol on the state emblems of many republics.

The full-page Wiki entry for 'Phrygian cap' displays various countries (almost all of them Caribbean and Latin American) that have the 'Phrygian cap on a pole' incorporated into their coat of arms. If it's true that the Phrygian cap was 'confused' for the pileus, then all these modern republics followed the French republicans' mistake!

Still, while the designers of these modern coats of arms probably didn't make any connection with Caesar, they have (unconsciously) symbolically linked their 'freedom from the Spanish Empire' with a symbol marking the assassination of Caesar. :barf:

In any event, we're still left with the Roman Mithras (and Attis!) wearing a Phrygian cap, not a freed slave's pileus. :umm:
 
Under the reign of Aurelius (late 3rd century) Mithraism was even proclaimed the official religion of the Empire. So the real competitor of Christianity was the "pagan" cult of Mithra.

Manfred Clauss, in The Roman cult of Mithras, p.23-4 states that Mithraism was never official supported by the Roman state:
"The cult of Mithras never became one of those supported by the state with public funds, and was never admitted to the official list of festivals celebrated by the state and the army - at any rate, in so far as the latter is known to us from the Feriale Duranum, the religious calendar of the units at Dura-Europos in Coele Syria; the same is true of all other mystery cults too. This of course does not exclude the possibility that the emperors and their circle may have felt a more than casual personal sympathy for the cult, but they certainly tolerated, perhaps even encouraged, their subjects' adherence."
 
As cross reference material, Manly P. Hall (remember he was a mason) looks at Mithras in his TSTOAA (1928):

It was not the true faith of the early Christian mystics that Celsus attacked, but the false forms that were creeping in even during his day. The ideals of early Christianity were based upon the high moral standards of the pagan Mysteries, and the first Christians who met under the city of Rome used as their places of worship the subterranean temples of Mithras, from whose cult has been borrowed much of the sacerdotalism of the modem church

Hall continues:

THE RITES OF MITHRAS
When the Persian Mysteries immigrated into Southern Europe, they were quickly assimilated by the Latin mind. The cult grew rapidly, especially among the Roman soldiery, and during the Roman wars of conquest the teachings were carried by the legionaries to nearly all parts of Europe. So powerful did the cult of Mithras become that at least one Roman Emperor was initiated into the order, which met in caverns under the city of Rome. Concerning the spread of this Mystery school through different parts of Europe, C. W. King, in his Gnostics and Their Remains, says:
"Mithraic bas-reliefs cut on the faces of rocks or on stone tablets still abound in the countries formerly the western provinces of the Roman Empire; many exist in Germany, still more in France, and in this island (Britain) they have often been discovered on the line of the Picts' Wall and the noted one at Bath."

Hall spends more time discussing its various associations, including from Philosophy and Ethics of the Zoroasters that says:

The Mithraic cult is a simplification of the more elaborate teachings of Zarathustra (Zoroaster), the Persian fire magician.

Which brings him to Ormuzd, and here he brings in Ahriman:

From Ormuzd came forth a number of hierarchies of good and beautiful spirits (angels and archangels). The second of these eternally existing principles was called Ahriman. He was also a pure and beautiful spirit, but he later rebelled against Ormuzd, being jealous of his power. This did not occur, however, until after Ormuzd had created light, for previously Ahriman had not been conscious of the existence of Ormuzd. Because of his jealousy and rebellion, Ahriman became the Spirit of Evil. From himself he individualized a host of destructive creatures to injure Ormuzd.

When Ormuzd created the earth, Ahriman entered into its grosser elements. Whenever Ormuzd did a good deed, Ahriman placed the principle of evil within it. At last when Ormuzd created the human race, Ahriman became incarnate in the lower nature of man so that in each personality the Spirit of Good and the Spirit of Evil struggle for control. For 3,000 years Ormuzd ruled the celestial worlds with light and goodness. Then he created man. For another 3,000 years he ruled man with wisdom, and integrity. Then the power of Ahriman began, and the struggle for the soul of man continues through the next period of 3,000 years. During the fourth period of 3,000 years, the power of Ahriman will be destroyed. Good will return to the world again, evil and death will be vanquished, and at last the Spirit of Evil will bow humbly before the throne of Ormuzd. While Ormuzd and Ahriman are struggling for control of the human soul and for supremacy in Nature, Mithras, God of Intelligence, stands as mediator between the two. Many authors have noted the similarity between mercury and Mithras. As the chemical mercury acts as a solvent (according to alchemists), so Mithras seeks to harmonize the two celestial opposites

On the discussion of December 25th, Hall adds, which comes out of The Encyclopædia Britannica at that time (1920"s):

"The fraternal and democratic spirit of the first communities, and their humble origin; the identification of the object of adoration with light and the sun; the legends of the shepherds with their gifts and adoration, the flood, and the ark; the representation in art of the fiery chariot, the drawing of water from the rock; the use of bell and candle, holy water and the communion; the sanctification of Sunday and of the 25th of December; the insistence on moral conduct, the emphasis placed on abstinence and self-control; the doctrine of heaven and hell, of primitive revelation, of the mediation of the Logos emanating from the divine, the atoning sacrifice, the constant warfare between good and evil and the final triumph of the former, the immortality of the soul, the last judgment, the resurrection of the flesh and the fiery destruction of the universe--[these] are some of the resemblances which, whether real or only apparent, enabled Mithraism to prolong its resistance to Christianity,"

Hall says nothing about the Phrygian cap, yet fully mentions Phrygians ie. In the Mysteries of the Phrygians.

Concerning the Bull (and sacramental meal), Hall adds:

The Mysteries of Atys included a sacramental meal during which the neophyte ate out of a drum and drank from a cymbal. After being baptized by the blood of a bull, the new initiate was fed entirely on milk to symbolize that he was still a philosophical infant, having but recently been born out of the sphere of materiality. (See Frazer's The Golden Bough.) Is there a possible connection between this lacteal diet prescribed by the Attic rite and St. Paul's allusion to the food for spiritual babes? Sallust gives a key to the esoteric interpretation of the Attic rituals. Cybele, the Great Mother, signifies the vivifying powers of the universe, and Atys that aspect of the spiritual intellect which is suspended between the divine and animal spheres. The Mother of the gods, loving Atys, gave him a starry hat, signifying celestial powers, but Atys (mankind), falling in love with a nymph (symbolic of the lower animal propensities), forfeited his divinity and lost his creative powers. It is thus evident that Atys represents the human consciousness and that his Mysteries are concerned with the reattainment of the starry hat. (See Sallust on the Gods and the World.

Have not read further on what he continued to discuss of Mithras.
 
Well, I've been going through this big collection of text and notes I have getting out as many typos as I can find, so I'll put here what seems to be important.

My whole diversion into the topic of Mithras occurred because, in searching for examples of survivals of texts from the period of Diocletian, I came across an inscribed artifact, an altar erected at Carnuntum by the Imperial Conference in 308 AD. It says:

D(eo) S(oli) i(nvicto) M(ithrae) | fautori imperii sui | Iovii et Herculii | religiosissimi Augusti et Caesares | sacrarium | restituerunt.[1]

Translation: To the unconquered sun-god Mithras, patron/protector/supporter of their imperium; the Joves and Hercules’s, the most religious Augustuses and Caesars, have restored the shrine.[2]


[1] P.367. Carnuntum, CIL, III, 4413. Voyez le monument n° 227
[2] Franz-Valéry-Marie Cumon Monument (1894–1900, with an English translation in 1903) Texts and Illustrated Monuments Relating to the Mysteries of Mithra Vol. 2. P. 146, item 367, with a link to 227; 227, p. 331-2, fig. 205,


It seems that not only did the emperors set up this altar at the time of their meeting at Carnuntum they also had repairs done to the Mithraeum – underground temple.

Mithraism attracts so much interest among scholars mainly because it is one of the most well-represented phenomena of antiquity in terms of archaeology. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of artifacts known to scholars that must represent only a fraction of what once existed. This is a maddening state of affairs when you have no idea at all what it was all about!

Another strong attractor for the study of Mithraism is the fact that it was “born” at about the same time and in about the same place as Christianity. Mithraism was one of Christianity’s main competitors and the two cults embodied different responses to the same set of cultural forces and environmental problems, so the question of why and how one prevailed over the other is of some importance.[1]

Franz-Valéry-Marie Cumont was, for many years, the world’s accepted expert on Mithraism. He was a Belgian archaeologist whose specialty was epigraphy and whose consuming interest was Mithraism in the Roman Empire. The above text found on an altar is recorded in his magnum opus: Texts and Illustrated Monuments Relating to the Mysteries of Mithra. This was the study that made him famous and accepted as the chief expert on the topic.

Cumont – like many others – was consumingly intrigued by Mithraism because it was, like other mystery cults in ancient times, focused on a “secret” that was revealed only to those who were initiated, and probably only by degrees as they advanced in their initiatory levels. One supposes that this gave the other members time to observe and test them to determine if they were worthy of the higher grades and secrets or not. Something like that must have been operating because, as far as is known, no initiate of any of the higher grades ever, ever, revealed the secrets. And, since none of the teachings and secrets were ever written down, modern scholars haven’t got a clue what they were about and why they were so successful over so wide an area, for so long.

Franz Cumont was the Mithraism expert for a very long time starting back in the late 19th century. It’s an interesting example of how someone can come to dominate a field of study to the extent that free inquiry is suppressed and truth is sidelined without even having that intention. Cumont did it by collecting and compiling and publishing a literal mountain of primary evidence relating to Mithraism, and, along with this staggering pile, he published his interpretation of all of it. In this way, the weight of the evidence he brought forward gave weight to his ideas when, in fact, he was just plain wrong about many things.

Cumont’s interpretation was, basically, that since there was an Iranian god named Mithras, the Western mystery cult obviously derived its identity and practices from the Iranian antecedent. However, the worship of Mithra (the god of covenant and oath and protector of truth) in Persia, actually had nothing at all to do with the Mithraic Mystery cult. None of the essential elements of Mithraism in the West were found in the Iranian Zoroastrian divinity. Cumont’s forcing of the evidence to meet a pre-conceived conclusion amounted to little more than circular reasoning with depressing results: Cumont’s version of things held sway for 70 years while other, better, ideas were rejected out-of-hand because they did not agree with the views of the “master” who had piled up all that evidence!

In the years since Cumont, the archaeology has shown him to be wrong as well. When you look at a map of the locations of known Mithraic temples and related finds, you realize that nearly everything is concentrated in a parabolic arc around the Adriatic Sea There is a concentration in the area now known as Germay, along the Rhine, a concentration in Italy, and a still greater concentration in a band from lower Gaul, across Norther Italy, into what is now Austria, Slovenia, Hungary and up into Slovakia. Then, there is a good concentration in what is now Romania and Bulgaria.


[1] David Ulansey (1989) The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World, Oxford University, p. 4.

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Looking to the further east and west, there’s is much less evidence and Mithraic finds in Asia Minor are generally rare. This contradicts Cumont’s theory that Mithraism began in Iran, and moved west through Asia Minor into Rome. Had that been the case, it would have left traces. The dearth of such sites and materials in Roman Syria argues against an east to west transfer. If you go just by the map of traces, more or less drawing a circle around the whole expansion, you would think that Mithraism had its origins in the areas of the barbarians, from Pannonia up to northern Germany. Another item arguing against a Persian origin is that one of only three known mithraea in Dura-Europas located on the extreme eastern border of Roman Syria was destroyed by the Persians when they conquered the area in 256. The Zoroastrian Sassanians apparently didn’t know, and wouldn’t tolerate Roman Mithraism.[1] So, we ditch any idea that the Mithraic Mysteries had anything at all to do with the Persian Mithra.

The primary iconography of Western Mithraism is what is called the tauroctony, a scene in which Mithras is shown slaying a bull, and which always includes other elements that include a snake, a dog, a raven, a scorpion, and sometimes a lion and a cup. This more or less took the place in Mithraism that Jesus dying on a cross takes in Christianity.


[1] Lewis M. Hopfe, ed. (1994) Uncovering Ancient Stones; Eisenbrauns publishing, pp. 147-156.

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Notice the sun at upper left with the raven perched below him, moon at upper right, the pose of Mithras looking away from the bull, the scorpion grabbing hold of the testicles of the bull, the dog lapping up the blood from the stab wound in the neck of the bull, the sheaf of wheat at the end of the bull’s tail, the hat of Mithras, the serpent at the base of all, and finally, though it is difficult to see in this image, there are heads of wheat plants emerging out of the wound on the neck of the bull. What can it all mean?

In 1971, the domination of the misdirection of Cumont ended with the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies held at Manchester University. Papers presented by R. L. Gordon and John Hinnells were powerful enough to break through the logjam.[1] Apparently, after the destruction of Cumont’s ideas, the view was pretty grim and it was thought to be impossible to ever find out or figure out what Mithraism was really all about. But, all was not lost, apparently someone went looking and found that a much more interesting solution had actually been offered as early as 1869 by a German scholar, K. B. Stark, only his ideas had been summarily dismissed by Cumont and ignored from then on because the “master” had spoken. According to Ulansey, Stark’s idea was that:


[1] This event and the ideas presented are discussed by David Ulansey in THE ORIGINS OF THE MITHRAIC MYSTERIES.

…the figures in the tauroctony represented not characters out of Iranian mythology but rather a series of stars and constellations. The Mithraic tauroctony, therefore, was not a pictorial representation of an Iranian myth – as Cumont and his followers claimed it was – but a star map!

Stark’s theory was based on the simple fact that of the figures which accompany Mithras in the tauroctony (bull, scorpion, dog, snake, raven, lion, cup) every one possesses a parallel among the constellations, in particular a group of constellations which are all visible together at certain moments during the year: the bull is paralleled by Taurus, the scorpion by Scorpius, the dog by Canis Minor, the snake by Hydra, the raven by Corvus, the lion by Leo, and the cup by Crater; in addition, the star Spica the wheat ear (the brightest star in Virgo) parallels the ears of what which are often shown in the tauroctony growing out of the tip of the bull’s tail. These parallels, argued Stark, cannot be coincidental, and the Mithraic tauroctony must have been created in order to represent a group of constellation.[1]

The zodiac is usually presented in association with the tauroctony, often as an arch or a surround. Additionally, there are representations of the extremely ancient lion-headed god known as “Aion”[2], and sun and moon figures. Ulansey notes that the seven planets are represented as seven bursts or as seven stars on Mithras’ cape, or in the space surrounding him, and the sun figure is often shown shaking hands with, being crowned by, or feasting with Mithras. I will note here that, at the time, there were only five planets know and the term “seven planets” as in astrology, included the sun and moon. So, seven “stars” depicted with the sun and the moon already present cannot be seven of our now known nine planets despite the fact that, in one Mithraeum, the symbols of the “planets” are found. I would suggest that these “stars” and the symbols of the “planets” are symbols of comets that bore the names of the planets long before the permanent members of our solar system did.

The 3rd century neo-Platonist, Porphyry, wrote that the mithraea were either in caves, or constructed to resemble caves, because they were meant to convey the image of the cosmos. He also asserts in another passage that astral elements play an important role in Mithraism. Origen also remarks on the astral nature of the “Persian Mysteries”. He described it as teachings that speak about the soul’s passage through seven gates represented by the planets, and at the top is an eighth gate. All of these sources are from outside the cult, so whatever they may have thought about it based on things they had heard, must be taken with caution as possible distortion.


[1] Ulansey (1989), p. 15.
[2] Aion (Greek: Αἰών) is a Hellenistic deity associated with time, the orb or circle encompassing the universe, and the zodiac. The "time" which Aion represents is perpetual, unbounded, ritual, and cyclic: The future is a returning version of the past, later called aevum (see Vedic Sanskrit Ṛtú). This kind of time contrasts with empirical, linear, progressive, and historical time that Chronos represented, which divides into past, present, and future.  Aion is thus a god of the cyclic ages, and the circle of the year and the zodiac. In the latter part of the Classical era he became associated with mystery religions concerned with the afterlife, such as the mysteries of Cybele, the Dionysian mysteries, Orphic religion, and the Mithraic mysteries. In Latin, the concept of the deity may appear as Aeternitas, Anna Perenna, or Saeculum. Modern scholars call this deity the 'leonto‑cephaline' figure – a winged, lion-headed, nude male, whose torso is entwined by a serpent. He typically holds a sceptre, keys, and / or a thunderbolt. Nobody knows for sure who he was or what he represented, but aside from the lion-head, depictions of him have Aion's icons; in rare instances, his statue appears in mithrea with the human head, and with the lion-head gone, he is indistinguishable from Aion. The Suda identifies Aion with Osiris. In Ptolemaic Alexandria, at the site of a dream oracle, the Hellenistic syncretic god Serapis was identified as Aion Plutonius. The epithet Plutonius marks functional aspects shared with Pluto, consort of Persephone and ruler of the underworld in the Eleusinian tradition. Epiphanius says that at Alexandria Aion's birth from Kore the Virgin was celebrated 6 January. This syncretic Aion became a symbol and guarantor of the perpetuity of Roman rule, and emperors such as Antoninus Pius issued coins with the legend Aion, Ezquerra, Jaime Alvar (2008). Romanising Oriental Gods: Myth, salvation, and ethics in the cults of Cybele. Brill.


There does appear to be seven levels of initiation in the cult: Crow, Nymphus, Soldier, Lion, Persian, Heliodromus (Sun-Runner), and Father. These were the names mentioned by Jerome, and the seven levels do appear to be associated with the symbols of the seven planets (if we count the sun and the moon along with the five known planets, which is not clear here). From all of this, scholars conclude that there is ample evidence for the “astral” nature of the cult. The question is, just what was this “astral” nature and was it, possibly, not so much astral as astronomical?

The next developments came in 1973 at a meeting of the American Philological Association where the Canadian classical scholar, Roger Beck, presented a paper reviving K. B. Stark’s work mentioned above. According to Beck, the Tauroctony is supposed to tell us that if we look south with the east to our left, when Taurus is setting in the west, we’ll see the Tauroctony in the night sky! That is, it is designed to indicate something that can be seen at a certain moment in time that repeats at least once a year, and has some symbolic meaning; an anniversary perhaps?

Next came Stanley Insler, another Mithraic scholar, who agrees with Beck for the most part, except the “magic moment” for him is at the heliacal setting of Taurus, or sometime in mid-spring which would mean that the death of the bull represents the death of winter and the sprouting wheat is the return of the growing season and all that agricultural jazz.

So, Beck and Insler agreed that the tauroctony is a star map, they agreed on the constellations represented, but Ulansey points out that their explanations did not account for why other constellations that can be viewed at those times are not represented; why only the selected ones, and more importantly, what constellation does the character of Mithras himself, represent? The answer wasn’t long in coming as Ulansey explains.

A few years later, orientalist, Alessandro Bausani went in the same direction as Beck and Insler more or less, but added the dramatic idea that the tauroctony is all about the constellation Leo symbolically killing Taurus at (again) a specific moment in time, i.e. when Taurus sets, Leo is at the zenith. This is true, but Leo is not represented in most of the tauroctony scenes though the lion-headed god is often present in other contexts.

Historian, Michael Speidel, tried to fill the gap by proposing that Mithras was Orion (because Sirius was represented in the dog) and the specific constellations were selected because they all lie on the celestial equator. Ulansey points out that, for this theory to be correct, for this display to be presented in the sky at the time of the equinox (death of winter and all that), we should see Aries and Libra in the tauroctony but find Taurus and Scorpius instead. (There is a simple explanation for why that is not the case, so just hang on.) Plus, there is no real reason to connect Mithras with Orion. Nevertheless, all four of these scholars, and K. B. Stark from the 19th century, agree that the tauroctony is a star map that should tell us something about a moment in time and space.

The suggestion that the celestial equator was the line to be followed attracted the intrepid Ulansey who began to study the problem. He noted that all of the figures, excepting the lion, are matched by constellations through which the celestial equator passes on or below the ecliptic when the spring equinox was in Taurus. And directly above the constellation of the bull, at the time of the Taurus-equinox, the celestial equator passed through the constellation Perseus. He then points out that, in the Phaenomena of Aratos, following the star maps of Eudoxus, it was said that the Pleiades are located near the left knee of Perseus.[1] In the tauroctony, the left knee of Perseus is not far from the position where the dagger is shown entering the bull’s shoulder, and it is precisely at that point, in the constellation of the bull, that the Pleiades are located. Ulansey asks: “Is it just coincidence that the left knee of Mithras is always shown in an exaggerated fashion pointing to just this spot, as if in illustration of Aratos’ description?”[2]

Ulansey then goes on to show that it is Perseus that is represented by Mithras based on several unique features of representation, including the fact that he is always, always, shown killing the bull while looking away from it, exactly as Perseus did when killing the gorgon, Medusa. More than that, the constellation Perseus just happens to be right above Taurus in the sky. Now we are getting somewhere. However, we must note that Aratos’ description of Perseus in relation to Taurus is contradicted by every other representation known. So this, naturally, caught Ulansey’s attention; there was a mystery here and he began to tug on the dangling thread.



[1] Phaenomena 254.
[2] Ulansey, p. 57.

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Ulansey’s point: there is a definite relationship between Mithras and Perseus but it was only from the time of Herodotus that Perseus was thought to be associated with Persia at all. In the fifth century BC, the Greek poet, Pindar, wrote of Perseus’s encounter with Medusa as happening in Hyperborea – assumed to be ancient Britain – where Stonehenge was known as “Giant’s dance”.

Mithras is always portrayed wearing what is known as a Phrygian cap and Perseus has a “cap of invisibility” given to him to enable him to slay the gorgon. In quite a number of ancient depictions, this cap is depicted as an Phrygian cap. Phrygia has been identified as a kingdom located in the west central part of Anatolia in what is now modern-day Turkey. The Phrygians were most famous for their legendary kings such as Gordias and his knot, Midas and his gold, Mygdon who made war with the Amazons, not to mention their close alliance with the Trojans against the Achaeans! The Iliad describes the homeland of the Phrygians on the Sangarius River, which would remain the center of Phrygia throughout its history. According to the Iliad, Phrygia was famous for its wine and had "brave and expert" horsemen. The Phrygians were Indo-Europeans who, according to ancient tradition, migrated to Anatolia from the Balkans. Recent theories propose that they made this migration at the time of the collapse of the Bronze Age (or just after), filling the political vacuum left by the depopulated Hittites. (Another theory is that they were part of the Hittite Empire before it fell and just survived and took over the area.)

The earliest preserved literary reference to the Mithraic mysteries is a line from the 1st century Thebaid by Statius, which says: “Persei sub rupibus antri indignata Sequi torquentem cornua Mithram.” This has been translated to say: “Mithras twisting the unruly horns beneath the rocks of a Persian cave.” This was taken to imply the Persian origin of the cult. However, the translation has been corrected by scholars to: “Mithras twisting the unruly horns beneath the rocks of the cave of Perseus[1] which removes the Persian connection.



[1] Ulansey (1989) p. 29.
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The much later Byzantine historian, Georgius Cedrenos,[1] wrote:

Perseus, they say, brought to Persia initiation and magic, which by his secrets made the fire of the sky descend; with the aid of this art, he brought the celestial fire to the earth, and he had it preserved in a temple under the name of the sacred immortal fire; he chose virtuous men as ministers of a new cult, and established the Magi as the depositors and guardians of this fire which they were charged to protect.[2]

Even though information about Cedrenos and his sources seems to be at a premium, I am intrigued by his connection of the rites of Perseus to “fire from heaven”. Where in the world did he get that?


[1] 12th century Byzantine court historian about whom I can get almost no information at all about what possible sources he used.
[2] _1100-1200- Georgius Cedrenus\ - Operum Omnium Conspectus seu 'Index of available Writings' cited by Ulansey, p. 30.
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Ulansey suggests that the snake-entwined leontocephalic (Lion headed) god is iconographically similar to Medusa of the snake hair. Indeed, this is a likely comparison since we are talking about comets that were often likened to snakes or dragons. He also notices the similarity to Huwawa/Humbaba. He then compares the image of Medusa from a 6th century BC Attic vase painting to the lion-headed god.

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There is additional evidence of the relationship: in a mithraeum in Pannonia a sandstone block was found that had a gorgon head carved on one side and a lion on the other. At another site, columns were carved with alternating gorgon and lion heads. We are clearly dealing with comet imagery here.

As mentioned, both Perseus and Mithras were born in underground chambers with the added curiosity that Mithras was born from a rock! Indeed, he is depicted emerging from his rock as the new “begetter of light”. Another item is the fact that a particular type of knife is often depicted in the hand of Perseus, called a harpe, and having an extra curved blade. Mithras is shown with a straight dagger, but the harpe appears to be an important symbol of the fifth grade of the cult and a curved knife, of the seventh.

GradeSymbolsPlanet/tutelary deityMosaic images of the grade symbols (2nd century )
Images courtesy Marie-Lan Nguyen
Corax: raven or crowBeaker, caduceusMercury
Nymphus: male brideLamp, bell, veil, diademVenus
Miles: soldierPouch, helmet, lance, drum, belt, breast plateMars
Leo: lionBatillum (iron shovel),sistrum, laurel wreath, thunderboltsJupiter1660985994796.png
Perses: PersianHarpe knife, crescent moon and stars, sling pouchMoon1660986003686.png
Heliodromus: sun-runnerTorch, sun images, whipSun1660986012849.png
Pater: fatherPlatter, Phrygian cap, shepherd’s staff, curved knifeSaturn1660986022317.png
 
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