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MITHRAS
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MITHRAS , a See also:Persian See also:god of See also:light, whose See also:worship, the latest one of importance to be brought from the Orient to See also:Rome, spread throughout the See also:empire and became the greatest antagonist of See also:Christianity.
I. See also:History and See also:Distribution.—The cult goes back to a See also:period before the separation of the Persians from the See also:Hindus, as is shown by references in the literatures of both See also:stocks, the Avesta and the Vedas. Though but faintly pictured in the Vedic See also:hymns, he is there invoked with See also:Ormazd, or Ahuramazda, the god of the See also:sky, and is clearly a divinity of light, the See also:protector of truth and the enemy of See also:error and falsehood. In the Avesta, after the separation of the Iranian stock from the See also:Hindu and the rise of Zoroastrianism, which elevated Ormazd to the See also:summit of the Persian theological See also:system, his role was more distinct, though less important; between Ormazd, who reigned in eternal brightness, and See also:Ahriman, whose See also:realm was eternal darkness, he occupied an intermediate position as the greatest of the yazatas, beings created by Ormazd to aid in the destruction of evil and the See also:administration of the See also:world. He was thus a deity of the realms of See also:air and light, and, by See also:transfer to the moral realm, the god of truth and See also:loyalty. Because light is accompanied by See also:heat, he was the god of vegetation and increase; he sent prosperity to the See also:good, and annihilated the See also:bad; he was the god of armies and the See also:champion of heroes; as the enemy of darkness and of all evil See also:spirits, he protected souls, .accompanying them on the way to See also:paradise, and was thus a redeemer. Animals and birds were sacrificed and libations poured to him, and prayers were addressed to him by devotees who had purified themselves by See also:ablution and repeated flagellation. As a god who gave victory, he was prominent in the See also:official cult of See also:Persia, the seventh See also:month and the sixteenth See also:day of other months being sacred to him. His worship spread with the empire of the Persians throughout See also:Asia See also:Minor, and See also:Babylon was an important centre. Its popularity remained unimpaired after the fall of Persia, and it was during the ferment following the conquests of See also: Modified though never essentially changed, (1) by contact with the See also:star-worship of the Chaldaeans, who identified Mithras with See also:Shamash, god of the See also:sun,(z) by the indigenous Armenian See also:religion and other See also:local See also:Asiatic faiths and (3) by the Greeks of Asia Minor, who identified Mithras with Helios, and contributed to the success of his cult by equipping it for the first See also:time with See also:artistic representations (the famous Mithras See also:relief originated in the Pergamene school towards the znd See also:century B.c.), Mithraism was first transmitted to the Roman world during the 1st century B.C. by the Cilician pirates captured by See also:Pompey. It attained no importance, however, for nearly two centuries. The lateness of its arrival in the See also:West was due to the fact that its centres of See also:influence were not in immediate contact with See also:Greek and Roman See also:civilization. It never became popular in Greek lands, and was regarded by Hellenized nations as a barbarous worship. It was at rivalry with the See also:Egyptian religion. As See also:late as the time of See also:Augustus it was but little known in Roman territory, and gained a See also:firm foothold in See also:Italy only gradually, as a result of the intercourse between Rome and Asia consequent upon the erection of the Eastern provinces and the submission and colonization of See also:Mesopotamia. It seems at first to have had relations with the cult of the See also:Great See also:Mother of the Gods at Rome, whose influence served to protect it and facilitate its growth. The cult of Mithras began to attract See also:attention at Rome about the endof the 1st century A.D. See also:Statius (c. A.D. 8o) mentions the typical Mithraic relief in his Thebaid (i. 719,720); from See also:Plutarch's (A.D. 46–125) Vita Pompei (24) it is apparent that the worship was well known; and the first Roman reliefs show the characteristics of about the same time. Towards the See also:close of the 2nd century the cult had begun to spread rapidly through the See also:army, the See also:mercantile class, slaves and actual propagandists, all of which classes were largely composed of Asiatics. It throve especially among military posts, and in the track of See also:trade, where its monuments have been discovered in greatest abundance. The See also:German frontiers afford most See also:evidence of its prosperity. Rome itself was a favourite seat of the religion. From the end of the znd century the emperors encouraged Mithraism, because of the support which it afforded to the divine right of monarchs. The Persian belief that the legitimate See also:sovereign reigned by the See also:grace of Ormazd, whose favour was made See also:manifest by the sending of the Hvareno, a See also:kind of See also:celestial aureole of See also:fire, resulted in the See also:doctrine that the sun was the giver of the Hvareno. Mithras, identified with Sol Invictus at Rome, thus became the giver of authority and victory to the imperial See also:house. From the time of See also:Commodus, who participated in its mysteries, its supporters were to be found in all classes. Its importance at Rome may be judged from the abundance of monumental remains—more than 75 pieces of See also:sculpture, too See also:inscriptions, and ruins of temples and chapels in all parts of the See also:city and suburbs. Finally, See also:philosophy as well as politics contributed to the success of Mithraism, for the outcome of the See also:attempt to recognize in the Graeco-Roman gods only forces of nature was to make the Sun the most important of deities; and it was the Sun with whom Mithras was identified. The beginning of the downfall of Mithraism See also:dates from A.D. 275, when See also:Dacia was lost to the empire, and the invasions of the See also:northern peoples resulted in the destruction of temples along a great stretch of frontier, the natural stronghold of the cult. The aggression of Christianity also was now more effective. The emperors, however, favoured the cult, which was the army's favourite until See also:Constantine destroyed its hopes. The reign of See also:Julian and the usurpation of See also:Eugenius renewed the hopes of its devotees, but the victory of See also:Theodosius (394) may be considered the end of its existence. It still survived in certain cantons of the See also:Alps in the 5th century, and clung to See also:life with more tenacity in its Eastern See also:home. Its legitimate successor was See also:Manichaeism, which afforded a See also:refuge to those mystics who had been shaken in faith, but not converted, by the polemics of the See also: The See also:ceiling was made to symbolize the See also:firmament. There were arrangements for the brilliant See also:illumination of the choir and its relief, which was sometimes sculptured on both sides and reversible, while the podia were intentionally more obscure. The choir and the long space between the podia were for ministrants, the podia themselves for kneeling worshippers. Two altars, to the Sun and the See also:Moon, stood before the former, and cult statues along the latter. The approach to the grotto See also:lay through a See also:portico on the level with and fronting the See also:street, and a pronaos, in communication with which was a kind of See also:sacristy. Steps led to the See also:lower level of the See also:sanctuary. The simplicity and smallness of the Mithraic temples are to be accounted for by structural and See also:financial reasons; an under-ground temple was difficult to construct on a large See also:scale, and the worshippers of Mithras were usually from the humbler classes. The See also:average grotto held from fifty to a See also:hundred persons. The See also:size of the sanctuaries, however, was compensated for by their number; in See also:Ostia alone there were five. The typical bas relief, which is found in great abundance in the museums of See also:Europe, invariably represents Mithras, under the See also:form of a youth with conical cap and flying drapery, slaying the sacred See also:bull, the See also:scorpion attacking the genitals of the See also:animal, the See also:serpent drinking its See also:blood, the See also:dog springing towards the See also:wound in its See also:side, and frequently, in addition, the Sun-god, his messenger the See also:raven, a fig-See also:tree, a See also:lion, a ewer, and See also:torch-bearers. The relief is in some instances enclosed in a See also:frame of figures and scenes in relief. The best example is the See also:monument of Osterburken (Cumont, Textes et monuments figuri s, No. 246). With this monument as a basis, See also:Franz Cumont has arranged the small Mithraic reliefs into two See also:groups, one illustrating the See also:legend of the origin of the gods, and the other the legend of Mithras. In the first See also:group are found See also:Infinite Time, or Cronus; Tellus and See also:Atlas supporting the globe, representing the See also:union of See also:Earth and See also:Heaven; See also:Oceanus; the Fates; Infinite Time giving into the See also:hand of his successor Ormazd the See also:thunder-See also:bolt, the See also:symbol of authority; Ormazd struggling with a See also:giant of evil—the Mithraic gigantomachy. The second group represents, first, the See also:birth of Mithras; then the god nude, cutting See also:fruit and leaves from a fig-tree in which is the bust of a deity, and before which one of the winds is blowing upon Mithras; the god discharging an arrow against a See also:rock from which springs a See also:fountain whose See also:water a figure is kneeling to receive in his palms; the bull in a small See also:boat, near which again occurs the figure of the animal under a roof about to be set on fire by two figures; the bull in See also:flight, with Mithras in pursuit; Mithras bearing the bull on his shoulders; Helios kneeling before Mithras; Helios and Mithras clasping hands over an See also:altar; Mithras with See also:drawn See also:bow on a See also:running See also:horse; Mithras and Helios banqueting; Mithras and Helios mounting the See also:chariot of the latter and rising in full course over the ocean. Few of the Mithraic reliefs are of even mediocre See also:art. Among the best is the relief from the Capitoline grotto, now in the Louvre. Cumont's See also:interpretation of the main relief and its smaller companions involves the reconstruction of a Mithraic See also:theology, a Mithraic legend, and a Mithraic symbolism. Paucity of evidence makes the first difficult. The See also:head of the divine See also:hierarchy of Mithras was Infinite Time—Cronus, See also:Saturn; Heaven and Earth were his offspring, and begat Ocean, who formed with them a trinity corresponding to See also:Jupiter, See also:Juno, and See also:Neptune. From Heaven and Earth sprang the remaining members of a circle analogous to the Olympic gods. Ahriman, also the son of Time, was the Persian See also:Pluto. Owing to Semitic influence every Persian god had in Roman times come to possess a twofold significance—astrological and natural, Semitic and Iranian—the earlier and deeper Iranian significance being imparted by the See also:clergy to the few intelligent elect, the more attractive and superficial Chaldaean symbolism being presented to the multitude. Mithras was the most important member of the circle. He was regarded as the mediator between suffering humanity and the unknowable and inaccessible god of all being, who reigned in the See also:ether. The Mithras legend has been lost, and can be reconstructed only from the scenes on the above described relief. Mithras was See also:born of a rock, the marvel being seen only by certain shepherds, who brought gifts and adored him. Chilled by the See also:wind, the new-born god went to a fig-tree, partook of its fruit, and clothed himself in its leaves. He then undertook to vanquish the beings already in the world, and rendered subject to him first the Sun, with whom he concluded a treaty of friendship. The most wonderful of his adventures, however, was that with the sacred bull which had been created by Ormazd. The See also:hero seized it by the horns and was See also:borne headlong in the flight of the animal, which he finally subdued and dragged into a cavern. The bull escaped, but was overtaken, and by See also:order of the Sun, who sent his messenger the raven, was reluctantly sacrificed by Mithras. From the dying animal sprang the life of the earth, although Ahriman sent his emissaries to prevent it. The soul of the bull See also:rose to the celestial See also:spheres and became the See also:guardian of herds and flocks under the name of See also:Silvanus. Mithras was through his See also:deed the creator of life. Meanwhile Ahriman sent a terrible drought upon the See also:land. Mithras defeated his purpose by discharging an arrow against A. rock and miraculously See also:drawing the water from it. Next Ahriman sent a See also:deluge, from which one See also:man escaped in a boat with his See also:cattle. Finally a fire desolated the earth, and only the creatures of Ormazd escaped. Mithras, his See also:work accomplished, banqueted with the Sun for the last time, and was taken by him in his chariot to the habitation of the immortals, whence he continued to protect the faithful. The symbolism employed by Mithraism finds its best See also:illustration in the large central relief, which represents Mithras in the See also:act of slaying the bull as a See also:sacrifice-to bring about terrestrial life, and thus portrays the concluding scenes in the legend of the sacred animal. The scorpion, attacking the genitals of the bull, is sent by Ahriman from the lower world to defeat the purpose of the sacrifice; the dog, springing towards the wound in the bull's side, was venerated by the Persians as the See also:companion of Mithras; the serpent is the symbol of the earth being made fertile by drinking the blood of the sacrificial bull; the raven, towards which Mithras turns his See also:face as if for direction, is the See also:herald of the Sun-god, whose bust is near by, and who has ordered the sacrifice; various See also:plants near the bull, and heads of See also:wheat springing from his tail, symbolize the result of the sacrifice; the See also:cypress is perhaps the tree of See also:immortality. There was also an astrological symbolism, but it was superficial, and of secondary importance. The torch-bearers sometimes seen on the relief represent one being in three aspects—the See also:morning, See also:noon and evening sun, or the vernal, summer and autumn sun. Owing to the almost See also:absolute disappearance of documentary evidence, it is impossible to know otherwise than very imperfectly the inner life of Mithraism. See also:Jerome (Epist. cvii.) and inscriptions preserve the knowledge that the mystic, sacratus, passed through seven degrees, which probably corresponded to the seven planetary spheres traversed by the soul in its progress to See also:wisdom, perfect purity, and the See also:abode of the blest: Corax, Raven, so named because the raven in Mithraic See also:mythology was the servant of the Sun; Cryphius, Occult, a degree in the taking of which the mystic was perhaps hidden from others in the sanctuary by a See also:veil, the removal of which was a See also:solemn ceremonial; See also:Miles, Soldier, signifying the See also:holy warfare against evil in the service of the god; See also:Leo, Lion, symbolic of the See also:element of fire; Perses, Persian, clad in Asiatic See also:costume, a See also:reminiscence of the See also:ancient origin of the religion; Heliodromus, See also:Courier of the Sun, with whom Mithras was identified; See also:Pater, See also:Father, a degree bringing the mystic among those who had the See also:general direction of the cult for the See also:rest of their lives. One relief (Cumont, vol. i. p. 175, fig. 1o) shows figures masked and costumed to represent Corax, Perses, Miles and Leo, indicating the practice on occasion of See also:rites involving the use of sacred disguise, a See also:custom probably reminiscent of the See also:primitive time when men represented their deities under the form of animals, and believed themselves in closer communion with them when disguised to impersonate them. Of the seven degrees, those mystics not yet beyond the third, Miles, were not in full communion, and were called U7r?7peroDv ES (servants); while the See also:fourth degree, Leo, admitted them into the class of the fully initiate, the yelixosrss (participants). No See also:women were in any way connected with the cult, though the male See also:sex could be admitted even in childhood. The time requisite for the several degrees is unknown, and may have been determined by the Patres, who conferred them in a solemn ceremony called Sacramentum, in which the initial step was an See also:oath never to divulge what should be revealed, and for which the mystic had been specially prepared by lustral See also:purification, prolonged See also:abstinence, and severe deprivations. See also:Special ceremonies accompanied the diverse degrees: See also:Tertullian speaks of " marking the forehead of a Miles," which may have been the See also:branding of a Mithraic sign; See also:honey was applied to the See also:tongue and hands of the Leo and the Perses. A sacred communion of See also:bread, water and possibly See also:wine, compared by the See also:Christian apologists to the See also:Eucharist, was administered to the mystic who was entering upon one of the advanced degrees, perhaps Leo. The ceremony was probably commemorative of the banquet of Mithras and Helios before the former's See also:ascension, and its effect strength of See also:body, wisdom, prosperity, See also:power to resist evil, and participation in the immortality enjoyed by the god himself. Other features reminiscent of the original barbarous rites in the primitive caverns of the See also:East, no doubt also occupied a See also:place in the cult; bandaging of eyes, binding of hands with the intestines of a See also:fowl, leaping over a ditch filled with water, witnessing a simulated See also:murder, are mentioned by the Pseudo-See also:Augustine; and the manipulation of See also:lights in the See also:crypt, the administration of oaths, and the repetition of the sacred formulae, all contributed toward inducing, a See also:state of ecstatic exaltation. What in the See also:opinion of Albrecht Dieterich (Eine Mithrasliturgie, See also:Leipzig, 1903) is a Mithras See also:liturgy is preserved in a Greek MS. of Egyptian origin of about A.U. 300. It is the ritual of a magician, imbedded in which, and alternating with magic formulae and other occult See also:matter, are a number of invocations and prayers which Dieterich reconstructs as a liturgy in use by the clergy of Mithras between A.U. 100 and 300, and adapted to this new use about the latter date. The Mithraic See also:priest, sacerdos or antistes, was sometimes also of the degree of pater. Tertullian (De praescr. haeret. 40) calls the See also:chief priest summus See also:pontifex, probably the pater patrum who had general supervision of all the initiates in one city, and states that he could marry but once. According to the same author, there were Mithraic, as well as Christian, virgines et conlinentes. Besides the administration of sacraments and the celebration of offices on special occasions, the priest kept alight the eternal fire on the altar, addressed prayers to the Sun at See also:dawn, midday and See also:twilight, turning towards east, See also:south and west respectively. Clad in Eastern See also:paraphernalia, he officiated at the numerous sacrifices indicated by the remains of See also:iron and See also:bronze knives, hatchets, chains, ashes and bones of oxen, See also:sheep, goats, See also:swine, fowl, &c. There was pouring of libations, chanting and See also:music, and bells and candles were employed in the service. Each day of the See also:week was marked . by the See also:adoration of a special See also:planet, the sun being the most sacred of all, and certain dates, perhaps the sixteenth of each month and the equinoxes, in conformity with the See also:character of Mithras as mediator, were set aside for special festivals. The Mithraic community of worshippers, besides being a spiritual fraternity, was a legal See also:corporation enjoying the right of holding See also:property, with temporal officials at its head, like any other sodalitas: there were the decuriones and decem primi, governing See also:councils resembling See also:assembly and See also:senate in cities; magistri, annually elected presidents; curatores, financial agents; defensores, See also:advocates; and patroni, protectors among the influential. It may be that a single temple was the resort of several small associations of worshippers which were subdivisions of the whole community. The cult was supported mainly by voluntary contribution. An abundance of epigraphic evidence testifies to the devotion of See also:rich and poor alike. IV. Relation to Christianity.—The most interesting aspect of Mithraism is its antagonism to Christianity. Both religions were of See also:Oriental origin; they were propagated about the same time, and spread with equal rapidity on See also:account of the same causes, viz. the unity of the See also:political world and the debasement of its moral life. At the end of the znd century each had advanced to the farthest limits of the empire, though the one possessed greatest strength on the frontiers of the See also:Teutonic countries, along the See also:Danube and the See also:Rhine, while the other throve especially in Asia and See also:Africa. The points of collision were especially at Rome, in Africa, and in the See also:Rhone Valley, and the struggle was the more obstinate because of the resemblances between the two religions, which were so numerous and so close as to be the subject of remark as See also:early as the 2nd century, and the cause of mutual recrimination. The fraternal and democratic spirit of the first communities, and their humble origin; the See also:identification of the See also:object of adoration with light and the Sun; the legends of the shepherds with their gifts and adoration, the See also:flood, and the See also:ark; the See also:representation in art of the fiery chariot, the drawing of water from the rock; the use of See also:bell and See also:candle, holy water and the communion; the sanctification of See also:Sunday and of the 25th of See also:December; the insistence on moral conduct, the emphasis placed upon abstinence and self-See also:control; the doctrine of heaven and See also:hell, of primitive See also:revelation, of the See also:mediation of the See also:Logos emanating from the divine, the atoning sacrifice, the See also:constant warfare between good and evil and the final See also:triumph of the former, the immortality of the soul, the last See also:judgment, the resurrection of the flesh and the fiery destruction of the universe—are some of the resemblances which, whether real or only apparent, enabled Mithraism to prolong its resistance to Christianity. At their See also:root lay a See also:common Eastern origin rather than any borrowing. On the other hand, there were important contrasts between the two. Mithraism courted the favour of Roman paganism and combined monotheism with polytheism, while Christianity was uncompromising. The former as a consequence won large See also:numbers of supporters who were drawn by the possibility it afforded of adopting an attractive faith which did not involve a rupture with the religion of Roman society, and consequently with the state. In the See also:middle of the 3rd century Mithraism seemed on the See also:verge of becoming the universal religion. Its See also:eminence, however, was so largely based upon dalliance with Roman society, its weakness so great in having only a mythical character, instead of a See also:personality, as an object of adoration, and in excluding women from its privileges, that it See also:fell rapidly before the assaults of Christianity. Manichaeism, which combined the adoration of Zoroaster and See also:Christ, became the refuge of those supporters of Mithraism who were inclined to See also:compromise, while many found the transition to orthodox Christianity easy because of its very resemblance to their old faith. See Franz Cumont, Textes et monuments figures relatifs aux mysteres de Mithra (See also:Brussels, 1896, 1899), which has superseded all publications on the subject; Albrecht Dieterich, Eine Mithrasliturgie (Leipzig, 1903). See also the See also:translation of Cumont's Conclusions (the second See also:part of vol. i. of the above work, published separately 1902, under the See also:title See also:Les Mysteres de Mithra), by T. J. McCormack (See also:Chicago and See also:London, 1903). Extended bibliography in See also:Roscher's See also:Lexicon der Mythologie. (G. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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