Mithras before the Roman Mysteries (
Mt. Nemrut, 1st century BCE) of
Sasanian king
Ardashir II.
Mithra stands on a
lotus flower on the left holding a
barsom. (or the similar headdress – a Persian
tiara), in
Iranian (Parthian) clothing, On the back of the thrones there is an inscription in Greek, which includes the compound name
Apollo-Mithras-Helios in the genitive case (
Ἀπόλλωνος Μίθρου Ἡλίου). Vermaseren also reports about a Mithras cult in Fayum in the 3rd century BCE. R.D. Barnett has argued that the royal seal of King Saussatar of the
Mitanni from depicts a tauroctonous Mithras.
Beginnings of Roman Mithraism The origins and spread of the Mysteries have been intensely debated among scholars and there are radically differing views on these issues. According to Clauss, mysteries of Mithras were not practiced until the 1st century CE.
Earliest cult locations According to Roger Beck, the attested locations of the Roman cult in the earliest phase () are as follows: The context is a prayer to the god
Phoebus. The cave is described as
persei, which in this context is usually translated
Persian. According to the translator J.H. Mozley it literally means
Persean, referring to
Perses, the son of
Perseus and
Andromeda,
Plutarch The Greek biographer
Plutarch (46–127 CE) says that "secret mysteries ... of Mithras" were practiced by the pirates of
Cilicia, the coastal province in the southeast of
Anatolia, who were active in the 1st century BCE: "They likewise offered strange sacrifices; those of Olympus I mean; and they celebrated certain secret mysteries, among which those of Mithras continue to this day, being originally instituted by them." He mentions that the pirates were especially active during the
Mithridatic wars (between the
Roman Republic and King
Mithridates VI of Pontus) in which they supported the king.
Dio Cassius The historian
Dio Cassius (2nd to 3rd century CE) tells how the name of Mithras was spoken during the state visit to Rome of
Tiridates I of Armenia, during the reign of
Nero. (Tiridates was the son of
Vonones II of Parthia, and his coronation by Nero in 66 CE confirmed the end of a war between
Parthia and Rome.) Dio Cassius writes that Tiridates, as he was about to receive his crown, told the Roman emperor that he revered him "as Mithras". Roger Beck thinks it possible that this episode contributed to the emergence of Mithraism as a popular religion in Rome.
Porphyry ) The philosopher
Porphyry (3rd–4th century CE) gives an account of the origins of the Mysteries in his work
De antro nympharum (
The Cave of the Nymphs). According to Beck, Porphyry's
De antro is the only clear text from antiquity which tells us about the intent of the Mithraic mysteries and how that intent was realized. David Ulansey finds it important that Porphyry "confirms ... that astral conceptions played an important role in Mithraism." here Mithras is given the epithet "the great god", and is identified with the sun god
Helios. There have been different views among scholars as to whether this text is an expression of Mithraism as such.
Franz Cumont argued that it is not;
Marvin Meyer thinks it is; while
Hans Dieter Betz sees it as a synthesis of Greek, Egyptian, and Mithraic traditions.
Modern debate on origin Cumont's hypothesis: from Persian state religion -era
intaglio depicting a tauroctony (
Walters Art Museum) king
Ardashir II.
Mithra stands on a
lotus flower on the left holding a
barsom. Scholarship on Mithras begins with
Franz Cumont, who published a two volume collection of source texts and images of monuments in French in 1894–1900,
Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra [French:
Texts and Illustrated Monuments Relating to the Mysteries of Mithra]. An English translation of part of this work was published in 1903, with the title
The Mysteries of Mithra. Cumont's hypothesis, as the author summarizes it in the first 32 pages of his book, was that the Roman religion was "the Roman form of
Mazdaism", According to Cumont, the god
Mithra came to Rome "accompanied by a large representation of the Mazdean Pantheon." Cumont considers that while the tradition "underwent some modification in the Occident ... the alterations that it suffered were largely superficial."
Criticisms and reassessments of Cumont Cumont's theories came in for severe criticism from John R. Hinnells and R.L. Gordon at the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies held in 1971. John Hinnells was unwilling to reject entirely the idea of Iranian origin, but wrote: "we must now conclude that his reconstruction simply will not stand. It receives no support from the Iranian material and is in fact in conflict with the ideas of that tradition as they are represented in the extant texts. Above all, it is a theoretical reconstruction which does not accord with the actual Roman iconography." He discussed Cumont's reconstruction of the bull-slaying scene and stated "that the portrayal of Mithras given by Cumont is not merely unsupported by Iranian texts but is actually in serious conflict with known Iranian theology." Another paper by R.L. Gordon argued that Cumont severely distorted the available evidence by forcing the material to conform to his predetermined model of Zoroastrian origins. Gordon suggested that the theory of Persian origins was completely invalid and that the Mithraic mysteries in the West were an entirely new creation. A similar view has been expressed by Luther H. Martin: "Apart from the name of the god himself, in other words, Mithraism seems to have developed largely in and is, therefore, best understood from the context of Roman culture." According to Hopfe, "All theories of the origin of Mithraism acknowledge a connection, however vague, to the Mithra/Mitra figure of ancient
Aryan religion."
Boyce wrote, "no satisfactory evidence has yet been adduced to show that, before Zoroaster, the concept of a supreme god existed among the Iranians, or that among them
Mithra – or any other divinity – ever enjoyed a separate cult of his or her own outside either their ancient or their Zoroastrian pantheons." She also said that although recent studies have minimized the Iranizing aspects of the self-consciously Persian religion "at least in the form which it attained under the Roman Empire", the name
Mithras is enough to show "that this aspect is of some importance." She also says that "the Persian affiliation of the Mysteries is acknowledged in the earliest literary references to them." He also says that "the old Cumontian model of formation in, and diffusion from, Anatolia ... is by no means dead – nor should it be."
Modern theories Beck theorizes that the cult was created in Rome, by a single founder who had some knowledge of both Greek and Oriental religion, but suggests that some of the ideas used may have passed through the Hellenistic kingdoms. He observes that "Mithras – moreover, a Mithras who was identified with the Greek Sun god
Helios" was among the gods of the syncretic Greco-Armenian-Iranian royal cult at
Nemrut, founded by
Antiochus I of
Commagene in the mid 1st century BCE. While proposing the theory, Beck says that his scenario may be regarded as Cumontian in two ways. Firstly, because it looks again at Anatolia and Anatolians, and more importantly, because it hews back to the methodology first used by Cumont. Merkelbach suggests that its mysteries were essentially created by a particular person or persons and created in a specific place, the city of Rome, by someone from an eastern province or border state who knew the
Iranian myths in detail, which he wove into his new grades of initiation; but that he must have been Greek and Greek-speaking because he incorporated elements of Greek
Platonism into it. The myths, he suggests, were probably created in the milieu of the imperial bureaucracy, and for its members. Clauss tends to agree. Beck calls this "the most likely scenario" and states "Until now, Mithraism has generally been treated as if it somehow evolved
Topsy-like from its Iranian precursor – a most implausible scenario once it is stated explicitly." More recently,
Parvaneh Pourshariati has made similar claims. According to Antonia Tripolitis, Roman Mithraism originated in
Vedic India and picked up many features of the cultures which it encountered in its westward journey. (Museo archeologico)
Later history The first important expansion of the mysteries in the Empire seems to have happened quite quickly, late in the reign of
Antoninus Pius (b. 121 CE, d. 161 CE) and under
Marcus Aurelius. By this time all the key elements of the mysteries were in place. Mithraism reached the apogee of its popularity during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, spreading at an "astonishing" rate at the same period when the worship of
Sol Invictus was incorporated into the state-sponsored cults. but it never became one of the state cults. The historian
Jacob Burckhardt writes:
Persecution and Christianization The religion and its followers faced persecution in the 4th century from
Christianization, and Mithraism came to an end at some point between its last decade and the 5th century. Ulansey states that "Mithraism declined with the rise to power of Christianity, until the beginning of the fifth century, when Christianity became strong enough to exterminate by force rival religions such as Mithraism." According to Speidel, Christians fought fiercely with this feared enemy and suppressed it during the late 4th century. Mithraic sanctuaries were destroyed and religion was no longer a matter of personal choice. According to L.H. Martin, Roman Mithraism came to an end with the
anti-pagan decrees of the Christian emperor
Theodosius during the last decade of the 4th century. Clauss states that inscriptions show Mithras as one of the cults listed on inscriptions by
Roman senators who had not converted to Christianity, as part of the "pagan revival" among the elite in the second half of the 4th century. Beck states that "Quite early in the [fourth] century the religion was as good as dead throughout the empire." According to Mark Humphries, the deliberate concealment of Mithraic cult objects in some areas suggests that precautions were being taken against Christian attacks. In areas like the
Rhine frontier, barbarian invasions may have also played a role in the end of Mithraism. The cult disappeared earlier than that of
Isis. Isis was still remembered in the Middle Ages as a pagan deity, but Mithras was already forgotten in
late antiquity. ==Interpretations of the bull-slaying scene==