Vampyroteuthis

Anyone know some really good detailed reference books on Mithras?

Thanks!

Aimee

Anti-Creedance Front

Thank deus (ha ha Arthur C. Clarke reference) someone has an interest in finding out about Mithraism other than me!!!!!!!!! Franz Cumont was the biggest Mithra chronicler. He directed many Mithraeum digs and *I think* found the first one in Germany. The best place to look for stuff on this subject is the Mithraism directories on Yahoo, Google, and Open Directory Project. Just search for them on there. Google is at <a href="http://www.google.com," target="_blank">www.google.com,</a> Open Directory is at <a href="http://www.dmoz.org," target="_blank">www.dmoz.org,</a> and I think you know where Yahoo is. If you have any questions you want to ask me, I'm all ears. Talk to me on here, or drop me a line at ralien@charter.net
I'd love to get into a discussion with you about it, I feel like I've been ranting about nothing for the past year. The fact is that Mithraism and Zoroastrians had massive influences on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Vampyroteuthis

Hello, fellow Wisconsinite! I have seen so many references to Mithras on here that I just have to research it now! It sounds pretty strange that an older religion would have so many similarities to Christianity. I'll check out the areas you mentioned and I will be sure to check back with you when I have more questions.

Thanks!!

Aimee

lugotorix

There is an article online that summarizes a recent book on Mithraism. The book is by David Ulansey, named The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. The article is at <a href="http://www.well.com/user/davidu/mithras.html" target="_blank">Cosmic Mysteries of Mithras</a>.

It's an interesting article. It raises some questions about Franz Cumont's theories, which were for some time the last word on Mithraism.


lugotorix

[ September 26, 2002: Message edited by: lugotorix ]</p>

Anti-Creedance Front

Yes, you have to really put Ulansey and Cumont together and pick out the differences. I would rather read both, than have Ulansey as the final authority. Hell, some of my theories are probably more updated than Ulansey's. Right now I have decided to do a speech on Mithraism for my writing class, Akkhir, so that makes me an even better source of information. Then again, it will be more of a summary of what I've learned.

The most important thing to note about Mithraism is that it was the Roman state cult right before Catholicism was declared as so. About a century before. So, these two paths were constantly warring against eachother. The best source I've found for Biblical archaeology and cross-Christian references is Spenta Mainyu: (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Atrium/5676) It goes into everything from Animism to Abraham in it's comparisons on Christianity.

Pensee

I'd also highly recommend that you read The Jesus Mysteries: Was the Original Jesus a Pagan God? by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy.

They compare beliefs about Jesus and beliefs about many other pagan gods/godesses. They also explain how they all tie in together and how literal Christianity emerged from prior pagan religions.

[ September 28, 2002: Message edited by: stardust ]</p>

Anti-Creedance Front

Well, I used to think that Mithraism and Zoroastrian completely comprised Christianity from the start. However, I have found that a historical Jesus must have existed due to the sites he visited in the Bible. But that doesn't mean that most Christian rituals weren't taken from these two religions. My belief is that in the beginning Christianity was a narrow, small offset of Judaism, with few beliefs or rituals, and that it became as complex as it is now with the influence of many, many pagan followings. Hell, I just found out that Paul (yes, the apostle) was born in a city called Tarsus in Cilicia (Turkey), and returned there to preach after having his "revelation". Scholars seem to think he was a Mithraist beforehand. This may very well be true, because Tarsus was a major center of Mithra worship. The name even sounds like Taurus, or bull. Mithras, the bull slayer. That brings it all together for me.

Anti-Creedance Front

By the way, can anyone find a list of Mithraic archaeological sites, or even better, an atlas of them? That would be helpful for my project. It's due on Tuesday, so try to respond about it by then. Thanks!

Anti-Creedance Front

OKAY, BIG POST, I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE MODS WILL THINK OF THIS, BUT IT'S WORTH A SHOT. THIS IS MY SPEECH.
--------------------------------------------
I’m going to discuss today a religion that once rivaled and almost overtook Christianity as
the western world’s dominant faith. Yet, the public barely took mention of it until some of
it’s temples were uncovered in Europe in the last few centuries. Around 1500 B.C, a tribe
of Indo-Aryan descent called the Hurrites established the kingdom of Mittani in what is
now Turkey. They dedicated temples to the gods Mithra and Varuna, making incantations
to them out of the Rig-Veda, part of the Hindu Vedas. Mithra was seen as the victorious
champion of light over darkness, who ruled the storms. The Hurrites eventually became
absorbed into the Persian empire, where the first dualist religion, Zoroastrianism,
flourished. We do not know from which of these kingdoms the eventual Romantic cult of
Mithra originated from, but we do know that he is originally an Indian god. He is
mentioned in both the Avesta, the Zoroastrian holy book, and the Vedas.

In Persia, Mithraism picked up many of it’s rituals and noticeably grafted on some
Zoroastrian beliefs. In 63 C.E. the Roman legion XV Apollinaris were called to fight
against the Persians. This is where I believe the Mithras cult was picked up by the soldiers
who so favored it. Mithraism expanded east through India, all the way to China over time.
It also made the important move westward through the Roman frontier, where it
eventually reached from the Sahara to Scotland, and from Spain to the Black Sea.
Worship sites have been found at Hadrian’s Wall in Britain, which was the Roman line of
defense against the Scots, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany, Turkey, Iran (where
Persia was located), Armenia, Syria, Israel, North Africa, and most noticeably in Italy,
where as many as 100 Mithraeums have been excavated.

Mithra was worshipped foremost as a sun god, though he is affiliated with other
areas also. Mithraism, as it came to be called, was primarily a Roman soldier’s cult, into
which no women were allowed. However, with so many sites around the world, and it’s
notation as being a threat to the dominance of Christianity leads me to believe that it
expanded to include other types of people. Soldiers were noted by Roman historians as
seeing Mithra as their divine commander, under the name of Militia Mithrae. The basic
tenets that scholars have derived as fact include: the birth of Mithra from a rock, his
shooting an arrow at a cliff to bring forth water, capturing the bull of heaven and slaying
it, from which humanity was redeemed by it’s blood, his alliance with the sun god and the
banquet shared with him afterwards, and his ascent to the bull, becoming “the creator of
life”. In military fashion, there were 7 ascending ranks. These were Corax, meaning raven,
represented by the planet Mercury; Nymphus, a made-up word meaning male bride,
represented by Venus; Miles, the soldier, represented by Mars; Leo, meaning lion,
represented by Jupiter, Perses, the Persian, represented by the moon; and Heliodromus,
the sun’s courier, representing the sun.

There were baptismal rites in water, and seven sacraments which included a slap
during confirmation. The most prominent ritual was the sacred meal of water and wafers
bearing an equal-armed cross, which Christian writers likened to the Eucharist. The head
of the group was called pater, Latin for father, and the only notable higher-up, which was
like a bishop, was called pater patrum, which means father of fathers. The divine service
was held on Sunday. Mithra was often pictured with the sun behind his head. Take note
that halo is related to the Latin word helios, which translates to sun. Mithra’s arrival was
celebrated annually on the night of December 24-25, which happens to be the winter
solstice. Famous adherents to the cult include Nero, Commodus, Septimus Severus,
Caracalla, and Diocletian.

[PRESENT POSTER]

Mithraism was declared by Emperor Diocletian in 307 A.D. to be the state
religion, when the god was proclaimed “Sol Invictus, the Unconquerable Sun, Protector of
the Empire”. Around 90 years later, in the early 4th century, Constantine reversed this
decision and made Catholic Christianity the new state religion. Paul the Evangelist was
rejected by early Christians whilst preaching, so he moved back to his Cilician, or Turkish,
hometown of Tarsus, which can be likened to the Latin taurus, meaning bull. This was a
major center for Mithraism. The Roman historian Plutarch wrote in 67 B.C. that he saw a
large band in Cilicia practicing “secret rites to Mithra”, so this makes it one of the earliest
documentations of the Mithra cult. As said before, there were probably hundreds, if not
thousands, of Mithraea scattered around Italy. Early Christian sects were often noted as
getting into tussles with Mithraists. There is even a documented case of a horde of them
destroying a Mithra temple. These early Christians saw Mithraism as a great threat to the
expansion of their faith, and it was not uncommon for churches to be built over mithraea.
One of the largest Mithraea ever lies under St. Clemente, near the coliseum in Rome. St.
Peter’s itself, the church of the Vatican, is built over a cult site.