Mithraism

—Mithraic /mith ray"ik/, Mithraistic, adj. —Mithraist, n.

/mith"reuh iz'euhm/, n.

an ancient Persian religion in which Mithras was worshiped, involving secret rituals to which only men were admitted: a major competitor of Christianity in the Roman empire during the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D.

Also, Mithraicism /mith ray"euh siz'euhm/.

[MITHRA(S) + -ISM]

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Ancient Iranian religion based on the worship of Mithra, the greatest of Iranian deities before the coming of Zoroaster in the 6th century BC.

It spread from India through Persia and the Hellenic world; in the 3rd–4th century AD, soldiers of the Roman empire carried it as far west as Spain, Britain, and Germany. The most important Mithraic ceremony was the sacrifice of the bull, an event associated with the creation of the world. Mithraic ceremonies were held by torchlight in subterranean caverns. A form of Mithraism in which the old Persian ceremonies were given a Platonic interpretation was popular in the 2nd–3rd century AD in the Roman empire, where Mithra was honored as the patron of loyalty to the emperor. After Constantine I accepted Christianity in the early 4th century, Mithraism rapidly declined.

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▪ Persian religion

Introduction

 the worship of Mithra, the Iranian (Iranian religion) god of the sun, justice, contract, and war in pre-Zoroastrian Iran. Known as Mithras in the Roman Empire during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, this deity was honoured as the patron of loyalty to the emperor. After the acceptance of Christianity by the emperor Constantine in the early 4th century, Mithraism rapidly declined.

History

      Before Zoroaster (6th century BC or earlier), the Iranians had a polytheistic (polytheism) religion, and Mithra was the most important of their gods. First of all, he was the god of contract and mutual obligation. In a cuneiform tablet of the 15th century BC that contains a treaty between the Hittites and the Mitanni, Mithra is invoked as the god of oath. Furthermore, in some Indian (Hinduism) Vedic (Veda) texts the god Mitra (the Indian form of Mithra) appears both as “friend” and as “contract.” The word mitra may be translated in either way, because contracts and mutual obligation make friends. In short, Mithra may signify any kind of communication between men and whatever establishes good relations between them. Mithra was called the Mediator. Mithra was also the god of the sun (sun worship), of the shining light that beholds everything, and, hence, was invoked in oaths. The Greeks and Romans considered Mithra as a sun god. He was probably also the god of kings (king). He was the god of mutual obligation between the king and his warriors, and, hence, the god of war. He was also the god of justice, which was guaranteed by the king. Whenever men observed justice and contract, they venerated Mithra.

      The most important Mithraic ceremony was the sacrifice of the bull (cattle). Opinion is divided as to whether this ceremony was pre-Zoroastrian or not. Zoroaster denounced the sacrifice of the bull, so it seems likely that the ceremony was a part of the old Iranian (Zoroastrianism) paganism. This inference is corroborated by an Indian text in which Mitra reluctantly participates in the sacrifice of a god named Soma, who often appears in the shape of a white bull or of the moon. On the Roman monuments, Mithra reluctantly sacrifices the white bull, who is then transformed into the moon. This detailed parallel seems to prove that the sacrifice must have been pre-Zoroastrian. Contract and sacrifice are connected, since treaties in ancient times were sanctioned by a common meal.

      Beginning with Darius (Darius I) (522–486), the Persian kings of the Achaemenid dynasty (Achaemenian Dynasty) were Zoroastrians. But Darius and his successors did not intend to create political difficulties by attempting to eradicate the old beliefs still dear to the heart of many nobles. Thus, the religion of Zoroaster was gradually contaminated with elements of the old, polytheistic worship. Hymns (Avesta) (the Yashts) were composed in honour of the old gods. There is a Yasht dedicated to Mithra, in which the god is depicted as the all-observing god of heavenly light, the guardian of oaths, the protector of the righteous in this world and the next, and, above all, as the archfoe of the powers of evil (dualism) and darkness—hence, the god of battles and victory.

      In the mixed religion of the later Achaemenid period, however, the Zoroastrian aspects clearly dominate the heathen aspects. The sacrifice of the bull, abhorred by every Zoroastrian, is never mentioned. When Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire in about 330 BC, the old structure of society appears to have broken down completely and about the worship of Mithra in Persia no more is heard.

      Local aristocrats in the western part of the former Persian Empire retained their devotion to Mithra. The kings and nobles of the border region between the Greco-Roman (Hellenistic religion) and the Iranian world still worshipped him. When Tiridates of Armenia acknowledged the Roman emperor Nero as his supreme lord, he performed a Mithraic (mystery religion) ceremony, indicating that the god of contract and of friendship established good relations between the Armenians and the mighty Romans. The kings of Commagene (southeast of Turkey) venerated Mithra. Mithradates VI (Mithradates VI Eupator) of Pontus may have been a worshipper of the god, and his allies, the Cilician pirates, are known to have performed Mithraic ceremonies (67 BC). The worship of Mithra, however, never became popular in the Greek world, because the Greeks never forgot that Mithra had been the god of their enemies the Persians.

      There is little notice of the Persian god in the Roman (Roman religion) world until the beginning of the 2nd century, but, from the year AD 136 onward, there are hundreds of dedicatory inscriptions to Mithra. This renewal of interest is not easily explained. The most plausible hypothesis seems to be that Roman Mithraism was practically a new creation, wrought by a religious genius who may have lived as late as c. AD 100 and who gave the old traditional Persian ceremonies a new Platonic interpretation that enabled Mithraism to become acceptable to the Roman world.

      Roman Mithraism, like Iranian Mithraism, was a religion of loyalty toward the king (church and state). It seems to have been encouraged by the emperors, especially Commodus (180–192), Septimius Severus (Severus, Septimius) (193–211), and Caracalla (211–217). Most adherents of Mithra known to us from inscriptions are soldiers of both low and high rank, officials in the service of the emperor, imperial slaves, and freedmen (who quite often were very influential people)—persons who probably knew which god would lead them to quick promotion.

      Mithraic sanctuaries and dedications to Mithra are numerous at Rome and Ostia, along the military frontier, in Britain, and on the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates. Few dedications are found in peaceful provinces; when they do occur the dedicator is usually a provincial governor or an imperial official. Within a few generations, the Roman world had completely assimilated the Persian god. When Diocletian attempted a renewal of the Roman state and religion, he did not forget Mithra. In AD 307, in a dedication from Carnuntum (at the Danube, near Vienna), Diocletian and his colleagues dedicated an altar to Mithra, as the patron of their empire (fautori imperii sui). But in 312, Constantine (Constantine I) won the battle at the Milvian Bridge under the sign of the cross. Instantaneously, the dedications to Mithra ceased, even though there was no immediate public interdiction of Mithraic ceremonies. The worship seems to have collapsed quite suddenly when imperial favour ceased to be with the Mithraists. Dedications to Mithra appear again between about 357 and 387, but only at Rome. The dedicators all come from the old pagan aristocracy of the city of Rome, which in this period was in open opposition to the new Christian (Christianity) emperor at Constantinople. In these inscriptions, however, Mithra is only one of many traditional pagan gods. The Mithraic mysteries had gradually faded long before. And when the Roman opposition was defeated, pagan worship was suppressed altogether.

Mythology (myth) and theology

      The creation (creation myth) of the world is the central episode of Mithraic mythology. According to the myths, the sun god sent his messenger, the raven, to Mithra and ordered him to sacrifice the bull. Mithra executed the order reluctantly; in many reliefs he is seen turning aside his face in sorrow. But at the very moment of the death of the bull, a great miracle happened. The white bull was metamorphosed into the moon; the cloak of Mithra was transformed into the vault of the sky, with the shining planets and fixed stars; from the tail of the bull and from his blood sprang the first ears of grain and the grape; from the genitals of the animal ran the holy seed which was received by a mixing bowl. Every creature on earth was shaped with an admixture of the holy seed. One Mithraic hymn begins: “Thou hast redeemed us too by shedding the eternal blood.” The plants and the trees were created. Day and Night began to alternate, the Moon started her monthly cycle, the Seasons took up their round dance through the Year, and thus Time was created. But, awakened by the sudden light, the creatures of the dark emerged from earth. A serpent licked the bull's blood. A scorpion tried to suck the holy seed from the genitals. On the reliefs, a lion often is also seen. With the bull's death and the creation of the world, the struggle between Good and Evil began: thus is the condition of man's life. The raven symbolizes Air, the lion Fire, the serpent Earth, and the mixing bowl Water. So the four elements (air, fire, earth, and water) came into being, and from them all things were created. After the sacrifice, Mithra and the sun god banqueted together, ate meat and bread, and drank wine. Then Mithra mounted the chariot of the sun god and drove with him across the ocean, through the air to the end of the world.

      The myth was interpreted by the Roman Mithraists in terms of Platonic (Platonism) philosophy. The sacrifice took place in a cave, an image of the world, as in the simile of the cave in Plato's Republic. Mithra himself was equated with the creator (demiurge) of the Timaeus: he was called “demiurge and father of all things,” like the Platonic demiurge. The four elements, the mixing bowl, the creation of Time, and the attack of the wicked animals upon the newborn creature are well-known features of the Timaeus. The Mithraic doctrine of the soul is intimately linked with the myth of creation and with Platonic philosophy. As in the Timaeus, the soul of man came down from heaven. It crossed the seven spheres of the planets, taking on their vices (e.g., those of Mars and of Venus) and was finally caught within the body. The task of man is to liberate his divine part (the soul) from the shackles of the body and to reascend through the seven spheres to the eternal, unchanging realm of the fixed stars. This ascension to the sky was prefigured by Mithra himself, when he left the earth in the chariot of the sun god.

worship, practices, and institutions

      The Mithraic sanctuaries (sanctuary) were subterranean caverns, which presented obvious limitations of size. None of the many excavated shrines (temple) could receive more than a hundred persons, and most even fewer. All ceremonies were of necessity enacted in artificial light. The cavern always contained a well. Access to the cavern often consisted of a system of subterranean passages, which were used in the initiation ceremonies. Men only were admitted to this religion of soldiers, and no organizational hierarchy seems to have existed.

      The initiates were organized in seven grades: corax, Raven; nymphus, Bridegroom; miles, Soldier; leo, Lion; Perses, Persian; heliodromus, Courier of (and to) the Sun; pater, Father. To each rank belonged a particular mask (Raven, Persian, Lion) or dress (Bridegroom). The rising of the Mithraist in grade prefigured the ascent of the soul after death. The series of the seven initiations (rite of passage) seems to have been enacted by passing through seven gates and climbing a ladder of seven steps. Each grade was attributed to one of the seven planetary gods. The zealous Mithraist gradually passed the spheres of these minor deities and finally reached the region of the fixed stars.

      Little is known about initiation ceremonies. Ancient texts refer to ablutions (baptism) and purifications and chastisements, to fetters and liberation, and to certain ceremonial passwords. Frescoes at Capua (Italy) show the initiates blindfolded, kneeling, and prostrated. A simulated death and resurrection was probably part of the ceremony. Tertullian, the 2nd-century North African Christian theologian, describes the test of courage to which the miles was subjected. Weapon in hand, he had to force his way—probably by a sham duel—to a wreath. When he had succeeded, an officiant offered to crown him with the wreath. But the candidate had to decline, saying that Mithra alone was his wreath; and throughout the rest of his life, he never again bore a wreath.

      The Mithraic caverns were decorated with frescoes, reliefs, and statues of minor deities and of the planetary gods. A narrow aisle was flanked on both sides by a broad, raised bench on which the worshippers kneeled or reclined. At one end of the aisle (often apselike) there was always a relief or fresco representing the sacrifice of the bull. Sometimes, the relief could be turned on a pivot; the back of the stone represented the repast of Mithra and the sun god. While it is unlikely that the ceremony of the bull's sacrifice was frequently performed, the common meal of the initiates was a regular feature of Mithraic worship.

Reinhold Merkelbach Ed.

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