References[edit]

  1. ^ Jump up to:a b c Beck, Roger (2002-07-20). "Mithraism". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition. Retrieved 2011-03-14. The term "Mithraism" is of course a modern coinage. In antiquity the cult was known as "the mysteries of Mithras"; alternatively, as "the mysteries of the Persians." ... The Mithraists, who were manifestly not Persians in any ethnic sense, thought of themselves as cultic "Persians." ... the ancient Roman Mithraists themselves were convinced that their cult was founded by none other than Zoroaster, who "dedicated to Mithras, the creator and father of all, a cave in the mountains bordering Persia," an idyllic setting "abounding in flowers and springs of water" (Porphyry, On the Cave of the Nymphs 6).
  2. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Geden, A. S. (15 October 2004). Select Passages Illustrating Mithraism 1925. Kessinger Publishing. pp. 51–. ISBN 978-1-4179-8229-5. Retrieved 28 March 2011. Porphyry moreover seems to be the only writer who makes reference to women initiates into the service and rites of Mithra, and his allusion is perhaps due to a misunderstanding.... The participation of women in the ritual was not unknown in the Eastern cults, but the predominant military influence in Mithraism seems to render it unlikely in this instance.
  3. ^ Jump up to:a b M. Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 42: "That the hand-shaken might make their vows joyfully forever"
  4. ^ Jump up to:a b c Lewis M. Hopfe, "Archaeological indications on the origins of Roman Mithraism", in Lewis M. Hopfe (ed). Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson, Eisenbrauns (1994), pp. 147–158. p. 156: "Beyond these three Mithraea [in Syria and Palestine], there are only a handful of objects from Syria that may be identified with Mithraism. Archaeological evidence of Mithraism in Syria is therefore in marked contrast to the abundance of Mithraea and materials that have been located in the rest of the Roman Empire. Both the frequency and the quality of Mithraic materials is greater in the rest of the empire. Even on the western frontier in Britain, archaeology has produced rich Mithraic materials, such as those found at Walbrook. If one accepts Cumont’s theory that Mithraism began in Iran, moved west through Babylon to Asia Minor, and then to Rome, one would expect that the cult left its traces in those locations. Instead, archaeology indicates that Roman Mithraism had its epicenter in Rome. Wherever its ultimate place of origin may have been, the fully developed religion known as Mithraism seems to have begun in Rome and been carried to Syria by soldiers and merchants. None of the Mithraic materials or temples in Roman Syria except the Commagene sculpture bears any date earlier than the late first or early second century. [footnote in cited text: 30. Mithras, identified with a Phrygian cap and the nimbus about his head, is depicted in colossal statuary erected by King Antiochus I of Commagene, 69–34 BCE. (see Vermaseren, CIMRM 1.53–56). However, there are no other literary or archaeological evidences to indicate that the religion of Mithras as it was known among the Romans in the second to fourth centuries AD was practiced in Commagene]. While little can be proved from silence, it seems that the relative lack of archaeological evidence from Roman Syria would argue against the traditional theories for the origins of Mithraism."
  5. Jump up^ Beck, Roger (17 February 2011). "The Pagan Shadow of Christ?". BBC-History. Retrieved 4 June 2011. We know a good deal about them because archaeology has disinterred many meeting places together with numerous artifacts and representations of the cult myth, mostly in the form of relief sculpture.
  6. Jump up^ Clauss, Manfred. The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and his Mysteries. pp. xxi. ISBN 0-415-92977-6.
  7. ^ Jump up to:a b Coarelli; Beck, Roger; Haase, Wolfgang (1984). Aufstieg und niedergang der römischen welt [The Rise and Decline of the Roman World]. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 2026–. ISBN 978-3-11-010213-0. Retrieved 20 March 2011. A useful topographic survey, with map, by F. Coarelli (1979) lists 40 actual or possible mithraea (the latter inferred from find-spots, with the sensible proviso that a mithraeum will not necessarily correspond to every find). Principally from comparisons of size and population with Ostia, Coarelli calculates that there will have been in Rome "not less than 680–690" mithraea in all ... .
  8. Jump up^ Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 3. ISBN 0-19-506788-6. However, in the absence of any ancient explanations of its meaning, Mithraic iconography has proven to be exceptionally difficult to decipher.
  9. ^ Jump up to:a b Hopfe, Lewis M.; Richardson, Henry Neil (September 1994). "Archaeological Indications on the Origins of Roman Mithraism". In Lewis M. Hopfe. Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson. Eisenbrauns. pp. 147–. ISBN 978-0-931464-73-7. Retrieved 19 March 2011. Today more than four hundred locations of Mithraic worship have been identified in every area of the Roman Empire. Mithraea have been found as far west as Britain and as far east as Dura Europas. Between the second and fourth centuries C.E. Mithraism may have vied with Christianity for domination of the Roman world.
  10. Jump up^ Origen, Contra Celsus, Book 6, Chapter 22. "After this, Celsus, desiring to exhibit his learning in his treatise against us, quotes also certain Persian mysteries, where he says: ‘These things are obscurely hinted at in the accounts of the Persians, and especially in the mysteries of Mithras, which are celebrated among them ...’ " Chapter 24 "After the instance borrowed from the Mithraic mysteries, Celsus declares that he who would investigate the Christian mysteries, along with the aforesaid Persian, will, on comparing the two together, and on unveiling the rites of the Christians, see in this way the difference between them."
  11. Jump up^ "Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies". Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies. Retrieved 2011-03-28. The Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies (EJMS) is a revival of the Journal of Mithraic Studies edited by Dr. Richard Gordon. It is a place where researchers on Roman Mithraism can publish the product of their research and make it freely available for other interested people.
  12. Jump up^ Beck, Roger (2002-07-20). "Mithraism". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition,. Retrieved 2011-03-28. For most of the twentieth century the major problem addressed by scholarship on both Roman Mithraism and the Iranian god Mithra was the question of continuity.
  13. Jump up^ Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary
  14. Jump up^ Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 90. ISBN 0-19-506788-6. It is therefore highly likely that it was in the context of Mithridates’ alliance with the Cilician pirates that there arose the synchretistic link between Perseus and Mithra which led to the name Mithras (a Greek form of the name Mithra) being given to the god of the new cult.
  15. Jump up^ Britannica, Encyclopedia of World Religions. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2006. p. 509. ISBN 978-1-59339-491-2. ... Mithra is the next most important deity and may even have occupied a position of near equality with Ahura Mazde. He was associated with the Sun, and in time the name Mithra became a common word for "Sun". Mithra functioned preeminently in the ethical sphere; he was the god of the covenant, who oversaw all solemn agreements that people made among themselves ... In later times Mithra gave his name to Mithraism, a mystery religion.
  16. Jump up^ Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 8. ISBN 0-19-506788-6. Cumont’s ... argument was straightforward and may be summarized succinctly: the name of the god of the cult, Mithras, is the Latin (and Greek) form of the name of an ancient Iranian god, Mithra; in addition, the Romans believed that their cult was connected with Persia (as the Romans called Iran); therefore we may assume that Roman Mithraism is nothing other than the Iranian cult of Mithra transplanted into the Roman Empire.
  17. Jump up^ Xenophon, Cyropaedia 7.5.53. Cited in Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon
  18. Jump up^ Gordon, Richard L. (1978). "The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British Museum, Townley Collection". Journal of Mithraic Studies II: 148–174.. p. 160: "The usual western nominative form of Mithras’ name in the mysteries ended in -s, as we can see from the one authentic dedication in the nominative, recut over a dedication to Sarapis (463, Terme de Caracalla), and from occasional grammatical errors such as deo inviato Metras (1443). But it is probable that Euboulus and Pallas at least used the name ‘Mithra’ as an indeclinable [foreign word] (ap. Porphyry, De abstinentia II.56 and IV.16)."
  19. Jump up^ E.g. in Rig Veda 3, Hymn 59
  20. Jump up^ Michael Speidel (1980). Mithras-Orion: Greek hero and Roman army god. Brill. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-90-04-06055-5. India's sacred literature refers to him since the hymns of the Rig Veda. But it was in Iran where Mithras rose to the greatest prominence: rebounding after the reforms of Zarathustra, Mithras became one of the great gods of the Achaemenian emperors and to this very day he is worshipped in India and Iran by Parsees and Zarathustrians.
  21. ^ Jump up to:a b Hopfe, Lewis M.; Richardson, Henry Neil (September 1994). "Archaeological Indications on the Origins of Roman Mithraism". In Lewis M. Hopfe. Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson. Eisenbrauns. pp. 150–. ISBN 978-0-931464-73-7. Retrieved 19 March 2011. All theories of the origin of Mithraism acknowledge a connection, however vague, to the Mithra / Mitra figure of ancient Aryan religion.
  22. ^ Jump up to:a b Turcan, Robert (1996). The cults of the Roman Empire. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 196–. ISBN 978-0-631-20047-5. Retrieved 19 March 2011. The name Mithras comes from a root mei- (which implies the idea of exchange), accompanied by an instrumental suffix. It was therefore a means of exchange, the ‘contract’ which rules human relations and is the basis of social life. In Sanskrit, mitra means 'friend' or ‘friendship’, like mihr in Persian. In Zend, mithra means precisely the ‘contract’, which eventually became deified, following the same procedure as Venus, the ‘charm’ for the Romans. We find him invoked with Varuna in an agreement concluded c. 1380 BCE between the king of the Hittites, Subbiluliuma, and the king of Mitanni, Mativaza. ... It is the earliest evidence of Mithras in Asia Minor.
  23. Jump up^ Thieme, Paul (1960), "The 'Aryan' Gods of the Mitanni Treaties", Journal of the American Oriental Society, 80.4.pp. 301–317.
  24. Jump up^ Schmidt, Hans-Peter (2006), "Mithra i: Mithra in Old Indian and Mithra in Old Iranian", Encyclopaedia Iranica, New York: iranica.com (accessed April 2011)
  25. Jump up^ Hinnells, John R. (1990), "Introduction: the questions asked and to be asked", in Hinnells, John R., Studies in Mithraism, Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider, p. 11, The god is unique in being worshipped in four distinct religions: Hinduism (as Mitra), in Iranian Zoroastrianism and Manicheism (as Mithra), and in the Roman Empire (as Mithras).
  26. Jump up^ Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 94. ISBN 0-19-506788-6. the intimate alliance between the pirates and Mithridates Eupator, named after Mithra and mythically descended from Perseus, led to the pirates adopting the name Mithras for the new god.
  27. ^ Jump up to:a b Boyce, Mary; Grenet, Frantz (1975). Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman rule, Part 1. Brill. pp. 468, 469. ISBN 90-04-09271-4. Retrieved 2011-03-16. The theory that the complex iconography of the characteristic monuments (of which the oldest belong to the second century A.C.) could be interpreted by direct reference to Iranian religion is now widely rejected; and recent studies have tended greatly to reduce what appears to be the actual Iranian content of this "self consciously ‘Persian’ religion", at least in the form which it attained under the Roman empire. Nevertheless, as the name Mithras alone shows, this content was of some importance; and the Persian affiliation of the Mysteries is acknowledged in the earliest literary reference to them.
  28. Jump up^ Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 6. ISBN 0-19-506788-6.
  29. ^ Jump up to:a b Clauss, M. The Roman cult of Mithras, p. xxi: "... we possess virtually no theological statements either by Mithraists themselves or by other writers."
  30. Jump up^ Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 8. ISBN 0-19-506788-6.
  31. Jump up^ David Ulansey, The origins of the Mithraic mysteries, p. 6: "Although the iconography of the cult varied a great deal from temple to temple, there is one element of the cult’s iconography which was present in essentially the same form in every mithraeum and which, moreover, was clearly of the utmost importance to the cult’s ideology; namely the so-called tauroctony, or bull-slaying scene, in which the god Mithras, accompanied by a series of other figures, is depicted in the act of killing the bull."
  32. ^ Jump up to:a b Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 77.
  33. Jump up^ Mazur, Zeke. "Harmonious Opposition (PART I): Pythagorean Themes of Cosmogonic Mediation in the Roman Mysteries of Mithras" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-06-14. The god's right leg, appearing on the left as one faces the tauroctony, is nearly always straight as it pins the bull's hoof to the ground, while his left leg, which is usually resting on the back or flank of the bull, is bent at the knee with his foot often partially obscured beneath the folds of his tunic. Anyone familiar with the cult's iconography will immediately recognize this awkward and possibly unnatural posture as a typical or even essential aspect of the tauroctony. The remarkable consistency of this particular feature is underscored by comparison with the subtle variability of others...
  34. Jump up^ Clauss, M. The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 98–99. An image search for ‘tauroctony’ will show many examples of the variations.
  35. Jump up^ Näsström, Britt-Marie. "The sacrifi ces of Mithras" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-04-04. He is wearing a Phrygian cap and a wind-filled cloak, and, most remarkable of all, his head is turned in the other direction as if he would not look at his own deed. Still, this sacrifice is a guarantee of salvation for the participants.
  36. Jump up^ J. R. Hinnells, "The Iconography of Cautes and Cautopates: the Data", Journal of Mithraic Studies 1, 1976, pp. 36–67. See also William W. Malandra, Cautes and Cautopates Encyclopedia Iranica article.
  37. Jump up^ Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 74.
  38. ^ Jump up to:a b c L'Ecole Initiative: Alison Griffith, 1996. "Mithraism"
  39. Jump up^ Bjørnebye, Jonas (2007). "The Mithraic icon in fourth century Rome:The composition of the Mithraic cult icon". Hic locus est felix, sanctus, piusque benignus: The cult of Mithras in fourth century Rome,Dissertation for the degree of philosophiae doctor (PhD). The figure of Mithras himself is usually attired in an oriental costume of Phrygian cap, tunica manicata (a long-sleeved tunic), anaxyrides (eastern style trousers), and a cape, though in some cases, he is depicted heroically nude or even, in a unique example from Ostia, in what seems to be a Greek chiton. Like the general trend in Graeco-Roman art, most if not all tauroctony scenes, regardless of the medium they were executed in, were painted, and the different items of Mithras' clothing was usually colored in either blue or red, often, as in the painting at Marino, with most of the costume in red with only the inside of the cape being blue and star-speckled. The bull was often white, sometimes wearing the dorsuale, the Roman sacrificial band in reds or browns, while the torchbearers could be depicted in a variety of colors with reds and greens being the most common.
  40. Jump up^ Klauck, Hans-Josef; McNeil, Brian (December 2003). The religious context of early Christianity: a guide to Graeco-Roman religions. T & T Clark Ltd. pp. 146–. ISBN 978-0-567-08943-4. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
  41. Jump up^ Beck, Roger (2006). The Religion of the Mithras cult in the Roman empire. Great Britain: Oxford University Press. p. 21. Often, the mithraeum was embellished elsewhere with secondary exemplars of the tauroctony, and there also seem to have been small portable versions, perhaps for private devotion.
  42. ^ Jump up to:a b Beck, Roger, "In the Place of the Lion: Mithras in the Tauroctony" in Beck on Mithraism: Collected works with new essays (2004), p. 286 287.
  43. ^ Jump up to:a b Beck, Roger (2007). The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-921613-4., p. 27-28.
  44. ^ Jump up to:a b c Vermaseren, M. J. "The miraculous Birth of Mithras". In László Gerevich. Studia Archaeologica. Brill. pp. 93–109. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
  45. Jump up^ Vermaseren, M. J. László Gerevich, ed. Studia Archaeologica. Brill. p. 108. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
  46. Jump up^ Commodian, Instructiones 1.13: "The unconquered one was born from a rock, if he is regarded as a god." See also the image of "Mithras petra genetrix Terme", inset above.
  47. ^ Jump up to:a b von Gall, Hubertus, "The Lion-headed and the Human-headed God in the Mithraic Mysteries", in Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin ed. Études mithriaques, 1978, pp. 511
  48. Jump up^ Cumont Franz, The Mysteries of Mithras, pp 105
  49. Jump up^ Jackson, Howard M., "The Meaning and Function of the Leontocephaline in Roman Mithraism" in Numen, Vol. 32, Fasc. 1 (Jul., 1985), pp. 17–45
  50. Jump up^ R D Barnett (1975). John R Hinnells, ed. Mithraic studies: proceedings of the first International congress of Mithraic studies, Vol II. Manchester University Press ND. pp. 467–. According to some, the lion man is Aion (Zurvan, or Kronos); according to others, Ahriman.
  51. Jump up^ David M Gwynn (2010). Religious diversity in late antiquity. BRILL. p. 448.
  52. Jump up^ Beck, R., Beck on Mithraism, pp. 194
  53. Jump up^ D. Jason Cooper (1996). Mithras: mysteries and initiation rediscovered. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, Inc. pp. 48–49. The statue is a representation of the Leo degree, internalized.
  54. Jump up^ Vermaseren, M. J. The Excavations in the Mithraeum of the Church of Santa Pricsa in Rome. Brill. pp. 238–. Retrieved 3 April 2011. One should bear in mind that the Mithraic New Year began on Natalis Invicti, the birthday of their invincible god, i.e., December 25th, when the new light ...... appears from the vault of heaven.
  55. Jump up^ "Roman Religion". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 4 July 2011. For a time, coins and other monuments continued to link Christian doctrines with the worship of the Sun, to which Constantine had been addicted previously. But even when this phase came to an end, Roman paganism continued to exert other, permanent influences, great and small....The ecclesiastical calendar retains numerous remnants of pre-Christian festivals—notably Christmas, which blends elements including both the feast of the Saturnalia and the birthday of Mithra.
  56. Jump up^ Beck, Roger (1987). "Merkelbach's Mithras". Phoenix. 41 (3): 296–316. doi:10.2307/1088197., p. 299, n. 12.
  57. Jump up^ Clauss, Manfred. Mithras: Kult und Mysterien. München: Beck, 1990, p. 70.
  58. ^ Jump up to:a b "Sodalitas Graeciae (Nova Roma)/Religion from the Papyri/Mithraism". NovaRoma. 2009-03-11. Retrieved 2013-09-07.
  59. Jump up^ [1] William M. Brashear, A Mithraic Catechism from Egypt
  60. Jump up^ Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 105. ISBN 0-19-506788-6. The original editor of the text, Albrecht Dieterich, claimed that it recorded an authentic Mithraic ritual, but this claim was rejected by Cumont, who felt that the references to Mithras in the text were merely the result of an extravagant syncretism evident in magical traditions. Until recently, most scholars followed Cumont in refusing to see any authentic Mithraic doctrine in the Mithras Liturgy.
  61. Jump up^ Meyer, Marvin W. (1976) The "Mithras Liturgy".
  62. Jump up^ Francis, E.D. (1971). Hinnells, John R., ed. "Mithraic graffiti from Dura-Europos", in Mithraic Studies, vol. 2. Manchester University Press. pp. 424–445.
  63. Jump up^ Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, p.115.
  64. Jump up^ Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, p.43.
  65. Jump up^ Burkert, Walter (1987). Ancient Mystery Cults. Harvard University Press. p. 41. ISBN 0-674-03387-6.
  66. ^ Jump up to:a b Bjørnebye, Jonas (2007). Hic locus est felix, sanctus, piusque benignus: The cult of Mithras in fourth century Rome,Dissertation for the degree of philosophiae doctor (PhD). pp. 12, 36. The discovery of a large quantity of tableware as well as animal remains in a pit outside the newly excavated mithraeum at Tienen, Belgium, has also attracted new attention to the topic of Mithraic processions and large-scale feasts, begging a re-examination of the secrecy of the cult and its visibility in local society...provides evidence for large-scale, semi-public feasts outside of the mithraeum itself, suggesting that each mithraeum might have had a far larger following than its relative size would imply.
  67. Jump up^ Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 49.
  68. Jump up^ Price S & Kearns E, Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion, p.568.
  69. Jump up^ Antonía Tripolitis (2002). Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman age. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 55–. ISBN 978-0-8028-4913-7.
  70. Jump up^ Beck, Roger (2007). The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-921613-4. Nevertheless, the fact that Porphyry and/or his sources would have had no scruples about adapting or even inventing Mithraic data to suit their arguments does not necessarily mean that they actually did so. It is far more likely that Mithraic doctrine (in the weak sense of the term!) really was what the philosophers said it was... there are no insuperable discrepancies between Mithraic practice and theory as attested in Porphyry and Mithraic practice and theory as archaeology has allowed us to recover them. Even if there were major discrepancies, they would matter only in the context of the old model of an internally consistent and monolithic Mithraic doctrine., p.87.
  71. Jump up^ "Beck on Mithraism", op. cit., p. 16
  72. Jump up^ Hinnells, John R., ed. (1971). Mithraic Studies, vol. 2. Manchester University Press. plate 25
  73. Jump up^ Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, p.139.
  74. Jump up^ Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, pages 26 and 27.
  75. Jump up^ Burkert, Walter (1987). Ancient Mystery Cults. Harvard University Press. p. 10. ISBN 0-674-03387-6.
  76. Jump up^ Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, p.73.
  77. Jump up^ Bjørnebye, Jonas (2007). "The mithraea as buildings". Hic locus est felix, sanctus, piusque benignus: The cult of Mithras in fourth century Rome,Dissertation for the degree of philosophiae doctor (PhD). The extant mithraea present us with actual physical remains of the architectural structures of the sacred spaces of the Mithraic cult. While the Mithraists themselves never used the word mithraeum as far as we know, but preferred words like speleum or antrum (cave), crypta (underground hallway or corridor), fanum (sacred or holy place), or even templum (a temple or a sacred space), the word mithraeum is the common appellation in Mithraic scholarship and is used throughout this study
  78. Jump up^ Price S & Kearns E, Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion, p. 493.
  79. Jump up^ Price S & Kearns E, Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion, p. 355.
  80. Jump up^ Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 102. The Suda reference given is 3: 394, M 1045 (Adler).
  81. Jump up^ Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 102. The Gregory reference given is to Oratio 4.70 .
  82. Jump up^ Jerome, Letters 107, ch. 2 (To Laeta)
  83. Jump up^ M.Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.132-133
  84. Jump up^ M.Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.133-138
  85. Jump up^ Clauss, Manfred (1990). "Die sieben Grade des Mithras-Kultes". ZPE. 82: 183–194.
  86. Jump up^ Griffith, Alison. "Mithraism in the private and public lives of 4th-c. senators in Rome". EJMS.http://www.uhu.es/ejms/Papers/Volume1Papers/ABGMS.DOC
  87. Jump up^ Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 103.
  88. Jump up^ M. Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 105: "the followers of Mithras were the ‘initiates of the theft of the bull, united by the handshake of the illustrious father’." (Err. prof. relig. 5.2)
  89. Jump up^ Catholic Encyclopedia, Patrick J. Healy, 1909 Ed.
  90. Jump up^ Burkert, Walter (1987). Ancient mystery cults. Harvard University Press. pp. 16–. ISBN 978-0-674-03387-0. Retrieved 4 November 2011. Taking the right hand is the old Iranian form of a promise of allegiance, ...
  91. ^ Jump up to:a b "Beck on Mithraism", pp. 288–289
  92. Jump up^ Beck, Roger (2000). "Ritual, Myth, Doctrine, and Initiation in the Mysteries of Mithras: New Evidence from a Cult Vessel". The Journal of Roman Studies. 90 (90): 145–180. doi:10.2307/300205. JSTOR 300205.
  93. Jump up^ Merkelbach, Reinhold (1995). "Das Mainzer Mithrasgefäß".Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik (108): 1–6.
  94. Jump up^ Martin, Luther H. (2004). Ritual Competence and Mithraic Ritual. in Wilson, Brian C. (2004). Religion as a human capacity: a festschrift in honor of E. Thomas Lawson. BRILL., p. 257
  95. Jump up^ Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.62-101.
  96. Jump up^ Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.33.
  97. Jump up^ Cumont, Franz (1903). The Mysteries of Mithras. p. 173. Retrieved 6 July 2011. Whilst the majority of the Oriental cults accorded to women a considerable role in their churches, and sometimes even a preponderating one, finding in them ardent supporters of the faith, Mithra forbade their participation in his Mysteries and so deprived himself of the incalculable assistance of these propagandists. The rude discipline of the order did not permit them to take the degrees in the sacred cohorts, and, as among the Mazdeans of the Orient, they occupied only a secondary place in the society of the faithful. Among the hundreds of inscriptions that have come down to us, not one mentions either a priestess, a woman initiate, or even a donatress.
  98. Jump up^ Richard Gordon (2005). "Mithraism". In Lindsay Jones. Encyclopedia Of Religion. 9 (Second ed.). Thomas Gale, Macmillan Reference USA. p. 6090. ...Moreover, not a single woman is listed: the repeated attempts to show that women might belong to the cult are wishful thinking (Piccottini, 1994).
  99. Jump up^ David, Jonathan (2000). "The Exclusion of Women in the Mithraic Mysteries: Ancient or Modern?". Numen. 47 (2): 121–141. doi:10.1163/156852700511469., at p. 121.
  100. Jump up^ Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.39.
  101. Jump up^ Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, pp. 144–145: "Justin’s charge does at least make clear that Mithraic commandments did exist."
  102. Jump up^ Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 144, referencing Caesares 336C in the translation of W. C.Wright. Hermes addresses Julian: "As for you ... , I have granted you to know Mithras the Father. Keep his commandments, thus securing for yourself an anchor-cable and safe mooring all through your life, and, when you must leave the world, having every confidence that the god who guides you will be kindly disposed."
  103. Jump up^ Tertullian, De Corona Militis, 15.3
  104. Jump up^ Vermaseren, M. J. (1963), Mithras: the Secret God, London: Chatto and Windus, p. 29, Other early evidence of the first decades BCE refers only to the reverence paid to Mithras without mentioning the mysteries: examples which may be quoted are the tomb inscriptions of King Antiochus I of Commagene at Nemrud Dagh, and of his father Mithridates at Arsameia on the Orontes. Both the kings had erected on vast terraces a number of colossal statues seated on thrones to the honour of their ancestral gods. At Nemrud we find in their midst King Antiochus (69–34 BCE and in the inscription Mithras is mentioned ...
  105. Jump up^ Vermaseren, M. J. (1956), Corpus inscriptionum et monumentorum religionis mithriacae, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, CIMRM 29, Head of a beardless Mithras in Phrygian cap, point of which is missing.
  106. Jump up^ Vermaseren, M. J. (1956), Corpus inscriptionum et monumentorum religionis mithriacae, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, CIMRM 28, The gods are represented in a sitting position on a throne and are: Apollo-Mithras (see below); Tyche-Commagene; Zeus-Ahura-Mazda; Antiochus himself and finally Ares-Artagnes.
  107. Jump up^ Vermaseren, M. J. (1956), Corpus inscriptionum et monumentorum religionis mithriacae, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, CIMRM 32, verse 55
  108. Jump up^ R D Barnett (1975). John R Hinnells, ed. Mithraic studies: proceedings of the first International congress of Mithraic studies, Vol. II. Manchester University Press ND. pp. 467–. According to Vermaseren, there was a Mithras cult in the Fayum in the third century  BC, and according to Pettazzoni the figure of Aion has its iconographic origin in Egypt.
  109. Jump up^ R D Barnett (1975). John R Hinnells, ed. Mithraic studies: proceedings of the first International congress of Mithraic studies, Vol. II. Manchester University Press ND. pp. 467–468. I ... see these figures or some of them in the impression of the remarkable royal seal of King Saussatar of Mitanni (circa 1450 BCE great-great-grandfather of Kurtiwaza), the only royal Mitannian seal that we possess ... Mithra-tauroctonos, characteristically kneeling on the bull to despatch it. We can even see also the dog and snake ... below him are twin figures, one marked by a star, each fighting lions ... below a winged disc between lions and ravens, stands a winged, human-headed lion, ...
  110. Jump up^ Beck, Roger. "On Becoming a Mithraist New Evidence for the Propagation of the Mysteries". In Leif E. Vaage, et al. Religious Rivalries in the Early Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity. p. 182. The origins and spread of the Mysteries are matters of perennial debate among scholars of the cult.
  111. Jump up^ Clauss, Manfred (2000). Gordon, Richard (trans.), ed. The Roman cult of Mithras. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-7486-1396-X.
  112. Jump up^ Ulansey, David. "The Cosmic Mysteries of Mithras". Retrieved 2011-03-20. Our earliest evidence for the Mithraic mysteries places their appearance in the middle of the 1st Century BCE: the historian Plutarch says that in 67 BCE a large band of pirates based in Cilicia (a province on the southeastern coast of Asia Minor) were practicing "secret rites of Mithras". The earliest physical remains of the cult date from around the end of the 1st Century CE, and Mithraism reached its height of popularity in the third century.
  113. Jump up^ C.M.Daniels, "The role of the Roman army in the spread and practice of Mithraism" in John R. Hinnells (ed.) Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies, Manchester University Press (1975), vol. 2, p. 250: "Traditionally there are two geographical regions where Mithraism first struck root in the Roman empire: Italy and the Danube. Italy I propose to omit, as the subject needs considerable discussion, and the introduction of the cult there, as witnessed by its early dedicators, seems not to have been military. Before we turn to the Danube, however, there is one early event (rather than geographical location) which should perhaps be mentioned briefly in passing. This is the supposed arrival of the cult in Italy as a result of Pompey the Great’s defeat of the Cilician pirates, who practised ‘strange sacrifices of their own ... and celebrated certain secret rites, amongst which those of Mithra continue to the present time, having been first instituted by them’. Suffice it to say that there is neither archaeological nor allied evidence for the arrival of Mithraism in the West at that time, nor is there any ancient literary reference, either contemporary or later. If anything, Plutarch’s mention carefully omits making the point that the cult was introduced into Italy at that time or by the pirates."
  114. Jump up^ Beck, R. (1998). "The Mysteries of Mithras: A New Account of their Genesis", Journal of Roman Studies, 115–128. p. 118.
  115. Jump up^ Vermaseren, M. J. (1960) [1956], Corpus inscriptionum et monumentorum religionis mithriacae, 2 vols., The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff
  116. Jump up^ Gordon, Richard L. (1978). "The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British Museum, Townley Collection". Journal of Mithraic Studies II: 148–174.. Online here [2].
  117. Jump up^ Beskow, Per, "The routes of early Mithraism", in Études mithriaques, Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin (ed.). p. 14: "Another possible piece of evidence is offered by five terracotta plaques with a tauroctone, found in Crimea and taken into the records of Mithraic monuments by Cumont and Vermaseren. If they are Mithraic, they are certainly the oldest known representations of Mithras tauroctone; the somewhat varying dates given by Russian archaeologists will set the beginning of the 1st century C.E. as a terminus ad quem, which is also said to have been confirmed by the stratigraphic conditions." Note 20 gives the publication as W. Blawatsky / G. Kolchelenko, Le culte de Mithra sur la cote spetentrionale de la Mer Noire, Leiden 1966, p. 14f.
  118. Jump up^ ... the area [the Crimea] is of interest mainly because of the terracotta plaques from Kerch (five, of which two are in CIMRM as numbers 11 and 12). These show a bull-killing figure and their probable date (second half of 1st Century BCE to first half of 1st century AD) would make them the earliest tauroctonies – if it is Mithras that they portray. Their iconography is significantly different from that of the standard tauroctony (e.g. in the Attis-like exposure of the god's genitals). Roger Beck, Mithraism since Franz Cumont, Aufsteig und Niedergang der romischen Welt, II 17.4 (1984), p. 2019 [3]
  119. Jump up^ Beskow, Per, The routes of early Mithraism, in Études mithriaques Ed. Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin. p. 15: "The plaques are typical Bosporan terracottas ... At the same time it must be admitted that the plaques have some strange features which make it debatable if this is really Mithra(s). Most striking is the fact that his genitals are visible as they are in the iconography of Attis, which is accentuated by a high anaxyrides. Instead of the tunic and flowing cloak he wears a kind of jacket, buttoned over the breast with only one button, perhaps the attempt of a not so skillful artist to depict a cloak. The bull is small and has a hump and the tauroctone does not plunge his knife into the flank of the bull but holds it lifted. The nudity gives it the character of a fertility god and if we want to connect it directly with the Mithraic mysteries it is indeed embarrassing that the first one of these plaques was found in a woman's tomb." Clauss, p. 156: "He is grasping one of the bull’s horns with his left hand, and wrenching back its head; the right arm is raised to deliver the death-blow. So far, this god must be Mithras. But in sharp contrast with the usual representations [of Mithras], he is dressed in a jacket-like garment, fastened at the chest with a brooch, which leaves his genitals exposed – the iconography typical of Attis."
  120. Jump up^ Gordon, Richard L. (1978). "The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British Museum, Townley Collection". Journal of Mithraic Studies II: 148–174.. Online here [4] CIMRM 362 a , b = el l, VI 732 = Moretti, lGUR I 179: "Soli | Invicto Mithrae | T . Flavius Aug. lib. Hyginus | Ephebianus | d. d. – but the Greek title is just "`Hliwi Mithrai". The name "Flavius" for an imperial freedman dates it between 70–136 CE. The Greek section refers to a pater of the cult named Lollius Rufus, evidence of the existence of the rank system at this early date.
  121. Jump up^ Gordon, Richard L. (1978). "The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British Museum, Townley Collection". Journal of Mithraic Studies II: 148–174. p. 150.
  122. Jump up^ C. M. Daniels, "The Roman army and the spread of Mithraism" in John R. Hinnels, Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies, vol. 2, 1975, Manchester University Press, pp. 249–274. "The considerable movement [of civil servants and military] throughout the empire was of great importance to Mithraism, and even with the very fragmentary and inadequate evidence that we have it is clear that the movement of troops was a major factor in the spread of the cult. Traditionally there are two geographical regions where Mithraism first struck root: Italy and the Danube. Italy I propose to omit, as the subject needs considerable discussion, and the introduction of the cult there, as witnessed by its early dedicators, seems not to have been military. Before we turn to the Danube, however, there is one early event (rather than geographical location) which should perhaps be mentioned briefly in passing. This is the supposed arrival of the cult in Italy as a result of Pompey the Great's defeat of Cilician pirates, who practiced ‘strange sacrifices of their own ... and celebrated certain secret rites, amongst which those of Mithras continue to the present time, have been first instituted by them’." (ref. Plutarch, Pompey 24–25) Suffice it to say that there is neither archaeological nor allied evidence for the arrival of Mithraism in the west at that time, nor is there any ancient literary reference, either contemporary or later. If anything, Plutarch’s mention carefully omits making the point that the cult was introduced into Italy at that time or by the pirates. Turning to the Danube, the earliest dedication from that region is an altar to ‘Mitrhe’ (sic) set up by C. Sacidus Barbarus, a centurion of XV Appolinaris, stationed at the time at Carnuntum in Pannonia (Deutsch-Altenburg, Austria). The movements of this legion are particularly informative." The article then goes on to say that XV Appolinaris was originally based at Carnuntum, but between 62–71 CE transferred to the east, first in the Armenian campaign, and then to put down the Jewish uprising. Then 71–86 back in Carnuntum, then 86–105 intermittently in the Dacian wars, then 105–114 back in Carnuntum, and finally moved to Cappadocia in 114.
  123. Jump up^ C. M. Daniels, "The Roman army and the spread of Mithraism" in John R. Hinnels, Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies, vol. 2, 1975, Manchester University Press, p. 263. The first dateable Mithraeum outside italy is from Böckingen on the Neckar, where a centurion of the legion VIII Augustus dedicated two altars, one to Mithras and the other (dated 148) to Apollo.
  124. Jump up^ Lewis M. Hopfe, "Archaeological indications on the origins of Roman Mithraism", in Lewis M. Hopfe (ed). Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson, Eisenbrauns (1994), pp. 147–158 . p. 153: "At present this is the only Mithraeum known in Roman Palestine." p. 154: "It is difficult to assign an exact date to the founding of the Caesarea Maritima Mithraeum. No dedicatory plaques have been discovered that might aid in the dating. The lamps found with the taurectone medallion are from the end of the first century to the late 3rd century CE. Other pottery and coins from the vault are also from this era. Therefore it is speculated that this Mithraeum developed toward the end of the 1st century and remained active until the late 3rd Century. This matches the dates assigned to the Dura-Europos and the Sidon Mithraea."
  125. Jump up^ "Beck on Mithraism", pp. 34–35. Online here [5].
  126. Jump up^ Boyce, Mary; Grenet, Frantz (1975). Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman rule, Part 1. Brill. pp. 468, 469. ISBN 90-04-09271-4. Retrieved 2011-03-16. ... the Persian affiliation of the Mysteries is acknowledged in the earliest literary reference to them. This is by the Latin poet Statius who, writing about 80 CE., described Mithras as one who "twists the unruly horns beneath the rocks of a Persian cave". Only a little later (c. 100 CE.) Plutarch attributed an Anatolian origin to the Mysteries, for according to him the Cilician pirates whom Pompey defeated in 67 BCE. "celebrated certain secret rites, amongst which those of Mithras continue to the present time, having been first instituted by them".
  127. ^ Jump up to:a b Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 29. ISBN 0-19-506788-6.
  128. Jump up^ Statius: Thebaid 1.719 to 720 J.H.Mozey's translation at Classical E-Text Latin text at The Latin Library
  129. Jump up^ The prayer begins at Statius Thebaid 1.696 J.H.Mozey's translation at Classical E-Text Latin text at The Latin Library
  130. Jump up^ Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 27 to 29. ISBN 0-19-506788-6.
  131. ^ Jump up to:a b (Life of Pompey 24, referring to events c. 68 BCE).
  132. Jump up^ App. Mith 14.92 cited in Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 89. ISBN 0-19-506788-6.
  133. Jump up^ E.D. Francis "Plutarch's Mithraic pirates", an appendix to the article by Franz Cummont "The Dura Mithraeum" in John R. Hinnells Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the first international congress Vol 1, pp. 207–210. Manchester University Press, 1975. (The reference to Servius is in a lengthy footnote to page 208.) Google books link
  134. Jump up^ Dio Cassius 63.5.2
  135. Jump up^ Beck, Roger (2002-07-20). "Mithraism". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition. Retrieved 2011-05-15. In the Cumontian scenario this episode cannot mark the definitive moment of transfer, for Mithraism in that scenario was already established in Rome, albeit on a scale too small to have left any trace in the historical or archaeological record. Nevertheless, it could have been a spur to Mithraism’s emergence on to the larger stage of popular appeal.
  136. ^ Jump up to:a b Porphyry, De antro nympharum 2: "For, as Eubulus says, Zoroaster was the first who consecrated in the neighbouring mountains of Persia, a spontaneously produced cave, florid, and having fountains, in honour of Mithra, the maker and father of all things; |12 a cave, according to Zoroaster, bearing a resemblance of the world, which was fabricated by Mithra. But the things contained in the cavern being arranged according to commensurate intervals, were symbols of the mundane elements and climates."
  137. Jump up^ Porphyry, De antro nympharum 11: "Hence, a place near to the equinoctial circle was assigned to Mithra as an appropriate seat. And on this account he bears the sword of Aries, which is a martial sign. He is likewise carried in the Bull, which is the sign of Venus. For Mithra. as well as the Bull, is the Demiurgus and lord of generation."
  138. Jump up^ Turcan, Robert, Mithras Platonicus, Leiden, 1975, via Beck, R. Merkelbach's Mithras pp. 301–302.
  139. Jump up^ Beck, R. Merkelbach’s Mithras p. 308 n. 37.
  140. Jump up^ Roger Beck; Luther H. Martin; Harvey Whitehouse (2004). Theorizing religions past: archaeology, history, and cognition. Rowman Altamira. pp. 101–. ISBN 978-0-7591-0621-5. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
  141. Jump up^ Beck, Roger (2006). The Religion of the Mithras cult in the Roman empire. Great Britain: Oxford University Press. p. 17. De antro 6 is actually the sole explicit testimony from antiquity as to the intent of Mithraism’s mysteries and the means by which that intent was realized. Porphyry, moreover, was an intelligent and well-placed theoretician of contemporary religion, with access to predecessors’ studies, now lost.
  142. Jump up^ Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 18. ISBN 0-19-506788-6.
  143. Jump up^ Meyer, Marvin (2006). "The Mithras Liturgy". In A.J. Levine, Dale C. Allison, Jr., and John Dominic Crossan. The historical Jesus in context. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 180. ISBN 0-691-00991-0. (The reference is at line 482 of the Great Magical Papyrus of Paris. The Mithras Liturgy comprises lines 475–834 of the Papyrus.)
  144. Jump up^ See the Greek text with German translation in Albrecht Dieterich, Eine Mithrasliturgie, 2nd edition, pp. 1–2
  145. Jump up^ The "Mithras Liturgy": Text, Translation and Commentary, p. 12. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003.
  146. Jump up^ Meyer, Marvin (2006). "The Mithras Liturgy". In A. J. Levine, Dale C. Allison, Jr., and John Dominic Crossan. The historical Jesus in context. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 180–182. ISBN 0-691-00991-0.
  147. Jump up^ The "Mithras Liturgy": Text, Translation and Commentary. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck. 2003.
  148. Jump up^ Richard Gordon, "Probably Not Mithras" in The Classical Review Vol. 55, No. 1 (March 2005) pp. 99–100.
  149. Jump up^ Cumont, Franz (1894–1900). Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra. Brussels: H. Lamertin.
  150. Jump up^ Cumont, Franz (1903). The Mysteries of Mithra. Translated by Thomas J. McCormack. Chicago: Open Court. Accessible online at Internet Sacred Text Archive: The Mysteries of Mithra Index (accessed 13 February 2011)
  151. Jump up^ Beck, R. (1987). "Merkelbach’s Mithras" in Phoenix, 41.3, p 298.
  152. Jump up^ Hopfe, Lewis M.; Richardson, Henry Neil (September 1994). "Archaeological Indications on the Origins of Roman Mithraism". In Lewis M. Hopfe. Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson. Eisenbrauns. pp. 148–. ISBN 978-0-931464-73-7. Retrieved 19 March 2011. Franz Cumont, one of the greatest students of Mithraism, theorized that the roots of the Roman mystery religion were in ancient Iran. He identified the ancient Aryan deity who appears in Persian literature as Mithras with the Hindu god Mitra of the Vedic hymns.
  153. Jump up^ Cumont, Franz (1903). The Mysteries of Mithra. p. 107.(accessed 13 February 2011)
  154. Jump up^ Cumont, Franz (1903). The Mysteries of Mithra. p. 104.(accessed 13 February 2011)
  155. Jump up^ Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 10. ISBN 0-19-506788-6. In the course of the First International Congress, two scholar in particular presented devastating critiques of Cumont's Iranian hypothesis ... One, John Hinnells, was the organizer of the conference ... Of more importance in the long run, however, was the even more radical paper presented by R.L.Gordon ...
  156. Jump up^ John R. Hinnells, "Reflections on the bull-slaying scene" in Mithraic studies, vol. 2, pp. 303–304: "Nevertheless we would not be justified in swinging to the opposite extreme from Cumont and Campbell and denying all connection between Mithraism and Iran."
  157. Jump up^ John R. Hinnells, "Reflections on the bull-slaying scene" in Mithraic studies, vol. 2, pp. 303–304: "Since Cumont’s reconstruction of the theology underlying the reliefs in terms of the Zoroastrian myth of creation depends upon the symbolic expression of the conflict of good and evil, 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. What, then, do the reliefs depict? And how can we proceed in any study of Mithraism? I would accept with R. Gordon that Mithraic scholars must in future start with the Roman evidence, not by outlining Zoroastrian myths and then making the Roman iconography fit that scheme. ... Unless we discover Euboulus’ history of Mithraism we are never likely to have conclusive proof for any theory. Perhaps all that can be hoped for is a theory which is in accordance with the evidence and commends itself by (mere) plausibility."
  158. Jump up^ John R. Hinnells, "Reflections on the bull-slaying scene" in Mithraic studies, vol. 2, p. 292: "Indeed, one can go further and say 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. Cumont reconstructs a primordial life of the god on earth, but such a concept is unthinkable in terms of known, specifically Zoroastrian, Iranian thought where the gods never, and apparently never could, live on earth. To interpret Roman Mithraism in terms of Zoroastrian thought and to argue for an earthly life of the god is to combine irreconcilables. If it is believed that Mithras had a primordial life on earth, then the concept of the god has changed so fundamentally that the Iranian background has become virtually irrelevant."
  159. Jump up^ R.L.Gordon, "Franz Cumont and the doctrines of Mithraism" in John R. Hinnells (ed.), Mithraic studies, vol. 1, p. 215 f
  160. Jump up^ Martin, Luther H. (2004). Foreword. in Beck, Roger B. (2004). Beck on Mithraism: Collected Works With New Essays. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-4081-7., p. xiv.
  161. Jump up^ Bianchi, Ugo. "The Second International Congress of Mithraic Studies, Tehran, September 1975" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-03-20. I welcome the present tendency to question in historical terms the relations between Eastern and Western Mithraism, which should not mean obliterating what was clear to the Romans themselves, that Mithras was a ‘Persian’ (in wider perspective: an Indo-Iranian) god.
  162. Jump up^ Boyce, Mary (2001). "Mithra the King and Varuna the Master". Festschrift für Helmut Humbach zum 80. Trier: WWT.pp. 243,n.18
  163. Jump up^ Beck, Roger B. (2004). Beck on Mithraism: Collected Works With New Essays. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-4081-7., p. 28: "Since the 1970s scholars of western Mithraism have generally agreed that Cumont's master narrative of east-west transfer is unsustainable"; although he adds that "recent trends in the scholarship on Iranian religion, by modifying the picture of that religion prior to the birth of the western mysteries, now render a revised Cumontian scenario of east-west transfer and continuities now viable."
  164. Jump up^ Beck, Roger (2006). The Religion of the Mithras cult in the Roman empire. Great Britain: Oxford University Press. pp. 48–50. ... an indubitable residuum of things Persian in the Mysteries and a better knowledge of what constituted actual Mazdaism have allowed modern scholars to postulate for Roman Mithraism a continuing Iranian theology. This indeed is the main line of Mithraic scholarship, the Cumontian model which subsequent scholars accept, modify, or reject. For the transmission of Iranian doctrine from East to West, Cumont postulated a plausible, if hypothetical, intermediary: the Magusaeans of the Iranian diaspora in Anatolia. More problematic, and never properly addressed by Cumont or his successors, is how real-life Roman Mithraists subsequently maintained a quite complex and sophisticated Iranian theology behind an occidental facade. Other than the images at Dura of the two ‘magi’ with scrolls, there is no direct and explicit evidence for the carriers of such doctrines. ... Up to a point, Cumont’s Iranian paradigm, especially in Turcan’s modified form, is certainly plausible.
  165. Jump up^ Edwell, Peter. "Roger Beck, The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire: Mysteries of the Unconquered Sun. Reviewed by Peter Edwell, Macquarie University, Sydney". Retrieved 2011-06-14. The study of the ancient mystery cult of Mithraism has been heavily influenced over the last century by the pioneering work of Franz Cumont followed by that of M. J. Vermaseren. Ever since Cumont’s volumes first appeared in the 1890s, his ideas on Mithraism have been influential, particularly with regard to the quest for Mithraic doctrine. His emphasis on the Iranian features of the cult is now less influential with the Iranising influences generally played down in scholarship over the last thirty years. While the long shadow cast by Cumont is sometimes susceptible to exaggeration, recent research such as that of Robert Turcan demonstrates that Cumont’s influence is still strong.
  166. Jump up^ Belayche, Nicole. "Religious Actors in Daily Life: Practices and Related Beliefs". In Jörg Rüpke. A Companion to Roman Religion. p. 291. Cumont, who still stands as an authoritative scholar for historians of religions, analyzed the diffusion of "oriental religions" as filling a psychological gap and satisfying new spiritualistic needs (1929: 24–40).
  167. Jump up^ Beck, Roger. "On Becoming a Mithraist New Evidence for the Propagation of the Mysteries". In Leif E. Vaage, et al. Religious Rivalries in the Early Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity. p. 182. The old Cumontian model of formation in, and diffusion from, Anatolia (see Cumont 1956a, 11–32; cf. pp. 33–84 on propagation in the West) is by no means dead – nor should it be. On the role of the army in the spread of Mithraism, see Daniels 1975.
  168. Jump up^ Beck, Roger (2002). "Mithraism". Encyclopædia Iranica. Costa Mesa: Mazda Pub. Retrieved 2007-10-28. Mithras – moreover, a Mithras who was identified with the Greek Sun god Helios – was one of the deities of the syncretic Graeco-Iranian royal cult founded by Antiochus I (q.v.), king of the small but prosperous buffer state of Commagene (q.v.) in the mid 1st century BCE.
  169. Jump up^ Beck, Roger. "The mysteries of Mithras: A new account of their genesis" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-03-23. ... It may properly be called a ‘Cumontian scenario’ for two reasons: First, because it looks again to Anatolia and Anatolians; Secondly, and more importantly, because it hews to the methodological line first set by Cumont.
  170. Jump up^ Beck, R., 2002: "Discontinuity’s weaker form of argument postulates re-invention among and for the denizens of the Roman empire (or certain sections thereof), but re-invention by a person or persons of some familiarity with Iranian religion in a form current on its western margins in the first century CE. Merkelbach (1984: pp. 75–77), expanding on a suggestion of M. P. Nilsson, proposes such a founder from eastern Anatolia, working in court circles in Rome. So does Beck (1998), with special focus on the dynasty of Commagene (see above). Jakobs 1999 proposes a similar scenario."
  171. Jump up^ Reinhold Merkelbach, Mithras, Konigstein, 1984, ch. 75–77
  172. Jump up^ Beck, R., "Merkelbach's Mithras", pp. 304, 306.
  173. Jump up^ Ulansey, D., The origins of the Mithraic mysteries, p. 77f.
  174. Jump up^ Beck, Roger (2002-07-20). "Mithraism". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition. Retrieved 2011-05-16. The time has come to review the principal scholarship which has argued for transmission and continuity based on the postulated similarities ... three argue for continuity in the strongest terms. A.D.H. Bivar (1998, and earlier studies mentioned there) argues that western Mithraism was but one of several manifestations of Mithra-worship current in antiquity across a wide swathe of Asia and Europe. L.A. Campbell (1968) argues in the Cumontian tradition ... extraordinarily detailed and learned form of Zoroastrian Mazdaism. A continuity as thoroughgoing, though not quite so systematic ideologically, was proposed in several studies by G. Widengren (1965: pp. 222–232; 1966; 1980).
  175. Jump up^ Antonía Tripolitis (2002). Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman age. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 3–. ISBN 978-0-8028-4913-7. It originated in Vedic, India, migrated to Persia by way of Babylon, and then westward through the Hellenized East, and finally across the length and breadth of the Hellenistic-Roman world. On its westward journey, it incorporated many of the features of the cultures in which it found itself.
  176. ^ Jump up to:a b Michael P. Speidel, Mithras-Orion: Greek Hero and Roman Army God, Brill Academic Publishers (August 1997), ISBN 90-04-06055-3
  177. Jump up^ Gordon, Richard L. (1978). "The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British Museum, Townley Collection". Journal of Mithraic Studies II: 148–174.. pp. 150–151: "The first important expansion of the mysteries in the Empire seems to have occurred relatively rapidly late in the reign of Antoninus Pius and under Marcus Aurelius (9). By that date, it is clear, the mysteries were fully institutionalised and capable of relatively stereotyped self-reproduction through the medium of an agreed, and highly complex, symbolic system reduced in iconography and architecture to a readable set of 'signs'. Yet we have good reason to believe that the establishment of at least some of those signs is to be dated at least as early as the Flavian period or in the very earliest years of the second century. Beyond that we cannot go ..."
  178. Jump up^ Beck, R., Merkelbach's Mithras, p.299; Clauss, R., The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 25: "... the astonishing spread of the cult in the later 2nd and early 3rd centuries AD ... This extraordinary expansion, documented by the archaeological monuments..."
  179. Jump up^ Clauss, R., The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 25, referring to Porphyry, De Abstinentia, 2.56 and 4.16.3 (for Pallas) and De antro nympharum 6 (for Euboulus and his history).
  180. Jump up^ Loeb, D. Magie (1932). Scriptores Historiae Augustae: Commodus. pp. IX.6: Sacra Mithriaca homicidio vero polluit, cum illic aliquid ad speciem timoris vel dici vel fingi soleat "He desecrated the rites of Mithras with actual murder, although it was customary in them merely to say or pretend something that would produce an impression of terror".
  181. Jump up^ Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 24: "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 army – at any rate as far as the latter is known to us from the Feriale Duranum, the religious calendar of the units at Dura-Europos in Coele Syria;" [where there was a Mithraeum] "the same is true of all the other mystery cults too." He adds that at the individual level, various individuals did hold roles both in the state cults and the priesthood of Mithras.
  182. Jump up^ Beck, R., Merkelbach's Mithras, p. 299.
  183. Jump up^ Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, pp. 29–30: "Mithras also found a place in the ‘pagan revival’ that occurred, particularly in the western empire, in the latter half of the 4th century CE. For a brief period, especially in Rome, the cult enjoyed, along with others, a last efflorescence, for which we have evidence from among the highest circles of the senatorial order. One of these senators was Rufius Caeionius Sabinus, who in 377 dedicated an altar" to a long list of gods that includes Mithras.
  184. Jump up^ Ulansey, David. "The Cosmic Mysteries of Mithras". Retrieved 2011-03-20. 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.
  185. Jump up^ Michael Speidel (1980). Mithras-Orion: Greek hero and Roman army god. Brill. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-90-04-06055-5. Retrieved 27 March 2011. As a mystery religion it engulfed the Roman empire during the first four centuries of our era. Mithraic sanctuaries are found from Roman Arabia to Britain, from the Danube to the Sahara, wherever the Roman soldier went. Christian apologetics fiercely fought the cult they feared., and during the late 4th century CE, as a victim of the Judaeo-Christian spirit of intolerance, Roman Mithraism was suppressed, its sanctuaries destroyed together with the last vestiges of religious freedom in the empire.
  186. Jump up^ Martin, Luther H.; Beck, Roger (December 30, 2004). "Foreword". Beck on Mithraism: Collected Works With New Essays. Ashgate Publishing. pp. xiii. ISBN 978-0-7546-4081-3. However, the cult was vigorously opposed by Christian polemicists, especially by Justin and Tertullian, because of perceived similarities between it and early Christianity. And with the anti-pagan decrees of the Christian emperor Theodosius during the final decade of the fourth century, Mithraism disappeared from the history of religions as a viable religious practice.
  187. Jump up^ Vermaseren, M. J. The Excavations in the Mithraeum of the Church of Santa Pricsa in Rome. Brill. p. 115. Retrieved 3 April 2011. The ground-plan ... shows clearly that the presbytery of the Church lies over the ante-Room V of the Mithraeum and that the apse covers the first part of the main hall W, including the niches of Cautes and Cautopates. One cannot fail to see the symbolism of this arrangement, which expresses in concrete terms that Christ keeps Mithras "under". The same also applies at S. Clemente.
  188. Jump up^ humphries, mark (10 December 2008). Susan Ashbrook Harvey, David G. Hunter, ed. The Oxford handbook of early Christian studies. Oxford University Press. pp. 95–. ISBN 978-0-19-927156-6. Retrieved 3 April 2011. In some instances, the deliberate concealment of Mithraic cult objects could suggest precautions were being taken against Christian attacks; but elsewhere, such as along the Rhine frontier, coin sequences suggest that Mithraic shrines were abandoned in the context of upheavals resulting from barbarian invasions, and that purely religious considerations cannot explain the end of Mithraism in that region (Sauer 1996).
  189. Jump up^ Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, pp. 31–32.
  190. Jump up^ Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 171.
  191. Jump up^ Cumont, Franz (1903). McCormack, Thomas J. (trans.), ed. The Mysteries of Mithra. Chicago: Open Court. ISBN 0-486-20323-9. pp. 206: "A few clandestine conventicles may, with stubborn persistence, have been held in the subterranean retreats of the palaces. The cult of the Persian god possibly existed as late as the fifth century in certain remote cantons of the Alps and the Vosges. For example, devotion to the Mithraic rites long persisted in the tribe of the Anauni, masters of a flourishing valley, of which a narrow defile closed the mouth." This is unreferenced; but the French text in Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra tom. 1, p. 348 has a footnote.
  192. Jump up^ The Greater [Bundahishn] IV.19-20: "19. He let loose Greed, Needfulness, [Pestilence,] Disease, Hunger, Illness, Vice and Lethargy on the body of , Gav' and Gayomard. 20. Before his coming to the 'Gav', Ohrmazd gave the healing Cannabis, which is what one calls 'banj', to the' Gav' to eat, and rubbed it before her eyes, so that her discomfort, owing to smiting, [sin] and injury, might decrease; she immediately became feeble and ill, her milk dried up, and she passed away."
  193. Jump up^ Hinnels, John R. "Reflections on the bull-slaying scene". Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Mithraic Studies. Manchester UP. pp. II.290–312., p. 291
  194. Jump up^ Ulansey, David (1989). The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505402-4.(1991 revised edition)
  195. Jump up^ Porphyry, De Antro nympharum 10: "Since, however, a cavern is an image and symbol of the world..."
  196. Jump up^ Lewis M. Hopfe, "Archaeological indications on the origins of Roman Mithraism", in Lewis M. Hopfe (ed). Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson, Eisenbrauns (1994), pp. 147–158, p. 154
  197. Jump up^ Beck, Roger, "Astral Symbolism in the Tauroctony: A statistical demonstration of the Extreme Improbability of Unintended Coincidence in the Selection of Elements in the Composition" in Beck on Mithraism: collected works with new essays" (2004), p. 257.
  198. Jump up^ Beck, Roger, "The Rise and Fall of Astral Identifications of the Tauroctonous Mithras" in Beck on Mithraism: collected works with new essays" (2004), p. 236.
  199. Jump up^ Ulansey, D., The origins of the Mithraic mysteries", p. 25–39.
  200. ^ Jump up to:a b Beck, Roger, "In the place of the lion: Mithras in the tauroctony" in Beck on Mithraism: collected works with new essays" (2004), p. 270-276.
  201. Jump up^ Meyer, Marvin (2006). "The Mithras Liturgy". In A.J. Levine, Dale C. Allison, Jr., and John Dominic Crossan. The historical Jesus in context. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 179–180. ISBN 0-691-00991-0. ...The Mithras Liturgy reflects the world of Mithraism, but precisely how it relates to other expressions of the mysteries of Mithras is unclear. ... With the leg of the bull, interpreted astronomically, the Mithraic god, or Mithras, turns the sphere of heaven around, and if the text suggests that Mithras "moves heaven and turns it back (antistrephousa)," Mithras may be responsible for the astronomical precession of the equinoxes, the progressive change in the earth’s orientation in space caused by a wobble in the earth’s rotation (so Ulansey).
  202. Jump up^ Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 158.
  203. Jump up^ Burkert, Walter (1987). Ancient Mystery Cults. Harvard University Press. p. 49. ISBN 0-674-03387-6.
  204. Jump up^ Hopfe, Lewis M.; Richardson, Henry Neil (September 1994). "Archaeological Indications on the Origins of Roman Mithraism". In Lewis M. Hopfe. Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson. Eisenbrauns. pp. 147–. ISBN 978-0-931464-73-7. Retrieved 19 March 2011. ... The Christian's view of this rival religion is extremely negative, because they regarded it as a demonic mockery of their own faith.
  205. Jump up^ Gordon, Richard. "FAQ". Retrieved 2011-03-22. In general, in studying Mithras, and the other Greco-oriental mystery cults, it is good practice to steer clear of all information provided by Christian writers: they are not 'sources', they are violent apologists, and one does best not to believe a word they say, however tempting it is to supplement our ignorance with such stuff.
  206. Jump up^ Louis Bouyer. The Christian Mystery. pp. 70–. Retrieved 28 May 2011.
  207. Jump up^ Fritz Graf, "Baptism and Graeco-Roman Mystery Cults," in "Rituals of Purification, Rituals of Initiation," in Ablution, Initiation, and Baptism: Late Antiquity, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity (Walter de Gruyter, 2011), p. 105.
  208. Jump up^ Francis Legge (1950). Forerunners and rivals of Christianity: being studies in religious history from 330 BCE–330 AD. Retrieved 12 April 2011. Wherefore also the evil demons in mimicry have handed down that the same thing should be done in the Mysteries of Mithras. For that bread and a cup of water are in these mysteries set before the initiate with certain speeches you either know or can learn.
  209. Jump up^ Renan, E., Marc-Aurele et la fin du monde antique. Paris, 1882, p. 579: "On peut dire que, si le christianisme eût été arrêté dans sa croissance par quelque maladie mortelle, le monde eût été mithriaste."
  210. Jump up^ Ernest Renan (October 2004). The Hibbert Lectures 1880: Lectures on the Influence of the Institutions, Thought and Culture of Rome on Christianity and the Development of the Catholic Church 1898. Kessinger Publishing. pp. 35–. ISBN 978-1-4179-8242-4. Retrieved 22 March 2011. I sometimes permit myself to say that, if Christianity had not carried the day, Mithraicism would have become the religion of the world. It had its mysterious meetings: its chapels, which bore a strong resemblance to little churches. It forged a very lasting bond of brotherhood between its initiates: it had a Eucharist, a Supper ...
  211. Jump up^ Leonard Boyle, A short guide to St. Clement's, Rome (Rome: Collegio San Clemente, 1987), p. 71
  212. Jump up^ J.A.Ezquerra, Translated by R. Gordon, Romanising oriental Gods: myth, salvation and ethics in the cults of Cybele, Isis and Mithras. Brill, 2008, pp. 202–203: "Many people have erroneously supposed that all religions have a sort of universalist tendency or ambition. In the case of Mithraism, such an ambition has often been taken for granted and linked to a no less questionable assumption, that there was a rivalry between Mithras and Christ for imperial favour. ... If Christianity had failed, the Roman empire would never have become Mithraist." Google books preview here [6].
  213. Jump up^ Boyce, Mary (2001) [1979]. Zoroastrians: their religious beliefs and practices. Routledge. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-415-23902-8. Retrieved 17 March 2011. Mithraism proselytized energetically to the west, and for a time presented a formidable challenge to Christianity; but it is not yet known how far, or how effectively, it penetrated eastward. A Mithraeum has been uncovered at the Parthian fortress-town of Dura-Europos on the Euphrates; but Zoroastrianism itself may well have been a barrier to its spread into Iran proper.
  214. Jump up^ Vermaseren, M. J. The Excavations in the Mithraeum of the Church of Santa Pricsa in Rome. Brill. pp. 9–. Retrieved 4 September 2011. This Mithraeum was discovered in 1934 ... they found a sanctuary of one of the most formidable antagonists of Christianity.
  215. Jump up^ "Mithra". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2011-04-09. Mithra, also spelled Mithras, Sanskrit Mitra, ... In the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, the cult of Mithra, carried and supported by the soldiers of the Roman Empire, was the chief rival to the newly developing religion of Christianity.
  216. ^ Jump up to:a b c Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. pp. 3 to 4. ISBN 0-19-506788-6. ... the study of Mithraism is also of great important for our understanding of what Arnold Toynbee has called the 'Crucible of Christianity', the cultural matrix in which the Christian religion came to birth out of the civilization of the ancient Mediterranean. For Mithraism was one of Christianity's major competitors in the Roman Empire ... No doubt Renan's statement is somewhat exaggerated.

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