Chapter 11
On this particular junction of time Val intercepted: "what about the story of Mithra? Did you meet him in person?" Darex glance at Epslon insinuating for back-up. Epslon clear his throat and started to mumbled and clear his throat again; "Well, we had plenty of write-up about Mithra, but first let me informed you that Mithra is not an ordinary human but a half-bred human. He was fathered by our ancient crew, Thyrex as he prepared to have a virgin mate and if my memories serve me right, he was the great, grandson of Aleppo who also fathered Zoroaster.
Mithra was said to be a visionary person who preaches righteousness and morality until his followers were known to practice Mithraism that must have originated in the eastern provinces of the Roman empire and spread westward with legionaries in the Roman army, merchants from eastern provinces (often lumped under the broad misnomer "Syrians"), freedmen in the imperial bureaucracy, and slaves.
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Moreover, few monuments from the Roman cult have been recovered from the very provinces which are thought to have inspired worship of Mithras (namely the provinces of Asia Minor). The earliest datable evidence for the cult of Mithras came from the military garrison at Carnuntum in the province of Upper Pannonia on the Danube River (modern Hungary). Indeed, the largest quantity of evidence for mithraic worship comes from the western half of the empire, particularly from the provinces of the Danube River frontier and from Rome and her port city, Ostia, in Italy.
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To explain this phenomenon, soldiers stationed in western provinces and transferred to eastern provinces for short periods of time learned of the deity Mithra and began to worship and dedicate monuments to a god they called Mithras when they returned to their customary garrison. It is true that soldiers from the Roman legion XV Apollinaris stationed at Carnuntum in the first century CE were called to the East in 63 CE to help fight in a campaign against the Parthians and further to help quell the Jewish revolt in Jerusalem from 66-70 CE.
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Members of the legion made mithraic dedications back in Carnuntum after their return from these campaigns as early as 71 or 72 CE. Once these Roman soldiers and the camp-followers of the legions, thus included merchants, slaves, and freedmen, started to worship Mithras, their further movements around the empire served to spread the cult to other areas.
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The Roman cult of Mithras is known as a "mystery" cult, which is to say that its members kept the liturgy and activities of the cult secret, and more importantly, that they had to participate in an initiation ceremony to become members of the cult. As a result, there is no surviving central text of Mithraism analogous to the Christian Bible, and there is no intelligible text which describes it. Worship took place in a temple, called a Mithraeum, which was made to resemble a natural cave; as noted on the foot note of the great, great, great ancestors.
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Sometimes temples were built specifically for the purpose, but often they were single rooms in larger buildings which usually had another purpose (for example, a bath house, or a private home). There are about one hundred mithraea preserved in the empire. Mithraea were longer than they were wide, usually around ten to twelve meters long and four to six meters wide, and were entered from one of the short sides. Roman dining couches, called klinai or podia, lined the long sides of the mithraeum, leaving a narrow aisle in between.
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At the end of this aisle, opposite the entrance, was the cult image showing Mithras sacrificing a bull. To enhance the resemblance to a natural cave the ceiling of the mithraeum was vaulted and often had crushed pottery adhering to it to imitate natural rock. Sometimes the ceilings were pierced with holes to let shafts of light in. The cave was intended to recall an event in Mithras' life and also to symbolize the dome of heaven, or the cosmos.
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It surmised from the structure of mithraea and from paintings which are preserved in certain mithraea that mithraists gathered for a common meal, initiation of members, and other ceremonies. The details of the liturgy are uncertain, but it is worth noting that most mithraea have room for only thirty to forty members, and only a few are so large that a bull could actually be sacrificed inside.
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The structure of the cult was hierarchical. Members went through a series of seven grades, each of which had a special symbol and a tutelary planet. From lowest to highest these grades were Corax (raven, under Mercury), Nymphus (a made-up word meaning male bride, under Venus), Miles (the soldier, under Mars), Leo (the lion, under Jupiter), Perses (the Persian, under Luna, the moon), Heliodromus (the Sun's courier, under Sol, the sun), and finally Pater (father, under Saturn). Those who reached the highest grade, Pater, could become the head of a congregation. Because mithraea were so small, new congregations were probably founded on a regular basis when one or more members reached the highest grade. Most likely this hierarchical membership was adapted by the "Free Mason" of today as the real ancient Free Mason were the "real skilled literal masons" and were the dominant journeymen of their period.
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Two aspects of mithraic initiation offer important insight into the cult. First, it was possible for a mithraic initiate to be a member of more than one cult, and second, women were not permitted to become members. These facts are critical to understanding the cult of Mithraism in relation to other Roman cults, to official Roman state religion, and to the cult of Christianity.
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Mithraic monuments have a rich and relatively coherent iconography, chronologically and geographically speaking. In each mithraic temple there was a central scene showing Mithras sacrificing a bull (often called a tauroctony). Mithras is clad in a tunic, trousers, cloak, and a pointed cap usually called a Phrygian cap. He faces the viewer while half-straddling the back of a bull, yanks the bull's head back by its nostrils with his left hand, and plunges a dagger into the bull's throat with his right.
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Various figures surround this dramatic event. Under the bull, a dog laps at the blood dripping from the wound and a scorpion attacks the bull's testicles. Often the bull's tail ends in wheat ears and a raven is perched on the bull's back. On the viewer's left stands a diminutive male figure named Cautes, wearing the same garb as Mithras and holding an upraised and burning torch. Above him, in the upper left corner, is the sun god, Sol, in his chariot. On the viewer's left there is another diminutive male figure, Cautopates, who is also clad as Mithras is and holds a torch that points downwards and is sometimes, but not always, burning. Above Cautopates in the upper right corner is the moon, Luna. This group of figures is almost always present, but there are variations, of which the most common is an added line of the signs of the zodiac over the top of the bull-sacrificing scene.
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The meaning of the bull-sacrificing scene and its associated figures has revealed a comprehensible astrological symbolism. Each figure and element in the scene correlates to specific constellations, to the seven planets and to the position of these in relation to the celestial equator and the ecliptic, particularly at the time of the equinoxes and the solstices; "being noted on the great, great, great ancestors on file."
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The bull-sacrificing scene is usually carved in stone relief or painted on stone and placed in mithraea in a visible location. In addition to this central scene there can be numerous smaller scenes which seem to represent episodes from Mithras' life. The most common scenes show Mithras being born from a rock, Mithras dragging the bull to a cave, plants springing from the blood and semen of the sacrificed bull, Mithras and the sun god, Sol, banqueting on the flesh of the bull while sitting on its skin, Sol investing Mithras with the power of the sun, and Mithras and Sol shaking hands over a burning altar, among others. These scenes are the basis for knowledge of mithraic cosmology. There is no supporting textual evidence.
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Mithraism Geographically, Socially, and Chronologically Popularity
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Mithraism left monuments for the generations to interpret the inscribed dedications, and the remains of mithraea, indicates that the cult was most popular among the legions stationed in frontier areas. The Danube and Rhine river frontier has the highest concentration of left-over, but a significant quantity of evidence amply demonstrates that Mithraism was also popular among the troops stationed in the province of Numidia in North Africa and along Hadrian's wall in England. The inscriptions on dedications found in all these areas support that Mithraism was most popular among legionaries (of all ranks), and the members of the more marginal social groups who were not Roman citizens: freedmen, slaves, and merchants from various provinces.
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The area where the concentration of evidence for Mithraism is the most dense is the capital, Rome, and her port city, Ostia. There are eight surviving mithraea in Rome of as many as seven hundred and eighteen in Ostia. In addition to the actual mithraea, there are approximately three hundred other mithraic monuments from Rome and about one hundred from Ostia. This body of evidence reveals that Mithraism in Rome and Ostia originally appealed to the same social strata as it did in the frontier regions. The evidence also indicates that at least some inhabitants knew about Mithraism as early as the late first century CE, but that the cult did not enjoy a wide membership in either location until the middle of the second century CE.
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As the cult in Rome became more popular, it seems to have "trickled up" the social ladder, with the result that Mithraism could count several senators from prominent aristocratic families among its adherents by the fourth century CE. Some of these men were initiated in several cults imported from the eastern empire (including those of Magna Mater and Attis, Isis, Serapis, Jupiter Dolichenus, Hecate, and Liber Pater, among others), and most had held priesthood in official Roman cults. The devotion of these men to Mithraism reflects a fourth-century "resurgence of paganism," when many of these imported cults and even official Roman state religion experienced a surge in popularity although, and perhaps because, their very existence was increasingly threatened by the rapid spread of Christianity after the conversion of the emperor Constantine in 313 CE.
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Mithraism had a wide following from the middle of the second century to the late fourth century CE, but the common belief that Mithraism was the prime competitor of Christianity is blatantly false. Mithraism was at a serious disadvantage right from the start because it allowed only male initiates. What is more, Mithraism was, as mentioned above, only one of several cults imported from the eastern empire that enjoyed a large membership in Rome and elsewhere. The major competitor to Christianity was thus not Mithraism but the combined group of imported cults and official Roman cults considered under the heading "paganism."
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Mithra and Christ
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Mithraism, a religion with many parallels to Christianity with some similarities of the following are;
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Virgin birth
Twelve followers
Death and resurrection
Miracles and healing
Birth date on December 25
Sunday as Lord's day
Morality
Mankind's savior
Known as the Light of the world
Symbolic taking of bread and wine for body of God
And etc.
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Have you ever wondered why December 25th was chosen to celebrate the birth of Christ? If the accounts in the Bible are correct, the time of Jesus birth would have been closer to mid-summer, for this is when shepherds would have been "tending their flocks in the field" and the new lambs were born. Strange enough there is an ancient pagan religion, Mithraism, which dates back over 2,800 years that also celebrated the birth of their "savior" on that date.
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Many elements in the story of Jesus' life and birth are either coincidental or borrowings from earlier and contemporary pagan religions. The most obviously similar of these is Mithraism. Roman Mithraism was a mystery religion with sacrifice and initiation. Like other mystery cults, there's little recorded literary evidence. What we know comes mainly from Christian detractors and archaeological evidence from Mithraic temples, inscriptions, and artistic representations of the god and other aspects of the cult. "Mithraism was most popular among legionaries of all ranks and the members of the more marginal social groups who were not Roman citizens: freedmen, slaves, and merchants from various provinces...." No women were allowed.
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The main problem with basing Mithraism on a Zoroastrian cult is that there is no evidence that the "Zoroastrians' Mithra" practiced bull killing, the central aspect of Roman Mithraic iconography. An image of Mithras killing the bull holds pride of place in each mithraeum (cave-like temple for the worship of Mithras).
Mithraists attribute to their god the ability to shift the equinox from the constellation of Taurus to Aries: His killing of the bull symbolizes his supreme power: namely, the power to move the entire universe, which he had demonstrated by shifting the cosmic sphere in such a way that the spring equinox had moved out of Taurus the Bull; on the great, great, great ancestor foot note, " It was explained to Mithra the Earth's nutation ( the shifting of Earth's poles of about four degrees in every forty two thousand years and also caused the shifting of equinox and the melting of pole's ice and vice versa)
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Mithraism – a Historical Introduction
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For over three hundred years the rulers of the Roman Empire worshipped the god Mithras. Known throughout Europe and Asia by the names Mithra, Mitra, Meitros, Mihr, Mehr, and Meher, the veneration of this god began around 2800 years ago in Persia, where it was soon moved west and became imbedded with Babylonian doctrines. There is mention of Mithra or Mitra (et al) before 2800, but only as a minor deity and without much information. It appears to be after 2800 when Mithra is transformed and starts to play a major role among the gods.
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The faith spread east through India to China, and reached west throughout the entire length of the Roman frontier; from Scotland to the Sahara Desert, and from Spain to the Black Sea. Sites of Mithraic worship have been found in Britain, Italy, Romania, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Persia, Armenia, Syria, Israel, and North Africa.
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In Rome, more than a hundred inscriptions dedicated to Mithra have been found, in addition to seventy five sculpture fragments, and a series of Mithraic temples situated in all parts of the city. One of the largest Mithraic temples built in Italy now lies under the present site of the Church of St. Clemente, near the Colosseum in Rome. The widespread popularity and appeal of Mithraism as the final and most refined form of pre-Christian paganism was discussed by the Greek historian Herodotus, the Greek biographer Plutarch, the neo-platonic philosopher Porphyry, Origen, and St. Jerome the church Father.
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Mithraism was quite often noted by many historians for its many astonishing similarities to Christianity. The faithful referred to Mithra as "the Light of the World", symbol of truth, justice, and loyalty. He was mediator between heaven and earth and was a member of a Holy Trinity.
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According to Persian mythology, Mithras was born of a virgin given the title 'Mother of God'. The god remained celibate throughout his life, and valued self-control, renunciation and resistance to sensuality among his worshippers. Mithras represented a system of ethics in which brotherhood was encouraged in order to unify against the forces of evil.
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The worshippers of Mithras held strong beliefs in a celestial heaven and an infernal hell. They believed that the benevolent powers of the god would sympathize with their suffering and grant them the final justice of immortality and eternal salvation in the world to come. They looked forward to a final days of Judgment in which the dead would resurrect, and to a final conflict that would destroy the existing order of all things to bring about the triumph of light over darkness.
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Purification through a ritualistic baptism was required of the faithful, who also took part in a ceremony in which they drank wine and ate bread to symbolize the body and blood of the god. Sundays were held sacred, and the birth of the god was celebrated annually on December the 25th. After the earthly mission of this god had been accomplished, he took part in a Last Supper with his companions before ascending to heaven, to forever protect the faithful from above.
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However, it would be a vast over simplification to suggest that Mithraism was the single forerunner of early Christianity. Aside from Christ and Mithras, there were plenty of other deities (such as Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis, Balder, Attis, and Dionysus) said to have died and resurrected. Many classical heroic figures, such as Hercules, Perseus, and Theseus, were said to have been born through the union of a virgin mother and divine father. (Since the similarity of our individual features, our crew-missionaries due to their lengthy missions and homesickness some time cannot avoid to engage Earthling women.) Virtually every pagan religious practice and festivity that couldn't be suppressed or driven underground was eventually incorporated into the rites of Christianity as it spread across Europe and throughout the world.
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The Persian Origins of Mithraism
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In order to fully understand the religion of Mithraism it is necessary to look to its foundation in Persia, where originally a multitude of gods were worshipped. Among them were Ahura-Mazda, god of the skies, and Ahriman, god of darkness. In the sixth and seventh century BCE, a vast reformation of the Persian pantheon was undertaken by Zarathustra (known in Greek as Zoroaster), a prophet from the kingdom of Bactria. The stature of Ahura-Mazda was elevated to that of supreme god of goodness, whereas the god Ahriman became the ultimate embodiment of evil.
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In the same way that Ahkenaton, Heliogabalus, and Mohammed later initiated henotheistic cults from the worship of their respective deities, Zarathustra created a henotheistic dualism with the gods Ahura-Mazda and Ahriman. As a result of the Babylonian captivity of the Jews (597 BCE) and their later emancipation by King Cyrus the Great of Persia (538 BCE), Zoroastrian dualism was to influence the Jewish belief in the existence of HaShatan, the Adversary of the god YHVH, and later permit the evolution of the Christian Satan-Jehovah dichotomy.
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Persian religious dualism became the foundation of an ethical system that has lasted until this day. The reformation of Zarathustra retained the hundreds of Persian deities, assembling them into a complex hierarchical system of 'Immortals' and 'Adored Ones' under the rule of either Ahura- Mazda or Ahriman. Within this vast pantheon, Mithras gained the title of 'Judger of Souls'. He became the divine representative of Ahura-Mazda on earth, and was directed to protect the righteous from the demonic forces of Ahriman. Mithras was called omniscient, omnipotent, infallible, eternally, watchful, and never-resting. In the Avesta, the holy book of the religion of Zarathustra, Ahura-Mazda was said to have created Mithras in order to guarantee the authority of contracts and the keeping of promises. The name Mithras was, in fact, the Persian word for 'contract'. The divine duty of Mithras was to ensure general prosperity through good contractual relations between men. It was believed that misfortune would befall the entire land if a contract was ever broken.
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Ahura-Mazda was said to have created Mithras to be as great and worthy as himself. He would fight the spirits of evil to protect the creations of Ahura-Mazda and cause even Ahriman to tremble. Mithras was seen as the protector of just souls from demons seeking to drag them down to Hell, and the guide of these souls to Paradise. As Lord of the Sky, he took the role of psycho pomp, conducting the souls of the righteous dead to paradise.
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According to Persian traditions, the god Mithras was actually incarnated into the human form of the Savior expected by Zarathustra. Mithras was born of Anahita, an immaculate virgin mother once worshipped as a fertility goddess before the hierarchical reformation. Anahita was said to have conceived the Savior from the seed of Zarathustra preserved in the waters of Lake Hamun in the Persian province of Sistan. Mithra's ascension to heaven was said to have occurred in 208 BCE, 64 years after his birth. Parthian coins and documents bear a double date with this 64 year interval.
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Mithras was 'The Great King' highly revered by the nobility and monarchs, who looked upon him as their special protector. A great number of the nobility took theophorous (god-bearing) names compounded with Mithras. The title of the god Mithras was used in the dynasties of Pontus, Parthia, Cappadocia, Armenia and Commagene by emperors with the name Mithradates. Mithradates VI, king of Pontus (northern Turkey) in 120-63 BCE became famous for being the first monarch to practice immunization by taking poisons in gradually increased doses.
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The terms mithridatism and mithridate (a pharmacological elixir) were named after him. The Parthian princes of Armenia were all priests of Mithras, and an entire district of this land was dedicated to the Virgin Mother Anahita. Many Mithraeums, or Mithraic temples, were built in Armenia, which remained one of the last strong holds of Mithraism. The largest near-eastern Mithraeum was built in western Persia at Kangavar, dedicated to 'Anahita, the Immaculate Virgin Mother of the Lord Mithras'.
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Other Mithraic temples were built in Khuzestan and in Central Persia near present-day Mahallat, where at the temple of Khorheh a few tall columns still stand. Excavations in Nisa, later renamed Mithradatkirt, have uncovered Mithraic mausoleums and shrines. Mithraic sanctuaries and mausoleums were built in the city of Hatra in upper Mesopotamia. West of Hatra at Dura Europos, Mithraeums were found with figures of Mithras on horseback. Persian Mithraism was more a collection of traditions and rites than a body of doctrines. However, once the Babylonians took the Mithraic rituals and mythology from the Persians, they thoroughly refined its theology.
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The Babylonian clergy assimilated Ahura-Mazda to the god Baal, Anahita to the goddess Ishtar, and Mithras to Shamash, their god of justice, victory and protection (and the sun god from whom King Hammurabi received his code of laws in the 18th century BCE) As a result of the solar and astronomical associations of the Babylonians, Mithras later was referred to by Roman worshippers as 'Sol invictus', or the invincible sun. The sun itself was considered to be "the eye of Mithras". The Persian crown, from which all present day crowns are derived, was designed to represent the golden sun-disc sacred to Mithras. As a deity connected with the sun and its life-giving powers, Mithras was known as 'The Lord of the Wide Pastures' who was believed to cause the plants to spring forth from the ground.
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During the time of Cyrus and Darius the Great, the rulers of Persia received the first fruits of the fall harvest at the festival of Mehragan. At this time they wore their most brilliant clothing and drank wine. In the Persian calendar, the seventh month and the sixteenth day of each month were also dedicated to Mithras. The Babylonians also incorporated their belief in destiny into the Mithraic worship of Zurvan, the Persian god of infinite time and father of the gods Ahura-Mazda and Ahriman.
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They superimposed astrology, the use of the zodiac, and the deification of the four seasons onto the Persian rites of Mithraism. "Astrology, of which these postulates were the dogmas, certainly owes some share of its success to the Mithraic propaganda, and Mithraism is therefore partly responsible for the triumph in the West of this pseudo-science with its long train of errors and terrors.
The Persians called Mithras 'The Mediator' since he was believed to stand between the light of Ahura-Mazda and the darkness of Ahriman. He was said to have 1000 eyes, expressing the conviction that no man could conceal his wrongdoing from the god. Mithras was known as the God of Truth, and Lord of Heavenly Light, and said to have stated "I am a star which goes with thee and shines out of the depths". Mithras was associated with Verethraghna, the Persian god of victory. He would fight against the forces of evil, and destroy the wicked. It was believed that offering sacrifices to Mithras would provide strength and glory in life and in battle.
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In the Avesta, Yasht 10, it reads that Mithras "spies out his enemies; armed in his fullest panoply he swoops down upon them, scatters and slaughters them. He desolates and lays waste the homes of the wicked, he annihilates the tribes and the nations that are hostile to him. He assures victory unto them that fit instruction in the Good, that honour him and offer him the sacrificial libations." Mithras was worshipped as guardian of arms, and patron of soldiers and armies. The handshake was developed by those who worshipped him as a token of friendship and as a gesture to show that you were unarmed. When Mithras later became the Roman god of contracts, the handshake gesture was imported throughout the Mediterranean and Europe by Roman soldiers.
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In Armenian tradition, Mithras was believed to shut himself up in a cave from which he emerged once a year, born anew. The Persians introduced initiates to the mysteries in natural caves, according to Porphyry, the third century neo-platonic philosopher. These cave temples were created in the image of the World Cave that Mithras had created, according to the Persian creation myth. As 'God of Truth and Integrity', Mithras was invoked in solemn oaths to pledge the fulfillment of contracts and punish liars.
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He was believed to maintain peace, wisdom, honour, prosperity, and cause harmony to reign among all his worshippers. According to the Avesta, Mithras could decide when different periods of world history were completed. He would judge mortal souls at death and brandish his mace over hell three times each day so that demons would not inflict greater punishment on sinners than they deserved. Sacrificial offerings of cattle and birds were made to Mithras, along with libations of Haoma, a hallucinogenic drink used by Zoroastrian and Hindu priests, equated with the infamous hallucinogen 'Soma' described in the Vedic scriptures. Before daring to approach the altar to make an offering to Mithras, Persian worshippers were obliged to purge themselves by repeating purification rituals and flagellating themselves. These customs were continued in the initiation ceremonies of the Roman neophytes.
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With the rapid expansion of the Persian Empire, the worship of Mithras spread eastward through northern India, into the western provinces of China. In Chinese mythology, Mithras came to be known as 'The Friend'. To this day, Mithras is represented as a military General in Chinese statues, and is considered to be the friend of man in this life and his protector against evil in the next.
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In India, Mithras was recognized as 'God of Heavenly Light' and an ally of Indra, King of Heaven. Mithras was often prayed to and invoked along with Varuna, the Hindu god of moral law and true speech. Jointly known as 'Mitra-Varuna', it was believed that together they would uphold order in the world while travelling in a shining chariot and living in a golden mansion with a thousand pillars and a thousands doors. Mithras was also praised in the Vedic hymns. Just as in the Zoroastrian Avesta, the Hindu scriptures recognized Mithras as 'God of Light', 'Protector of Truth', and 'Enemy of Falsehood'.
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The worship of Mithras also extended westward through what is now Turkey to the borders of the Aegean Sea. A bilingual dedication to Mithras, written in Greek and Aramaic, was found engraved upon a rock in a wild pass near Farasha in the Turkish province of Cappadocia.
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Mithras was also the only Persian god whose name was known in ancient Greece. A grotto located near the Greek town of Tetapezus was dedicated to Mithras, before it was transformed into a church. However, Mithraism never made many converts in Greece or in the Hellenized countries. That country never extended the hand of hospitality to the god of its ancient enemies.
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According to the Greek historian Plutarch (46-125 CE) Mithras was first introduced into Italy by pirates from Cilicia (Southeast Turkey) who initiated the Romans into the secrets of the religion. These pirates performed strange sacrifices on Mount Olympus and practiced Mithraic rituals, which according to Plutarch "exist to the present day and were first taught by them". However, there were many foreign cults in Italy at that time, and these early Mithraists did not attract much attention.
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It is one of the great of ironies of history that Romans ended up worshipping the god of their chief political enemy, the Persians. The Roman historian Quintus Rufus recorded in his book History of Alexander that before going into battle against the 'anti-Mithraean country' of Rome, the Persian soldiers would pray to Mithras for victory. However, after the two enemy civilizations had been in contact for more than a thousand years, the worship of Mithras finally spread from the Persians through the Phrygians of Turkey to the Romans.
Mithra - Circa 120-150 CE
The Avestan Hymn to Mithra is the longest, and one of the best preserved of the Yasths. Mithra is described in the Zoroastrian Avesta scrpitures as Mithra of Wide Pastures, of the Thousand Ears and of the Myriad Eyes, the Yazad Divinity of the Spoken Name Above All Names and the Holy. The Khorda Avesta, Book of Common Prayer; also refer to Mithra in the Litany to the Sun, "Homage to Mithra of Wide Cattle Pastures," Whose Word is True, who is of the Assembly, Who has a Thousand Ears, the Well-Shaped One, Who has Ten Thousand Eyes, the Exalted One, Who has Wide Knowledge, the Helpful One, Who Sleeps Not, the Ever Wakeful. We sacrifice to Mithra, The Lord of all countries, Whom Ahura Mazda created the most glorious, Of the Supernatural Yazads. So may there come to us for Aid, Both Mithra and Ahura, the Two Exalted Ones, I shall sacrifice to his mace, well-aimed against the Skulls of the Daevas. Some recent theories have claimed Mithra represents the Sun itself, but the Khorda Avesta refers to the Sun as a separate entity – as it does with the Moon, with which the Sun has "the Best of Friendships.
In Artaxerxes II's 404 – 358 BCE trilingual Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian inscription at Susa and Hamadan which have the same text, the emperor appeals to "Ahuramazda, Anahita, and Mithra protect me against all evil," and in which he implores them to protect what he has built.
Although the Behistun inscription of Darius I 522 – 486 BCE invokes Ahuramazda and the Other Gods who are in this inscription of Artaxerxes II was remarkable as no Achaemenid king before him had invoked any but Ahura Mazda alone by name. The reason for this was that Artaxerxes had chosen Anahita and Mithra as his patron/protector Divinities. Mithra has invoked again in the single known inscription of Artaxerxes III found at Persepolis. In that inscription, the emperor appeals to Ahuramazda and the God Mithra to preserve him, his country, and what has been built by his kingdom.
In the Zoroastrian calendar, the sixteenth day of the month and the seventh month of the year are dedicated to and are under the protection of Mithra. The Persian civil calendar of 1925 adopted Zoroastrian month-names, and as such also has the seventh month of the year named "Mihr". The position of the sixteenth day and seventh month reflects Mithra's rank in the hierarchy of the Divinities; the sixteenth day and seventh month are respectively the first day of the second half of the month and the first month of the second half of the year. The day on which the day-name and month-name dedications intersect is (like all other such intersections) dedicated to the divinity
Of that day/month, and is celebrated with a Jashan (from AvestanYasna Worship) in honor of that Divinity. In the case of Mithra, this was Jashan-e Mihragan, or just Mihragan for short.
In Zoroastrian scripture, Mithra is distinct from the divinity of the Sun, Hvare-khshaeta literally "Radiant Sun", from which the Middle Persian word Khorshed for the Sun. However, in Zoroastrian tradition, Mithra evolved from being an all-seeing figure hence vaguely associated with the Sun into a divinity co-identified with the Sun itself, effectively taking over Hvare-khshaeta's role. It is uncertain how and when and why this occurred, but it is commonly attributed to merge with the Babylonian sun god Shamash and the Greek deity Apollo, with whom Mithra shares multiple characteristics such as a judicial function and association with the Sun. This characteristic is part of Mithra's Indo inheritance in that the Indic Rigveda have solar divinities that are not distinct from Mithra/Mitra and Mitra is associated with sunrise in the Atharvaveda. Sun Salutation is a daily yogic activity worldwide even in current times and is preceded by chanting "OM Mitraya Namaha", where "Mitraya" is one of the 108 Names for Lord Surya/Sun God.
Royal names incorporating Mithra's (e.g., "Mithradates") appear in the dynasties of Parthia, Armenia, and in Anatolia, in Pontus and Cappadocia.The youthful Apollonian-type Mithra is found in images from other countries of Persian culture in the Parthian period, such as Commagene in the Roman-Parthian border and the Kushan Empire on the Indo-Persian border.
Persian and Parthian-speaking Manichaeans used the name of Mithra current in their time for two different Manichaean angels.
1. The first, called Mihryazd by the Persians, was the "Living Spirit" (Aramaic), a savior-figure who rescues the "First Man" from the demonic Darkness into which he had plunged.The second, known as Mihr or Mihr Yazd among the Parthians, is the "Messenger" likewise a savior figure, but one concerned with setting up the structures to liberate the Light lost when the First Man had been defeated.
2. Mithra is the Persian god of the rising sun, contracts, covenants, and friendship. He also oversaw the orderly change of the seasons, maintained cosmic order, and was responsible for bestowing divine grace on kings, legitimizing their rule and, as a protector of the faithful, was also invoked by warriors before battle and so became known as a god of war.
He is linked to the Vedic god Mitra and is often associated with the Roman Mystery Cult of the god Mithras which flourished circa 100-400 CE throughout the Roman Empire, but these are two different deities, although Mithras is loosely derived from Mithra. Although the Roman Mithras and his cult have often been claimed as the precursor and model for Jesus Christ and Christianity, there is absolutely no historical evidence to support the assertion.
Mithra's name was invoked in inscriptions during the Achaemenid Empire (circa 550-330 BCE), notably during the reign of Artaxerxes II (404-358 BCE) and he was still acknowledged during the Sassanian Empire (224-651 CE). After the Sassanian Empire fell to the invading Muslim Arabs in 651 CE, Zoroastrianism – including worship of Mithra – was suppressed and, later, the Parsees carried the Zoroastrian texts and traditions to India where the faith was preserved intact. Mithra still plays an important role in modern-day Zoroastrian rites which continue the traditions of the ancient past.
Mithra originated at some point prior to the 3rd millennium BCE when migratory groups now known as Indo-Iranians and Indo-Aryans began settling in the regions of Iran and Northern India respectively. There are, therefore, a number of similarities between the Vedic deities and those of the Early Persian Religion including the Persian Mithra and the Vedic Mitra.
The Vedic Mitra (sometimes given as Mitra-Varuna) was the god of contracts and the sunrise, fertility in the form of rain and good harvests, and keeper of truth. The Mitra-Varuna coupling joined the god of the sunrise with the powerful sky god Varuna and they were imagined as inhabiting a golden palace in the heavens with a thousand doors from which they would ride forth every morning in their brilliant chariot.
The Persian Mithra is described in the Avesta (Zoroastrian scripture) as: He who first, of the heavenly gods, reaches over the Hara Alburz Mountains, before the undying, swift-horsed sun; who, foremost in a golden array, takes hold of the beautiful summits and from the looks over the abode of the Aryans with a beneficent eye.
He rides in a bright chariot drawn by white horses, bringing the rising sun, armed with a silver spear, a bow and arrows of gold, daggers, axes, and the mace which symbolizes his role as guardian of cosmic order and the god who legitimizes kingship. Mithra is ever vigilant and cannot be deceived, knowing the hearts and true intentions of people, and keeping the forces of darkness at bay. He was considered the most powerful force against the Lord of the Demons, Angra Mainyu (also known as Ahriman), who feared his mace more than any other of the gods' weapons.
Zoroastrianism – and presumably the Early Persian Religion which it drew upon – focused on the conflict between the forces of good and order (led by Ahura Mazda) and those of evil and chaos (commanded by Angra Mainyu). The central purpose of human life was to choose which of these one would follow, and it was the responsibility of gods like Mithra to help people choose the right path and protect them from the lies and traps of the Evil One.
The Evil Spirit is said to have created 'non-life' (that is, a form of existence diametrically opposed to all that is good in 'real' life) and the Worst Existence. Appropriately, for a religion which has always taught appreciation of the good things in life, the destiny for the wicked is spoken of as 'a place of bad food'. It is 'the House of the Lie'. The forces of evil are said by Zoroaster to be the powers of Fury, Arrogance, and Bad Purpose. They destroy the World of Truth, harm cattle, and defraud man of the good life and of immortality.
Against these forces, Mithra was a powerful defense. It was Mithra's responsibility to protect humanity - and, by extension, their crops and livestock – from the schemes of Angra Mainyu. To this end, one of his most important duties was legitimizing kingship in bestowing divine grace on a worthy monarch who would care for his people and removing that grace when the king no longer lived up to his part of the contract.
He also served as judge of the souls of the dead at the Chinvat Bridge – the span between the world of the living and the afterlife – where his record of the soul's good and bad deeds was read and determined one's destination after death. Those who had followed Ahura Mazda went on to the House of Song; those who chose the path of Angra Mainyu were sent to the destination they had embraced all their lives, the House of Lies.
This depiction of the god and his role in maintaining order comes from the Zoroastrian texts but is thought to reflect his position and responsibilities in Early Persian Religion. This belief system was an oral tradition – as was Zoroastrianism – and nothing was written down until the Sassanian Period. It is difficult, therefore, to know how Mithra was originally understood by the early Persians, what parts of the Zoroastrian texts reflect the early understanding, and which parts were influenced by Zoroaster's reforms and the establishment of the new religion.
Zoroaster was a priest (magi) of this religion who, one day, received a vision that the people's spiritual understanding was wrong: there were not all these many gods, there was only one – Ahura Mazda – and it was now up to Zoroaster to correct his people's error. Zoroaster did so, founding the new faith of Mazdaism which became known as Zoroastrianism, and the old gods were reimagined as emanations (or avatars) of the one true god.
It has long been assumed that the first king of the Achaemenid Empire, Cyrus II the Great, circa 550-530 BCE was a Zoroastrian because the religion was firmly established in the region by the time of his reign. This is not necessarily so, however, because Cyrus the Great's inscriptions referencing Ahura Mazda could as easily be taken as referring to the king of the gods of the old religion as the one god of the new. This same holds true for Cyrus' successors, Darius I the Great, circa 522-486 BCE and Xerxes I 486-465 BCE who reference Ahura Mazda in the same way. Darius I even includes a reference to "the other gods" in his famous Behistun Inscription.
The association of the Achaemenid Empire with Zoroastrianism comes from Greek and later Roman writers and, while it is likely that the Achaemenids were Zoroastrians, it is not certain – at least not with the early monarchs. The inscriptions of Artaxerxes II list Ahura Mazda, Anahita, and Mithra, invoking their protection of his building projects, which has encouraged scholars in the past to conclude that Zoroastrianism was polytheistic. A more accurate interpretation, however, would be either that Artaxerxes II was not a Zoroastrian or that he was invoking Ahura Mazda as the one true god and Anahita and Mithra as protective emanations of the one deity.
Whichever it may have been, Mithra's status as protector of order and all-seeing god of justice continued as it always had. Neither the Early Persian Religion nor Zoroastrianism believed in temples to their gods believing the deities were too powerful to be confined to a house built by human hands – so it is not surprising that there are no temples to Mithra identified thus far and actually, more surprising that there have been so many clearly associated with Anahita. Mithra would have been worshipped like any of the other gods – at outdoor Fire Temples – where the elements of fire, air, earth, and water personified by gods such as Atar, Mithra, Haoma, and Anahita were honored. Worship of Mithra – or, at least, widespread veneration of the god as an avatar – must have continued because it was practiced by the Cilician pirates (a group comprised of many different nationalities) when they were resettled in Cilicia Campestris by Pompey the Great 106-48 BCE circa 66 BCE.
The Roman Cult of Mithras
It is probable that the Cilician pirates, who are said to have practiced some form of Mithra worship, inspired the movement which would become the popular Cult of Mithras in Rome. Roman soldiers serving with Pompey in Cilicia would have picked up the essentials of Mithra worship and popularized it in the legions. The problem with this theory, as with any other theory regarding the origin of the Cult of Mithras, is that no one knows how the cult began or where, how it spread, or even what it believed.
The claim that the Cilician pirates practiced Mithraism comes from Plutarch's Life of Pompey where he says the pirates at Cilicia "celebrated there certain secret rites among which those of Mithras continue to the present time, having been first instituted by them." It would seem reasonable to conclude that the religious practices
of the pirates were taken up by the legionaries of Rome and spread from there, especially since it is clear that the Cult of Mithras was most popular among the Roman army.
Since it is unclear, however, what the cult's tenets were – or what form the Cilician pirates' "secret rites" took – Cilicia cannot be positively identified as the point at which Persian Mithra was transformed into Roman Mithras. What is clear, though, is that there are significant differences between the two deities and how they were worshipped.
The Roman Mithras is a solar deity, keeper of contracts, order, and friendship – quite similar to the Persian Mithra – but the parallels end there. These characteristics, like anything else about the cult, come from physical evidence in the form of mosaics, statues, and reliefs. The adherents themselves wrote nothing down because they were initiates in a Mystery Cult – meaning a closed religious group who kept their beliefs and rituals secret – and were not interested in or allowed to share information with non-initiates.
Mithras is universally depicted in art as a young man slaying the celestial bull in an act interpreted as symbolizing death and rebirth. He is also depicted as being born of a rock, holding a torch as he emerges emphasizing his role as a bringer of light, or shooting an arrow into a cloud which is then seen to release water identifying him with life, fertility. His worship was in secret, held in caves or subterranean temples built to resemble caves, and no women were allowed to join the cult. None of this iconography or ritual has anything to do with the Persian Mithra. Even so, as Hinnells points out, the people of the time associated Roman Mithras with the Persian god:
Mithraism was known to its contemporaries as "the Persian Mysteries" and Mithras himself was referred to as "the Persian god". Some explicitly attributed Mithraic teachings to Zoroaster. The Persian origins appear to be confirmed by some of the details in the Mysteries; there are, for example, recognizably Persian words used and one of the seven grades of initiation is that of the Persian.
There seems no doubt that Roman Mithraism was inspired by the Persian Mithra, but this is not the same as saying there is any kind of continuation from Early Persian Religion through Zoroastrianism to Roman Mithraism. Based on the archaeological evidence and early Christian criticisms of the cult, Mithraism was astrological in nature, focusing on divination, enlightenment in one's life, and rebirth after death. Initiates went through a number of trials which, once passed, elevated the adherent up a hierarchy of seven grades until they reached the highest – that of Father – who was regarded as an enlightened and protective priest figure. Initiates ate together, worshipped together, and observed Sunday as their sabbath which sparked one of the major criticisms of the cult by Christian writers claiming Mithraism was copying Christianity.
Mithras & Jesus
In an interesting twist, this claim would be reversed centuries later when French intellectuals popularized the claim that Christianity was a copy of Mithraism and that Christ had never existed. This claim has been repeated since in various forms, but the essential arguments are that Mithras is the model for the later creation of the character of Jesus Christ and that, like the "later Jesus", Mithras was born on 25 December of a virgin and visited by magi, had twelve disciples, celebrated a "Last Supper", and died on a cross. None of these claims has any merit whatsoever.
There is no evidence that Mithras – nor even Jesus for that matter – was born on 25 December. Mithras is depicted as emerging from a rock and never as an infant nor in any way associated with a virgin birth or a visitation by any magi. Mithras is never represented with any disciples at all, celebrated no "Last Supper", and did not die on a cross – in fact, there are no depictions of Mithras dying at all.
The veneration of the Persian Mithra, as noted, continued into the Sassanian Period by which time the belief system of Zorvanism often referred to as a heretical sect of Zoroastrianism was established. Zorvanism held that the supreme god was Zorvan, Infinite Time, and Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu were both created beings. This being so, all the other gods were also created beings on almost equal footing with Ahura Mazda and so could be worshipped as deities in their own right.
The prophet Mani 216-274 CE, founder of the religion of Manichaeism, stayed as a guest at the court of the Sassanian king Shapur I 240-270 CE and developed his concept of the Manichaean Mithra there as he probably did with much of his religion. In Manichaeism, Mithra is interpreted as a savior-figure, bringer of light and order, and so retains two of his earliest known essential characteristics.
After the Sassanian Empire fell to the invading Muslim Arabs in 651 CE, the Parsees took the Zoroastrian texts which were not destroyed by the invaders and fled to India. They established their own community there which flourished and Mithra continues to be honored in their religious rituals in the present day. When a Zoroastrian priest is initiated, he receives the Mace of Mithra, symbolizing his responsibility to fight against the forces of evil and darkness.
The festival of Mithrakana also known as Mithragan is held yearly in Mithra's honor at the autumn equinox, and the proper designation for a modern-day Zoroastrian temple is dar-I Mihr, "the gate of Mithra". Mithra remains a symbol of light and order in the present, just he was understood in the ancient past; making him one of the oldest gods in the world to be venerated, in essentially the same role, continuously for over 4,000 years.
The Romans viewed Persia as a land of wisdom and mystery, and Persian religious teachings appealed to those Romans who found the established state religion uninspiring - just as during your Cold War era of the 1960's many American university students rejected western religious values and sought enlightenment in the established spirituality of Communist east-Asian "enemy countries", as Epslon expresses comparative between ancient and present ideology.
Val was mumbling as Izra wake him up. "What a historical dream!" he exclaimed. "Your great, great, great ancestors were with me lecturing the life and deeds of Mithra that I think a message that let the dead rest in peace," as he get up to drink a glass of water just adjacent to the small kitchen counter. He then went back to bed where Izra is still laying down to lay down again.
It is now three o'clock passed midnight and Val sleepiness is being overcome by the thought of Mithra. Is Mithra really an alien half-bred like Zoroaster as told by the ancient ancestors of Izra? And if true, is there any percentage and dominant place or places of the said mixed-race? Are these causes the different features of humanity? How is Mithraism related to Christianity? By following the ideological flow through the trip of time from Zoroaster's dogma to Mithraism, is Christianity a refine version of religious doctrine? Those are the paramount queries disturbing the consciousness of Val that over taken the slot of sleepiness in his mind.
Izra was awake too and knowing that Val is under severe restlessness, started to massage lightly his breast slowly down to the stomach and much lower. The blood of Val rose from inertness and dullness overcoming anxiety, spring up the intensity of love. Indeed he is in-love so much with Izra, kisses her hair down to the lips intensely as her respond is sweet and they make love again and again until no reason left but to sleep. Both sleep soundly until the morning sun dissolved the cloud that hides their craft and sow sunshine in the series of port holes.
Antyx and Isyx both awaken prepared their meals as it floated on the air from the small kitchen down below. Platters just floated again towards the small kitchen as the two crews finished eating as Antyx, Izra's co-pilot and Isyx the navigator reset the program of their craft towards the other side of the planet. The air crafts were lightning fast and for a while, three of them are in the other side clocking at midnight. Izra and Val are still slumbering and Val was back on his abruptly terminated dream.
The setting is different as the three great, great, great ancestors is sited on the rocky hill with the back drop of pyramids from afar blurring on the horizon that only the illumination of the stars sustain the glow. Farex, the youngest among the old men started his litany regarding the queries of Val about the link of Mithraism and Christianity, as he quotes: