The Mysteries of Mithras: A Different Account (Orientalische Religionen in Der Antike) 3161551125, 9783161551123

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Chapter 1

Basic Elements of Mithraism § 1. Character and Bias of Ancient Sources on Mithraism The mysteries of Mithras were an allegedly Persian cult. This is supported by the ob­ servation that the fifth initiatory grade was that of the Perses, i.e. "the Persian". Bet­ ween 81 and 92 CE the poet Statius knew of a Persian cult, in which the solar god Apollo was called Mithras and was represented as a god who tames a bull: . . . seu te roseum Titana vocari

gentis Achaemeniae ritu, seu praestat Osirim frugiferum, seu Persei sub rupibus antri indignata sequi torquentem cornua Mithram.

lt is right to call you either rosy Titan, according to the Achaemenid ritual, or Osiris Bringer-of-the­ 1 Harvest, or Mithras, whobeneath the rocky cave of Perseus strains at the reluctant-following horns.

Here the mention of Perseus evoked the origin of the Persians from Perseus' son, Per­ ses,2 who was the alleged ancestor of the ancient Persian kings, who were also called, 3 after him, the Perseidae. Porphyry, in the 3rd century CE, credits Zoroaster (Iranian, Zarathustra), the great prophet of Iranian Mazdaism, with the foundation of the first 4 Mithraic cave. Celsus, in the 2nd century CE, speaks of the mysteries of the Persians 5 by alluding to the Roman Mithraism. Firmicus Maternus in the 4th century CE argued against the practice of Mithraism because it urged the Romans to abide by Persian 6 laws. He adds, in his de errore profanarum religionum, that the Persians and their Magi worshipped fire and that their prophet handed over this cult to the Romans along

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Stat., Thebais I.717-720. The scholium confirms the words ofthe poetby saying that the Persi­ ans were the first worshippers of Mithras-Sol who created his cultic caves, where the god is re­ presented in Persian attire holding the homs of abull: Persae in spelaeis coli Sofern primi invenisse dicuntur. Est enim in spelaeo Persico habitu cum tiara et utrisque manibus bovis cornua compri­ mens: "the Persians are said to havebeen the first to worship the Sun in caves. Mithras is in fact in a

cave, dressed as a Persian, wearing a tiara, grasping the horns of a bull with his hands". According to

Lucian., Deorum concilium 9, Mithras was a Mede. Her. VII.61; 150. 3 Her. I.125. 4 Porph., de antro 6; for the text, seebelow, p.25. 5 Celsus, apud Orig., contra Celsum VI.23. 6 Firm. Mat., de err. 4: Cur haec Persarum sola laudatis? Si hoc Romano nomine dignum putatis ut Persarum sacris, ut Persarum legibus serviat: "Why do you praise only those things among the Persians? Ifyou deem worthy ofthe Roman name tobe slave ofPersian rites and laws".

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Chapter 1: Basic Elements of Mithraism

with the Mithraic salvation as if it were some sort of Christian path towards Para­ 151 dise. The ladder with seven rungs, corresponding to the seven planets and the seven initiatory rituals, was such a means of reaching heaven, where the souls of virtuous men were supposed to live forever. Christian thinkers recognized in this belief a form of rejection of the pagan gods and the ascent towards the 'narrow door', which Jesus described in John's Gospel as the way to the heavenly realm. We can not suppose that the souls of Mithraic initiates were instructed on how to climb up the seven rungs of the planetary ladder and reach the realm of Mithras after death. A simple fact prevents us from supposing that: the majority of initiates reached only the fourth grade, that of the Lion, and very few became Persae, Heliodromi, and Patres. One Pater had decades of initiates of lower grades under his authority. If Mithraism had been similar to the Ophite Gnosis, only the Patres would have been able to reach Paradise, whereas, for example, an initiate to the second grade, that of Venus, was unable to pass the gates and was stopped after the second passage. This is impossible, for it is obvious, that more than the Patres were saved (servati) by the cult of Mithras. The Leones also declared that Mithras rescued them (nos servasti), but it is impossible that Corvi, Nymphi and the others were excluded from Mithras's boons. We do not know if the believers either thought that Mithras saved all of humankind, or, at least, those living within the Roman Empire. Comparisons with Christianity can indeed be made, and can be very useful, but only after an independent study in which Mithraism is examined within its Roman Imperial context. Moreover, we will see that comparisons with Gnostic Christianity sometimes correspond to an imitation of Mithraism by Gnostic thinkers, whereas the teachings of Jesus do not depend on such an imitation; similarly, Mithraism obviously does not de­ pend on the teachings of Jesus. Several forms of Gnosis are very helpful in under­ standing Mithraism, and several pages will be devoted to this problem, as well. The comparison with 'catholic' Christianity is often misleading and is based on misunder­ standing s both of Mithraism and Christianity. 151

See, for example, Vermaseren and van Essen, Santa Prisca, 220: "Mithras himself was the bull and therefore killed himself in order to give etemal life to his followers"; S. Laeuchli, "Christ and Mithra", in Mithraism in Ostia, 85-105, esp. 100 (here one can read some suppositions concerning Mithraism: 93: "the Mithraeum as well as the house church offered a corporate experience, no longer in the total framework of a state ... in the Mithraea we find a clear attempt to get away from public life", 101: "if Mithraic theologians had been at work, a Nicaean battle could have arisen over the dua­ lity of Sol and Mithra"); H.D. Betz, "The Mithras Inscriptions of Santa Prisca and the New Testa­ ment", Novum Testamentum 10, 1968, 62-88, esp. 77: " ... the saving act ofMithras, the slaying ofthe bull whose blood gave ... imm01tality to the initiates who participate in the sacred meal ... prominent­ ly bread and water, which may also have been understood as symbols of the flesh and blood of the bull". See also Ulansey, The Origins of the Mithriac Mysteries; R. Beck, The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire: Mysteries of the Unconquered Sun, Oxford 2012. In his recent book H. Strohm, Mithra. Oder: Warum 'Gott Vertrag' beim Aufgang der Sonne in Wehmut zurückblickte, Munich 2008, 20, commented the sentence nos servasti eternali sanguine Juso by saying that the ad­ epts of Mitluas, before their meal, transfonned bread and wirre into flesh and blood, and also made their bells toll.