Mithraic Worship and Mythology

Mithra slaying the bull

Mythology

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mithra: The Pagan Christ

"Both Mithras and Christ were described variously as 'the Way,' 'the Truth,' 'the Light,' 'the Life,' 'the Word,' 'the Son of God,' 'the Good Shepherd.' The Christian litany to Jesus could easily be an allegorical litany to the sun-god. Mithras is often represented as carrying a lamb on his shoulders, just as Jesus is. Midnight services were found in both religions. The virgin mother...was easily merged with the virgin mother Mary. Petra, the sacred rock of Mithraism, became Peter, the foundation of the Christian Church."

Gerald Berry, Religions of the World

"Mithra or Mitra is...worshipped as Itu (Mitra-Mitu-Itu) in every house of the Hindus in India. Itu (derivative of Mitu or Mitra) is considered as the Vegetation-deity. This Mithra or Mitra (Sun-God) is believed to be a Mediator between God and man, between the Sky and the Earth. It is said that Mithra or [the] Sun took birth in the Cave on December 25th. It is also the belief of the Christian world that Mithra or the Sun-God was born of [a] Virgin. He travelled far and wide. He has twelve satellites, which are taken as the Sun's disciples.... [The Sun's] great festivals are observed in the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox—Christmas and Easter. His symbol is the Lamb...."


Swami Prajnanananda, Christ the Saviour and Christ Myth


Because of its evident relationship to Christianity, special attention needs to be paid to the Persian/Roman religion of Mithraism. The worship of the Indo-Persian god Mithra dates back centuries to millennia preceding the common era. The god is found as "Mitra" in the Indian Vedic religion, which is over 3,500 years old, by conservative estimates. When the Iranians separated from their Indian brethren, Mitra became known as "Mithra" or "Mihr," as he is also called in Persian.

By around 1500 BCE, Mitra worship had made it to the Near East, in the Indian kingdom of the Mitanni, who at that time occupied Assyria. Mitra worship, however, was known also by that time as far west as the Hittite kingdom, only a few hundred miles east of the Mediterranean, as is evidenced by the Hittite-Mitanni tablets found at Bogaz-Köy in what is now Turkey. The gods of the Mitanni included Mitra, Varuna and Indra, all found in the Vedic texts.

Mithra as Sun God

The Indian Mitra was essentially a solar deity, representing the "friendly" aspect of the sun. So too was the Persian derivative Mithra, who was a "benevolent god" and the bestower of health, wealth and food. Mithra also seems to have been looked upon as a sort of Prometheus, for the gift of fire. (Schironi, 104) His worship purified and freed the devotee from sin and disease. Eventually, Mithra became more militant, and he is best known as a warrior.

Like so many gods, Mithra was the light and power behind the sun. In Babylon, Mithra was identified with Shamash, the sun god, and he is also Bel, the Mesopotamian and Canaanite/ Phoenician solar deity, who is likewise Marduk, the Babylonian god who represented both the planet Jupiter and the sun. According to Pseudo-Clement of Rome's debate with Appion (Homily VI, ch. X), Mithra is also Apollo.

In time, the Persian Mithraism became infused with the more detailed astrotheology of the Babylonians and Chaldeans, and was notable for its astrology and magic; indeed, its priests or magi lent their very name to the word "magic." Included in this astrotheological development was the re-emphasis on Mithra's early Indian role as a sun god. As Francis Legge says in Forerunners and Rivals in Christianity:

The Vedic Mitra was originally the material sun itself, and the many hundreds of votive inscriptions left by the worshippers of Mithras to "the unconquered Sun Mithras," to the unconquered solar divinity (numen) Mithras, to the unconquered Sun-God (deus) Mithra, and allusions in them to priests (sacerdotes), worshippers (cultores), and temples (templum) of the same deity leave no doubt open that he was in Roman times a sun-god. (Legge, II, 240)

By the Roman legionnaires, Mithra—or Mithras, as he began to be known in the Greco-Roman world—was called "the divine Sun, the Unconquered Sun." He was said to be "Mighty in strength, mighty ruler, greatest king of gods! O Sun, lord of heaven and earth, God of Gods!" Mithra was also deemed "the mediator" between heaven and earth, a role often ascribed to the god of the sun.

An inscription by a "T. Flavius Hyginus" dating to around 80 to 100 AD/CE in Rome dedicates an altar to "Sol Invictus Mithras"—"The Unconquered Sun Mithra"—revealing the hybridization reflected in other artifacts and myths. Regarding this title, Dr. Richard L. Gordon, honorary professor of Religionsgeschichte der Antike at the University of Erfurt, Thuringen, remarks:

It is true that one...cult title...of Mithras was, or came to be, Deus Sol Invictus Mithras (but he could also be called... Deus Invictus Sol Mithras, Sol Invictus Mithras...

...Strabo, 15.3.13 (p. 732C), basing his information on a lost work, either by Posidonius (ca 135-51 BC) or by Apollodorus of Artemita (first decades of 1 cent. BC), states baldly that the Western Parthians "call the sun Mithra." The Roman cult seems to have taken this existing association and developed it in their own special way. (Gordon, "FAQ." (Emph. added.))

"Mithra is who the monuments proclaim him—the Unconquered Sun."

As concerns Mithra's identity, Mithraic scholar Dr. Roger Beck says:

Mithras...is the prime traveller, the principal actor...on the celestial stage which the tauctony [bull-slaying] defines.... He is who the monuments proclaim him—the Unconquered Sun. (Beck (2004), 274)

In an early image, Mithra is depicted as a sun disc in a chariot drawn by white horses, another solar motif that made it into the Jesus myth, in which Christ is to return on a white horse. (Rev 6:2; 19:11)




Mithra in the Roman Empire

Subsequent to the military campaign of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE, Mithra became the "favorite deity" of Asia Minor. Christian writers Dr. Samuel Jackson and George W. Gilmore, editors of The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (VII, 420), remark:

It was probably at this period, 250-100 b.c., that the Mithraic system of ritual and doctrine took the form which it afterward retained. Here it came into contact with the mysteries, of which there were many varieties, among which the most notable were those of Cybele.

According to the Roman historian Plutarch (c. 46-120 AD/CE), Mithraism began to be absorbed by the Romans during Pompey's military campaign against Cilician pirates around 70 BCE. The religion eventually migrated from Asia Minor through the soldiers, many of whom had been citizens of the region, into Rome and the far reaches of the Empire. Syrian merchants brought Mithraism to the major cities, such as Alexandria, Rome and Carthage, while captives carried it to the countryside. By the third century AD/CE Mithraism and its mysteries permeated the Roman Empire and extended from India to Scotland, with abundant monuments in numerous countries amounting to over 420 Mithraic sites so far discovered.

"By the third century AD/CE Mithraism and its mysteries permeated the Roman Empire and extended from India to Scotland."

From a number of discoveries, including pottery, inscriptions and temples, we know that Roman Mithraism gained a significant boost and much of its shape between 80 and 120 AD/CE, when the first artifacts of this particular cultus begin to be found at Rome. It reached a peak during the second and third centuries, before largely expiring at the end of the fourth/beginning of fifth centuries. Among its members during this period were emperors, politicians and businessmen. Indeed, before its usurpation by Christianity Mithraism enjoyed the patronage of some of the most important individuals in the Roman Empire. In the fifth century, the emperor Julian, having rejected his birth-religion of Christianity, adopted Mithraism and "introduced the practise of the worship at Constantinople." (Schaff-Herzog, VII, 423)

Modern scholarship has gone back and forth as to how much of the original Indo-Persian Mitra-Mithra cultus affected Roman Mithraism, which demonstrates a distinct development but which nonetheless follows a pattern of this earlier solar mythos and ritual. The theory of "continuity" from the Iranian to Roman Mithraism developed famously by scholar Dr. Franz Cumont in the 20th century has been largely rejected by many scholars. Yet, Plutarch himself (Life of Pompey, 24) related that followers of Mithras "continue to the present time" the "secret rites" of the Cilician pirates, "having been first instituted by them." So too does the ancient writer Porphyry (234-c. 305 AD/CE) state that the Roman Mithraists themselves believed their religion had been founded by the Persian savior Zoroaster.

In discussing what may have been recounted by ancient writers asserted to have written many volumes about Mithraism, such as Eubulus of Palestine and "a certain Pallas," Gordon (Journal Mithraic Studies, v. 2, 150) remarks: "Certainly Zoroaster would have figured largely; and so would the Persians and the magi." It seems that the ancients themselves did not divorce the eastern roots of Mithraism, as exemplified also by the remarks of Dio Cassius, who related that in 66 AD/CE the king of Armenia, Tiridates, visited Rome. Cassius states that the dignitary worshipped Mithra; yet, he does not indicate any distinction between the Armenian's religion and Roman Mithraism.

It is apparent from their testimony that ancient sources perceived Mithraism as having a Persian origin; hence, it would seem that any true picture of the development of Roman Mithraism must include the latter's relationship to the earlier Persian cultus, as well as its Asia Minor and Armenian offshoots. Current scholarship is summarized thus by Dr. Beck (2004; 28):

Since the 1970s, scholars of western Mithraism have generally agreed that Cumont's master narrative of east-west transfer is unsustainable; but...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 once again viable.

In his massive anthology, Armenian and Iranian Studies, Dr. James R. Russell, professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University, essentially proves that Roman Mithraism had its origins in not only Persian or Iranian Mithraism and Zoroastrianism but also in Armenian religion, dating back centuries before the common era.

The Many Faces of Mithra

Mainstream scholarship speaks of at least three Mithras: Mitra, the Vedic god; Mithra, the Persian deity; and Mithras, the Greco-Roman mysteries icon. However, the Persian Mithra apparently developed differently in various places, such as in Armenia, where there appeared to be emphasis on characteristics not overtly present in Roman Mithraism but found as motifs within Christianity, including the Virgin Mother Goddess. This Armenian Mithraism is evidently a continuity of the Mithraism of Asia Minor and the Near East. This development of gods taking on different forms, shapes, colors, ethnicities and other attributes according to location, era and so on is not only quite common but also the norm. Thus, we have hundreds of gods and goddesses who are in many ways interchangeable but who have adopted various differences based on geographical and environmental factors.

Mithra and Christ

Over the centuries—in fact, from the earliest Christian times—Mithraism has been compared to Christianity, revealing numerous similarities between the two faiths' doctrines and traditions, including as concerns stories of their respective godmen. In developing this analysis, it should be kept in mind that elements from Roman, Armenian and Persian Mithraism are utilized, not as a whole ideology but as separate items that may have affected the creation of Christianity, whether directly through the mechanism of Mithraism or through another Pagan source within the Roman Empire and beyond. The evidence points to these motifs and elements being adopted into Christianity not as a whole from one source but singularly from many sources, including Mithraism.

"The evidence points to these motifs and elements being adopted into Christianity..."

Thus, the following list represents not a solidified mythos or narrative of one particular Mithra or form of the god as developed in one particular culture and era but, rather, a combination of them all for ease of reference as to any possible influences upon Christianity under the name of Mitra/Mithra/Mithras.

Mithra has the following in common with the Jesus character:

• Mithra was born on December 25th of the virgin Anahita.
• The babe was wrapped in swaddling clothes, placed in a manger and attended by shepherds.
• He was considered a great traveling teacher and master.
• He had 12 companions or "disciples."
• He performed miracles.
• As the "great bull of the Sun," Mithra sacrificed himself for world peace.
• He ascended to heaven.
• Mithra was viewed as the Good Shepherd, the "Way, the Truth and the Light," the Redeemer, the Savior, the Messiah.
• Mithra is omniscient, as he "hears all, sees all, knows all: none can deceive him."
• He was identified with both the Lion and the Lamb.
• His sacred day was Sunday, "the Lord's Day," hundreds of years before the appearance of Christ.
• His religion had a eucharist or "Lord's Supper."
• Mithra "sets his marks on the foreheads of his soldiers."
• Mithraism emphasized baptism.
• December 25th Birthday

The similarities between Mithraism and Christianity have included their chapels, the term "father" for priest, celibacy and, it is notoriously claimed, the December 25th birthdate. Over the centuries, apologists contending that Mithraism copied Christianity nevertheless have asserted that the December 25th birthdate was taken from Mithraism. As Sir Arthur Weigall says:

December 25th was really the date, not of the birth of Jesus, but of the sun-god Mithra. Horus, son of Isis, however, was in very early times identified with Ra, the Egyptian sun-god, and hence with Mithra...

Mithra's birthday on December 25th has been so widely claimed that the Catholic Encyclopedia ("Mithraism") remarks: "The 25 December was observed as his birthday, the natalis invicti, the rebirth of the winter-sun, unconquered by the rigours of the season."

Yet this contention of Mithra's birthday on December 25th or the winter solstice is disputed because there is no hard archaeological or literary evidence of the Roman Mithras specifically being named as having been born at that time. Says Dr. Alvar:

There is no evidence of any kind, not even a hint, from within the cult that this, or any other winter day, was important in the Mithraic calendar. (Alvar, 410)

In analyzing the evidence, we must keep in mind all the destruction that has taken place over the past 2,000 years—including that of many Mithraic remains and texts—as well as the fact that several of these germane parallels constituted mysteries that may or may not have been recorded in the first place or the meanings of which have been obscured.

The claim about the Roman Mithras's birth on "Christmas" is evidently based on the Calendar of Filocalus or Philocalian Calendar (c. 354 AD/CE), which mentions that December 25th represents the "Birthday of the Unconquered," understood to refer to the sun and taken to indicate Mithras as Sol Invictus. Whether it represents Mithras's birthday specifically or "merely" that of Emperor Aurelian's Sol Invictus, with whom Mithras has been identified, the Calendar also lists the day—the winter solstice birth of the sun—as that of natus Christus in Betleem Iudeae: "Birth of Christ in Bethlehem Judea."

Moreover, it would seem that there is more to this story, as Aurelian was the first to institute officially the winter solstice as the birthday of Sol Invictus (Dies Natalis Solis Invicti) in 274 AD/CE. (Halsberghe, 158) It is contended that Aurelian's move was in response to Mithras's popularity. (Restaud, 4) One would thus wonder why the emperor would be so motivated if Mithras had nothing whatsoever to do with the sun god's traditional birthday—a disconnect that would be unusual for any solar deity.

Regardless of whether or not the artifacts of the Roman Mithras's votaries reflect the attribution of the sun god's birthday to him specifically, many in the empire did identify the mysteries icon and Sol Invictus as one, evidenced by the inscriptions of "Sol Invictus Mithras" and the many images of Mithras and the sun together, representing two sides of the same coin or each other's alter ego. Hence, the placement of Mithras's birth on this feast day of the sun is understandable and, despite the lack of concrete evidence at this date, quite plausibly was recognized in this manner in antiquity in the Roman Empire.

Persian Winter Festivals

In addition, it is clear that the ancient peoples from whom Mithraism sprang, long before it was Romanized, were very much involved in winter festivals so common among many other cultures globally. In this regard, discussing the Iranian month of Asiyadaya, which corresponds to November/December, Mithraic scholar Dr. Mary Boyce remarks:

...it is at this time of year that the Zoroastrian festival of Sada takes place, which is not only probably pre-Zoroastrian in origin, but may even go back to proto-Indo-European times. For Sada is a great open-air festival, of a kind celebrated widely among the Indo-European peoples, with the intention of strengthening the heavenly fire, the sun, in its winter decline and feebleness. Sun and fire being of profound significance in the Old Iranian religion, this is a festival which one would expect the Medes and Persians to have brought with them into their new lands... Sada is not, however, a feast in honour of the god of Fire, Atar, but is rather for the general strengthening of the creation of fire against the onslaught of winter. (Boyce (1982), 24-25)

This ancient Persian winter festival therefore celebrates the strengthening of the "fire" or sun in the face its winter decline, just as virtually every winter-solstice festivity is intended to do. Yet, as Dr. Boyce says, this "Zoroastrian" winter celebration is likely pre-Zoroastrian and even proto-Indo-European, which means it dates back far into the hoary mists of time, possibly tens of thousands of years ago. And one would indeed expect the Medes and Persians to bring this festival with them into their new lands, including the Near East, where they would eventually encounter Romans, who could hardly have missed this common solar motif celebrated worldwide in numerous ways.

"The Mithraists believed that this night is the night of the birth of Mithra, Persian god of light and truth."

The same may be said as concerns another Persian or Zoroastrian winter celebration called "Yalda," which is the festival of the Longest Night of the Year, taking place on December 20th or the day before the solstice:

Yalda has a history as long as the Mithraism religion. The Mithraists believed that this night is the night of the birth of Mithra, Persian god of light and truth. At the morning of the longest night of the year the Mithra is born from a virgin mother....

In Zoroastrian tradition, the winter solstice with the longest night of the year was an auspicious day, and included customs intended to protect people from misfortune.... The Eve of the Yalda has great significance in the Iranian calendar. It is the eve of the birth of Mithra, the Sun God, who symbolized light, goodness and strength on earth. Shab-e Yalda is a time of joy.

Yalda is a Syriac word meaning birth. Mithra-worshippers used the term "yalda" specifically with reference to the birth of Mithra. As the longest night of the year, the Eve of Yalda (Shab-e Yalda) is also a turning point, after which the days grow longer. In ancient times it symbolized the triumph of the Sun God over the powers of darkness. ("Yalda," Wikipedia)

It is likely that this festival does indeed derive from remote antiquity, and it is evident that the ancient Persians were well aware of the winter solstice and its meaning as found in numerous other cultures: To wit, the annual "rebirth," "renewal" or "resurrection" of the sun.

"'Christmas' is the birth not of the 'son of God' but of the sun."

In the end the effect is the same: "Christmas" is the birth not of the "son of God" but of thesun. Indeed, there is much evidence—including many ancient monumental alignments—to demonstrate that this highly noticeable and cherished event of the winter solstice was celebrated beginning hundreds to thousands of years before the common era in numerous parts of the world. The observation was thus provably taken over by Christianity, not as biblical doctrine but as a later tradition in order to compete with the Pagan cults, a move we contend occurred with numerous other "Christian" motifs, including many that are in the New Testament.

Mithra the 'Rock-Born'

Mithra's genesis out of a rock, analogous to the birth in caves of a number of gods—including Jesus in the apocryphal, non-canonical texts— was followed by his adoration by shepherds, another motif that found its way into the later Christianity. Regarding the birth in caves likewise common to pre-Christian gods, and present in the early legends of Jesus, Weigall relates (50):

...the cave shown at Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus was actually a rock shrine in which the god Tammuz or Adonis was worshipped, as the early Christian father Jerome tells us; and its adoption as the scene of the birth of our Lord was one of those frequent instances of the taking over by Christians of a pagan sacred site. The propriety of this appropriation was increased by the fact that the worship of a god in a cave was commonplace in paganism: Apollo, Cybele, Demeter, Herakles, Hermes, Mithra and Poseidon were all adored in caves; Hermes, the Greek Logos, being actually born of Maia in a cave, and Mithra being "rock-born."

As the "rock-born," Mithras was called "Theos ek Petras," or the "God from the Rock." As Weigall also relates:

Indeed, it may be that the reason of the Vatican hill at Rome being regarded as sacred to Peter, the Christian "Rock," was that it was already sacred to Mithra, for Mithraic remains have been found there.

Mithras was "the rock," or Peter, and was also "double-faced," like Janus the keyholder, likewise a prototype for the "apostle" Peter. Hence, when Jesus is made to say (in the apparent interpolation at Matthew 16:12) that the keys of the kingdom of heaven are given to "Peter" and that the Church is to be built upon "Peter," as a representative of Rome, he is usurping the authority of Mithraism, which was precisely headquartered on what became Vatican Hill.

"Mithraic remains on Vatican Hill are found underneath the later Christian edifices, which proves the Mithra cult was there first."

By the time the Christian hierarchy prevailed in Rome, Mithra had already been a popular cult, with pope, bishops, etc., and its doctrines were well established and widespread, reflecting a certain antiquity. Mithraic remains on Vatican Hill are found underneath the later Christian edifices, a fact that proves the Mithra cult was there first. In fact, while Mithraic ruins are abundant throughout the Roman Empire, beginning in the late first century AD/CE, "The earliest church remains, found in Dura-Europos, date only from around 230 CE."

The Virgin Mother Anahita

Unlike various other rock- or cave-born gods, Mithra is not depicted in the Roman cultus as having been given birth by a mortal woman or a goddess; hence, it is claimed that he was not "born of a virgin." However, a number of writers over the centuries have asserted otherwise, including several modern Persian and Armenian scholars who are apparently reflecting an ancient tradition from Near Eastern Mithraism.

"The worship of Mithra and Anahita, the virgin mother of Mithra, was well-known in the Achaemenian period."

For example, Dr. Badi Badiozamani says that a "person" named "Mehr" or Mithra was "born of a virgin named Nahid Anahita ('immaculate')" and that "the worship of Mithra and Anahita, the virgin mother of Mithra, was well-known in the Achaemenian period [558-330 BCE]..." (Badiozamani, 96) Philosophy professor Dr. Mohammed Ali Amir-Moezzi states: "Dans le mithraïsme, ainsi que le mazdéisme populaire, (A)Nāhīd, mère de Mithra/Mehr, est vierge"—"In Mithraism, as in popular Mazdaism, Anahid, the mother of Mithra, is a virgin." (Amir-Moezzi, 78-79) Comparing the rock birth with that of the virgin mother, Dr. Amir-Moezzi also says:

...il y a donc analogie entre le rocher, symbole d'incorruptibilité, qui donne naissance au dieu iranien et la mère de celui-ci, Anāhīd, éternellement vierge et jeune.

(...so there is analogy between the rock, a symbol of incorruptibility, giving birth to the Iranian god and the mother of that (same) one, Anahid, eternally virgin and young.)

In Mithraic Iconography and Ideology (78), Dr. Leroy A. Campbell calls Anahita the "great goddess of virgin purity," and Religious History professor Dr. Claas J. Bleeker says, "In the Avestan religion she is the typical virgin." (Bleeker (1963), 100)

One modern writer ("Mithraism and Christianity") portrays the Mithra myth thus:

According to Persian mythology, Mithras was born of a virgin given the title "Mother of God."

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 strongholds 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."

Anahita, also known as "Anaitis"—whose very name means "Pure" and "Untainted" and who was equated in antiquity with the virgin goddess Artemis—is certainly an Indo-Iranian goddess of some antiquity, dating back at least to the first half of the first millennium prior to the common era and enjoying "widespread popularity" around Asia Minor. Indeed, Anahita has been called "the best known divinity of the Persians" in Asia Minor. (de Jong, 268)

Moreover, concerning Mithra Schaff-Herzog says, "The Achaemenidae worshiped him as making the great triad with Ahura and Anahita." Ostensibly, this "triad" was the same as God the Father, the Virgin and Jesus, which would tend to confirm the assertion that Anahita was Mithra's virgin mother. That Anahita was closely associated with Mithra at least five centuries before the common era is evident from the equation made by Herodotus (1.131) in naming "Mitra" as the Persian counterpart of the Near and Middle Eastern goddesses Alilat and Mylitta. (de Jong, 269-270)

Moreover, Mithra's prototype, the Indian Mitra, was likewise born of a female, Aditi, the "mother of the gods," the inviolable or virgin dawn. Hence, we would expect an earlier form of Mithra also to possess this virgin-mother motif, which seems to have been lost or deliberately severed in the all-male Roman Mithraism.

Well known to scholars, the pre-Christian divine birth and virgin mother motifs are documented in the archaeological and literary records, as verified by Dr. Marguerite Rigoglioso in The Cult of the Divine Birth in Ancient Greece and Virgin Mother Goddesses of Antiquity.

Mithra and the Twelve

The theme of the teaching god and "the Twelve" is found within Mithraism, as Mithra is depicted as surrounded by the 12 zodiac signs on a number of monuments and in the writings of Porphyry (4.16), for one. These 12 signs are sometimes portrayed as humans and, as they have been in the case of numerous sun gods, could be called Mithra's 12 "companions" or "disciples."

Regarding the Twelve, John M. Robertson says:

On Mithraic monuments we find representations of twelve episodes, probably corresponding to the twelve labors in the stories of Heracles, Samson and other Sun-heroes, and probably also connected with initiation.

The comparison of this common motif with Jesus and the 12 has been made on many occasions, including in an extensive study entitled, "Mithras and Christ: some iconographical similarities," by Professor A. Deman in Mithraic Studies.

Early Church Fathers on Mithraism

Mithraism was so popular in the Roman Empire and so similar in important aspects to Christianity that several Church fathers were compelled to address it, disparagingly of course. These fathers included Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Julius Firmicus Maternus and Augustine, all of whom attributed these striking correspondences to the prescient devil. In other words, anticipating Christ, the devil set about to fool the Pagans by imitating the coming messiah. In reality, the testimony of these Church fathers confirms that these various motifs, characteristics, traditions and myths predated Christianity.

"Christianity took a leaf out of the devil's book when it fixed the birth of the Saviour on the twenty-fifth of December."

Concerning this "devil did it" argument, in The Worship of Nature Sir James G. Frazer remarks:

If the Mithraic mysteries were indeed a Satanic copy of a divine original, we are driven to conclude that Christianity took a leaf out of the devil's book when it fixed the birth of the Saviour on the twenty-fifth of December; for there can be no doubt that the day in question was celebrated as the birthday of the Sun by the heathen before the Church, by an afterthought, arbitrarily transferred the Nativity of its Founder from the sixth of January to the twenty-fifth of December.

Regarding the various similarities between Mithra and Christ, as well as the defenses of the Church fathers, the author of The Existence of Christ Disproved remarks:

Augustine, Firmicus, Justin, Tertullian, and others, having perceived the exact resemblance between the religion of Christ and the religion of Mithra, did, with an impertinence only to be equalled by its outrageous absurdity, insist that the devil, jealous and malignant, induced the Persians to establish a religion the exact image of Christianity that was to be—for these worthy saints and sinners of the church could not deny that the worship of Mithra preceded that of Christ—so that, to get out of the ditch, they summoned the devil to their aid, and with the most astonishing assurance, thus accounted for the striking similarity between the Persian and the Christian religion, the worship of Mithra and the worship of Christ; a mode of getting rid of a difficulty that is at once so stupid and absurd, that it would be almost equally stupid and absurd seriously to refute it.

"It is good practice to steer clear of all information provided by Christian writers: they are not 'sources,' they are violent apologists."

In response to a question about Tertullian's discussion of the purported Mithraic forehead mark, Dr. Richard Gordon says:

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. (Gordon, "FAQ")

He also cautions about speculation concerning Mithraism and states that "there is practically no limit to the fantasies of scholars," an interesting admission about the hallowed halls of academia.
Priority: Mithraism or Christianity?

It is obvious from the remarks of the Church fathers and from the literary and archaeological record that Mithraism in some form preceded Christianity by centuries. The fact is that there is no Christian archaeological evidence earlier than the earliest Roman Mithraic archaeological evidence and that the preponderance of evidence points to Christianity being formulated during the second century, not based on a "historical" personage of the early first century. As one important example, the canonical gospels as we have them do not show up clearly in the literary record until the end of the second century.

Mithra's pre-Christian roots are attested in the Vedic and Avestan texts, as well as by historians such as Herodotus (1.131) and Xenophon (Cyrop. viii. 5, 53 and c. iv. 24), among others. Nor is it likely that the Roman Mithras is not essentially the same as the Indian sun god Mitra and the Persian, Armenian and Phrygian Mithra in his major attributes, as well as some of his most pertinent rites.

Moreover, it is erroneously asserted that because Mithraism was a "mystery cult" it did not leave any written record. In reality, much evidence of Mithra worship has been destroyed, including not only monuments, iconography and other artifacts, but also numerous books by ancient authors. The existence of written evidence is indicated by the Egyptian cloth "manuscript" from the first century BCE called, "Mummy Funerary Inscription of the Priest of Mithras, Ornouphios, Son fo Artemis" or MS 247.

As previously noted, two of the ancient writers on Mithraism are Pallas, and Eubulus, the latter of whom, according to Jerome (Against Jovinianus, 2.14; Schaff 397), "wrote the history of Mithras in many volumes." Discussing Eubulus and Pallas, Porphyry too related that there were "several elaborate treatises setting forth the religion of Mithra." The writings of the early Church fathers themselves provide much evidence as to what Mithraism was all about, as do the archaeological artifacts stretching from India to Scotland.

These many written volumes doubtlessly contained much interesting information that was damaging to Christianity, such as the important correspondences between the "lives" of Mithra and Jesus, as well as identical symbols such as the cross, and rites such as baptism and the eucharist. In fact, Mithraism was so similar to Christianity that it gave fits to the early Church fathers, as it does to this day to apologists, who attempt both to deny the similarities and yet to claim that these (non-existent) correspondences were plagiarized by Mithraism from Christianity.

"Regardless of attempts to make Mithraism the plagiarist of Christianity, the fact will remain that Mithraism was first."

Nevertheless, the god Mithra was revered for centuries prior to the Christian era, and the germane elements of Mithraism are known to have preceded Christianity by hundreds to thousands of years. Thus, regardless of attempts to make Mithraism the plagiarist of Christianity, the fact will remain that Mithraism was first, well established in the West decades before Christianity had any significant influence.

Mithraism and it's Influence on Christianity

Statue of Mithras slaying the bull

In name of the creator of life and wisdom.

In the early pre-Christ era, Mithraism was the sole savior and guide to the way of life and was considered a serious contender to Christianity. Because of the parallel presence of the two powerful religious establishments December 25, which was Mithra's Birthday, became Christ's Birthday. This is where Mithraism influence on Christianity started.

There are similarities in the stories about Christ and Mitra such as their birth, the shepherds who came to adore the child, the baptism ceremony, celebration of the ascending human-metaphor God, the bread and wine, the day of salvation, and immortality of soul became common among the two religions.

In the beginning, Mithraism was a major part of Christianity. With the passage of time and as Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire; the eastern ideas were filtered out. Even Persian religious songs in Bible, which foretold Christ's birth and baptism, were not legal and sacred anymore. Starting from 4th century BCE, the Christian world was engaged in brutal internal fights over biblical rights. At this time because of political reasons, referring to Persian traditions became irreversible. Thus Christianity was left with a combination of Mithraism and Zoroastrianism.

The Romans feared being taken over by the Persians and tried to become independent. The Roman Empire was in constant conflict with the Persian Empire. They regarded Iran, the birthplace of Mithraism, and the land of their enemies. Consequently, they felt the need for an independent governing ideology to counter the Persian influence and eastern ideologies. That is how Christianity celebrates its new birth.

In the 4th century Iran, under the Sasanian, the links between religion and government strengthened. Ardeshir orders the collection of all religious material. The Avesta alphabet (Din Dabireh) with its 48 letters became a basis for recording Avesta's songs. The script was comprehensive, and the songs were recorded on 12 thousand deerskins.

Zurvanism bloomed during the Sasanian reign and was followed by golden era of astronomy, mathematics, literature, and architecture. Iranian religious life became a global treat especially to the Roman Empire. Who organized their own church and ideology to resist Zoroastrianism. Both religions believed in the God of Sun the undefeatable Mitra. They worshipped father Mitra. This meant a spiritual link between the powerful western and eastern empires and could lead to a common government institution. If it had happened the world could have had a different destiny and history.

Constantine was the first Christian emperor who believed in ideological strength of the empire. He believed that Mithraism could not do it. It was an organized ideology based on a rigid discipline, a hierarchy demanding self-sacrifice and promotion to higher ranks was difficult. Eventually, it would loose followers. From this perspective, Christianity was more popular. Each cardinal could create a new branch and using their own charisma, religious teachings and personal interest of people, gather a crowd without being related to Christ teachings. History of Christianity is full of religious innovations. As Christianity distanced from the eastern ideology it became closer to Sufism.

In Mithraism there was no place for religious innovation and trade. Yet Christianity allowed people with opposing believes and views to gather under Christ's umbrella. These conditions were crucial in the spreading of Christianity. This is how democracy in Christianity and closeness in Mithraism dealt with issues leading to the political defeat of Mithraism.

Mithraism with its Persian roots remained stranger to Romans who viewed it as the official ideology of the Persian Empire. An empire, which deprived them from becoming the world's absolute power. In Sasanian time, Zoroastrianism was the official ideology of Persians. In the meanwhile, Romans, despite their obvious needs for such an ideology, lacked it. Constantine focus on Christianity was to create religious and ideological independence from Persians.

Mithraism had a broad influence on Christianity. However, because of historical, ideological, and political factors it disappeared and was replaced by Christianity. Neither historical facts nor ideological ones could determine the outcome of the battle between the two powers. Naturally, Mithraism could not be the official Roman ideology and could not satisfy Roman political desires in conquering Persians. Yet, many Christian rituals remained influenced by Mithraism and the eastern ideology penetrated into the European religious institution. Mitra was the Son of God, so was Jesus. Mitra was born from a virgin, so was Jesus.

The story of the birth Jesus is the same as the story of Mitra's birth. Mitra was born in a dark cave and shepherds were the first people who found out about him. They brought him gold and pleasant scents. Is this similar to the bible story? Mitra and Jesus were both the links between the God and people. They are both sent by the Father to prevail wishes of the Father on the earth. The difference is that Jesus is son of Yahweh and Mitra is son of Ahura Mazda. The Jews believed that Yahweh in Bible is the same as Ahura Mazda. Mitra's mission was to fight Ahriman and its followers and to bring about the final conquest of brightness over darkness on the judgment day. So is the mission of Jesus from the Christians' point of view. Return of Mitra to Ahura Mazda following his last missions on the earth is similar to the resurrection of Jesus.

Even Mitra's symbolism impacted Christianity. Mithraist's drew the cross in a circle, which symbolized the sun. For them the four corners of cross-represented the original solar year. Two of the points were day and night and the two other points showed the solar revolution. The Cross inside a circle can be observed in the portrait of Mitra's holy dining. In Christianity cross became a symbol of suffering and resistance although it maintained the sun's symbol.

The Birth of Mitra was on the Holy day of December 25, the longest night of the year, in the darkest cave. Symbolizing birth of the light and hope and renovation of the nature. Christ's holy birth is also on the same night in the solar calendar.

In the ritual of dining with Mitra the bread was divided into four parts. The bread and sweet wine ceremony was among the holy rituals of Mitraists. They symbolized Mitra's giving and supporting attitude. They also symbolized Mitra's joy on the earth and eternity in the kingdom. It has a similar meaning in Christianity other than the bread and wine, which represent Christ's body and blood. Emotionally, the ceremony is a reminder of Christ's last supper with his followers.

Baptism in Mitraism meant washing off the sins. Baptism, confession, and forgiving the sins were all transferred from Mitraism to Christianity. The advanced organization of Christian church is a reminder of the well-organized Mitraist institutions. The labeling of the hierarchy in both institutions is similar: the Father, the Papa, the Pope, the Padre (in Vatican). Leaders of Mitraist institutions demanded a rigid discipline such as fasting and obstinate behavior from their followers. That is how Mitraism became a manly religion, a fighters' religion, and that is how it became successful all over from North to Averlians, Galians, and Divcaltians.

In the non-martial life, religion was the basis of government and maintaining peace in the society. To this time high-ranking Christian religious figures wear a hat named Metropolis, which is named after Mitra, and is inherited from Persian people. The world "Metropolitan" also means city of Mitra or city of sun and was known to mean the capital city but it does not have such a meaning today. These are a few indicators of the Mitraism within Christianity. Unlike Judaism, Christianity has not purified itself from superstitious ideas of other religions and influence of Mithraism remains there.

Mitra's religion prevailed for some 2000 years among Aryans. In 66 CE King Tirdad introduced it to Nero and up till 325 CE it was the official religion of the Roman Empire. In the first century, during Ashkanian reign, Iranian merchants and believers brought Mitraism to Europe and it was mixed with Aristotle's (Aflatoon's) philosophy.

The Mithraist names of the days of the week have been maintained except for changes in the language, this can be observed.

Mahshid God of Moon, Monday in English, Montag in German.
Bahramshid, day of TeeVis, Tuesday in English and Dienstag in German.
Tirshid the Vedin day, Wednesday in English and Mittwoch in German.
Berjisshid day of Tour, Thursday in English and Donnerstag in German.
Nahidshid day of Erie, god of fertility, Friday in English, Fristag in German.
Keyvanshid, day of Saturn, Saturday in English and Samstag in German.
Mehrshid day of Sun, Sunday in English and Sonntag in German.
In 321 CE, Constantine declared Sunday a weekly holiday.

Mitra had twelve supporters and these became Christ's apostles. When repairing old churches around the world including those in Germany, France and Russia there have been numerous signs of Mithraism. Christianity was influenced by variety of traditions and rituals of Mithraism and became the leader of European civilization.

Aion: God of Time, Eternity and Zodiac

God of Time, Eternity and Zodiac and Member of the Primordial Gods
Roman equivalent of Aeternitas

(In ancient Roman religion, Aeternitas was the divine personification of eternity. She was particularly associated with Imperial cult as a virtue of the deified emperor (divus). The religious maintenance of abstract deities such as Aeternitas was characteristic of official Roman cult from the time of the Julio-Claudians to the Severans.

Like the more familiar anthropomorphic deities, Aeternitas and other abstractions were cultivated with sacrifices and temples, both in Rome and in the provinces. The temple of Aeternitas Augusta at Tarraco in Roman Spain was pictured on a coin.

The divinity sometimes appears as Aeternitas Imperii (the "Eternity of Roman rule"), where the Latin word imperium ("command, power") points toward the meaning "empire," the English word derived from it. Aeternitas Imperii was among the deities who received sacrifices from the Arval Brethren in a thanksgiving when Nero survived conspiracy and attempted assassination. New bronze coinage was issued at this time, on which various virtues were represented.

Aeternitas was among the many virtues depicted on coinage issued under Vespasian, Titus, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Septimius Severus. The coins issued 75–79 AD under Vespasian show Aeternitas holding a head in each hand representing Sol and Luna. On the coins of Titus (80–81 AD), Aeternitas holds a cornucopia, leans on a scepter, and has one foot placed on a globe, imagery that links the concepts of eternity, prosperity, and world dominion. From the 2nd to the mid-3rd century, the iconography of Aeternitas includes the globe, celestial bodies (stars, or sun and moon), and the phoenix, a symbol of cyclical time, since the phoenix was reborn in flames every 500 years. Aeternitas sometimes holds the globe on which the phoenix perches.

In The Marriage of Philology and Mercury, Martianus Capella says that Aeternitas is among the more honored of Jupiter's daughters. He mentions her diadem, the circular shape of which represents eternity. The male equivalent of Aeternitas is Aion, the god of limitless time)

Aion, god of eternity, in a celestial sphere decorated with zodiacal signs, between a green and a dismantled tree (summer and winter). Before him is the mother-earth Tellus (Roman Gaia) with four children, the four seasons personified

Aion (Greek: Αἰών) is a Hellenistic deity associated with time, the orb or circle encompassing the universe, and the zodiac. The "time" represented by Aion is unbounded, in contrast to Chronos as empirical time divided into past, present, and future. He is thus a god of eternity, associated with mystery religions concerned with the afterlife, such as the mysteries of Cybele, Dionysus, Orpheus, and Mithras. In Latin the concept of the deity may appear as Aevum or Saeculum. He is typically in the company of an earth or mother goddess such as Tellus or Cybele, as on the Parabiago plate.

Iconography and symbolism

Detail from the Parabiago plate depicting Aion; Tellus (not shown) appears at the bottom of the plate, which centers on the chariot of Cybele

Aion is usually identified as the nude or semi-nude young man within a circle representing the zodiac, or eternal and cyclical time. Examples include two Roman mosaics from Sentinum (modern–day Sassoferrato) and Hippo Regius in Roman Africa, and the Parabiago plate. But because he represents time as a cycle, he may also be imagined as an old man. In the Dionysiaca, Nonnus associates Aion with the Horae and says that he:

"changes the burden of old age like a snake who sloughs off the coils of the useless old scales, rejuvenescing while washing in the swells of the laws [of time]."

The imagery of the twining serpent is connected to the hoop or wheel through the ouroboros, a ring formed by a snake holding the tip of its tail in its mouth. The 4th-century AD Latin commentator Servius notes that the image of a snake biting its tail represents the cyclical nature of the year. In his 5th-century work on hieroglyphics, Horapollo makes a further distinction between a serpent that hides its tail under the rest of its body, which represents Aion, and the ouroboros that represents the kosmos, which is the serpent devouring its tail.

Identifications

Martianus Capella (5th century AD) identified Aion with Cronus (Latin Saturnus), whose name caused him to be theologically conflated with Chronos ("Time"), in the way that the Greek ruler of the underworld Plouton (Pluto) was conflated with Ploutos (Plutus, "Wealth"). Martianus presents Cronus-Aion as the consort of Rhea (Latin Ops) as identified with Physis.

In his highly speculative reconstruction of Mithraic cosmogony, Franz Cumont positioned Aion as Unlimited Time (sometimes represented as Saeculum, Cronus, or Saturn) as the god who emerged from primordial Chaos, and who in turn generated Heaven and Earth. This deity is represented as the leontocephaline, the winged lion-headed male figure whose nude torso is entwined by a serpent. He typically holds a sceptre, keys, or a thunderbolt. The figure of Time "played a considerable, though to us completely obscure, role" in Mithraic theology.

Aion is identified with Dionysus in Christian and Neoplatonic writers, but there are no references to Dionysus as Aion before the Christian era. Euripides, however, calls Aion the son of Zeus.

The Suda identifies Aion with Osiris. In Ptolemaic Alexandria, at the site of a dream oracle, the Hellenistic syncretic god Serapis was identified as Aion Plutonius. The epithet Plutonius marks functional aspects shared with Pluto, consort of Persephone and ruler of the underworld in the Eleusinian tradition. Epiphanius says that at Alexandria Aion's birth from Kore the Virgin was celebrated January 6: "On this day and at this hour the Virgin gave birth to Aion." The date, which coincides with Epiphany, brought new year's celebrations to a close, completing the cycle of time that Aion embodies. The Alexandrian Aion may be a form of Osiris-Dionysus, reborn annually. His image was marked with crosses on his hands, knees, and forehead. Gilles Quispel conjectured that the figure resulted from integrating the Orphic Phanes, who like Aion is associated with a coiling serpent, into Mithraic religion at Alexandria, and that he "assures the eternity of the city."

Roman Empire

This syncretic Aion became a symbol and guarantor of the perpetuity of Roman rule, and emperors such as Antoninus Pius issued coins with the legend Aion, whose female Roman counterpart was Aeternitas. Roman coins associate both Aion and Aeternitas with the phoenix as a symbol of rebirth and cyclical renewal.

Aion was among the virtues and divine personifications that were part of late Hellenic discourse, in which they figure as "creative agents in grand cosmological schemes." The significance of Aion lies in his malleability: he is a "fluid conception" through which various ideas about time and divinity converge in the Hellenistic era, in the context of monotheistic tendencies.

The Mithratic Liturgy

The Mithratic Liturgy

from the Paris Codex

Preface

This work provides the reader with a brief introduction, Greek text, and English translation of the fascinating though difficult document known as the Mithras Liturgy.

I initially prepared an introduction and translation of the Mithras Liturgy for a seminar on the Hellenistic mystery religions; the seminar was convened by Dr. Hans Dieter Betz during the fall semester of 1975 at Claremont Graduate School. My thanks to the participants in the seminar for their helpful comments.

'In particular I thank Dr. Edward O'Neil of the University of Southern California for his perceptive suggestions.

Marvin W. Meyer
Claremont, California
February, 1976

Introduction

The so-called Mithras Liturgy is included in this series of texts and translations for several reasons. The Liturgy is frequently mentioned in secondary literature, and has been partially translated into English upon several occasions, but it has not previously been available in its entirety in English translation. Furthermore, the Mithras Liturgy deserves the attention of students of early Christian literature and the history of religions, particularly Graeco-Roman religion: the Liturgy reflects an important religious tendency of its day, a syncretistic piety utilizing astrology and magic and emphasizing the ecstatic ascent of the individual soul. Of additional interest is the relationship of the Mithras Liturgy to the previously known Hermetic literature and the recently discovered tractates from Nag Hammadi (cf., for example, page 3, note b , below).

The Mithras Liturgy is part of the great magical codex of Paris (Papyrus 574 of the Bibliotheque Nationale). Presumably compiled in the early fourth century C.E., this codex contains a variety of tractates, hymns, recipes, and prescriptions, which were apparently collected for use in the working library of an Egyptian magician. Lines 475- 834 of this codex constitute the Mithras Liturgy; these boundaries for the Liturgy are suggested by the continuity of thought within the Liturgy, by the punctuation utilized by the scribe, and by the apparent transition to a different section (lines 835-849: astrological calculations). Interestingly, lines 467-474 parallel lines 821-823 and 830-834: thus the Mithras Liturgy is placed between two closely related versions of spells utilizing lines from Homer.

The Mithras Liturgy received its name and fame from. A. Dieterich. in 1903 Dieterich published his valuable book, Eine MithrasLiturgie, in which he proposed that the text in question contains an official liturgy of the Mithras cult, a Mithraic ritual for the ascent and immortalization of the soul. Although the Mithras Liturgy had been later adopted and somewhat adapted by Egyptian magicians, Dieterich concluded, the text still preserves the highest sacrament in which the Mithraic initiate could participate. However, since the publication of Dieterich's book, F. Cumont, R. Reitzenstein, and others have expressed skepticism concerning the Mithraic origin of the Liturgy. Thus, such scholars have suggested that more significant parallels to the Liturgy can be found in the hermetic writings, or in individualistic and private mysteries, or in Graeco-Egyptian syncretism, magic, and solar piety. Yet the evidence amassed by Dieterich cannot be easily dismissed, for he highlights important echoes of Mithraism in the Mithras Liturgy: particularly striking are the mention of “the great god Helios Mithras” (line 482), the invocation of the elements (lines 487-537), the description of the fire-breathing god Aion (lines 587- 616), and the portraits of Helios (lines 635-637) and the highest God (lines 693-704). Furthermore, the accounts of Celsus (in Origen, Contra Celsum, 6. 21-22) and Porphyry (De antro nympharum, 5-6 etc.) on Mithraism verify the fact that such a liturgy for the soul's ascent as the Mithras Liturgy could be quite compatible with at least some expressions of Mithraism.

Consequently, it is advisable to conclude that the Mithras Liturgy may indeed represent some variety of Mithraism–though not, to be sure, Mithraism as it is usually presented. If there is Mithraism in this papyrus, it is a Mithraism on the fringe, a Mithraism preoccupied with individualism, syncretism, and magic. The Mithras Liturgy may thus illustrate a direction taken by those carrying on the Mithras tradition in Egypt.

The text of the Mithras Liturgy is composed of two main parts: a liturgical mystery of ascent (lines 475-750), and a set of instructions (lines 750-834) for the use of the mystery. After the brief introduction (lines 475- 485), the mystery of ascent presents the seven liturgical stages for the soul's ecstatic journey: the soul thus encounters the four elements (lines 485-537), in their generative and regenerative aspects; the lower powers of the air (lines 537-585), including the winds, bolts of thunder and lightning, and meteors; Aion and the Aionic powers (lines 585-628) , as planetary guardians of the heavenly doors; Helios (lines 628-657), young and fiery; the seven Fates (lines 657-672) and, next, the seven Pole-Lords (lines 673-692), both groups from the region of the fixed stars, and both depicted in Egyptian fashion; and finally the highest God (lines 692-724), portrayed like Mithras himself. After the conclusion (lines 724-750) to the mystery of ascent, the instructions for the use of the mystery present a scarab ceremony of the sun (lines 750-798) provide instructions for the obtaining of the kentritis herb and the fashioning of amulets (lines 798-830) and append two additional spells (lines 831-834) The predominant place of magic within the Mithras Liturgy deserves special mention. The entire text of the Liturgy is permeated with magic, including breathing techniques (cf. lines 537-538: drawing in breath from the rays) , special recipes (cf. lines 750-755: preparing the cake for the scarab), magical rituals (cf. lines 767-769: burying the scarab) amulets (cf. lines 659-660: kissing the amulets), and magical formulae. The magical formulae themselves are diverse in character: some seem onomatopoetic (cf. line 488, PPP: making a popping sound, possibly like thunder), symbolic (cf. line 487, AEEIOYO: using the seven vowels in a series), or perhaps glossolalic (cf. line 492, EY EIA EE); some seem derived from or imitative of Greek (cf. line 562, PROPROPHEGGE: Primal Brightener?) Egyptian (cf. line 672, ARARRACHES: Horus of the two horizons; and line 717, PHRE: Re, the Sun) , or Semitic words (cf. line 591, SEMESILAM: Eternal sun; and line 593, IAO: Yahweh).

The Greek text which follows is that of K. Preisendanz, though a few minor changes have been made (e.g., the paragraphing) . 

Regrettably, only a few notes can be provided here; for additional information the reader is re ferred to the following selected bibliography:

Dieterich, Albrecht. Eine MithrasLiturgie
(19031. 19102 edited by Richard WUnsch. 19233, edited by Otto Weinreich, reprinted Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1966).

For the reactions by other scholars to Dieterich, see the “Nachtrage” (19233) 219ff.

Hopfner, Theodor. Griechisch-agyptischer Offenbarungszauber (Studien zur Palaeographie und Papyruskunde, 21, 23. Leipzig: Haessel, 1921, 1924; republished Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1974-).

Nilsson, Martin P. Geschichte der griechischen Religion (2. Aufl. Miinchen: Beck, 1961)i vol. 2, 670, 686ff.

Nock, Arthur D. “Greek Magical Papyri,” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 15 (1929) 219-235. Reprinted in Nock, Essays on Religion and the Ancient World (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972), vol.1, 176-194, especially 192ff.

Papyri Graecae Magicae: Die griechischen Zauberpapyri. Edited and translated by Karl Preisendanz. 2 Aufl. edited by Albert Henrichs (Stuttgart: Teubner, 1973), vol. 1, 88-101.

Smith, Morton. “Observations on Hekhalot Rabbati,” in Biblical and Other Studies, edited by Alexander Altmann (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963), 142-160, especially 158ff.

Wessely, Carl, editor. Griechische Zauberpapyrus von Paris und London (Denkschriften der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, philosophisch-historische Classe, 36. Wien: Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1888).

Actual Text

Be gracious to me, Providence and Psyche, as I write these mysteries handed down for gain but for instruction; and for an only child I request immortality, O initiates of this our power (furthermore, it is necessary for you, O daughter, to take the juices of herbs and spices, which will to you at the end of my holy treatise), which the great god Helios Mithras ordered to be revealed to me by his archangel, so that I alone may ascend into heaven as an inquirer and behold the universe.

This is the invocation of the ceremony:

“First -origin of my origin, AEEIOYO, first beginning of my beginning, PPP SSS PHR spirit of spirit, the first of the spirit in me, MMM, fire given by god to my mixture of the mixtures in me, the first of the fire in me, EY EIA EE, water of water, the first of the water in me, OOO AAA EEE, earthy substance, the first of the earthy substance in me,  YE YOE, my complete body 

(I,_______whose mother is _______), which was formed by a noble arm and an incorruptible right hand in a world without light and yet radiant, without soul and yet alive with soul, YEI AYI EYOIE: now if it be your will, METERTA  PHOTH (METHARTHA PHERIE, in another place) YEREZATH, give me over to immortal birth and, following that, to my underlying nature, so that,6after the present need which is pressing me exceedingly, I may gaze upon the immortal beginning with the immortal spirit, ANCHREPHRENESOYPHIRIGCH, with the immortal water, ERONOYI PARAKOYNETH, with the most steadfast air, EIOAE PSENABOTH; that I may be born again in thought, KRAOCHRAX R OIM ENARCHOMAI, and the sacred spirit may breathe in me, NECHTHEN APOTOY NECHTHIN ARPI ETH; so that I may wonder at the sacred fire, KYPHE; that I may gaze upon the unfathomable, awesome water of the dawn, NYO THESO ECHO OYCHIECHOA, and the vivifying, and encircling aether may hear me, ARNOMETHPH; for today I am about to behold, with immortal eyes –  

I, born mortal from mortal womb, but transformed by tremendous power and an incorruptible right hand! – and with immortal spirit, the immortal Aion and and master of the fiery diadems– 

I, sanctified through holy consecrations!– while there subsists within me, holy, for a short time, my human soul-might, which I will again receive after the present bitter and relentless necessity which is pressing down upon me– 

I, _______ whose mother is _______ according to the immutable decree of god, EYE YIA EEI AO EIAY IYA IEO! Since it is impossible for me, born mortal, to rise with the golden brightnesses of the immortal brilliance, OEY AEO EYA EOE YAE 5IAE, stand, O perishable nature of mortals, and at once me safe and sound after the inexorable and pressing need. For I am the son PSYCHO[N] DEMOY PROCHO PROA, I am MACHARPH[.]N MOY PROPSYCHON PROE!”

Draw in breath from the rays, drawing up three times as much as you can, and you will see yourself being lifted up and  ascending to the height, so that you seem to be in mid-air. 

You will hear nothing either of man or of any other living thing, nor in that hour will you see anything of mortal affairs on earth, but rather you will see all immortal things. For in that day and hour you will see the divine order of the skies: the presiding gods rising into heaven, and others setting. Now the course of the visible gods will appear through the disk of god, my father; and in similar fashion the so-called “pipe” , the origin of the ministering wind. 

For you will see it hanging from the sun's disk like a pipe. You will see the outflow of this object toward the regions westward, boundless as an east wind, if it be assigned to the regions of the East–and the other (viz. the west wind), similarly, toward its own  regions. And you will see the gods staring intently at you and rushing at you. So at once put your right finger on your mouth and say:

“Silence! Silence! Silence! Symbol of the living, incorruptible god! (560) Guard me, Silence, NECHTHEIR THANMELOY!” 

Then make a long hissing sound, next make a popping sound, and say: 

“PROPROPHEGGE MORIOS PROPHYR PROPHEGGE NEMETHIRE ARPSENTEN PTTETMI MEOY ENARTH PHYRKECHO PSYRIDARIO TYRE PHILBA.” 

Then you will see the gods looking graciously upon you and no longer rushing at you, but rather going about in their own order of affairs. So when you see that the world above is clear and circling, and that none of the gods or angels is threatening you, expect to hear a great crash of thunder, so as to shock you. 

Then say again: 

“Silence! Silence! (the prayer) I am a star, wandering about with you, and shining forth out of  the deep, OXY O XERTHEYTH.” Immediately after you have said these things the sun's disk will be expanded. 

And after you have said the second prayer, where there is “Silence! Silence!” and the accompanying words, make a hissing sound twice and a popping sound twice, and immediately you will see many five- pronged stars coming forth from the disk and filling all the air. Then say again: 

“Silence! Silence!”

And when the disk is open, you will see the fireless circle, and the fiery doors shut tight. At once close your eyes and recite the following prayer. The third prayer:

“Give ear to me, hearken to me, _______ whose mother is _______, O Lord, you who have bound together with your breath the fiery bars of the fourfold root, O Fire-Walker, PENTITEROYNI, Light-Maker (others: Encloser), SEMESILAM, Fire-Breather, PSYRINPHEY, Fire-Feeler, IAO, Light-Breather, OAI, Fire-Delighter, ELOYRE, Beautiful Light, AZAI, Aion, ACHBA, Light-Master, PEPPER PREPEMPIPI, Fire-Body, PHNOYENIOCH, Light-Giver, Fire-Sower, AREI EIKITA, Fire-Driver, GALLABALBA, Light-Forcer, AIO, Fire-Whirler, PYRICHIBOOSEIA, Light-Mover, SANCHEROB, Thunder-Shaker, IE OE IOEIO, Glory-Light, BEEGENETEE Light-Increaser, SOYSINEPHIEN, Fire-Light-Maintainer, SOYSINEPHI ARENBARAZEI MARMARENTEY, Star-Tamer: open for me, PROPROPHEGGE EMETHEIRE MORIOMOTYREPHILBA, because, on account of the pressing and bitter and inexorable necessity, I invoke the immortal names, living and honored, which never pass into mortal nature and are not declared in articulate speech by human tongue or mortal speech or mortal sound: EEO OEEO IOO OE EEO EEO OE EO IOO OEEE OEE OOE IE EO OO OE IEO OE OOE IEO OE IEEO EE IO OE IOE OEO EOE OEO OIE OIE EO OI III EOE OYE EOOEE EO EIA AEA EEA EEEE EEE EEE IEO EEO OEEEOE EEO EYO OE EIO EO OE OE EE OOO YIOE.”

Say all these things with fire and spirit, until completing the first utterance; then, similarly, begin the second, until you complete the seven immortal gods of the world. When you have said these things, you will hear thundering and shaking in the surrounding realm; and you will likewise feel yourself being agitated. 

Then say again:

 “Silence!” (the prayer) Then open your eyes and you will see the doors open and the world of the gods which is within the doors, so that from the pleasure and joy of the sight your spirit runs ahead and ascends. 

So stand still and at once draw breath from the divine into yourself, while you look intently. Then when your soul is restored, say: 

“Come, Lord, ARCHANDARA PHOTAZA PYRIPHOTA ZABYTHIX ETIMENMERO PHORATHEN ERIE PROTHRI PHORATHI.”

When you have said this, the rays will turn toward you; look at the center of them. For when you have done this, you will see a youthful god, beautiful in appearance, with fiery hair, and in a white tunic and a scarlet cloak, and wearing a fiery crown. At once greet him with the fire-greeting:

“Hail, O Lord, Great Power, Great Might, King, Greatest of gods, Helios, the Lord of heaven and earth, God of gods: mighty is your breath; mighty is your strength, O Lord. If it be your will, announce me to the supreme god, the one who has begotten and made you: that a man – 

I, _______ whose mother is _______  who was born from the mortal womb of _______ and from the fluid of semen, and who, since he has been born again from you today, has become immortal out of so many myriads in this hour according to the wish of god the exceedingly good– resolves to worship you, and prays with all his human power (that you may take along with you the horoscope of the day and hour today, which has the name THRAPSIARI MORIROK, that he may appear and give revelation during the good hours, EORO RORE ORRI ORlOR ROR ROI OR REORORI EOR EOR EOR EORE!).”

After you have said these things, he will come to the celestial pole, and you will see him walking as if on a road. Look intently and make a long bellowing sound, like a horn, releasing all your breath and straining your sides; and kiss the amulets and say, first toward the right: 

“Protect me, PROSYMERI!” 

After saying this, you will see the doors thrown open, and seven virgins coming from deep within, dressed in linen garments, and with the faces of asps. They are called the Fates of heaven, and wield golden wands. When you see them, greet them in this manner:

“Hail, O seven Fates of heaven, O noble and good virgins, O sacred ones and companions of MINIMIRROPHOR, O most holy guardians of the four pillars! 

Hail to you, the first, CHREPSENTHAES!
Hail to you, the second, MENESCHEES!
Hail to you, the third, MECHRAN!
Hail to you, the fourth, ARARMACHES!
Hail to you, the fifth, ECHOMMIE!
Hail to you, the sixth, TICHNONDAES!
Hail to you, the seventh, EROY ROMBRIES!

There also come forth another seven gods, who have the faces of black bulls, in linen loin-cloths, and in possession of seven golden diadems. They are the so-called Pole-Lords of heaven, whom you must greet in the same manner, each of them with his own name:

 “Hail, O guardians of the pivot, O sacred and brave youths, who turn at one command the revolving axis of the vault of heaven, who send out thunder and lightning and jolts of earthquakes and thunderbolts against the nations of impious people, but to me, who am pious and god-fearing, you send health and soundness of body, and acuteness of hearing and seeing, and calmness in the present good hours of this day, O my Lords and powerfully ruling Gods! 

Hail to you, the first, AIERONTHI!
Hail to you, the second, MERCHEIMEROS!
Hail to you, the third, ACHRICHIOYR!
Hail to you, the fourth, MESARGILTO!
Hail to you, the fifth, CHICHROALITHO!
Hail to you, the sixth, ERMICHTHATHOPS!
Hail to you, the seventh, EORASICHE!”

Now when they take their place, here and there, in order, look in the air and you will see lightning-bolts going down, and lights flashing, and the earth shaking, and a god descending, a god immensely great, having a bright appearance youthful, golden-haired, with a white tunic and a golden crown and trousers, and holding in his right hand a golden shoulder of a young bull: this is the Bear which moves and turns heaven around, moving upward and downward in accordance with the hour. Then you will see lightning-bolts leaping from his eyes and stars from his body. And at once produce a long bellowing sound, straining your belly, that you may excite the five senses: bellow long until the conclusion, and again kiss the amulets, and say: 

“MOKRIMO PHERIMOPHERERI, life of me, _______” stay!

Dwell in  my soul! Do not abandon me, for one entreats you, ENTHO PHENEN THROPIOTH.”

And gaze upon the god while bellowing long; and greet him in this manner:

“Hail, O Lord, O Master of the water!
Hail, O Founder of the earth!
Hail, O Ruler of the wind!
O Bright Lightener, PROPROPHEGGE EMETHIRI ARTENTEPI THETH MIMEO YENARO PHYRCHECHO PSERI DARIO PHRE PHRELBA!
Give revelation 0 Lord, concerning the matter of _______.

O Lord, while being born again, I am passing away; while growing and having grown, I am dying; while being born from a life-generating birth, I am passing on, released to death– as you have founded, as you have decreed, and have established the mystery.

I am PHEROYRA MIOYRI.”

After you have said these things, he will immediately respond with a revelation. Now you will grow weak in soul and will not be in yourself, when he answers you. He speaks the oracle to you in verse, and after speaking he will depart. But you remain silent, since you will be able to comprehend all these matters by yourself; for at a later time you will remember infallibly the things spoken by the great god, even if the oracle contained myriads of verses. If you also wish to use a fellow-initiate, so that he alone may hear with you the things spoken, let him remain pure together With you for days, and abstain from meat and the bath. And even if you are alone, and you undertake the things communicated by the god, you speak as though prophesying in ecstasy. And if you also wish to show him, then judge whether he is completely worthy as a man: treat him just as if in his place you were being judged in the matter of immortalization, and whisper to him the first prayer, of which the beginning is “First origin of my origin, AEEIOYO.” And say the successive things as an initiate, over his head, in a soft voice, so that he may not hear, as you are anointing his face with the mystery. This immortalization takes place three times a year. And if anyone, O child, after the teaching, wishes to disobey, then for him it will no longer be in effect. Instruction for the ritual:

Take a sun-scarab which has twelve rays, and make it fall into a deep, turquoise cup, at the time when the moon is invisible; put in together with it the seed of the lotometra, and honey; and, after grinding it, prepare a cake. And at once you will see it (viz. the scarab) moving forward and eating; and when it has consumed it, it immediately dies. Pick it up and throw it into a glass vessel of excellent rose oil, as much as you wish; and spreading sacred sand in a pure manner, set the vessel on it, and say the formula over the vessel for seven days, while the sun is in mid-heaven:

“I have consecrated you, that your essence may be useful to me, to _______ alone, IE IA E EE OY EIA, that you may prove useful to me alone. For I am PHOR PHORA PHOS PHOTIZAAS (others: PHOR PHOR OPHOTHEI XAAS).”

On the seventh day pick up the scarab, and bury it with Myrrh and wine from Mendes and fine linen; and put it away in a flourishing bean-field. Then, after you have entertained and feasted together, put away, in a pure manner, the ointment for the immortalization. If you want to show this to someone else, take the juice of the herb called “kentritis,” and smear it, along with rose oil, over the eyes of the one you wish;  and he will see so clearly that he will amaze you. I have not found a greater spell than this in the world. Ask the god for what you want, and he will give to you.

Now presentation before the great god is like this: obtaining the above-mentioned herb kentritis, at the conjunction (viz. of the sun and the moon) occurring in the Lion, take the juice and, after mixing it with honey and myrrh, write on a leaf of the persea tree the eight-letter formula, as is mentioned below. And keeping yourself pure for three days before, set out early in the morning toward the East, lick off the leaf while you show it to the Sun, and then he (viz. the sun god) will listen to you attentively. Begin to consecrate this at the divine new moon, in the Lion. Now this is the formula:

“I EE 00 IAI.”

Lick this up, so that you may be protected; and rolling up the leaf, throw it into the rose oil. Many times have I used the spell, and have wondered greatly. But the god said to me: “Use the ointment no longer, but, after casting it into the river, consult while wearing the great mystery of the scarab revitalized through the twenty-five living birds, and consult once a month, at full moon, instead of three times a year.” The kentritis plant grows from the month of Payni, in the regions of the black earth, and is similar to the erect verbena. This is how to recognize it: an ibis wing is dipped at its black tip and smeared with the juice, and the feathers fall off when touched. After the Lord pointed this out, it was found in Menelaitis in Phalagry, at the river banks, near the Besas plant, it is of a single stem, and reddish down to the root; and the leaves are rather crinkled and have fruit like the tip of wild asparagus. It is similar to the so-called talapes, like the wild beet. Now the amulets require this procedure: copy the right one onto the skin of a black sheep, with myrrh-ink, and after tying it with sinews of the same animal, put it on; and copy the left one onto the skin of a white sheep, and use the same procedure. 

The left one is very full of “PROSTHYMERI”, and has this text:

 “So speaking, he drove through the trench the single-hoofed horses.” 

“And men gasping among grievous slaughters.” 

“And they washed off their profuse sweat in the sea.” 

 “You will dare to lift up your mighty spear against Zeus.”

 

Zeus went up the mountain with a golden bullock and a silver dagger. Upon all he bestowed a share, only to Amara did he not give, but he said: 

“Let go of what you have, and then you will receive, PSINOTHER NOPSITHER THERNOPSI” (and so on, as you like).  

 “So Ares suffered, when Otos and mighty Epialtes … him. spell for restraining anger: 

 “You will dare to lift up your mighty spear against Zeus.” 

 For friends: 

“Let … seize … , lest we become a source of joy for our enemies.”