Mithraic mysteries
thumb|Double-faced Mithraic relief. Fiano Romano (Rome), 2nd to 3rd century CE ([[Louvre Museum).]] thumb|Mithras killing the bull (; Louvre-Lens) thumb|Rock-born Mithras and Mithraic artifacts (Baths of Diocletian, Rome)
AI overview
The Mithraic mysteries were religious practices centered on the god Mithras that flourished in the Roman Empire from the 2nd to 3rd century CE, as evidenced by archaeological artifacts including reliefs and sculptures found across Rome. These mysteries are historically significant because they represent an important religious cult of the ancient world, with distinctive iconography such as depictions of Mithras killing a bull that survives in museums like the Louvre.
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Article
42 sectionsContents
- Name
- Etymology
- Iconography
- Bull-slaying scene
- Banquet
- Birth from a rock
- Lion-headed figure
- Rituals and worship
- Mithraic catechism
- Feasting
- Altars, iconography, and suspected doctrinal diversity
- Mithraeum
- Degrees of initiation
- Ritual re-enactments
- Membership
- Ethics
- History and development
- Mithras before the Roman Mysteries
- Beginnings of Roman Mithraism
- Earliest archaeology
- Earliest cult locations
- Classical literature about Mithras and the Mysteries
- Statius
- Justin Martyr
- Plutarch
- Dio Cassius
- Porphyry
- Mithras Liturgy
- Modern debate on origin
- Cumont's hypothesis: from Persian state religion
- Criticisms and reassessments of Cumont
- Modern theories
- Later history
- Persecution and Christianization
- Interpretations of the bull-slaying scene
- Comparable belief systems
- Christianity
- See also
- Footnotes
- References
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|Double-faced Mithraic relief. Fiano Romano (Rome), 2nd to 3rd century CE ([[Louvre Museum).]] thumb|Mithras killing the bull (; Louvre-Lens) thumb|Rock-born Mithras and Mithraic artifacts (Baths of Diocletian, Rome)
Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries or the Cult of Mithras, was a Roman mystery religion focused on the god Mithras. Although inspired by Iranian worship of the Zoroastrian divinity (yazata) Mithra, the Roman Mithras was linked to a new and distinctive imagery, and the degree of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman practice remains debatable. The mysteries were popular among the Imperial Roman army from the 1st to the 4th century AD.