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First published in 2001. The Mithras cult first became evident in Rome towards the end of the first century AD. During the next two centuries, it spread to the frontiers of the Western empire. Energetically suppressed by the early Christians, who frequently constructed their churches over the caves in which Mithraic rituals took place, the cult was extinct by the end of the fourth century. Since its publication in Germany, Manfred Clauss's introduction to the Roman Mithras cult has become widely accepted as the most reliable and readable account of this fascinating subject. For the English edition, Clauss has updated the book to reflect recent research and new archaeological discoveries.
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This volume sets forth a new explanation of the meaning of the cult of Mithraism, tracing its origins not, as commonly held, to the ancient Persian religion, but to ancient astronomy and cosmology.
Preliminary material -- INTRODUCTION -- THE BULL SLAYING SCENE AS A SERIES OF EQUATORIAL CONSTELLATIONS -- MITHRAS-ORION -- THE IMAGE OF THE HEAVENS AND THE CULT ICON -- GREEK HERO -- ROMAN GOD -- CONCLUSION -- ABBREVIATIONS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX.
A study of the religious system of Mithraism, one of the 'mystery cults' popular in the Roman Empire contemporary with early Christianity. Roger Beck describes Mithraism from the point of view of the initiate engaging with the religion and its rich symbolic system in thought, word, ritual action, and cult life. He employs the methods of anthropology of religion and the new cognitive science of religion to explore in detail the semiotics of the Mysteries' astral symbolism, which has been the principal subject of his many previous publications on the cult.
This book is the first full cognitive history of an ancient religious practice. In this ground-breaking study on one of the most intriguing and mysterious cults, Olympia Panagiotidou, with contributions from Roger Beck, shows how cognitive historiography can supplement our historical knowledge and deepen our understanding of past cultural phenomena. The cult of the sun god Mithras, which spread widely across the Graeco-Roman world at the same time as other 'mystery cults', offered its devotees certain images and assumptions about reality. Initiation into the mysteries of Mithras and participation in the life of the cult significantly affected and transformed the ways in which the initiated p...
Attilio Mastrocinque explains the mysteries of Mithras in a new way, as a transformation of Mazdean elements into an ideological and religious reading of Augustus' story. The author shows that the character of Mithras played the role of Apollo in favoring Augustus' victory and the birth of the Roman Empire.
The Roman cult of Mithras was the most widely-dispersed and densely-distributed cult throughout the expanse of the Roman Empire from the end of the first until the fourth century AD, rivaling the early growth and development of Christianity during the same period. As its membership was largely drawn from the ranks of the military, its spread, but not its popularity is attributable largely to military deployments and re-deployments. Although mithraists left behind no written archival evidence, there is an abundance of iconographic finds. The only characteristic common to all Mithraic temples were the fundamental architecture of their design, and the cult image of Mithras slaying a bull. How w...
Preliminary material /Vivienne J. Walters -- THE SITES OF MITHRAIC SANCTUARIES /Vivienne J. Walters -- THE DEDICANTS OF MITHRAIC MONUMENTS /Vivienne J. Walters -- MITHRAIC REPRESENTATIONS ON POTTERY /Vivienne J. Walters -- MITHRAS AND THE GODS OF GAUL /Vivienne J. Walters -- MITHRAIC INSCRIPTIONS AND MONUMENTS /Vivienne J. Walters -- REJECTED MONUMENTS /Vivienne J. Walters -- MITHRAIC REPRESENTATIONS ON POTTERY /Vivienne J. Walters -- ADDENDUM /Vivienne J. Walters -- INDEXES /Vivienne J. Walters -- LIST OF PLATES /Vivienne J. Walters -- PLATES I-XL /Vivienne J. Walters.