mithras catholic encyclopedia entry

7/28/2019 Mithras Catholic Encyclopedia Entry

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MithraismA pagan religion consisting mainly of the cult of the ancient Indo-Iranian Sun-god Mithra. It entered Europe from AsiaMinor after Alexander's conquest, spread rapidly over the whole Roman Empire at the beginning of our era, reached itszenith during the third century, and vanished under the repressive regulations of Theodosius at the end of the fourthcentury. Of late the researches of Cumont have brought it into prominence mainly because of its supposed similarity toChristianity.

ORIGIN

The origin of the cult of Mithra dates from the time that the Hindus and Persians still formed one people, for the godMithra occurs in the religion and the sacred books of both races, i.e. in the Vedas and in the Avesta. In Vedic hymns he isfrequently mentioned and is nearly always coupled with Varuna, but beyond the bare occurrence of his name, little isknown of him (Rigveda, III, 59). It is conjectured (Oldenberg, "Die "Religion des Veda," Berlin, 1894) that Mithra wasthe rising sun, Varuna the setting sun; or, Mithra, the sky at daytime, Varuna, the sky at night; or, the one the sun, theother the moon. In any case Mithra is a light or solar deity of some sort; but in vedic times the vague and general mentionof him seems to indicate that his name was little more than a memory. In the Avesta he is much more of a living andruling deity than in Indian piety; nevertheless, he is not only secondary to Ahura Mazda, but he does not belong to theseven Amshaspands or personified virtues which immediately surround Ahura; he is but a Yazad, a popular demigod orgenius. The Avesta however gives us his position only after the Zoroastrian reformation; the inscriptions of theAchaemenidae (seventh to fourth century B.C.) assign him amuch higher place, naming him immediately after AhuraMazda and associating him with the goddess Anaitis (Anahata), whose name sometimes precedes his own. Mithra is thegod of light, Anaitis the goddess of water. Independently of the Zoroastrian reform, Mithra retained his place as foremost

deity in the north-west of the Iranian highlands. After the conquest of Babylon this Persian cult came into contact withChaldean astrology and with the national worship of Marduk. For a time the two priesthoods of Mithra and Marduk (magiand chaldaei respectively) coexisted in the capital and Mithraism borrowed much from this intercourse. This modifiedMithraism traveled farther north-westward and became the State cult of Armenia. Its rulers, anxious to claim descent fromthe glorious kings of the past, adopted Mithradates as their royal name (so five kings of Georgia, and Eupator of theBosporus). Mithraism then entered Asia Minor, especially Pontus and Cappadocia. Here it came into contact with thePhrygian cult of Attis and Cybele from which it adopted a number of ideas and practices, though apparently not the grossobscenities of the Phrygian worship. This Phrygian-Chaldean-Indo-Iranian religion, in which the Iranian elementremained predominant, came, after Alexander's conquest, in touch with the Western World. Hellenism, however, andespecially Greece itself, remained remarkably free from its influence. When finally the Romans took possession of theKingdom of Pergamum, occupied Asia Minor and stationed two legions of soldiers on the Euphrates, the success ofMithraism in the West was secured. It spread rapidly from the Bosporus to the Atlantic, from Illyria to Britain. Itsforemost apostles were the legionaries; hence it spread first to the frontier stations of the Roman army.

Mithraism was emphatically a soldier religion: Mithra, its hero, was especially a divinity of fidelity, manliness, andbravery; the stress it laid on good fellowship and brotherliness, its exclusion of women, and the secret bond amongst itsmembers have suggested the idea that Mithraism was Masonry amongst the Roman soldiery. At the same time Easternslaves and foreign tradesmen maintained its propaganda in the cities. When magi, coming from King Tiridates ofArmenia, had worshipped in Nero an emanation of Mithra, the emperor wished to be initiated in their mysteries. AsMithraism passed as a Phrygian cult it began to share in the official recognition which Phrygian worship had long enjoyedin Rome. The Emperor Commodus was publicly initiated. Its greatest devotee however was the imperial son of a priestessof the sun-god at Sirmium in Pannonia, Valerian, who according to the testimony of Flavius Vopiscus, never forgot thecave where his mother initiated him. In Rome, he established a college of sun priests and his coins bear the legend "Sol,Dominus Imperii Romani". Diocletian, Galerius, and Licinius built at Carnuntum on the Danube a temple to Mithra withthe dedication: "Fautori Imperii Sui". But with the triumph of Christianity Mithraism came to a sudden end. Under Julianit had with other pagan cults a short revival. The pagans of Alexandria lynched George the Arian, bishop of the city, forattempting to build a church over a Mithras cave near the town. The laws of Theodosius I signed its death warrant. Themagi walled up their sacred caves; and Mithra has no martyrs to rival the martyrs who died for Christ.

DOCTRINE

The first principle or highest God was according to Mithraism "Infinite Time"; this was called Aion or Saeculum, Kronosor Saturnus. This Kronos is none other than Zervan, an ancient Iranian conception, which survived the sharp dualism ofZoroaster; for Zervan was father of both Ormuzd and Ahriman and connected the two opposites in a higher unity and wasstill worshipped a thousand years later by the Manichees. This personified Time, ineffable, sexless, passionless, wasrepresented by a human monster, with the head of a lion and a serpent coiled about his body. He carried a sceptre andlightning as sovereign god and held in each hand a key as master of the heavens. He had two pair of wings to symbolizethe swiftness of time. His body was covered with zodiacal signs and the emblems of the seasons (i.e. Chaldean astrologycombined with Zervanism). This first principle begat Heaven and Earth, which in turn begat their son and equal, Ocean.


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As in the European legend, Heaven or Jupiter (Oromasdes) succeeds Kronos. Earth is the Speta Armaiti of the Persiansor the Juno of the Westerns, Ocean is Apam-Napat or Neptune. The Persian names were not forgotten, though the Greekand Roman ones were habitually used. Ahura Mazda and Spenta Armaiti gave birth to a great number of lesser deities andheroes: Artagnes (Hercules), Sharevar (Mars), Atar (Vulcan), Anaitis (Cybele), and so on. On the other hand there wasPluto, or Ahriman, also begotten of Infinite Time. The Incarnate Evil rose with the army of darkness to attack anddethrone Oromasdes. They were however thrown back into hell, whence they escape, wander over the face of the earth andafflict man. It is man's duty to worship the four simple elements, water and fire, air and earth, which in the main are man'sfriends. The seven planets likewise were beneficent deities. The souls of men, which were all created together from the

beginning and which at birth had but to descend from the empyrean heaven to the bodies prepared for them, received fromthe seven planets their passions and characteristics. Hence the seven days of the week were dedicated to the planets, sevenmetals were sacred to them, seven rites of initiation were made to perfect the Mithraist, and so on. As evil spirits ever liein wait for hapless man, he needs a friend and saviour who is Mithra. Mithra was born of a mother-rock by a river under atree. He came into the world with the Phrygian cap on his head (hence his designation as Pileatus, the Capped One), and aknife in his hand. It is said that shepherds watched his birth, but how this could be, considering there were no men onearth, is not explained. The hero-god first gives battle to the sun, conquers him, crowns him with rays and makes him hiseternal friend and fellow; nay, the sun becomes in a sense Mithra's double, or again his father, but Helios Mithras is onegod. Then follows the struggle between Mithra and the bull, the central dogma of Mithraism. Ahura Mazda had created awild bull which Mithra pursued, overcame, and dragged into his cave. This wearisome journey with the struggling bulltowards the cave is the symbol of man's troubles on earth. Unfortunately, the bull escapes from the cave, whereupon AhuraMazda sends a crow with a message to Mithra to find and slay it. Mithra reluctantly obeys, and plunges his dagger into the

bull as it returns to the cave. Strange to say, from the body of the dying bull proceeds all wholesome plants and herbs thatcover the earth, from his spinal marrow the corn, from his blood the vine, etc. The power of evil sends his unclean

creatures to prevent or poison these productions but in vain. From the bull proceed all useful animals, and the bull,resigning itself to death, is transported to the heavenly spheres. Man is now created and subjected to the malign influenceof Ahriman in the form of droughts, deluges, and conflagrations, but is saved by Mithra. Finally man is well establishedon earth and Mithra returns to heaven. He celebrates a last supper with Helios and his other companions, is taken in hisfiery chariot across the ocean, and now in heaven protects his followers. For the struggle between good and evil continuesin heaven between the planets and stars, and on earth in the heart of man. Mithra is the Mediator (Mesites) between Godand man. This function first arose from the fact that as the light-god he is supposed to float midway between the upperheaven and the earth. Likewise a sun-god, his planet was supposed to hold the central place amongst the seven planets.The moral aspect of his mediation between god and man cannot be proven to be ancient. As Mazdean dualists theMithraists were strongly inclined towards asceticism; abstention from food and absolute continence seemed to them nobleand praiseworthy, though not obligatory. They battled on Mithra's side against all impurity, against all evil within andwithout. They believed in the immortality of the soul, sinners after death were dragged off to hell; the just passed throughthe seven spheres of the planets, through seven gates opening at a mystical word to Ahura Mazda, leaving at each planet a

part of their lower humanity until, as pure spirits, they stood before God. At the end of the world Mithra will descend to

earth on another bull, which he will sacrifice, and mixing its fat with sacred wine he will make all drink the beverage ofimmortality. He will thus have proved himself Nabarses, i.e. "never conquered".

WORSHIP

There were seven degrees of initiation into the mithraic mysteries. The consecrated one (mystes) became in successioncrow (corax), occult (cryphius), soldier (miles), lion (leo), Persian (Perses), solar messenger (heliodromos), and father(pater). On solemn occasions they wore a garb appropriate to their name, and uttered sounds or performed gestures inkeeping with what they personified. "Some flap their wings as birds imitating the sound of a crow, others roar as lions",says Pseudo-Augustine (Quaest. Vet. N. Test. In P.L., XXXIV, 2214). Crows, occults and soldiers formed the lowerorders, a sort of catechumens; lions and those admitted to the other degrees were participants of the mysteries. The fathersconducted the worship. The chief of the fathers, a sort of pope, who always lived at Rome, was called "Pater Patrum" orPater Patratus." The members below the degree of pater called one another "brother," and social distinctions wereforgotten in Mithraic unity. The ceremonies of initiation for each degree must have been elaborate, but they are onlyvaguely known -- lustrations and bathings, branding with red-hot metal, anointing with honey, and others. A sacred mealwas celebrated of bread and haoma juice for which in the West wine was substituted. This meal was supposed to give the

participants super-natural virtue. The Mithraists worshipped in caves, of which a large number have been found. Therewere five at Ostia alone, but they were small and could perhaps hold at most 200 persons. In the apse of the cave stood thestone representation of Mithra slaying the bull, a piece of sculpture usually of mediocre artistic merit and always madeafter the same Pergamean model. The light usually fell through openings in the top as the caves were near the surface ofthe ground. A hideous monstrosity representing Kronos was also shown. A fire was kept perpetually burning in thesanctuary. Three times a day prayer was offered the sun toward the east, south, or west according to the hour. Sunday waskept holy in honour of Mithra, and the sixteenth of each month was sacred to him as mediator. The 25 December wasobserved as his birthday, the natalis invicti, the rebirth of the winter-sun, unconquered by the rigours of the season. AMithraic community was not merely a religious congregation; it was a social and legal body with its decemprimi, magistri,


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curatores, defensores, and patroni. These communities allowed no women as members. Women might console themselvesby forming associtions to worship Anaitis-Cybele; but whether these were associated with Mithraism seems doubtful. Noproff of immorality or obscene practices, so often connected with esoteric pagan cults, has ever been established againstMithraism; and as far as can be ascertained, or rather conjectured it had an elevating and invigorating effect on itsfollowers. From a chance remark of Tertullian (De Praescriptione, xl) we gather that their "Pater Patrum" was onlyallowed to be married once, and that Mithraism had its virgines and continentes; such at least seems the best interpretationof the passaage. If, however, Dieterich's Mithras's liturgy be really a liturgy of this sect, as he ably maintains, its liturgycan only strike us as a mixture of bombast and charlatanism in which the mystes has to hold his sides, and roar to the

utmost of his power till he is exhausted, to whistle, smack his lips, and pronounce barbaric agglomerations of syllables asthe different mystic signs for the heavens and the constellations are unveiled to him.

RELATION TO CHRISTIANITY

A similarity between Mithra and Christ struck even early observers, such as Justin, Tertullian, and other Fathers, and inrecent times has been urged to prove that Christianity is but an adaptation of Mithraism, or at most the outcome of thesame religious ideas and aspirations (e.g. Robertson, "Pagan Christs", 1903). Against this erroneous and unscientific

procedure, which is not endorsed by the greatest living authority on Mithraism, the following considerations must bebrought forward. (1) Our knowledge regarding Mithraism is very imperfect; some 600 brief inscriptions, mostlydedicatory, some 300 often fragmentary, exiguous, almost identical monuments, a few casual references in the Fathers orActs of the Martyrs, and a brief polemic against Mithraism which the Armenian Eznig about 450 probably copied fromTheodore of Mopsuestia (d. 428) who lived when Mithraism was almost a thing of the past -- these are our only sources,unless we include the Avesta in which Mithra is indeed mentioned, but which cannot be an authority for Roman

Mithraism with which Christianity is compared. Our knowledge is mostly ingenious guess-work; of the real inner workingof Mithraism and the sense in which it was understood by those who professed it at the advent of Christianity, we knownothing. (2) Some apparent similarities exist; but in a number of details it is quite probable that Mithraism was the

borrower from Christianity. Tertullian about 200 could say: "hesterni sumus et omnia vestra implevimus" ("we are but ofyesterday, yet your whole world is full of us"). It is not unnatural to suppose that a religion which filled the whole world,should have been copied at least in some details by another religion which was quite popular during the third century.Moreover the resemblances pointed out are superficial and external. Similarity in words and names is nothing; it is thesense that matters. During these centuries Christianity was coining its own technical terms, and naturally took names,terms, and expressions current in that day; and so did Mithraism. But under identical terms each system thought its ownthoughts. Mithra is called a mediator; and so is Christ; but Mithra originally only in a cosmogonic or astronomical sense;Christ, being God and man, is by nature the Mediator between God and man. And so in similar instances. Mithraism hada Eucharist, but the idea of a sacred banquet is as old as the human race and existed at all ages and amongst all peoples.Mithra saved the world by sacrificing a bull; Christ by sacrificing Himself. It is hardly possible to conceive a more radicaldifference than that between Mithra taurochonos and Christ crucified. Christ was born of a Virgin; there is nothing to

prove that the same was believed of Mithra born from the rock. Christ was born in a cave; and Mithraists worshipped in acave, but Mithra was born under a tree near a river. Much as been made of the presence of adoring shepherds; but theirexistence on sculptures has not been proven, and considering that man had not yet appeared, it is an anachronism tosuppose their presence. (3) Christ was an historical personage, recently born in a well known town of Judea, and crucifiedunder a Roman governor, whose name figured in the ordinary official lists. Mithra was an abstraction, a personificationnot even of the sun but of the diffused daylight; his incarnation, if such it may be called, was supposed to have happened

before the creation of the human race, before all history. The small Mithraic congregations were like masonic lodges for afew and for men only and even those mostly of one class, the military; a religion that excludes the half of the human race

bears no comparison to the religion of Christ. Mithraism was all comprehensive and tolerant of every other cult, the PaterPatrum himself was an adept in a number of other religions; Christianity was essential exclusive, condemning every otherreligion in the world, alone and unique in its majesty.

mithras catholic encyclopedia entry

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