The Mysteries of Mithras (eBook)

A Different Account

Attilio Mastrocinque (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2017 | 1. Auflage
384 Seiten
Mohr Siebeck (Verlag)
978-3-16-155118-5 (ISBN)

Infos

In this work, Attilio Mastrocinque cautions against an approach to Mithraism based on the belief that this mystic cult resembles Christianity. While both Christian and pagan authors testified that Mithraic elements were indeed borrowed, according to Attilio Mastrocinque this was only done by some gnostic Christians. He counters that Roman Empire ideology and religion provide better clues on how to approach the matter, contending too that Virgil proves to be more important than the Avesta in understanding Mithraic iconography. The meaning of the central scene - the Tauroctony - thus becomes clear when the Roman triumph's central act of bull sacrifice is thought of as just that, with Mithras playing the role of victor as author of this success. The episodes depicted on many reliefs relate to a prophecy known to Firmicus Maternus and other Christian polemists, and which foretold the coming of a saviour, i.e. the first emperor, when Saturn returns and Apollo-Mithras will rule.

Born 1952; 1975 Master; since 2002 Full Professor of Roman History at the University of Verona; 2008-10 president of Cultural Heritage courses at the University of Verona; 2005-15 Director of the Archaeological Mission at Grumentum (Lucania).

Inhalt

Cover 1
Preface 6
Contents 10
Abbreviations 14
List of illustrations 18
Chapter 1: Basic Elements of Mithraism 24
§ 1. Character and Bias of Ancient Sources on Mithraism 24
§ 2. The Seven Grades of Initiation 28
§ 3. The Initiatory Rituals 33
§ 4. The Fourth Grade: Leo and his God Jupiter 39
§ 5. A Christian Imitation of the Seven Initiation Grades 43
§ 6. The Mithraic Cave 45
§ 7. The Two Niches in the Mithraic Cave 48
§ 8. Theories on the Cultural Origin of Mithraism 50
§ 9. Mithraism from Zoroaster to Plato 51
§ 10. How Christian was Roman Mithraism 53
§ 11. History of Scholarly Research in Mithraism 58
Chapter 2: Mithraism, Kings, and Emperors 64
§ 12. How were the Roman Emperors involved in Mithraism? 64
§ 13. Who was Mithras? 68
§ 14. Mithras and the Kings 73
§ 15. The King as Mithras 76
§ 16. Tauroctony on Coins from Tarsus 82
§ 17. Invictus 84
§ 18. The Cosmocrator and other Imperial Iconographies 87
§ 19. Victoria and the Imperial Eagle 91
§ 20. Sol and the Emperor 94
§ 21. The Apotheosis of Roman Emperor 96
§ 22. The Priests of Apollo 101
§ 23. Apollo – Mithras 103
§ 24. A Persian God with Divus Augustus 106
§ 25. Salvation of the Soul 114
§ 26. Mithras between Imperial Apotheosis and damnatio memoriae 121
Chapter 3: The Myths of the Origins (left Predellas) 126
§ 27. Victoria and Mithras I: Saturn’s Dream 126
§ 28. Victoria and Mithras II: The Birth of Mithras from the Rock 130
§ 29. Victoria and Mithras III: from Gigantomachy to the Birth of Mithras 135
§ 30. The Miracle of the Water and the Birth of a New Humankind 137
§ 31. Jupiter at Actium, the Gigantomachy, and the Sistrum 140
§ 32. The Mithraic Prophecy 144
§ 33. The End of the Civil War and the Prophecy 150
§ 34. The Magi at Bethlehem 158
§ 35. Mithras as an Archer 160
§ 36. Appendix 1. Cautes and Cautopates 162
Chapter 4: The Myth of the Bull (Central Scene and Upper Predellas) 168
§ 37. The Sacrifice of the Bull 168
§ 38. The Meaning of the Mithraic Bull 174
§ 39. Danaos, the Bull, and Augustus 175
§ 40. The Bull on a Boat 178
§ 41. Mercury and the Transitus 184
§ 42. Salvation in the Mysteries of Mithras 189
§ 43. Mithras the Hunter 192
Chapter 5: Sol’s Coronation and Mithras’ Apotheosis (Right Predellas) 194
§ 44. The Right Predellas: Mithras and Sol 194
§ 45. Mithras’ Apotheosis 201
§ 46. Refusing the Crown 206
§ 47. The Spread of Mithraism in the Roman Empire 208
§ 48. Imperial Freedmen and Mithraism 212
§ 49. From Nero to Vespasian 215
§ 50. Appendix 2. Tiridates’ Coronation and Mithraism 221
Chapter 6: The Mithraic Aiones 228
§ 51. Mazdaism vs. Mithraism 228
§ 52. The Lion-Headed God 230
§ 53. Orphic Pattern in Mithraism 238
§ 54. The Lion and the Snake 241
§ 55. The Supreme Triad of Mithraism 246
§ 56. Treatment of Mazdaism 250
§ 57. Tarsian Culture under the Roman Empire 251
§ 58. Sandas, the Tarsian God of War and of the Dead 255
§ 59. The God of the Dead is raised to the Hypercosmic World 259
Chapter 7: The System of Planetary and Hypercosmic Gods 264
§ 60. The Seven Gods According to History. The First Four Gods 264
§ 61. The Seven Gods According to Ancient Theogonies 265
§ 62. The Three Uppermost Initiatory Grades 266
§ 63. The Geography of a Mithraeum 269
§ 64. The Whole System of Mithraic Gods 275
§ 65. The Mithraic Triangle 280
§ 66. The Central Position of Sol 282
§ 67. The Mithraic Theogony 283
Chapter 8: Mithraism and the Magic Arts 288
§ 68. Magic Deceptions 288
§ 69. Knowledge of natural Substances among Hellenistic Magi 292
§ 70. Magical Performances at Banquets 293
§ 71. Supposed Magi 297
§ 72. Gnostic Imitations of magic Performances 299
§ 73. Speaking Skulls 300
§ 74. Tricks during Mithraic Banquets 305
§ 75. Deception or Truth? 309
§ 76. How was a Mithraic Community organized? 312
§ 77. The Psychological Impact of the Mysteries of Mithras 315
§ 78. Teaching within the three higher Grades 316
§ 79. Mithraic Secrecy and public Cults 318
Chapter 9: The Evolution of the Mithraism 320
§ 80. Serapis in Some Mithraea 320
§ 81. Hecate in Some Mithraea 323
Chapter 10: Para-Mithraism 326
§ 82. Mithraic Worship out of the Mithraea 326
§ 83. The Mithraic Catechism from Egypt 330
§ 84. The “Mithras Liturgy” 331
Chapter 11: The latest devotees of Mithras 336
§ 85. The End of Mithraism 336
§ 86. The Mysteries of Mithras in the Christian Empire 340
§ 87. Julian the Emperor and the Mysteries of Mithras 344
§ 88. Julian and the Imperial Ideology 347
§ 89. Romanization of Eastern Cults 350
Bibliography 356
Index 366
I. General Index 366
II. Index locorum 380

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.8.2017
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Archäologie
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Altertum / Antike
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Judentum
• ISBN-10: 3-16-155118-4 / 3161551184
• ISBN-13: 978-3-16-155118-5 / 9783161551185