On the other hand, David Ulansey considers the bull-slaying Mithras to be a new god who began to be worshipped in the 1st century BCE, and to whom an old name was applied. Hinnells has written of Mitra / Mithra / Mithras as a single deity, worshipped in several different religions. Modern historians have different conceptions about whether these names refer to the same god or not. ![]() Iranian Mithra and Sanskrit Mitra are believed to come from the Indo-Iranian word mitrás, meaning "contract, agreement, covenant". It is the earliest evidence of Mithras in Asia Minor. between the king of the Hittites, Subbiluliuma, and the king of Mitanni, Mativaza. the form mi-it-ra-, found in an inscribed peace treaty between the Hittites and the kingdom of Mitanni, from about 1400 BCE.In Sanskrit, mitra is an unusual name of the sun god, mostly known as "Surya" or "Aditya", however. Vedic Sanskrit Mitra, "friend, friendship," as the name of a god praised in the Rigveda.Related deity-names in other languages include: Porphyry's Greek text De Abstinentia ( Περὶ ἀποχῆς ἐμψύχων), has a reference to the now-lost histories of the Mithraic mysteries by Euboulus and Pallas, the wording of which suggests that these authors treated the name "Mithra" as an indeclinable foreign word. There is archaeological evidence that in Latin worshippers wrote the nominative form of the god's name as "Mithras". The exact form of a Latin or classical Greek word varies due to the grammatical process of inflection. Īn early example of the Greek form of the name is in a 4th century BCE work by Xenophon, the Cyropaedia, which is a biography of the Persian king Cyrus the Great. The name Mithras (Latin, equivalent to Greek " Μίθρας" ) is a form of Mithra, the name of an old, pre-Zoroastrian, and, later on, Zoroastrian, god – a relationship understood by Mithraic scholars since the days of Franz Cumont. Main article: Mithras (name) Bas-relief of the tauroctony of the mysteries, Metz, France. Modern sources sometimes refer to the Greco-Roman religion as Roman Mithraism or Western Mithraism to distinguish it from Persian worship of Mithra. Writers of the Roman era referred to it by phrases such as "Mithraic mysteries", "mysteries of Mithras" or "mysteries of the Persians". ![]() The term "Mithraism" is a modern convention. Interpretation of the physical evidence remains problematic and contested. No written narratives or theology from the religion survive limited information can be derived from the inscriptions and brief or passing references in Greek and Latin literature. It has been estimated that there would have been at least 680 mithraea in the city of Rome. Among the items found are about 1000 inscriptions, 700 examples of the bull-killing scene ( tauroctony), and about 400 other monuments. About 420 sites have yielded materials related to the cult. The iconic scenes of Mithras show him being born from a rock, slaughtering a bull, and sharing a banquet with the god Sol (the Sun). Numerous archaeological finds, including meeting places, monuments and artifacts, have contributed to modern knowledge about Mithraism throughout the Roman Empire. ![]() (p 147) In the 4th century, Mithraists faced persecution from Christians, and the religion was subsequently suppressed and eliminated in the Roman Empire by the end of the century. Mithraism is viewed as a rival of early Christianity. The cult appears to have had its center in Rome, and was popular throughout the western half of the empire, as far south as Roman Africa and Numidia, as far east as Roman Dacia, as far north as Roman Britain, (pp 26–27) and to a lesser extent in Roman Syria in the east. They met in underground temples, now called mithraea (singular mithraeum), which survive in large numbers. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those "united by the handshake". Worshippers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation and communal ritual meals. The mysteries were popular among the Imperial Roman army from about the 1st to the 4th century CE. Although inspired by Iranian worship of the Zoroastrian divinity ( yazata) Mithra, the Roman Mithras is linked to a new and distinctive imagery, with the level of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman practice debated. Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries or the Cult of Mithras, was a Roman mystery religion centered on the god Mithras. 150 CE Louvre-Lens) Rock-born Mithras and Mithraic artifacts ( Baths of Diocletian, Rome) Fiano Romano (Rome), 2nd to 3rd century CE ( Louvre Museum).
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