Since
Sir Henry Stuart Jones has Included Mithraism among his
many interests [1], it seems appropriate to offer to him
on this occasion some remarks on its general
significance. No phenomenon in Imperial paganism has
attracted as much attention, and this is natural.
Virtus, Albine, est pretium persolvere verum
quis in versamur, quis vivimus rebus, potesse.
Let us make another provisional attempt to determine the
pretium verum of Mithraism.
We see in it something of eastern worship detached from
its native content and developed in a new milieu;
apparently it had no oecumenical organization; certainly
it tolerated other gods, and lent itself to an unchecked
local diversification of forms [2]. In all these
respects it was essentially on a par with the other 'oriental
religions in .Roman paganism'.
Nevertheless, it differed from them in various
significant ways. The normal exclusion of women and the
moral demands made of the initiate have often been
remarked; but that is not all.
First, the social basis ofMithraism was peculiar. Syrian
and Egyptian cults were commonly carried abroad by
Syrian and Egyptian migrants. Men of other racial
origins came to use these rites, but a native character
persisted, and in the western half of the empire the
administration of the ceremonies seems to have remained
in the hands of a clergy which, if not oriental in birth,
at least preserved the appearances of oriental origin,
and which, like the priesthoods of the Near East, seems
to have been pro fessional in character and to have
lived by the exercise of religious functions [3].
Cybele's cult was different, because of its deliberate
introduction at Rome in a Roman form under the direction
of the quindecimviri. Her conquests in the western
provinces were the conquests of a Roman goddess.
Mithras never acquired civic status or a place among the
sacra publica [4] But he was not carried by groups of
emigrant Iranians. His worship had indeed entered the
Greek world on a national basis, starting, as it must
have done, with groups of Persians who remained in Asia
Minor after the victories of Alexander; an indication of
this remains in the use of Terses' as the title for the
fifth grade of initiation [5]. Nevertheless, the
Mithraism which reached the western world was a new
thing, created by fusion in Asia Minor; the Mithraism
which came to Dura-Europos was brought first by
Palmyrene archers [6] and secondly by Roman soldiers —
not by Parthians [7]. In general, the cult was carried
by pirates, soldiers, functionaries, traders, and slaves,
who had learned this derivative of Persian belief, and
it did not travel on a national basis. The spread of
religious ideas, Jewish in origin, by the Christians is
in fact analogous, and 'nama' in Mithraism corresponds
to 'Amen'.
Furthermore, Mithras in the western world does not seem
to have had a priestly caste or a professional clergy.
We do not find any special terminology except that of
the grades of initiation—never magus, and nothing
comparable with profeta, pastophorus, gallus, fanaticus,—but
in - stead sacerdos, antistes, hieroceryx, and the
normal words for men holding office in a collegium. Our
inscriptional records mention a pater (an initiate of
the highest grade) or a sacerdos or antistes as the
person in charge [8]. Cumont left it an open question
whether there was or was not some priestly order in
Mithraism as a whole [9].
The evidence is scanty. In a late Roman dedication we
find the ordo sacerdotum honouring the pater patrum
[10]. May we not suppose that the priestly office was,
sometimes at least, annual; and that the ordo, like the
or do Angus'tedium, was composed of men who had held it?
This would be clear, if we could be sure of the reading
sac(erdote) iterum) in a votive inscription found in the
Mithraeum of Deutsch-Altenburg: Mommsen and Cumont both
treat it as uncertain [11], while Kubitschek, who
checked the text later, makes no comment [12]. A second
indication, again unfortunately open to question, is
afforded by a text from Dorstadt in Dacia: [Invic]to S[oli
deo ge]nitori [P. Ael. Art]emidorus de [c(?) ......]
sacer(dos) creatus a Pal[myre]nis do(mo) Macedonia et
adve[n]tor huius temp i pro se et suis fecit. [13]
Cumont is now inclined to restore de[orum] sacerdos, and
to suppose that this man was made a priest of the
Pahnyrene gods [14] . But deorum sacerdos is a very
strange phrase [15], and it is easier to imagine that
these Palmyrenes made a man from Macedonia priest of
Mithras—whose cult had an extra-national basis—than to
envisage them making him priest of Malachbel and similar
gods. Consequently we may prefer Cumont's earlier
supplement de[curio (?) . . .] [16], and interpret
sacerdos as sacerdos Mithrae. If this is right, we have
another indication against the existence of anything
like a priestly order or caste; for creatus implies the
choice of an ordinary man to perform priestly functions
whether for a year or longer. If there had been
individuals held to possess an inherent fitness to
conduct priestly ministrations, and if a congregation
chose at will from among them, as in effect it chooses
Episcopalian clergy in the United States, we should
expect some such word as adscitus. [cf. also p. 787,
infra].
We cannot have any great confidence in the
interpretation of these and other data [17], and we must
suppose that custom varied in different times and places
[18], but we may provisionally conclude that a Mithraic
collegium selected its priestly officials after the
manner of other collegia, and that pocyoi and
uocyouo-aloi had no equivalent in the west. If this is
so, there must have been at least two important stages
in the evolution of Mithraism. The first is indicated by
the word eiJdyeuoe in an inscription at Ariaramneia in
Cappadocia; for Eporyeuore implies that a man who was
not a magos by birth could become one by some ceremonial
and could thus acquire competence to perform Magian
rites [19]. The second stage ; abandoned the appearance
of - Magianism. In any case, whatever were the functions
performed by sacerdos or anfistes , the initiations,
which were the most solemn part ofMithraic life, were in
the hands of the patera Further, the whole community of
initiates were sacrati.
Secondly, the other oriental religions in Roman paganism
had two principal expressions in worship: (a) a
cult-drama, in which the sacred story of man's
deliverance was annually set forth in action before all
who cared to attend; (b) initiations, in which those who
were found worthy were one by one subjected to
ceremonies which, either at once or by stages, produced
a new spiritual condition and a new relationship to the
gods: (a) was normally an integral part of the cult, and,
although the deities concerned were also approached in
the ordinary way by processions, sacrifices, votive
offerings, hymns, and prayers, the cult-drama was
probably performed wherever there was a substantial
temple; (b) was for the relatively few, and there is no
reason to suppose that it existed in every temple oflsis
or Cybele or the Syrian deities [21].
Now Mithraism, so far as we know, had nothing
corresponding to the cult-drama; in fact the essential
mystery-idea of a deity annually doing or suffering
something was absent. Mithras was not born annually and
did not die annually: he had created once; in the
present he helped and saved; in the end he would
inaugurate the new order which would last for ever.
Although the Greek idea of cycles could be superimposed,
the original Iranian basis of Mithraism involved a
concept of history akin to that of the Jews; semel
Christus natus est. On the other hand, Mithraism,
outside Asia Minor, always included initiations.
Accordingly, while the range of popular devotion to
Mithras was thus limited, his worship had a more
inturned and intense character. That it remained a
private cult was no accident.
Thirdly, Mithraism had its own cosmogony and eschatology,
and the bas-relief which met the eye in every Mithraeum
set this cosmogony in the centre of things [22]. This
may well have been an asset in Imperial times, when
cosmogony gained a new interest from an incoherent but
widespread mood of questioning and of spiritual anxiety
[23], and the tendency to value non-Greek wisdom as of
fabulous antiquity was very strong. So we see a
multiplication of'barbarian' cosmogonies; four in our
Hermetic literature, a fifth 'Hermetic' one presupposed
by Sanchuniathon as quoted by Philo of Byblus; the
Phoenician cosmogony of Sanchuniathon himself; those
quoted by Damascius, Dubitationes et solutiones i 321 ft.
(ed. Ruelle) from the Babylonians, the Magi, the
Sidonians and the Egyptians. Mithraism was unique in
that it told of the end as well as of the beginning.
Further, other mystery-religions could be interpreted by
the use of Greek philosophic concepts; but in Mithraism,
as in Judaism and Christianity, there was what seemed a
core or philosophy [24].
Fourthly, the myth of Mithras was quite different from
the myths of the other oriental gods who were attracting
attention at the same time. The worshipper of Attis and
Adonis was concerned only with the god's death and with
the subsequent turning of sorrow into joy; for Osiris
there was also a tradition of his earthly rule and of
his introduction of civilized order into human life.
Each of these gods had a birth-story, and the birth of
Osiris had in Egypt a liturgical commemoration in the
Pamylia. But none of these gods had a Vita, as Mithras
had, a chain of actions each of which was an event in
the world's drama. This Vita throughout represented
vigorous heroic achievement. Attis and Adonis had a
distinctly feminine aspect in art and story; Osiris had
an air of age. All three were for a time worsted,
although they ultimately triumphed; Mithras was
throughout invictus [25]. So, while the cult of Mithras
could give some satisfaction to the anxious questing
mood of the time, it spoke also the language of another
and a more Roman mood—the instinct for unsparing
exertion in the face of mighty obstacles. This may have
contributed to the god's popularity in the higher ranks
of the army. I suspect that this note of energy was more
important than the note of revelation. Julian was a keen
Mithraist and looked to Mithras as moral guide,
commander and redeemer: but for insights concerning the
universe he turned to his philosophic teachers and to
the doctrines enshrined in the new synthetic mysteries
which were associated with the Chaldaic Oracles [26].
Mithras had a character which was all his own. A man
might hope to be delivered as Attis, Adonis, and Osiris
were delivered; he might hope to be delivered by them;
but we can hardly suppose him to have desired to be like
them. On the other hand, a man could follow Mithras, not
only as leader but also as exemplar. An Ostian
dedication has the noteworthy Arase antistes del iubenis
(sic) inconrupti Solis invicti Mithra[e] [27]. Mithras .iad
from of old been god of justice and truth as well as god
of light. In the Graeco-Roman world one feature of his
story perhaps acquired a new importance. Unlike the gods
of Greece and the gods of Rome as seen in the light of
Greek ideas, and the gods of Syria and Egypt who had
come into the picture, Mithras had no erotic mythology.
It may be that the god thus drew to himself some of that
sentiment glorifying sexual abstinence which is
illustrated in the Greek novel (above all in Heliodorus)
and in the Historia Augusta [28].
Fifthly, the representation of supernatural personages
in art made a deep impression on the ancients, just as
it did on the men of the Middle Ages; the pictorial
theology of Villon's mother is an instructive
illustration. Artemidorus tells how people dreamed of
the gods and saw them in one or other of the familiar
art-types. Now Mithraism had an iconography which, in
spite of differences, is on the whole curiously
consistent [29]. This is not in itself peculiar;
Sabazios, Nemesis and Isis had types which are found
everywhere, and the representation of a goddess between
two riders is found all over the eastern half of the
empire and sporadically in the west. Nevertheless,
Mtthraic iconography is very significant, because it
emphasized so well both the cosmogonic and the heroic
aspects of the sacred story. Apart from the appearance
of Phaethon in the Dieburg Mithraeum, there is no
progressive Hellenization, but rather a fixity which is
almost creedal. In this, as in the two stages of
organization discussed earlier, we must see the work of
a definite individual or individuals.
Sixthly, while Mithras was originally a god of light and
not a Sun god, and while in legend and art Helios is
different from him and, in fact, subordinate, Mithras
was nevertheless solar in the eyes of the people and in
dedications he was very commonly equated with Sol. So
was Sarapis — but the link was less close. The appeal of
Mithraism was therefore reinforced by very widespread
and powerful trends: the philosophic heliocentric piety
which meant so much to so many; the universal acceptance
of a solar calendar [30]; the Syrian solar cults;
natural piety towards the Sun as the source of light and
life [31]. Mithraism drew from this far more than it
contributed. The Sol invictus who came to Rome with
Aurelian was Syrian and not Iranian: this was the god
whom Constantine's ancestors, strengthened perhaps by a
background of Thracian beliefs, accepted. Mithraism had
thus ideas, power, intensity and qualities which
differentiated it from its natural rivals. Without a
hierarchy, without the control of the quindecinmri, it
retained its characteristic forms over a wide range.
But it showed its strength only in part of the empire.
We can easily be misled by the devotion which the last
circles in Rome showed towards Mithras; his cult and the
taurobolium were, so to speak, the forms of paganism
which seemed to them most deeply laden with emotion;
Julian's example probably counted for something [32].
Suppose that Christianity had perished early, whether as
a result of a consistent persecution or by being
swallowed up in the general religious and cultural
atmosphere of the time: we should not then have had a
Mithraic world. We might have had a world in which
Mithraism itself was the special devotion of a few but
in which it had been otherwise absorbed in a solar piety
grafted on the normal observances of ancient paganism,
with perhaps some mild diffusion of a higher moral tone.
There was, if anything, less chance of the Roman Empire
turning Mithraic than of seventeenth-century England
turning Quaker. To say this is not to under-estimate
Mithraism or Quakerism.
Notes
1 Article
in J. Hastings, Enc. Rel. Eth. viii 752 ff.; Quarterly
Review ccxxi (1914) 103 ft
2 Cf. E.
Wust, RE xv, s.v. 'Mithras', 2145 f.; Nock. Gnomon vi
(1930) 33 ft
3 The
priests of cult societies for the Syrian deities need
not have been professional.
4 Julian
is speaking in terms of his own personal devotion when
he says of the Romans, Orat. iv, p. 155
5 Mr. Le
Roy Campbell of Yale University, who kindly read this
article in proof, makes an alternative suggestion which
may well be right—that 'Perses* is an artificial piece
of archaism invented to give atmosphere.
6
Rostovtzeff; Rom. Mitt. xlix, 1934, 194 rf Cumont, CRAI
1934, 90 fF, suggests that these men may have learned
Mithraism from the Hadrianic garrison of Palmyra. This
is possible; but see below for Palmyrenes in Dacia
apparently worshipping Mithras.
7 We know
very little as to the type of religion prevalent in
Parthia during this period. Cumont, Riv.fil. Ixi (1933)
145 ft., has shown reason for believing that the
Tiridates who visited Nero knew something like our
Mithraism; but in general we may suspect that ritual
practices such as were common in the Achaemenid period
predominated.
8 Cumont,
Textes et monuments it 535 f. [Vermaseren, Corpus i p.
352, ii p. 427}; add from the Mithraeum at Gimmeldingen,
. . . fanus consacra(tus) per Potentianum patrem (A.D.
335: J. Leipoldt, Die Religion des Mithra (H. Haas,
Bilderatlas sur Religionsgeschichte^ Lief. xv) p. xix)
[Vermaseren ii nr. 1315].
9 Les
mysteres de Mithra3170.
10 CIL vi
2151 == Textes ii, p. 96, inscr. 18 [Vermaseren i nr.
521]; cf. p. 118, inscr. 141 f Vermaseren i nr. 23 5]
... sacerdoti... sacerdotes.
11 CILiii
4417 == Texfesii, p. 147, inscr. 372 [Vermaserenii nr.
1675].
12
CILiiip. 1770.
13 CIL iii
7728 [Cumont inscr. 257, Vermaseren ii nr. 3008].
14 Les
religions orientates dans lepaganisme remain* 276 n. 39.
15 1 can
quote only CIL x 1560 (Puteoli)—servitor deorum, which
does not profess to be an official title, and vi 377
pater deoru omnium.
16
Textesn, p. 134, inscr. 257.
17 The
term privati in a dedication in the Mithraeum at Bingen
(published by H. Finke in RGK, xvii. Bericht, 1927, 75
[Vermaseren ii nr. 1242]) seems to be in contrast with
the higher grades of initiation; another text from
Bingen, ibid. 74 [ibid. nr. 1243] mentions a pater
sacrorum and a matricarius.
18 Thus at
Rome we find an antistes who is leo and has not yet
reached the highest grade {Textes ii, p. 101, inscr. 45
[Vermaseren i nr. 367]).
19 Cf.
Nock in Jackson-Lake, 'Beginnings of Christianity v 177
[p. 320, supra].
20 The two
terms are clearly synonymous.
21 Cf.
Nock, Conversion 38 ff, 56 ff.
22 M. P.
Nilsson, Deutsche Literaturzeitung 1933, col. 253, has
pointed to the attractive power of Mithraic cosmogony.
23 Cf.
Nock, Gnomon xii (1936) 610 fE. [pp. 449 fT., supra].
24 At the
same time we must distinguish between Mithraism as a
religion on the one hand and the literary dissemination
of Iranian ideas on the other; I hope to return to this
topic elsewhere.
25 On this
epithet L. Berlinger, Beitrdge zur inoffiziellen
Titulatur der romischen Kaiser (Diss. Breslau, 1935) 20
ft., has some very valuable remarks and has properly
stressed the importance of Heracles.
26 The
barbarian cosmogonies quoted by philosophers under the
Empire (as earlier by Aristotle) are given as
interesting illustrations; only at the lower
intellectual level of the Hermetica is one a dogma.
27 CIL xiv
55 [Textes ii, inscr. 139, Vermaseren i nr. 315]; cf.
Cumont, CRAI 1934
28 E.g.
Vita Opilii Macr. 12 (savage punishments of sexual
offences); Vita Pescenii 6.6 rei veneriae nisi ad
creandos Uberos prorsus ignarus—an interesting contrast
with the concubine of Marcus Aurelius. On the Greek
novel and its ethical sentimentalism cf. M. Braun,
Griechischer Roman u. hellenistische Geschichfschreibung
35 n. i, 62 ft. and index s.v. 'Gewissen'; on popular
morality, cf. S. Reinach, ARW ix (1906) 312 ft. I
suspect that certain scruples at the popular level fused
in a measure with the salvationism which spread
downwards from Pythagorean and Platonic circles; cf.
Gnomon xii (1936) 610 f. [pp. 449 f, supra}.
29 Cf. F.
Saxi, Mithras', L. Deubner, Gnomon ix (1933) 372 ft.;
and note the phrase in a Mithraeum at Ostia, deum
vetusta retigione in velo formatum (of Caelus): G.
Calza, N. d. sc. 1924, 73 [Vermaseren i nr. 233].
30 Cf. M.
P. Nilsson, AR Wxxx (1933) 141 ft. [Opuscula ii 462 fFJ.
31 Cf.
Nock-JTS xxxvii (193 6) 305.
32 For a
new monument of the period found in Rome cf. R.
Paribeni, N. d. sc. 1933, 478 fF. [= Vermaseren, Corpus
i nrs. 411-12]; it must be Mithraic, but the sun god, as
Paribeni remarks, resembles Juppiter Heliopolitanus more
than Mithras.
|
