Mythras Core Rules

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Almost no Mithraic scripture or first-hand account of its highly secret rituals survives; [o] with the exception of the aforementioned oath and catechism, and the document known as the Mithras Liturgy, from 4th century Egypt, whose status as a Mithraist text has been questioned by scholars including Franz Cumont. [x] [47] The walls of mithraea were commonly whitewashed, and where this survives, it tends to carry extensive repositories of graffiti; and these, together with inscriptions on Mithraic monuments, form the main source for Mithraic texts. [48] Feasting [ edit ] In some depictions, Cautes and Cautopates are also present; sometimes they are depicted as shepherds. [33] while Hans Dieter Betz sees it as a synthesis of Greek, Egyptian, and Mithraic traditions. [100] [101] Modern debate on origin [ edit ] Cumont's hypothesis: from Persian state religion [ edit ] Augustan-era intaglio depicting a tauroctony ( Walters Art Museum) 4th-century relief of the investiture of the Sasanian king Ardashir II. Mithra stands on a lotus flower on the left holding a barsom. [102] India's sacred literature refers to him since the hymns of the Rig Veda. But it was in Iran where Mithras rose to the greatest prominence: Rebounding after the reforms of Zarathustra, Mithras became one of the great gods of the Achaemenian emperors and to this very day he is worshipped in India and Iran by Parsees and Zarathustrians. [16] According to Speidel, Christians fought fiercely with this feared enemy and suppressed it during the late 4thcentury. Mithraic sanctuaries were destroyed and religion was no longer a matter of personal choice. [bf] [bg]

The unique underground temples or mithraea appear suddenly in the archaeology in the last quarter of the 1stcenturyCE. [78] (p 118) Earliest archaeology [ edit ]

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The exact form of a Latin or classical Greek word varies due to the grammatical process of inflection. There is archaeological evidence that in Latin worshippers wrote the nominative form of the god's name as "Mithras". Porphyry's Greek text DeAbstinentia ( 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. [j]

These ‘Mithraeum’ were private, dark and windowless spaces, built to replicate the mythological scene of Mithras killing a sacred bull – the ‘tauroctony’ – within a cave. The story where Mithras kills the bull was a defining characteristic of Roman Mithraism, and has not been found in original Middle Eastern depictions of the deity. 5. The Romans did not call the cult ‘Mithraism’ A passage in the Caesares of Julian the Apostate refers to "commandments of Mithras". [af] Tertullian, in his treatise "On the Military Crown" records that Mithraists in the army were officially excused from wearing celebratory coronets on the basis of the Mithraic initiation ritual that included refusing a proffered crown, because "their only crown was Mithras". [69] History and development [ edit ] Mithras before the Roman Mysteries [ edit ] Mithras-Helios, with solar rays and in Iranian dress, [70] with AntiochusI of Commagene. ( Mt.Nemrut, 1stcentury BCE) 4th-century relief of the investiture of the Sasanian king Ardashir II. Mithra stands on a Lotus Flower on the left holding a Barsom. [70] In the mixed religion of the later Achaemenid period, however, the Zoroastrian aspects clearly dominate the heathen aspects. The sacrifice of the bull, abhorred by every Zoroastrian, is never mentioned. When Alexander the Great conquered the Persian empire about 330 bce, the old structure of society appears to have broken down completely, and about the worship of Mithra in Persia no more is heard. Sorry for the thread necromancy! But I've just gotten interested in Al-Qadim and I'm wondering if you've ever completed or made any headway on your conversion? If so are you willing to share? Would love to try this excellent setting but DnD is not my thing! Boyce, an academic researcher on ancient Iranian religions, writes that even though Roman Mithraism seems to have had less Iranian content than ancient Romans or modern historians used to think, nonetheless "as the name Mithras alone shows, this content was of some importance". [n] Iconography [ edit ] Relief of Mithras as bull-slayer from Neuenheim near Heidelberg, framed by scenes from Mithras' life.

Much about the cult of Mithras is only known from reliefs and sculptures. There have been many attempts to interpret this material.