Images of Mithra

Images of Mithra

Author: Philippa Adrych

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 0198792530

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This work presents six case-studies of objects from different periods and regions of antiquity that are labelled by variations of the name Mithra, including the Roman Mithras, Persian Mihr, and Bactrian Miiro. Each chapter places each object in its original context, before questioning its role in religious ritual, tradition, and belief


The Cult of Mithras in Late Antiquity

The Cult of Mithras in Late Antiquity

Author: David Walsh

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-11-29

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 9004383069

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In The Cult of Mithras in Late Antiquity David Walsh explores how the cult of Mithras developed across the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. and why by the early 5th century the cult had completely disappeared. Contrary to the traditional narrative that the cult was violently persecuted out of existence by Christians, Walsh demonstrates that the cult’s decline was a far more gradual process that resulted from a variety of factors. He also challenges the popular image of the cult as a monolithic entity, highlighting how by the 4th century Mithras had come to mean different things to different people in different places.


The Mysteries of Mithras

The Mysteries of Mithras

Author: Payam Nabarz

Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co

Published: 2005-06-09

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9781594770272

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The Mysteries of Mithras presents a revival of this ancient Roman mystery religion, popular from the late second century B.C. Payam Nabarz reveals the history and tenets of Mithraism, its connections to Christianity, Islam, and Freemasonry, and the modern neo-pagan practice of Mithraism today. Included are seven of its initiatory rituals.


Intangible Spirits and Graven Images: The Iconography of Deities in the Pre-Islamic Iranian World

Intangible Spirits and Graven Images: The Iconography of Deities in the Pre-Islamic Iranian World

Author: Michael Shenkar

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2014-09-08

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 9004281495

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Winner of the the Roman and Tania Ghirshman Prize 2015 by the French Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. This prize was established in 1973 by the donation made by Roman Ghirshman, one of the prominent French archaeologists of Pre-Islamic Iran. It is awarded annually for a publication in the field of Pre-Islamic Iranian Studies. In Intangible Spirits and Graven Images, Michael Shenkar investigates the perception of ancient Iranian deities and their representation in the Iranian cults. This ground-breaking study traces the evolution of the images of these deities, analyses the origin of their iconography, and evaluates their significance. Shenkar also explores the perception of anthropomorphism and aniconism in ancient Iranian religious imagery, with reference to the material evidence and the written sources, and reassesses the value of the Avestan and Middle Persian texts that are traditionally employed to illuminate Iranian religious imagery. In doing so, this book provides important new insights into the religion and culture of ancient Iran prior to the Islamic conquest.


The Mysteries of Mithras

The Mysteries of Mithras

Author: Attilio Mastrocinque

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Published: 2017-08-07

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 9783161551123

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Attilio Mastrocinque explains the mysteries of Mithras in a new way, as a transformation of Mazdean elements into an ideological and religious reading of Augustus' story. The author shows that the character of Mithras played the role of Apollo in favoring Augustus' victory and the birth of the Roman Empire.


The Roman Cult of Mithras

The Roman Cult of Mithras

Author: Manfred Clauss

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-09-25

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 1351540785

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First published in 2001. The Mithras cult first became evident in Rome towards the end of the first century AD. During the next two centuries, it spread to the frontiers of the Western empire. Energetically suppressed by the early Christians, who frequently constructed their churches over the caves in which Mithraic rituals took place, the cult was extinct by the end of the fourth century. Since its publication in Germany, Manfred Clauss's introduction to the Roman Mithras cult has become widely accepted as the most reliable and readable account of this fascinating subject. For the English edition, Clauss has updated the book to reflect recent research and new archaeological discoveries.


The Roman Mithras Cult

The Roman Mithras Cult

Author: Olympia Panagiotidou

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-11-02

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1472567382

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This book is the first full cognitive history of an ancient religious practice. In this ground-breaking study on one of the most intriguing and mysterious cults, Olympia Panagiotidou, with contributions from Roger Beck, shows how cognitive historiography can supplement our historical knowledge and deepen our understanding of past cultural phenomena. The cult of the sun god Mithras, which spread widely across the Graeco-Roman world at the same time as other 'mystery cults', offered its devotees certain images and assumptions about reality. Initiation into the mysteries of Mithras and participation in the life of the cult significantly affected and transformed the ways in which the initiated perceived themselves, the world, and their position within it. The cult's major ideas were conveyed mainly through its symbolic complexes. The ancient written testimonies and other records are not adequate to establish a definitive reconstruction of Mithraic theologies and the meaning of its complex symbolic structures. The Roman Mithras Cult identifies the cognitive and psychological processes which would have taken place in the minds and bodies of the Mithraists during their initiation and participation in the mysteries, enabling the perception, apprehension, and integration of the essential images and assumptions of the cult in its worldview system.


Mithraic Societies: From Brotherhood to Religion's Adversary - (b&w)

Mithraic Societies: From Brotherhood to Religion's Adversary - (b&w)

Author: Abolala Soudavar

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2014-02-10

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 1312106069

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Although by its title, this book seems to be about a specialized topic, the spread of Mithraic societies and its avatars, in time and geographical expanse, much enhances its relevancy. From Roman legionaries to chivalry orders, from dervish circles to guild organizations, and from Freemasons to French revolutionaries, the hierarchy of Mithraic societies, their initiation rites, and their oaths of secrecy, provided a model for brotherhood organization that was efficient, but also flexible; they could adapt their philosophy to the prevailing politico-religion conditions of the day, because they did not worship any particular god, but could also be comrades in arms with nascent religious movements, such as with Christianity. Mithra was the initial guarantor of their oath, and if need be it could be replaced by Jesus, Allah or any other divinity. Their "religion" was their brotherhood, and as such they usually provided a counter-balance to the power elite, and had the potential to become politically active.


The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries

The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries

Author: David Ulansey

Publisher: Cosmology and Salvation in the

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 9780195067880

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This volume sets forth a new explanation of the meaning of the cult of Mithraism, tracing its origins not, as commonly held, to the ancient Persian religion, but to ancient astronomy and cosmology.