Beck on Mithraism
Beck on Mithraism

Author: Roger Beck

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-11-25

Total Pages: 398

ISBN-13: 1351574337

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Roger Beck, a world authority on Mithraism, brings together his major writings on the Mysteries of Mithras in the context of the culture and religions of imperial Rome. In these studies he opens new vistas on myth making, ritual, symbolism, the role of astrology in the cult, recently discovered Mithraic monuments and artefacts, and the emergence of Mithraism and Christianity concurrently in the first century. Beck offers new introductions to his thematically framed groups of writings and adds six entirely new essays published here for the first time. These essays link his research to contemporary studies in cognitive science of religion and anthropology of religion. This collection will appeal particularly to scholars exploring contemporary aspects in anthropology of religion, astronomy and astrology, cults and myths, images and symbols, as well as traditional scholars of Greco-Roman antiquity and Christian origins.

The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire
The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire

Author: Roger Beck

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2006-01-12

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 0198140894

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A study of the religious system of Mithraism, one of the 'mystery cults' popular in the Roman Empire contemporary with early Christianity. Mithraism is described from the point of view of the initiate engaging with its rich repertoire of symbols and practices.

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.

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.

Planetary gods and planetary orders in the mysteries of Mithras
Planetary gods and planetary orders in the mysteries of Mithras

Author: R. Beck

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2015-11-16

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 9004296662

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Preliminary material /Roger Beck -- The planets and the grades: the problem of a unique order /Roger Beck -- The grade order and exoteric planetary orders: mastery of space and time /Roger Beck -- Orders on the monuments: introduction /Roger Beck -- Orders in mithraea: Sette Sfere and Sette Porte /Roger Beck -- The order of the Bologna relief: the planets and the bull-killing /Roger Beck -- Planets and zodiac: the Housesteads birth scene /Roger Beck -- The Ottaviano Zeno monument: planetary orders implicit in the row of altars; the snake-encircled figures; the ascent of souls (i); Jupiter, Sun and Saturn /Roger Beck -- The planetary order of Contra Celsum 6.22: the ascent of souls(ii); the two revolutions /Roger Beck -- Saturn's primacy: the Sun of midnight /Roger Beck -- Planetary orders and the zodiac in the Barberini fresco: the structures of genesis and apogenesis; Saturn and the snakeencircled god /Roger Beck -- the integrity ofthe Bologna relief /Roger Beck -- INDICES /Roger Beck -- LIST OF PLATES /Roger Beck -- Plates I-IV /Roger Beck.

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.

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.

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.