Search Results
Mithras in Etruria
Characteristics of a Mystery Cult in the Roman Regio VII
Summary
The aim of this article is to cast a light on the nature of the mysteries of Mithras in central Italy, focusing on the administrative division of Roman Etruria. The Regio VII in fact, despite not being the richest Italian area in terms of Mithraic findings, has nevertheless emerged as a privileged territory to observe different aspects of the cult, due to the great variety of its artefacts.
Hence, starting from the material evidence and from its distribution across the region, the social classes that took part in the worship of Mithras are identified. Consequently, the active role played by public officials in promoting the spread of the mysteries is discussed, as well as the cult diffusion among the lower classes, and the interest demonstrated by the aristocratic elites from the Middle/Late Empire.
The conclusion will examine the last phases of the cult in Etruria, showing how the Mithraic mysteries ended following diverse modalities during the first decades of the 5th century AD, sometimes because of violent acts of destruction, and sometimes in a peaceful manner.
Mithras in Regio VI, Umbria
Fragments of a Shipwreck
Summary
The presence of Mithras in Regio VI, Umbria, is documented by materials (some inscriptions, two arae, two reliefs, two tauroctonies: one of them fragmentary, the other one almost complete) which were either fortuitously unearthed between the 18th and the 19th century without any further research following, or discovered during unsystematic excavations – in both cases, they ended up lost (or simply forgotten) among the other pieces of family collections. This is how Marquis Eroli and Count Valenti bought, respectively, a relief now kept at the Museo Archelogico in Terni and a fragmentary tauroctony, still visible today in the hall of his ancestral palace in Trevi; Count Ramelli retrieved a tauroctony and some inscriptions in Sentinum: the tauroctony was then walled in the hall of his palace in Fabriano and the inscriptions were collected in the lapidarium of the palace. Finally, Count Marignoli promoted the excavation of the Mithraeum in Spoleto, dug up by Fabio Gori and documented in drawings and watercolors by the architect Silvestri; currently that Mithraeum has been reduced to a shapeless heap of rubble and its materials are not to be found anywhere.
This is definitely a distressing situation which, however, allows us to outline at least a Mithraic geography in Umbria made up of places along the Via Flaminia, east and west, where initiates to the Mithraic cult used to live, from Ocriculum to Interamna Nahars, Montoro, Spoletium, Trebiae, Carsulae and Sentinum, on the junction of the road coming from Helvillum. As for the cultores Mithrae in Regio VI, the few surviving inscriptions speak about them. There are freemen and freedmen, few slaves, some artisans, maybe some landowners or administrators of private and public estates who live and work at in-between towns and villae. They participate in the cult by covering various functions and supporting it financially: the leones in Carsulae collect money to build their leonteum; Sextus Egnatius Primitivus pays out of pocket to rebuild a spelaeum destroyed by an earthquake, while the thirty-five patroni of Sentinum contribute in different ways to the needs of their community.
Summary
Recent research has increasingly questioned the “grand dichotomy” between “Paganism” and Christianity and brings into light the prominence of spaces with shared meanings in diverse cults related to mystic beliefs and practices. An excellent example is Vibia's tomb within Praetextatus' catacomb, on the Via Appia. Dated to the 4th century AD, this place combines epigraphy and a fascinating iconography pointing to a mystic initiation of the deceased within a syncretic context.
Summary
The Mithraic evidence in Etruria and Umbria – VII and VI Regiones – presents some particular features of great interest, not only because they contribute to enlarging our knowledge regarding the extent of the diffusion of Mithraism in these regions, but also as regards the general study of the cult itself and the comprehension of certain facets of the cultic implantation patterns within the religious communities.
The epigraphic corpus of Mithraism in Umbria provides valuable information concerning some grades of initiation and Mithraic priesthood, highlighting the specificity of this religion. The importance of such information transcends what we know about the local level, by revealing details about the functioning of the cult in general, especially regarding the degree of Leo and some variants of the priesthood, which are poorly documented elsewhere in the Roman Empire.
In addition, the discovery of Mithraea, Mithraic images and other archaeological evidence in Etruria and Umbria provides a picture that shows an important spread of the worship in the private context, i.e., both domus and villae, with examples as relevant as Vulci and Spoletium. Further ahead, the prevalence of astral components in the material evidence also suggests a strong preference among local devotees of Mithras of higher social status for the cosmological aspects of their religion.
Fructus, Attianus, Ariomanus
Restoring two altar-inscriptions from Poetovio
Fructus, Attianus, Ariomanus
Két poetovioi oltárfelirat kiegészítése
abbreviation 35 at the end of this line, Attidius would seem to be the more likely choice. However, even though it is an altar dedicated to Mithras, the followers of the religion do not necessarily have to bear a theophoric name. Thus, other names of similar
Summary
The highest number of mithraea in urban context of the ancient world come from Ostia. Although we do not know the whole city, mithraea have been found in all districts of the town. The spread and fortune of the Mithraic worship are also attested by the plenteous epigraphic and sculptural materials. This research deals with the Mithraism at Ostia, focusing on the particular case of monograms, just mentioned by Giovanni Becatti in his seminal work about mithraea at Ostia, dating back to more than sixty years ago. After the recent discovery of the Mithraeum of colored marbles by the archaeologists of the Ostia Marina Project (University of Bologna), it seems necessary to examine and contextualize the phenomenology of Mithraic monograms at Ostia, as is done in relation to similar processes which involve the Christian world.
The Material Evidence of the Roman Cult of Mithras in Dacia
CIMRM Supplement of the Province
Summary
Since M. J. Vermaseren's visit to Romania and the publication of the second volume of his monumental corpus on Mithraic finds in 1960, the once-called “Mithraic Studies” has had numerous paradigmatic shifts and changed its major focus points. Besides the important changes in the theoretical background of the research, the archaeological material regarding the Mithraic finds of Dacia – one of the richest provinces in this kind of material – has also been enriched. Several new corpora focusing on the Mithraic finds of Dacia were published in the last decade. This article will present the latest currents in the study of the Roman cult of Mithras and will give an updated list of finds and several clarifications to the latest catalogue of Mithraic finds from the province.
Summary
Porphyry's Cave of Nymphs is dedicated to deciphering the philosophical and theological significance of the cave described by Homer in the Thirteenth Canto of the Odyssey. However, within the exegesis of the Homeric cave awaits another exegesis concerning the cave in which Mithras sacrifices the bull and in which the initiation of the worshippers and the common meal take place.
According to Porphyry, the cave of the Nymphs is the place in which the worshippers were initiated into the platonic mystery of the descent and ascent of souls. Mithras, assimilated to the Demiurge of the Timaeus, generates souls by killing the bull he has caught, ridden and dragged into the cave which symbolises the cosmos. The souls, which are created by the bull/moon like bees in a sort of bougonia (cf. Virgil, Georgics IV), and which are animated by his blood, descend into the cycle of generation and incarnation and are dragged down by Boreas, the cold wind that keeps them cool in the place of earthly generation. After successive reincarnations the warm wind of Notus dissolves the carnal vestments that imprison them and returns them to the heat of the Sun.
Conclusion. After the comparison between the text of Porphyry and the CIMRM will show that the theme of the descent and ascent of souls is very weak in Mithraic finds, and the reading of tauroctony as bougonia remains deprived of iconographic evidence. To sum up, The Cave of the Nymphs is more relevant to the history of Platonism than to the history of Mithraicism.
of peace’ . However, the analogies clearly show the Sedato form was the classical one. 18 Mithras A study of the epigraphic evidence of Mithraic communities may be suitable for our investigation, since worshippers in the Roman Empire of Mithras
Summary
A miniature relief representing the scene of tauroctony, i.e. Mithras killing the bull, is on display in the Archaeological Museum in Split. Despite its visibility, the relief has so far remained unpublished. It is therefore the aim of this article to provide the detailed description of the object, and to contextualize it within the broader framework of “small and miniature reproductions of the Mithraic icon”. Based on this, the original provenance and dating of the miniature relief are proposed. Furthermore, the relief is taken as a fine example of interconnectedness of social, material, and religious mobility in “globalizing Roman world”. The final part of the article discusses the psychological effectiveness of miniature Mithraic reliefs, suggesting their possible role as memory aids.
