1. The Cult of Mithras in the Roman World
a Thomas Barto presentation

2. The Origins of the Cult
Like many mystery cults, considered an “Eastern religion”
Connections to the Indo-European Mitra, worshipped in Persia and North India
Counterintuitively, archaeology does not support diffusion outwards from the Near East; origin of the cult in its Roman incarnation is Rome or Ostia.
Diffused outward to the provinces with Italian emigrants; cf. inscriptions in Germania Superior by Roman cavalry volunteers ca. AD 90

3. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

4. Myth and Liturgy
Like other mystery religions, no firm information regarding rituals, mystery itself.
Issue compounded by the fact that unlike Isis, Demeter etc., the Mithras myth does not survive
Has been possible to reconstruct something of the mythic narrative from temple art
Birth from the rock
“Water miracle”
Bull hunt
Slaying of the bull (“Tauroctony”)  THE IMPORTANT PART
Feast with Sol
Ascent to the heavens

5. The Mithraeum Totally unlike conventional Roman temple
Internal altar, no “house of the god”
Subterranean, occasionally even built into natural caves
Inclined dining couches line central aisle leading to altar
Cultic reliefs
Often attached to/repurposed parts of existing, secular buildings
Significance of fresh water in rituals?
Mithraeum of the Baths of Mithras, in Ostia
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

6. Cult Structure
No public component, unlike the worship of e.g. Isis; entirely a “mystery religion”
Multiple “ranks” of initiation; evidence varies and scholarly debate on topic is ongoing
As many as seven grades of initiation attested at some locations, esp. in Rome and Ostia
Corax, Nymphus (Bridegroom), Miles, Leo, Perses (Persian), Heliodromus (Sun-runner), Pater
In many provincial locations, only two or three; Corax, Leo, and Pater
“Ordeals” of initiation – symbolic death and rebirth
Communal feasting was clearly central aspect of cultic practice; dining couches, faunal remains, iconographic prominence of the feast of Sol and Mithras.
Some mithraeums even had attached kitchens!
Exclusively male?

7. Mithras in Britain London Mithraeum Carrawburgh/Brocolitia Caernarfon
Rudchester
Photo by Ivor Noel Hume of the excavation of the London Mithraeum

8. The mithraeum at Carrawburgh, 2004. romanbritain.co.uk

9. Discussion
Cult of Mithras often positioned as competitor to early Christianity. Is this a valid comparison, and why is it so often made?
How much of Mithraic practice can we extrapolate from what we know of other “mystery” cults?
Example of early “cultural appropriation” in the ancient world?

10. Bibliography
Alvar Ezquerra, Jaime. Romanising Oriental Gods : Myth, Salvation, and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis, and Mithras. Leiden: Brill, 2008.
Clauss, Manfred. The Roman Cult of Mithras: the God and His Mysteries. Trans. Richard Gordon. Routledge, NY
David, Jonathan. "The Exclusion of Women in the Mithraic Mysteries: Ancient or Modern?" Numen 47, no. 2 (2000):
Laeuchli, Samuel. "Urban Mithraism." The Biblical Archaeologist 31, no. 3 (1968):