An idle search in Google images for “Mithra Zoroastrianism” brought up precisely NO images of the Zoroastrian god. It’s quite interesting, really, not least because I have no idea how he was depicted — if he was depicted — in reliefs.
It also brought up a number of unfamiliar tauroctonies of Mithras. The need for a large collection of images of Mithraic sculptures etc was never more apparent to me than today. We can clearly learn a great deal, simply by comparison, without undue theorising. I was almost tempted to start locating images and getting my camera out!
Mind you, an online list of places to visit and photograph would itself be a useful thing. We don’t even have that! If we could put such a thing online, one might get enthusiasts to contribute by visiting museums. It’s a wiki-project if ever there was one.
How I curse the wretched troll, who cold-bloodly plotted to wreck the Wikipedia Mithras article, and drive off all the honest contributors, for destroying the best means of collaborative work in this area!
I wonder how else it might be done. How does one contact Mithras enthusiasts? A few people doing day-trips to museums might contribute much!
Hi Roger
A picture of an Iranian Mithra is here: http://www.livius.org/ta-td/taq-e_bostan/taq-e_bostan_relief.html
Fondly, Jona
MITRA + Zoroastrian yields plenty of images on Google Image.
@Jona: thank you! I presume that Berghe is the source that specifies that this is Mitra?
@Robert: will give it a go!
No, it’s not just Vandenberghe, dear Roger. The attributes (barsom and solar rays) seem to make the identification with the god of light reasonable. The identifaction is already assumed in F. Lajard, _Introduction a l’étude du culte public et des mystères de Mithra_ (Paris 1847) and may well be older.
I don’t suppose for a moment that the identification is wrong. But, being sceptical and being suspicious of “what everyone knows”, I wonder how anyone knows or whether it is simply a guess. Thanks for the extra details!
I share your sentiment; we can never be too sceptical – even about our scepsis!
Like you, I have seen too much hearsay accepted without adequate scrutiny!
A good place to see up-to-date information and exchange views on Mithraism is the Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies:
http://www.uhu.es/ejms/
I had thought that this was defunct — is it active, in fact?
I like to have some picture of the goddess mitra
Mitra is a god, not a goddess… 🙂