Search Results for: Mithras
BBC Radio 4 on Mithras
A correspondent writes that the BBC Radio 4 has devoted 45 minutes to a discussion of the cult of Mithras. You can find the programme here. It was broadcast on Thursday 27 December 2012, as part of the series In our time, presented by Melvyn Bragg. The Cult of Mithras Melvyn Bragg and his guests […]
Mithras the free-mason?
Yesterday I showed the new Mithras pages to a correspondent. He commented that a great deal of what we know about Mithras corresponds to what we know about Free-masonry. An all-male group that got together in a closed room for secret rituals, had grades of initiation and titles, with a special handshake … well, the […]
Mithras and the Portable Antiquities Scheme database
Another day another database, or so it sometimes seems. But this is not a complaint! On the contrary, it makes accessible material that no-one could ever see. Today I learn via Cultural Property Observer of the PAS database. The information provided by members of the public over the last 15 years is available for all […]
Mithras and Jerome
A comment draws my attention to E. H. Henckel, De philtris. On page 39, there is an interesting statement. Magnam vim Basilidiani suo Deo ABRASAX (quem Basilides pro summo habebat numine, nomine prorsus fictitio; Sed quod litteris contineret numerum dierum, quos annus habet absolutus: unde & B. Hieronymi suspicio erat, Abraxas esse non alium, quam Persarum […]
David Ulansey to bring out new book on Mithras?
A little while ago I read and reviewed David Ulansey’s well-known book on the Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. The book has remained in print for many years now. On his website, there is an interesting announcement: I am also currently finishing a new book for Oxford called The Other Christ: The Mysteries of Mithras […]
Mithras in the papyri
Mithras: how scholarship really should be done
John R. Hinnells begins his paper on Cautes and Cautopates by articulating precisely what he is going to do and how he is going to do it. It’s a massive step forward from the random theorising of the Cumont era. Instead of starting with a mess of factoids and assembling them into a theory, Hinnells […]
Notes from the preface to the 3rd edition (1913) of Cumont’s “The mysteries of Mithras”
Until this evening I was not aware that Cumont’s The mysteries of Mithras existed in a 3rd French edition, published 10 years after the English translation of the 2nd edition. But it may be found on Archive.org, and the note to the 3rd edition on p.xiii contains a couple of interesting remarks. In response to […]
How do we know that Mithras’ sidekicks were called “Cautes” and “Cautopates”?
Every temple of Mithras had a bas-relief at one end depicting Mithras killing the bull. On either side stand two figures carrying torches, one with the flame pointing up, the other with it pointing down. Every textbook refers to these as “Cautes” and “Cautopates”, although no literary text mentions either. So how do we know […]