Editing Mithraism (section)

===Mithraeum===
{{See also|Mithraeum}}

[[File:Ostia Antica Mithraeum.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|A [[mithraeum]] found in the ruins of [[Ostia Antica]], [[Italy]].]]

Temples of Mithras are sunk below ground, windowless, and very distinctive. In cities, the basement of an apartment block might be converted; elsewhere they might be excavated and vaulted over, or converted from a natural cave. Mithraic temples are common in the empire; although unevenly distributed, with considerable numbers found in [[Rome]], [[Ostia Antica|Ostia]], [[Numidia]], [[Dalmatia (Roman province)|Dalmatia]], [[Roman Britain|Britain]] and along the Rhine/Danube frontier, while being somewhat less common in [[Roman Greece|Greece]], [[Roman Egypt|Egypt]], and [[Roman Syria|Syria]].<ref name=Clauss-2000/>{{rp|style=ama|pp= 26–27}} According to Walter Burkert, the secret character of Mithraic rituals meant that Mithraism could only be practiced within a Mithraeum.<ref>{{cite book |last=Burkert |first=Walter |year=1987 |title=Ancient Mystery Cults |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=0-674-03387-6 |page=10}}</ref> Some new finds at [[Tienen]] show evidence of large-scale feasting and suggest that the mystery religion may not have been as secretive as was generally believed.{{efn|
name="jonas-secretive"|
The discovery of a large quantity of tableware as well as animal remains in a pit outside the newly excavated mithraeum at Tienen, Belgium, has also attracted new attention to the topic of Mithraic processions and large-scale feasts, begging a re-examination of the secrecy of the cult and its visibility in local society ... provides evidence for large-scale, semi-public feasts outside of the mithraeum itself, suggesting that each mithraeum might have had a far larger following than its relative size would imply. — Bjørnebye (2007).<ref name=Bjørnebye-2007/>{{rp|style=ama|pp= 12, 36}}
}}

For the most part, mithraea tend to be small, externally undistinguished, and cheaply constructed; the cult generally preferring to create a new centre rather than expand an existing one. The mithraeum represented the cave to which Mithras carried and then killed the bull; and where stone vaulting could not be afforded, the effect would be imitated with lath and plaster. They are commonly located close to springs or streams; fresh water appears to have been required for some Mithraic rituals, and a basin is often incorporated into the structure.<ref name=Clauss-2000/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 73}} There is usually a [[narthex]] or ante-chamber at the entrance, and often other ancillary rooms for storage and the preparation of food. The extant mithraea present us with actual physical remains of the architectural structures of the sacred spaces of the Mithraic cult. ''Mithraeum'' is a modern coinage and mithraists referred to their sacred structures as ''speleum'' or ''antrum'' (cave), ''crypta'' (underground hallway or corridor), ''fanum'' (sacred or holy place), or even ''templum'' (a temple or a sacred space).{{efn|The extant mithraea present us with actual physical remains of the architectural structures of the sacred spaces of the Mithraic cult. While the Mithraists themselves never used the word mithraeum as far as we know, but preferred words like speleum or antrum (cave), crypta (underground hallway or corridor), fanum (sacred or holy place), or even templum (a temple or a sacred space), the word mithraeum is the common appellation in Mithraic scholarship and is used throughout this study. — Bjørnebye (2007).<ref name=Bjørnebye-2007/>{{rp|at=chapter: The mithraea as buildings}} }}

In their basic form, mithraea were entirely different from the temples and shrines of other cults. In the standard pattern of Roman religious precincts, the temple building functioned as a house for the god, who was intended to be able to view, through the opened doors and columnar portico, sacrificial worship being offered on an altar set in an open courtyard – potentially accessible not only to initiates of the cult, but also to ''colitores'' or non-initiated worshippers.<ref name=Price-Kearns-ODCMR/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 493}} Mithraea were the antithesis of this.<ref name=Price-Kearns-ODCMR/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 355}}