Editing Mithraism (section)

== Etymology ==
{{Main|Mithras (name)}}
[[File:Mithra Musées de la Cour d'Or 100109.jpg|thumb|[[Bas-relief]] of the [[tauroctony]] of the mysteries, [[Metz]], France.]]
The name ''Mithras'' (Latin, equivalent to Greek ''Μίθρας''<ref>{{cite encyclopedia
 |editor1-first=Charlton T.
 |editor1-last=Lewis
 |editor2-first=Charles
 |editor2-last=Short
 |title=Mithras
 |dictionary=A Latin Dictionary
 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3DMithras
 |via=Tufts University
 |access-date=20 February 2021
 |archive-date=3 October 2020
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003070443/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=Mithras
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref>) is a form of ''[[Mithra]]'', the name of an old, pre-Zoroastrian, and, later on, Zoroastrian, god{{efn| It is therefore highly likely that it was in the context of Mithridates' alliance with the Cilician pirates that there arose the synchretistic link between Perseus and Mithra which led to the name ''Mithras'' (a Greek form of the name ''Mithra'') being given to the god of the new {{nobr|cult. — D. Ulansey (1991)<ref name=Ulansey-1991-Origins/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 90}} }}
}}{{efn|
...&nbsp;Mithra is the next most important deity and may even have occupied a position of near equality with Ahura Mazde. He was associated with the Sun, and in time the name Mithra became a common word for "Sun". Mithra functioned preeminently in the ethical sphere; he was the god of the covenant, who oversaw all solemn agreements that people made among themselves ... In later times Mithra gave his name to ''Mithraism'', a mystery religion.<ref>
{{cite book
 |title=Encyclopedia of World Religions
 |year=2006
 |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
 |isbn=978-1-59339-491-2
 |page=509
}}
</ref>
}} – a relationship understood by Mithraic scholars since the days of [[Franz Cumont]].{{efn|
Cumont's ... argument was straightforward and may be summarized succinctly: The name of the god of the cult, ''Mithras'', is the Latin (and Greek) form of the name of an ancient Iranian god, ''Mithra''; in addition, the Romans believed that their cult was connected with Persia (as the Romans called Iran); therefore we may assume that Roman Mithraism is nothing other than the Iranian cult of Mithra transplanted into the Roman {{nobr|Empire. — D. Ulansey (1991)<ref name=Ulansey-1991-Origins/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 8}} }}
}}
An early example of the Greek form of the name is in a 4th&nbsp;century&nbsp;BCE work by [[Xenophon]], the ''[[Cyropaedia]]'', which is a biography of the Persian king [[Cyrus the Great]].<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Xenophon]] |title=[[Cyropaedia]] |at=7.5.53}}   cited in<br/>
{{cite encyclopedia
 |editor1-first=Henry George
 |editor1-last=Liddell
 |editor2-first=Robert
 |editor2-last=Scott
 |title=Μίθρας
 |dictionary=A Greek-English Lexicon
 |via=perseus.tufts.edu
 |publisher=[[Tufts University]]
 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aalphabetic+letter%3D*m%3Aentry+group%3D67%3Aentry%3D*mi%2Fqras
 |access-date=2023-01-24
 |archive-date=24 January 2023
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124102707/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aalphabetic%20letter%3D%2Am%3Aentry%20group%3D67%3Aentry%3D%2Ami%2Fqras
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref>

The exact form of a Latin or classical Greek word varies due to the grammatical process of [[inflection]]. There is archaeological evidence that in Latin worshippers wrote the [[nominative]] form of the god's name as "Mithras". [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]]'s Greek text ''De&nbsp;Abstinentia'' ({{math|Περὶ ἀποχῆς ἐμψύχων}}), has a reference to the now-lost histories of the Mithraic mysteries by Euboulus and Pallas, the wording of which suggests that these authors treated the name "Mithra" as an indeclinable foreign word.{{efn|
Quoting from Gordon:<ref name=Gordon-1978/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 160}} "The usual western nominative form of Mithras' name in the mysteries ended in ''-s'', as we can see from the one authentic dedication in the nominative, recut over a dedication to Sarapis (463, Terme de Caracalla), and from occasional grammatical errors such as ''deo inviato Metras'' (1443). But it is probable that Euboulus and Pallas, at least, used the name 'Mithra' as an indeclinable [foreign word] (ap. Porphyry, ''[[On Abstinence from Eating Animals|De abstinentia]]'' II.56 and IV.16)."<ref name=Gordon-1978/>
}}

Related deity-names in other languages include:
* Vedic Sanskrit [[Mitra (Hindu god)|Mitra]], "friend, friendship," as the name of a god praised in the ''[[Rigveda]]''.<ref>E.g. in {{cite book |section=Hymn&nbsp;59 |title=[[Rig Veda]] |volume=3 |section-url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv03059.htm |access-date=13 May 2011 |archive-date=12 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190312035437/http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv03059.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Speidel-1980/>{{efn|
India's sacred literature refers to him since the hymns of the Rig Veda. But it was in Iran where Mithras rose to the greatest prominence: Rebounding after the reforms of Zarathustra, Mithras became one of the great gods of the Achaemenian emperors and to this very day he is worshipped in India and Iran by Parsees and Zarathustrians.<ref name=Speidel-1980>
{{cite book
 |author=Speidel, Michael
 |year=1980
 |title=Mithras-Orion: Greek hero and Roman army god
 |publisher=Brill
 |isbn=978-90-04-06055-5
 |page=1&nbsp;ff
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7-YUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1
 |via=Google Books
}}
</ref>
}}<ref name=RichardsonHopfe1994-4>
{{cite book
 |last1=Hopfe |first1=Lewis M.
 |last2=Richardson |first2=Henry Neil
 |date=September 1994
 |chapter=Archaeological indications on the origins of Roman Mithraism
 |editor=Hopfe, Lewis M. 
 |title=Uncovering Ancient Stones: Essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson
 |publisher=Eisenbrauns
 |isbn=978-0-931464-73-7
 |quote=All theories of the origin of Mithraism acknowledge a connection, however vague, to the Mithra / Mitra figure of ancient Aryan religion.
 |page=[https://archive.org/details/uncoveringancien0000unse/page/150 150]
 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QRfhSBLmAK8C&q=Archaelogical%20Indications%20on%20the%20Origins%20of%20Roman%20Mithraism&pg=PA150
 |access-date=19 March 2011
 |url=https://archive.org/details/uncoveringancien0000unse/page/150
}}
</ref>
In Sanskrit, ''mitra'' is an unusual name of the sun god, mostly known as "Surya" or "Aditya", however.<ref name=Turcan-1996-earliest/>
* the form ''mi-it-ra-'', found in an inscribed peace treaty between the [[Hittites]] and the kingdom of [[Mitanni]], from about 1400&nbsp;BCE.{{efn|
The name ''Mithras'' comes from a root ''mei-'' (which implies the idea of exchange), accompanied by an instrumental suffix. It was therefore a means of exchange, the 'contract' which rules human relations and is the basis of social life. In Sanskrit, ''mitra'' means 'friend' or 'friendship', like ''mihr'' in Persian. In Zend, ''mithra'' means precisely the 'contract', which eventually became deified, following the same procedure as ''Venus'', the 'charm' for the Romans. We find him invoked with Varuna in an agreement concluded {{nobr|circa|1380 BC}}}} between the king of the Hittites, Subbiluliuma, and the king of Mitanni, Mativaza. ... It is the earliest evidence of Mithras in Asia Minor.<ref name=Turcan-1996-earliest>
{{cite book
 |last=Turcan |first=Robert
 |year=1996
 |title=The cults of the Roman Empire
 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell
 |isbn=978-0-631-20047-5
 |url=https://archive.org/details/cultsofromanempi00robe
 |url-access=registration |access-date=19 March 2011
 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cultsofromanempi00robe/page/196 196]
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite journal
 |last=Thieme |first=Paul
 |date=October–December 1960
 |title=The 'Aryan' gods of the Mitanni treaties
 |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society
 |volume=80 |issue=4 |pages=301–317
 |doi=10.2307/595878 |jstor=595878
}}
</ref>

Iranian ''Mithra'' and Sanskrit ''Mitra'' are believed to come from the [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]] word ''mitrás'', meaning "contract, agreement, covenant".<ref>{{iranica|mithra-i}}</ref>

Modern historians have different conceptions about whether these names refer to the same god or not. John R. Hinnells has written of Mitra / Mithra / Mithras as a single deity, worshipped in several different religions.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hinnells |first=John R. |contribution=Introduction: The questions asked and to be asked |editor-last=Hinnells |editor-first=John R. |title=Studies in Mithraism |location=Rome |publisher=L'Erma di Bretschneider |year=1990 |page=11 |quote=The god is unique in being worshipped in four distinct religions: [[Hinduism]] (as Mitra), in Iranian Zoroastrianism and [[Manicheism]] (as Mithra), and in the Roman Empire (as Mithras).}}</ref> On the other hand, David Ulansey considers the bull-slaying Mithras to be a new god who began to be worshipped in the 1st&nbsp;century BCE, and to whom an old name was applied.{{efn|
... the intimate alliance between the pirates and Mithridates Eupator, named after Mithra and mythically descended from Perseus, led to the pirates adopting the name Mithras for the new {{nowrap|god. — D. Ulansey (1991)<ref name=Ulansey-1991-Origins/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 94}} }}
}}

[[Mary Boyce]], an academic researcher on ancient Iranian religions, writes that even though Roman Mithraism seems to have had less Iranian content than ancient Romans or modern historians used to think, nonetheless "as the name ''Mithras'' alone shows, this content was of some importance".{{efn|
"The theory that the complex iconography of the characteristic monuments (of which the oldest belong to the second century A.C.) could be interpreted by direct reference to Iranian religion is now widely rejected; and recent studies have tended greatly to reduce what appears to be the actual Iranian content of this "self consciously 'Persian' religion", at least in the form which it attained under the Roman empire. Nevertheless, as the name Mithras alone shows, this content was of some importance; and the Persian affiliation of the Mysteries is acknowledged in the earliest literary reference to them.<ref name=Boyce-Grenet-1975>{{cite book |last1=Boyce |first1=Mary |last2=Grenet |first2=Frantz |year=1975 |title=Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman Rule |volume=Part&nbsp;1 |publisher=Brill |isbn=90-04-09271-4 |pages=468–469 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MWiMV6llZesC&pg=PA468 |access-date=2011-03-16 }}</ref>
}}