Editing Mithraism (section)

====Porphyry====
[[File:Roman - Fragment of a Mosaic with Mithras - Walters 437.jpg|thumb|Mosaic (1st&nbsp;century&nbsp;CE) depicting Mithras emerging from his cave and flanked by Cautes and Cautopates ([[Walters Art Museum]])]]
The philosopher [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]] (3rd–4th&nbsp;century&nbsp;CE) gives an account of the origins of the Mysteries in his work ''[[On the Cave of the Nymphs in the Odyssey|De antro nympharum]]'' (''The Cave of the Nymphs'').<ref name=deantro2/> Citing Eubulus as his source, Porphyry writes that the original temple of Mithras was a natural cave, containing fountains, which [[Zoroaster]] found in the mountains of Persia. To Zoroaster, this cave was an image of the whole world, so he consecrated it to Mithras, the creator of the world. Later in the same work, Porphyry links Mithras and the bull with planets and star-signs: Mithras himself is associated with the sign of [[Aries (astrology)|Aries]] and the planet [[Mars]], while the bull is associated with [[Venus]].{{efn|
"Hence, a place near to the equinoctial circle was assigned to Mithra as an appropriate seat. And on this account he bears the sword of Aries, which is a martial sign. He is likewise carried in the Bull, which is the sign of Venus. For Mithra. as well as the Bull, is the Demiurgus and lord of generation." — Porphyry<ref name=deantro2/>
}}

Porphyry is writing close to the demise of the cult, and Robert Turcan has challenged the idea that Porphyry's statements about Mithraism are accurate. His case is that far from representing what Mithraists believed, they are merely representations by the Neoplatonists of what it suited them in the late 4th century to read into the mysteries.{{refn|
{{cite book |last=Turcan |first=Robert |year=1975 |title=Mithras Platonicus |place=Leiden, NL}}
: cited by Beck (1987)<ref name=Beck-1987/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 301–302}}
}}
Merkelbach & Beck believed Porphyry's work "is in fact thoroughly coloured with the doctrines of the Mysteries".<ref name=Beck-1987/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 308 note 37}}
Beck holds that classical scholars have neglected Porphyry's evidence and have taken an unnecessarily skeptical view of Porphyry.<ref>
{{cite book
 |author1=Beck, Roger 
 |author2=Martin, Luther H.
 |author3=Whitehouse, Harvey
 |year=2004
 |title=Theorizing Religions Past: Archaeology, history, and cognition
 |publisher=Rowman Altamira
 |isbn=978-0-7591-0621-5
 |page=101 ff
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3Hu5icpP1AC&pg=PA101
 |access-date=28 March 2011
}}
</ref>
According to Beck, Porphyry's ''De antro'' is the only clear text from antiquity which tells us about the intent of the Mithraic mysteries and how that intent was realized.{{efn|
[Porphyry's] ''De antro'' 6 is actually the sole explicit testimony from antiquity as to the intent of Mithraism's mysteries and the means by which that intent was realized. Porphyry, moreover, was an intelligent and well-placed theoretician of contemporary religion, with access to predecessors' studies, now lost.<ref>
{{cite book
 | last = Beck | first = Roger
 | title = The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire
 | url = https://archive.org/details/oxfordworldheroi00libg
 | url-access = limited
 | publisher = Oxford University Press
 | year = 2006
 | location = Oxford, UK
 | page = [https://archive.org/details/oxfordworldheroi00libg/page/n31 17]
 | isbn = 978-0-19-814089-4
}}
</ref>
}}
David Ulansey finds it important that Porphyry "confirms ... that astral conceptions played an important role in Mithraism."<ref name=Ulansey-1991-Origins/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 18}}