Editing Mithraism (section)

==Iconography==
[[File:Neuenheimer Mithraeum.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Relief of Mithras as bull-slayer from Neuenheim near [[Heidelberg]], framed by scenes from Mithras' life.]]

Much about the cult of Mithras is only known from reliefs and sculptures.  There have been many attempts to interpret this material.

Mithras-worship in the Roman Empire was characterized by images of the god slaughtering a bull. Other images of Mithras are found in the Roman temples, for instance Mithras banqueting with Sol, and depictions of the birth of Mithras from a rock. But the image of bull-slaying (tauroctony) is always in the central niche.<ref name=Ulansey-1991-Origins>{{cite book |last=Ulansey |first=David |year=1991 |title=Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=0-19-506788-6}}</ref>{{rp|style=ama|p= 6}} Textual sources for a reconstruction of the theology behind this iconography are very rare.{{efn|
name=Clauss-2000-xxi-quote|
... we possess virtually no theological statements either by Mithraists themselves or by other writers. — Clauss (2000)<ref name=Clauss-2000/>{{rp|style=ama|p= xxi}}
}} (See section [[#Interpretations of the bull-slaying scene|Interpretations of the bull-slaying scene]] below.)

The practice of depicting the god slaying a bull seems to be specific to Roman Mithraism. According to David Ulansey, this is "perhaps the most important example" of evident difference between Iranian and Roman traditions: "...&nbsp;there is no evidence that the Iranian god [[Mithra]] ever had anything to do with killing a bull."<ref name=Ulansey-1991-Origins/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 8}}

=== Bull-slaying scene ===
{{See also|Tauroctony}}
In every mithraeum the centerpiece was a representation of Mithras killing a sacred bull, an act called the tauroctony.{{efn|English ''tauroctony'' is an adaption of the Greek word ''tauroktónos'' (ταυροκτόνος, "bull killing").}}{{efn|
"Although the iconography of the cult varied a great deal from temple to temple, there is one element of the cult's iconography which was present in essentially the same form in every mithraeum and which, moreover, was clearly of the utmost importance to the cult's ideology; namely the so-called tauroctony, or bull-slaying scene, in which the god Mithras, accompanied by a series of other figures, is depicted in the act of killing the {{nowrap|bull." — D. Ulansey (1991)<ref name=Ulansey-1991-Origins/>{{rp|style=ama|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=25_SOWldSUUC&q=cumont+tauroctony&pg=PA6 6]}} }}
}}
The image may be a relief, or free-standing, and side details may be present or omitted. The centre-piece is Mithras clothed in [[Anatolia]]n costume and wearing a [[Phrygian cap]]; who is kneeling on the exhausted bull, holding it by the nostrils<ref name=Clauss-2000/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 77}} with his left hand, and stabbing it with his right. As he does so, he looks over his shoulder towards the figure of Sol. A dog and a snake reach up towards the blood. A scorpion seizes the bull's genitals. A raven is flying around or is sitting on the bull. One or three ears of wheat are seen coming out from the bull's tail, sometimes from the wound. The bull was often white. The god is sitting on the bull in an unnatural way with his right leg constraining the bull's hoof and the left leg is bent and resting on the bull's back or flank.{{efn|"The god's right leg, appearing on the left as one faces the tauroctony, is nearly always straight as it pins the bull's hoof to the ground, while his left leg, which is usually resting on the back or flank of the bull, is bent at the knee with his foot often partially obscured beneath the folds of his tunic. Anyone familiar with the cult's iconography will immediately recognize this awkward and possibly unnatural posture as a typical or even essential aspect of the tauroctony. The remarkable consistency of this particular feature is underscored by comparison with the subtle variability of others&nbsp;..." {{nowrap|— Z. Mazur ({{circa|2011}})<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.irisnoir.com/Zeke/HarmoniousOpposition.pdf |title=Harmonious Opposition (Part&nbsp;I): Pythagorean themes of cosmogonic mediation in the Roman mysteries of Mithras |access-date=2011-06-14 |last=Mazur |first=Zeke |author-link=Alexander J. Mazur |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111121161617/http://www.irisnoir.com/Zeke/HarmoniousOpposition.pdf |archive-date=2011-11-21 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>}} }} The two torch-bearers on either side are dressed like Mithras: ''Cautes'' with his torch pointing up, and ''Cautopates'' with his torch pointing down.<ref name=Clauss-2000/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 98–99}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.isvroma.it/public/pecus/nasstrom.pdf |title=The sacrifices of Mithras |access-date=2011-04-04 |last=Näsström |first=Britt-Marie |quote=He is wearing a [[Phrygian cap]] and a wind-filled cloak, and, most remarkable of all, his head is turned in the other direction as if he would not look at his own deed. Still, this sacrifice is a guarantee of salvation for the participants. |archive-date=9 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409212158/http://www.isvroma.it/public/pecus/nasstrom.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Sometimes [[Cautes and Cautopates]] carry shepherds' crooks instead of torches.<ref>{{cite journal |first=J.R. |last=Hinnells |title=The iconography of Cautes and Cautopates: The data |journal=Journal of Mithraic Studies |volume=1 |year=1976 |pages=36–67}}<br/>''See also'' {{cite encyclopedia |first=William W. |last=Malandra |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |url=http://www.iranica.com/newsite/index.isc?Article=http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/unicode/v5f1/v5f1a033.html |title=Cautes and Cautopates }}{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

[[File:KunsthistorischesMuseumMithrabulSacrifice.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.25|A Roman tauroctony [[relief]] from [[Aquileia]] ({{circa|175}}&nbsp;CE; [[Kunsthistorisches Museum]], Vienna)]]

The event takes place in a cavern, into which Mithras has carried the bull, after having hunted it, ridden it and overwhelmed its strength.<ref name=Clauss-2000/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 74}} Sometimes the cavern is surrounded by a circle, on which the twelve signs of the zodiac appear. Outside the cavern, top left, is [[Sol (Roman mythology)|Sol]] the sun, with his flaming crown, often driving a [[quadriga]]. A ray of light often reaches down to touch Mithras. At the top right is [[Luna (mythology)|Luna]], with her crescent moon, who may be depicted driving a [[biga (chariot)|biga]].<ref name="griffithlecole">{{cite web |website=L'Ecole Initiative |first=Alison |last=Griffith |year=1996 |url=http://www2.evansville.edu/ecoleweb/articles/mithraism.html |title=Mithraism |access-date=2 April 2004 |archive-date=27 April 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040427151813/http://www2.evansville.edu/ecoleweb/articles/mithraism.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In some depictions, the central tauroctony is framed by a series of subsidiary scenes to the left, top and right, illustrating events in the Mithras narrative; Mithras being born from the rock, the water miracle, the hunting and riding of the bull, meeting Sol who kneels to him, shaking hands with [[Sol Invictus|Sol]] and sharing a meal of bull-parts with him, and ascending to the heavens in a chariot.<ref name="griffithlecole"/> In some instances, as is the case in the stucco icon at [[Santa Prisca Church (Rome)|Santa Prisca]] Mithraeum in Rome, the god is shown [[heroic nudity|heroically nude]].{{efn|name=name="jonasicondescription"|The figure of Mithras himself is usually attired in an oriental costume of Phrygian cap, tunica manicata (a long-sleeved tunic), [[anaxyrides]] (eastern style trousers), and a cape, though in some cases, he is depicted heroically nude or even, in a unique example from Ostia, in what seems to be a Greek chiton. Like the general trend in Graeco-Roman art, most if not all tauroctony scenes, regardless of the medium they were executed in, were painted, and the different items of Mithras' clothing was usually colored in either blue or red, often, as in the painting at Marino, with most of the costume in red with only the inside of the cape being blue and star-speckled. The bull was often white, sometimes wearing the dorsuale, the Roman sacrificial band in reds or browns, while the torchbearers could be depicted in a variety of colors with reds and greens being the most common. — Bjørnebye (2007).<ref name=Bjørnebye-2007>{{cite thesis |last=Bjørnebye |first=Jonas |title=Hic locus est felix, sanctus, piusque benignus: The cult of Mithras in fourth century Rome |degree=PhD |year=2007}}</ref>{{rp|at=chapter: The Mithraic icon in fourth century Rome: The composition of the Mithraic cult icon}} }} Some of these reliefs were constructed so that they could be turned on an axis. On the reverse was another, more elaborate feasting scene. This indicates that the bull killing scene was used in the first part of the celebration, then the relief was turned, and the second scene was used in the second part of the celebration.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1=Klauck |first1=Hans-Josef |author1-link=Hans-Josef Klauck
 |last2=McNeil |first2=Brian
 |date=December 2003
 |title=The Religious Context of Early Christianity: A guide to Graeco-Roman religions
 |publisher=T & T Clark Ltd.
 |isbn=978-0-567-08943-4
 |pages=146ff
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XEuddWHIqaYC&pg=PA146
 |access-date=4 September 2011
}}
</ref>
Besides the main cult icon, a number of mithraea had several secondary tauroctonies, and some small portable versions, probably meant for private devotion, have also been found.<ref>{{cite book |last=Beck |first=Roger |year=2006 |title=The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire | publisher = Oxford University Press |place=Oxford, UK |isbn=978-0-19-814089-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordworldheroi00libg |url-access=limited |page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordworldheroi00libg/page/n35 21] |quote=Often, the mithraeum was embellished elsewhere with secondary exemplars of the tauroctony, and there also seem to have been small portable versions, perhaps for private devotion.}}</ref>

===Banquet===
The second most important scene after the tauroctony in Mithraic art is the so-called banquet scene.<ref name=Beck-2004-InPlcLion/>{{rp|style=ama|pp= 286–287}} The banquet scene features Mithras and Sol Invictus banqueting on the hide of the slaughtered bull.<ref name=Beck-2004-InPlcLion/>{{rp|style=ama|pp= 286–287}} On the specific banquet scene on the Fiano Romano relief, one of the torchbearers points a [[caduceus]] towards the base of an altar, where flames appear to spring up. Robert Turcan has argued that since the caduceus is an attribute of [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]], and in mythology Mercury is depicted as a [[psychopomp]], the eliciting of flames in this scene is referring to the dispatch of human souls and expressing the Mithraic doctrine on this matter.<ref name="Beck_2006_27_28"/> Turcan also connects this event to the tauroctony: The blood of the slain bull has soaked the ground at the base of the altar, and from the blood the souls are elicited in flames by the caduceus.<ref name="Beck_2006_27_28">{{cite book |last=Beck |first=Roger |year=2007 |title=The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire |place=London, UK |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-921613-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/religionmithrasc00beck_853/page/n43 27]-28 |url=https://archive.org/details/religionmithrasc00beck_853 |url-access=limited}}</ref>

===Birth from a rock===
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 | caption1 = Mithras rising from the rock ([[National Museum of Romanian History]])
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 | caption2 = Mithras born from the rock ({{circa|186}}&nbsp;CE; [[Baths of Diocletian]])
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Mithras is depicted as being born from a rock. He is often shown as emerging from a rock, already in his youth,  with a dagger in one hand and a torch in the other. He is nude, standing with his legs together, and is wearing a Phrygian cap.<ref name=Vermaseren-1951-birth/>

In some variations, he is shown coming out of the rock as a child, and in one holds a globe in one hand; sometimes a thunderbolt is seen. There are also depictions in which flames are shooting from the rock and also from Mithras' cap. One statue had its base perforated so that it could serve as a fountain, and the base of another has the mask of a water god. Sometimes Mithras also has other weapons such as bows and arrows, and there are also animals such as dogs, serpents, [[dolphin]]s, eagles, other birds, lions, crocodiles, [[lobster]]s and snails around. On some reliefs, there is a bearded figure identified as the water god [[Oceanus]], and on some there are the gods of the four winds. In these reliefs, the four elements could be invoked together. Sometimes Victoria, [[Selene|Luna]], [[Sol Invictus|Sol]], and [[Saturn (mythology)|Saturn]] also seem to play a role. Saturn in particular is often seen handing over the dagger or short sword to Mithras, used later in the tauroctony.<ref name=Vermaseren-1951-birth/>

In some depictions, Cautes and Cautopates are also present; sometimes they are depicted as shepherds.<ref>{{cite book |last=Vermaseren |first=M.J. |year=1951 |editor-first=László |editor-last=Gerevich |title=Studia Archaeologica |publisher=Brill |page=108 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HQ0VAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA93 |access-date=4 October 2011}}</ref>

On some occasions, an [[amphora]] is seen, and a few instances show variations like an egg birth or a tree birth. Some interpretations show that the birth of Mithras was celebrated by lighting torches or candles.<ref name=Vermaseren-1951-birth>{{cite book |last=Vermaseren |first=M.J.|year=1951 |chapter=The miraculous birth of Mithras |editor-first=László |editor-last=Gerevich |title=Studia Archaeologica |publisher=Brill |pages=93–109 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HQ0VAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA93 |access-date=4 October 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Commodian |title=Instructiones |at=1.13 |quote=The unconquered one was born from a rock, if he is regarded as a god.}}<br/>''See also'' the image of "Mithras petra genetrix Terme", inset above.</ref>

===Lion-headed figure===
{{anchor|Lion_headed_figure}}
{{main|Arimanius}}
[[File:Leontocephaline at Ostia Antica by Franz Cumont.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Drawing of the leontocephaline found at a mithraeum in [[Ostia Antica]], Italy (190&nbsp;CE; [[Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae|CIMRM]]<ref name=CIMRM-1960/>&nbsp;312)]]
[[File:Siria, sculture del mitreo di sidon, 389 dc, krono mitriaco con testa leonina e spire del tempo (serpente).JPG|thumb|upright|Lion-headed figure from the [[Sidon Mithraeum]] (500&nbsp;CE; [[Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae|CIMRM]]<ref name=CIMRM-1960/>&nbsp;78 & 79; [[Louvre]])]]

One of the most characteristic and poorly-understood features of the Mysteries is the naked lion-headed figure often found in Mithraic temples, named by the modern scholars with descriptive terms such as ''leontocephaline'' (lion-headed) or ''leontocephalus'' (lion-head).

His body is a naked man's, entwined by a serpent (or two serpents, like a [[caduceus]]), with the snake's head often resting on the lion's head. The lion's mouth is often open. He is usually represented as having four wings, two keys (sometimes a single key), and a sceptre in his hand. Sometimes the figure is standing on a globe inscribed with a diagonal cross. On the figure from the Ostia Antica Mithraeum (left, [[Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae|CIMRM]]<ref name=CIMRM-1960/>&nbsp;312), the four wings carry the symbols of the four seasons, and a thunderbolt is engraved on his chest. At the base of the statue are the hammer and tongs of [[Vulcan (mythology)|Vulcan]] and [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury's]] [[rooster|cock]] and wand ([[caduceus]]). A rare variation of the same figure is also found with a human head and a lion's head emerging from its chest.<ref name="von_Gall">{{cite book |author=von Gall, Hubertus |year=1978 |contribution=The lion-headed and the human-headed god in the Mithraic mysteries |editor-link=Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin |editor=Duchesne-Guillemin, Jacques |title=Études mithriaques |page=511}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Cumont, Franz |title=The Mysteries of Mithras |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/mom/mom07.htm |page=105 |access-date=13 February 2011 |archive-date=2 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170702092009/http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/mom/mom07.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

Although animal-headed figures are prevalent in contemporary Egyptian and Gnostic mythological representations, no exact parallel to the Mithraic leontocephaline figure has been found.<ref name=von_Gall/>

Based on dedicatory inscriptions for altars, the name of the figure is conjectured to be ''[[Arimanius]]'', a Latinized form of the name ''[[Ahriman]]''{{efn|
Note, however, that no inscription naming Arimanius has been found engraved on a lion-headed figure. All of the dedications to the name Arimanius are inscribed on altars without figures.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}
}}
– perplexingly, a demonic figure in the Zoroastrian pantheon. Arimanius is known from inscriptions to have been a god in the Mithraic cult as seen, for example, in images from the ''[[Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae]]'' (CIMRM<ref name=CIMRM-1960/>) such as CIMRM<ref name=CIMRM-1960/>&nbsp;222 from [[Ostia Antica|Ostia]], CIMRM&nbsp;369 from Rome, and CIMRM<ref name=CIMRM-1960/>&nbsp;1773 and 1775 from [[Pannonia]].<ref name=Jackson>{{cite journal |author=Jackson, Howard M. |date=July 1985 |title=The meaning and function of the leontocephaline in Roman Mithraism |journal=[[Numen (journal)|Numen]] |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=17–45 |doi=10.1163/156852785X00148 |s2cid=144419653 }}</ref>

Some scholars identify the lion-man as [[Aion (deity)|Aion]], or [[Zurvan]], or [[Cronus]], or [[Chronos]], while others assert that it is a version of the Zoroastrian [[Ahriman]] or the more benign Vedic [[Aryaman]].{{efn|name=Barnett-1975-lion-man-note|
According to some, the lion man is [[Aion (deity)|Aion]] ([[Zurvan]], or [[Cronus|Kronos]]); according to others, [[Ahriman]].<ref name=Barnett-1975/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 467 ff}}
}}
Although the exact identity of the lion-headed figure is debated by scholars, it is largely agreed that the god is associated with time and seasonal change.<ref name=Beck-2004-Zoroastrianism/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 94}}
{{clear}}