Mithras - Mitra The Persian Sun God

Source : Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

Published in 1898 - Harper and Brothers, New York

The Persian god of created light and of all earthly wisdom.
In the course of time he became identified with the sun-god,
who conquers all demons of darkness. In the time after
Alexander the Great, his worship, mixed with various customs
peculiar to Western Asia, was extended over all the Oriental
kingdoms. In the first half of the first century B.C. it is
said to have been introduced into the Roman provinces in the
West by the Cilician pirates who were at that time masters
of the Mediterranean ( Plut. Pomp.24). There are traces of
his worship at Rome under Tiberius; and in the beginning of
the second century after Christ, under the Antonines, it
became common throughout the whole Roman Empire, and was
kept up till the end of the fourth century. Mithras was a
special favourite of the Roman armies. Being born from the
rocks, he was worshipped in natural or artificial caves,
such as have been found in every part of the Roman Empire.
He is represented as a young man in Oriental dress and as an
invincible hero, stabbing a bull with his dagger, or
standing upon a bull that he has thrown down. The sacrifice
of a bull and the purification of his worshippers with
bull's blood formed a part of the rites of Mithras. See
Taurobolium.

Specimens of a Mithras group may be seen in the Louvre, in
the British Museum, and elsewhere. The cave itself was
explained by the ancients to signify the world, into which
the human soul must descend, that it may be purified by many
trials before leaving it. Before any one was initiated into
the mysteries of Mithras, it was necessary for the person to
undergo a series of (it is said eighty) trials of increasing
difficulty; and an undaunted, unsubdued spirit had to be
maintained in fire and water, hunger and thirst, scourging,
and solitude, and the aspirant was thus prepared for the
initiation. It consisted of seven degrees, that of the
ravens, the secret, the fighters, the lions or shelions (for
women were also received), the Persians, the sun-runners,
and the fathers (korakes, kruphiai, leontes or leainai,
Hï¿½liodromoi, patres or aetoi). Various Christian rites seem
also to have been introduced into the mysteries of Mithras.
Epithets like "Lord and Creator of all things," "Father and
source of all life," enable us to recognize Mithras as one
of the pantheistic divinities of declining heathendom.