Download or read book Mithras written by Andrew Fear and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-06-24 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mithras explores the history and practices of the ancient mystery religion Mithraism, looking at both literary and material evidence for the god Mithras and the reception and allure of his mysteries in the present. The genesis and spread of Mithraism remain highly controversial. This book examines our current state of knowledge on the pre-classical Indo-Iranian god, Mitra, and argues that Mithraism was a product of Mitra’s encounter with the religious thought of the classical world. It then charts the life history of Mithraism in the Roman Empire, exploring the social background of its initiates and the reasons for their attraction to the religion. The rituals and beliefs of the cult are as mysterious as its origins; in studying Mithraic "caves" and paintings found in some Mithraic temples, we can better understand and reconstruct the rituals the Mithraists practiced. While "bull-slaying", or tauroctony, lies at the core of the Mithraic mythos, this volume explores other incidents in the god’s life depicted in ancient art, including his miraculous birth and his banquet with the sun, as well as the disconcerting lion-headed "enveloped god". After a fall from grace in the post-classical world, Mithras has resurrected himself in the present, establishing himself as one of the most recognisable if elusive gods of antiquity. Mithras provides a fascinating study of this complex god that will be of interest to scholars and students of Roman and Late Antique religion, mystery cults, as well as those working on society and religion in antiquity more broadly.
Download or read book The Mysteries of Mithras written by Payam Nabarz and published by Inner Traditions / Bear & Co. This book was released on 2005-06-09 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mysteries of Mithras presents a revival of this ancient Roman mystery religion, popular from the late second century B.C. Payam Nabarz reveals the history and tenets of Mithraism, its connections to Christianity, Islam, and Freemasonry, and the modern neo-pagan practice of Mithraism today. Included are seven of its initiatory rituals.
Download or read book Mithras written by D. Jason Cooper and published by Weiser Books. This book was released on 1996-06-01 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Known as Mitra to the Indians, Mithra and Zarathustra (Zoroaster in Greek) to the Iranians, and Mithras to the Romans, this is the oldest of all living deities. Mithras was recognized as the greatest rival of Christianity, a greater threat even than the religion of Isis. If Rome had not become Christian, it would have become Mithrasian. Mithraisians had a sacrament that included wine as a symbol of sacrificial blood. Bread in wafers, or small loaves marked with a cross, was used to symbolize flesh. The priestly symbols were a staff, a ring, a hat, and a hooked sword/ members were called brothers, and priests were called "Father." Mithras was born on December 25th. He offered salvation based on faith, compassion, knowledge, and valor. He appealed to the poor, the slave and the freeman, as well as to the Roman aristocracy, the militia, and even to some emperors. The Christians sacked his temples, burned his books, and attacked his followers--they desecrated his temples, and built their own churches on the same foundations as the old Mithraic temples. Cooper examines Mithras and his religion in the most complete study ever done. He explores the various forms of this godworshiped from Lisbon to modrn Bangladesh, from the Scottish border to the Russian Steppesand investigates the worship. This is an exciting journey into living mythology, the history of a living god, and will fascinate modern Western readers who want to know more about the spiritual pathwhether they want to better understand contemporary Christianity, the basis of many contemporary ideaologies, mythology, or the Western Mystery Tradition.
Download or read book The Cult of Mithras in Late Antiquity written by David Walsh and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-11-29 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Cult of Mithras in Late Antiquity David Walsh explores how the cult of Mithras developed across the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. and why by the early 5th century the cult had completely disappeared. Contrary to the traditional narrative that the cult was violently persecuted out of existence by Christians, Walsh demonstrates that the cult’s decline was a far more gradual process that resulted from a variety of factors. He also challenges the popular image of the cult as a monolithic entity, highlighting how by the 4th century Mithras had come to mean different things to different people in different places.
Download or read book The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire written by Roger Beck and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2006-01-12 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the religious system of Mithraism, one of the 'mystery cults' popular in the Roman Empire contemporary with early Christianity. Mithraism is described from the point of view of the initiate engaging with its rich repertoire of symbols and practices.
Download or read book Deus Sol Invictus written by Minou Reeves and published by Garnet Publishing. This book was released on 2023-10-27 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lucid and perfectly accessible to non-specialists, this extensively illustrated history of Mithras--the great sun god of both the Persian and Roman Empires--is amongst the most comprehensive of such studies available.available.
Download or read book Images of Mithra written by Philippa Adrych and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work presents six case-studies of objects from different periods and regions of antiquity that are labelled by variations of the name Mithra, including the Roman Mithras, Persian Mihr, and Bactrian Miiro. Each chapter places each object in its original context, before questioning its role in religious ritual, tradition, and belief
Download or read book The Roman Cult of Mithras written by Manfred Clauss and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-25 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 2001. The Mithras cult first became evident in Rome towards the end of the first century AD. During the next two centuries, it spread to the frontiers of the Western empire. Energetically suppressed by the early Christians, who frequently constructed their churches over the caves in which Mithraic rituals took place, the cult was extinct by the end of the fourth century. Since its publication in Germany, Manfred Clauss's introduction to the Roman Mithras cult has become widely accepted as the most reliable and readable account of this fascinating subject. For the English edition, Clauss has updated the book to reflect recent research and new archaeological discoveries.
Download or read book Mushrooms Myth and Mithras written by Carl Ruck and published by City Lights Books. This book was released on 2021-02-24 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This illustrated book traces the history of an unlikely force in the shaping of Western civilization: the use of psychedelic mushrooms, namely by a secret society called the cult of Mithras. Nero was the first emperor to be initiated by the group’s “magical dinners,” and most of his successors embraced the ritual as a source of spiritual transcendence. The cult was officially banned after the Conversion, but aspects of their rituals were assimilated or co-opted by Christianity, and the brotherhoods persist today as secret societies such as the Freemasons. This is a fascinating exploration of a powerful force kept behind the scenes for thousands of years.
Download or read book The Mysteries of Mithra written by Franz Cumont and published by . This book was released on 1903 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Mithraic Origins of Christianity written by Allan Di Donato and published by . This book was released on 2020-12-24 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most challenging objections to the historicity of the New Testament documents and the uniqueness of first century Christianity is the accusation of wholesale borrowing from earlier pagan sources. Such accusations are common in the fields of comparative religion and mythology. Parallels have been drawn between the story of Jesus and various other religious leaders, heroes, and pagan dying and rising gods. Though these parallels are found in stories from various cultures going back several millennia before the Christian era, the most prevalent challenge has come from what have become known as the mystery religions or mystery cults. From among these numerous cults, one has presented the greatest challenge and most striking parallels. That is the cult of Mithras, or Mithraism. This book addresses the theory that early Christianity borrowed heavily from Mithraism, and it investigates ancient textual and archaeological evidence as it seeks to evaluate that claim.
Download or read book The Mysteries of Mithras written by Attilio Mastrocinque and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2017-08-07 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Attilio Mastrocinque explains the mysteries of Mithras in a new way, as a transformation of Mazdean elements into an ideological and religious reading of Augustus' story. The author shows that the character of Mithras played the role of Apollo in favoring Augustus' victory and the birth of the Roman Empire.
Download or read book The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries written by David Ulansey and published by Cosmology and Salvation in the. This book was released on 1991 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume sets forth a new explanation of the meaning of the cult of Mithraism, tracing its origins not, as commonly held, to the ancient Persian religion, but to ancient astronomy and cosmology.
Download or read book Roman Cult of Mithras written by Manfred Clauss and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-01 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since its publication in Germany, Manfred Clauss's introduction to the Roman Mithras cult has become widely accepted as the most reliable, as well as the most readable, account of its elusive and fascinating subject. For the English edition the author has revised the work to take account of recent research and new archaeological discoveries. The mystery cult of Mithras first became evident in Rome towards the end of the first century AD. During the next two centuries, carried by its soldier and merchant devotees, it spread to the frontier of the western empire from Britain to Bosnia. Perhaps because of odd similarities between the cult and their own religion the early Christians energetically suppressed it, frequently constructing churches over the caves (Mithraea) in which its rituals took place. By the end of the fourth century the cult was extinct.Professor Clauss draws on the archaeological evidence from over 400 temples and their contents including over a thousand representations of ritual in sculpure and painting to seek an understanding of the nature and purpose of the cult, and what its mysteries and secret rites of initiation and sacrifice meant to its devotees. In doing so he introduces the reader to the nature of the polytheistic societies of the Roman Empire, in which relations and distinctions between gods and mortals now seem strangely close and blurred. He also considers the connections of Mithraicism with astrology, and examines how far it can be seen as a direct descendant of the ancient cult of Mitra, the Persian god of contract, cattle and light. The book combines imaginative insight with coherent argument. It is well-structured, accessibly written and extensively illustrated. Richard Gordon, the translator and himself a distinguished scholar of the subject, has provided a bibliography of further reading for anglophone readers.
Download or read book The Mithras Conspiracy written by M. J. Polelle and published by . This book was released on 2019-03-29 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rome is in chaos. Earthquakes shake the city. The pope is in a coma. And a Vatican scholar has been found dead in the Tiber. Detective Marco Leone is about to take a sabbatical when his estranged friend—charged with organizing the Vatican’s secret archives—is murdered. Leone stays to investigate, but the killing is just the first in a series of ritual assassinations and attacks on specific churches—all of which were built over ancient chapels of the Roman god Mithras. Leone’s research leads him to two American scholars who have uncovered a pair of scrolls that, if authentic, could rewrite history. While attempting to unravel the parchments’ mysteries, they are drawn into a bitter feud between a scheming cardinal and a charismatic tycoon, Lucio Piso, himself bewitched by the cult of Mithras. As the deaths pile up, Leone begins to wonder if Piso is involved, and if his obsession feeds larger personal and political goals. Could the cult of a long-forgotten god topple the Italian government and bring the Church to its knees? In the tradition of The Da Vinci Code comes a thriller that dives beneath the veneer of a powerful ancient institution to explore the crumbling ruins—and the shocking secrets—that lie within.
Download or read book The Mithras Liturgy written by Hans Dieter Betz and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Just hundred years after the first edition of Albrecht Dietrich's Eine Mithrasliturgie (Leipzig 1903; 1923), the present book offers a complete new edition of so complex a text. It provides the Greek text, an English translation, a punctual introduction, an extensive commentary, an index of Greek words and of the various voces magicae, and, finally, also an appendix, with photographic reproductions of the papyrus. ... Not only Hans Dieter Betz is one of the most gifted scholars in the domain of primeval Christianity and Hellenistic religions, but he already devoted to the Mithras Liturgy a monographic essay, which is here enriched and largely supplemented. We particularly appreciated how Betz deals with the critical debate which spread from Dietrich's book (in particular the criticism put forward by one of the most important scholars of Mithraism, the Belgian Franz Cumont) and how he sets Dietich in the historical and cultural milieu of his age.Chiara O. Tommasi Moreschini auf www.plekos.uni-muenchen.de
Download or read book The Bible of Mithra written by Andre Atabaki and published by . This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
